WITH JUST 25 DAYS BEFORE MAIL BALLOTS GO OUT, Raquel Regalado tells us why she wants to represent Key Biscayne on the Miami-Dade County Commission. Also, former Key Biscayne mayor and current candidate for Village Council Frank Caplan talks about why back to the future might be just what Key Biscayne needs.
Finally, for a bit of fun, listen to an impassioned speech about -- boneless chicken wings.
WITH JUST 25 DAYS BEFORE MAIL BALLOTS GO OUT, Raquel Regalado tells us why she wants to represent Key Biscayne on the Miami-Dade County Commission. Also, former Key Biscayne mayor and current candidate for Village Council Frank Caplan talks about why back to the future might be just what Key Biscayne needs.
Finally, for a bit of fun, listen to an impassioned speech about -- boneless chicken wings.
Live from WSQF 94.5 Blink Radio on Key Biscayne This is ANTI-SOCIAL, a radio show that takes a deeper look into the issues and arguments that are happening on social media. I'm Tony Winton. And to be clear, we have nothing against social media.
Thom Mozloom :Well I'm Thom Mozloom and I'm for one. I'm all for social media Tony, I just hate the stupid parts of it. Oh, wait, wait, that's Nevermind. Anyway, let me tell you a little bit about us. So you understand, we're not just two yahoos sitting in the basement spouting off about things that we don't know a lot about. Tony is a 30 year veteran journalist. He runs the Key Biscayne Independent, a news new news source on Key Biscayne. And he holds things like facts in really high regard.
Tony Winton :And Thom is a branding expert who owns the M Network. They are the good guy agency in town, except I won't tell you other things I know about.
Thom Mozloom :Hey, okay.
Tony Winton :Shhhhhhs. And I should tell you that we're we have a lot of fun on the show, but they work with a lot of many respected government agencies and institutions and to foster social change.
Thom Mozloom :So today, we're going to continue our series of interviews with candidates running for office. Frank Caplan, the former mayor of Key Biscayne and candidate for VillageCouns Council will be joining us later. But sitting in the hot seat right now...
Tony Winton :...is a candidate for district seven County Commission. That's right. All right, Raquel Regalado, welcome to ANTI-SOCIAL.
Thom Mozloom :Thank you for coming on the air with us.
Raquel Regalado :My pleasure.
Thom Mozloom :You know, normally I would ask, Hey, tell us about yourself. But you we know you. Well, you're you're,
Raquel Regalado :I'm so happy to tell you about myself. It's a great story. Well, more than that a native Miami story. No, I am a native Miamian and people.
Thom Mozloom :You're the one!
Raquel Regalado :Yes. Why are you running for office or for seven? Well, I mean, first and foremost, you know, for those of you who don't know, I am a native Miami and my father is Tomas Regalado. I get a lot of heat for it. But I actually ran for office. I was an attorney for a very long time. I worked for Holland & Knight, and I ran for office in 2010. When my mother passed away, I got divorced and my daughter was diagnosed with autism. So I decided to run for a position
Thom Mozloom :There wasn't enough. Stress already you thought, hey, that's good.
Raquel Regalado :What's one more? Yeah.
Tony Winton :All right.
Raquel Regalado :Well, what happened? What happened was my dad had just been elected and I was going school to school to find a program for Isabella. Isabella is mid spectrum, right? So for those of you who know autistic people, you know, my son actually was diagnosed A year later, and he's more higher functioning. Isabella was mid spectrum. She didn't speak, she had a lot of issues with our coordination. So, you know, the only thing that I could find were these in you know, I couldn't find an inclusionary program that would allow her to be with neuro normal children. Everything was kind of like a special needs dungeon. And she was the highest performing child in the special needs dungeon. So I went all over the district actually trying to find a school and then one day I was having dinner with my dad at Maria's Greek restaurant. Great meatballs, by the way, and
Thom Mozloom :talk to me about meatballs on half Italian. That's not going to work.
Raquel Regalado :And and you know, I was complaining and my dad said, you know, you Stop, stop your bitching, you know if you feel that strongly about it run for position on the Miami Dade County School Board. And I think he almost said it like as a joke. But I was all in. And I remember when I started fundraising for that race, you know, people told me well, you know why you're so young? Like, why do you want to be a member of the land of the misfit toys? And I was like, what the land of the what? But I gotta say, my two terms at the school board were phenomenal. I love the work that I do there. I will forever be dedicated to Ed I actually used to I served Key Biscayne, I got master Academy. I remember knocking on doors and Key Biscayne and everybody said, you know, nobody can get a high score for Key Biscayne. It was very hard fought Caplin will be on later. He's supporting Cindy Lerner. I don't know why. Because I literally took bullets for him. When I went up against the wall boy
Thom Mozloom :Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait language is really important to Tony and I you did not literally take both You figuratively took bullets.
Raquel Regalado :Sure, sure.
Tony Winton :But while we're talking about education, let me if I can, because we have a kind of a, we're in the middle of a pandemic, we're trying to get things going again. And we have hackers -- a hacking attack. What happened? What's your take on that?
Raquel Regalado :So I've been all week talking about this, and I'm happy to talk about it. You know, so I have two kids. My daughter Isabella is actually at Easter seals. And she went back to the physical classroom on the 24th. And I have my son Sebastian, who goes to Southwest senior high, and I decided online for him for the rest of the year. Because back in June, when we were talking about all this, you know, I was very candid that I didn't think the district was really prepared, and that for autistic people, it's very difficult to kind of shift gears and that Broward had an advantage over us because they have summer programs. And in the summer programs, they were able to kind of test protocols and and see what worked in Miami Dade County. We don't have that Miami Dade County runs the summer programs, not Miami Dade County Public Schools, which There's one more reason why you should have a school board member on a county commission to figure this out. But I put that aside. For easterseals. My daughter participated in the summer program. You know, we worked on the protocols. We did the contract tracing, it was very complicated. We actually had a covid case, in my daughter summer camp, we shut everybody down, we went to take the exams, nobody got it. But we put a plexi glass we did mass, we did face shields. We did hand washing stations, we do 15 minute drills where the kids spray their hands every 15 minutes, you know, and I talked to my kids, you know, about why they need to go through this. And my daughter has been great about issues in a vocational program there. It's a cooking program. And all the parents we've been all in, you know, we even have separated ourselves depending on our own unique situation. So I am blessed to work from home. So my daughter is in a class with other children whose parents also work from home because it's easier to manage the contract Tracy for us as opposed to the essential working parents which are the other classroom.
Tony Winton :How do you feel about now and it The county -- what is the role of the county government? If you get elected, what is the role of the county government because this pandemic is going to be with us for a while, right.
Raquel Regalado :So so the county could have done so much more if they would have sort of stepped up and help the district. Number one, they should have brought the district in to help with the summer camps. Instead, they opened the summer camps and shut them down because they just couldn't handle it. Second of all, they had the libraries and they had public spaces that they could have offered to the school district. I chaired facilities and construction at the district for over five years. This is a facilities issue. It's a public health issue and a facilities issue. How many children can you safely have in a space? And is that space, a space that you can socially distance? And does it make sense to put up Plexiglas or to create dividers? Right? And remember, guys, the district has made a huge investment in these school sites, in part because of the bond that I supported. And then in part, after Parkland, we were we were forced to change how our schools worked in order to keep them safer. Now you have these two conflicting standards, you have the Parkland, close the doors, close the windows, and now you have covid outside spaces open the doors, open the windows, right. But nobody's being honest about that, right, these two things conflict, so that the county could have really helped the school district in terms of offering spaces and testing these protocols. Now the district is going to start with younger children with special needs children with zero experience. We could have worked on this over the summer if we had the county as a partner. So
Thom Mozloom :the schools have a have a interlocal with Miami Dade County, where Miami Dade County serves as the early in theory, the county serves as the office Inspector General. if you're a commissioner what type of answers are you looking for from them with regard to both the hacking and hey, should kids be going back to school right now?
Raquel Regalado :Well, a few things. So so the the county does have so we have interlocal agreements that Miami county plus The school has interlocal agreements with the municipalities there are a lot more robust when I was there. I really you know, went out we had a great one with Key Biscayne. We had a great one with Coral Gables to Coral Gables one I even brought in private folks. For example, I graduated from core gables Senior High Cavaliers. And what we did is the high school needed a new track we brought in ransom Everglades to build the track. And then we brought the city of Coral Gables in to help us because I wanted the residents to be able to use the track. And it took us years right in order to open up our schools. But we did it in Coral Gables because we had the help of the city and I actually used to go to the city meetings all the time and sort of report back with the police on what was happening and how residents were using our school sites and how we could use our school sites to build community. So the county never really wanted to do that with us. We had kind of this agreement that would not let us use parks very well that would not let us use libraries very well. The city's in a much better job and then what's the reason is it a powerplay What's going on? Well, every time I tried, they sent me to jack Auster Hall, which is like a black hole. I don't know if you guys ever dealt with jack Auster health but yeah, it's like a black hole. And I'm very candid about it. You know one of the things that I tried to do over and over we finally got more involved with headstart. I'm very concerned about headstart in this pandemic. No one is talking about it. At the budget meeting this week. Finally, Barbara Jordan asked for a report on headstart. I can't wait to see it because the county runs headstart with the help of Miami Dade County Public Schools. It was a very controversial thing. But you know, one of the things that we have to talk about is how this pandemic is impacting working women. That's a reality. This pandemic is impacting working women more, and a lot of essential workers are women. And most of those essential workers use headstart and they're not using it headstart shut down over the summer. You know, we have no idea where there's children are we have no idea what's going on with their schooling. And we're very concerned about, you know, the learning gains that they could have had over the summer and they don't, but But back to what you were saying. Look, definitely I think we have to end the adversarial relationship between the county and the cities. Number one, and number two, and this goes straight to the heart of this race. We need to elect respectful, professional, collaborative people to Miami Dade County Commission, because that's the only way that we are going to get things done. This district needs so much we can talk about seaweed. You know, we could talk about composting, we could talk about fences, you know, and everybody sort of beats the environmental drum. But my question is, what have you done? Because I sued BP and got $11 million. I've actually done stuff. You know, I don't go around saying you know, I'm super environmentalist, but I've actually gotten things done as opposed to start committees. Well,
Thom Mozloom :let's talk about this for a second because this this show is primarily Key Biscayne focused, but we we are covered across the bay as well into downtown Coral Gables. The Bay is a huge thing and the bay is sick.
Raquel Regalado :Yes. So the task force was created in February 2019. You know,
Tony Winton :It's a lot longer...
Thom Mozloom :the problem go away.
Raquel Regalado :I've been talking about it for over 20 years. Truth be told, right? Yes. Right. But the taskforce was created in 2019. It was a bipartisan effort. You know, I went to the taskforce meeting. I think he de la did a great job. I think the recommendations were good look, I'm the first one to criticize Carlos Jimenez but at the meeting he said we're going to include it in this budget which is huge because they could have just passed the recommendations and waited another year. You know, to start this but I've been talking about septic to sewer for years. When I talked about something to sewer in 16 everybody said you know what's the big deal who cares about it and now finally when we're talking about the bay, you know, we're talking about septic to sewer and the over 40% of Miami Dade County is on septic. Cindy Lerner is one of the people that's on septic and for years they've been saying look you know we don't have money to go septic to sewer. That's not true. The state of Florida provides funds for septic to sewer transition if you are compliant with ocean outfall. That's why since 14 I've been talking about our non compliance with ocean outfalls we finally got a loan
Thom Mozloom :the county's sewage treatment plant is on Virginia key it there's poop in the water on a regular basis
Raquel Regalado :because we are not complying with Ocean outfall. So what is ocean outfall? ocean outfall means that we take sewage water, we put bleach in it, and we put it out into the ocean. Monroe doesn't do it. You know Broward doesn't do it. I can go county by county, county, you
Thom Mozloom :St. Lucie. None of them.
Raquel Regalado :They don't do it. At the end. This has been an issue since 2003. Since 2003. That was the first time that we had a federal order to stop doing this. And we've been kicking the can and kicking the can and kicking the can. And here's the thing, I'm an attorney, and and all of you that are listening know, I mean, seriously, you can't meet the federal standard. That's a low bar folks. I'm not talking about you know, complicated stuff. This is a low bar that we have not been complying with. And I think now we're at a critical point, they're finally doing something they're finally going to create a position, they're finally going to take action. They finally decided last week at the meeting that they're going to make septic to sewer a priority. They did get an EPA loan. So now they're going to comply with ocean outfall, which means that we can go Tallahassee, get the money, we're gonna have to bond out a little bit of it. But you know, we have a third world sewer system.
Thom Mozloom :That's the reality. Well, this brings up Tony's favorite topic to talk about when you talk about bond. Well,
Raquel Regalado :you guys have a very interesting bond question.
Tony Winton :Yes, we do. It's it's probably the big issue. Details. Right?
Raquel Regalado :Yeah, that's my issue with it, is that it doesn't have details and look, you know, a lot of people criticize me for being against the courthouse bonds. I'm an attorney. And it was a very, like, hard fought issue. And and the reason I engaged in that is because it was a blank check for the county commission. And I do not agree with bonds that are a blank check.
Tony Winton :Well, it's to be clear, and it's it's actually a bond authorization. If if it passes, there isn't a single dollar of debt yet. It just allows the village council to go ahead and get the favorable interest rates and everything else. I think sometimes it's it's being cast as an actual borrowing act, but it really isn't.
Raquel Regalado :But I will tell you From my experience with the bond that we did at the school board, I mean, I wrote the bond, I wrote the five year plan, I sat on the committee, you know, in order to get people to buy in to tax themselves, you have to tell them exactly what you're going to spend it on, and that there is going to be a vehicle of accountability. And I think that that's one of the things that Miami Dade County residents have learned, whether it's from the Halfpenny or all the other issues that we've had, you know, we want specifics and we want to have someone that we can go to and say, listen, you're not meeting this plan. Now, we're not saying that it's super rigid, but at least provide some sort of information. And look, this goes way back. You know, when I when we talked about the courthouse, you know, if you guys remember, you know, the courthouse, you know, was on the ballot over 15 years ago, and it was either the courthouse or Metro Zoo and people pick the metro Zoo because Metro Zoo was a clear plan. So, so we've done this at the county,
Thom Mozloom :it's because we like animals more than we like lawyers. That's the
Raquel Regalado :that's another issue that I tried to explain. To my fellow attorneys that people don't like attorneys, attorneys, like attorneys, but people don't like attorneys. Listen, I worked on the second on the second plan for the courthouse and I think that it was better thought out and it was more respectful of, you know, people's resources. And and look, I think this budget that was presented this week at the county commission has a lot of issues. It has a lot of issues. It doesn't you know, it miss Ben's cares act money, it raises fees, you know, I don't think anybody is in a position to be raising fees right now. And and I get that, you know, it was planned for but it's not the right thing. I want
Tony Winton :to I want to move on a couple of other issues because we have a full show. But the first one I want to get to is the creation of a This isn't about policing. We're in a summer and a season around the nation about racial inequality, structural racism. There was a debate of veto about the civilian review board the independent board, how would you voted on that?
Raquel Regalado :Well, we did this at the city. Miami, obviously at the city of Miami, it was forced on the city by the federal government and a consent decree. So it was a very different situation. But the, you know, where the rubber met the road was always the subpoena, right? There was always a security,
Thom Mozloom :it has no teeth.
Raquel Regalado :So right so that that's always been an issue with the city. When you speak to the State Attorney's Office, you know, one of the things that they bring up is that they have always feared that subpoena power for these groups would, would somehow taint their ability to take a case to trial. So that's always been kind of like the mantra as to why they shouldn't provide subpoena power. Now, I think in this case, you know, Barbara Jordan has brought it up a bunch of times. I think that it the again, the breaking point was the subpoena power. At the county commission. They focused on like that they could subpoena the mayor or subpoena that commissioners correct doesn't bother me at all. I don't have a problem being subpoenaed as a public official, right? I think that that's spot on. If you want to do that, I mean, my concern would be a subpoena that would somehow bring in, you know, people that have culpability, and that that process would then be well, we have a double jeopardy
Tony Winton :we have a fifth amendment for that.
Raquel Regalado :Right.
Thom Mozloom :but well, plus, you could policy it afterwards. I mean,
Raquel Regalado :you can on occasion policy, right. You would have to polish it afterwards. You know, and and I think they could have they could have dealt with that issue head on. And they they didn't they kind of like put it out there and said, Okay, well, we have to have these things. I think they also made a mistake with the budget. You know, they didn't they said, Oh, we want a percentage of the police budget and they didn't really explain sort of what's going to happen with this money. Who are you going to, you know, hire, what are they going to do? I think if they would have been a little bit more transparent about that, you know, I think it would have been a little bit better received. What you have now is basically what you have at the city of Miami. Has it been affected? I can tell you from my experience, though,
Tony Winton :There's let me let me get to the I do want to keep moving. It is going to come up almost certainly. Yeah. After whether you're elected whether Cindy, the sheriff. Yes, the sheriff's coming in all the stuff. It's going to come up again. And I guess I'm asking just on behalf of our listeners, if there's a proposal with subpoena power in front of you, what are you prepared to vote for it?
Raquel Regalado :Depends on how they break it down, you know,
Tony Winton :its details?
Raquel Regalado :Yeah, it's a details. I mean, I think it's the details and especially the details as we create the sheriff. I mean, listen, it's going to be very difficult to navigate this Sheriff issue. And I said it when people brought it up in Tallahassee because we have these municipalities we do not have a fully incorporated county like the other areas that have the sheriff and then we have what happened with Scott Israel. We have how that has impacted you know, the the legal obligations of a sheriff in terms of training that's a reality that we have to deal with. Now post sparkling so it gets very, very dicey and and the devils in the details but but look I'm a practicing attorney. I'm a litigator, you know, I always see it from litigation side. And I try to explain it to people why we're very concerned about that aspect of it. But of course, we want accountability. Of course, we want an opportunity for people, you know, to be heard. And I can tell you from, you know, my experience at the school board and at the city, it you know, one of the things that we have to do is, is really focus on neighborhood policing. Right? So always what makes a difference to be told,
Thom Mozloom :I want to move away from the US because we only have a couple more minutes left. I've done political campaigns from the marketing and advertising aspect. So I'm always curious to be able to talk to candidates about their specific campaign. All politics has become unbelievably divisive in this country right now. Everything breaks Democrat, Republican, there's no middle ground and that's how your race is gonna go down.
Raquel Regalado :I don't think so. I have the report. I've got supportive Democrats. You know, Josh Lieberman from South Miami is a Democrat. That's supporting me Yeah. But here's the magic question. The Magic question is, as you are going to be tied to Donald J. Trump, are you going to embrace that? Or are you going to run from that? Now listen, I dealt with this in 16. And a lot of people will tell you that the reason that I did not win in 16 is because I did not get involved in the presidential. Carlos human is supported Hillary I was given the opportunity to and I said that I was going to support neither candidate. I stand by that. For years, I have been saying that these non partisan races should stay nonpartisan. And I use my example of when I was first elected to the school board. I worked at Holland a night I was hired by Bill McBride. I've known Alex sync my entire life. I supported Alex sync against rick scott, and I got hell for it. I wrote her educational campaign. I was at the forefront of her campaign. I was called everything under the sun for supporting her because of her educational platform. When Alex lost, and I had to go as a school board member to represent our board in Tallahassee. I paid in blood For several years figuratively,
Tony Winton :yes. Okay, you know, we're trying to keep the violence at..
Raquel Regalado :you guys. You don't know how difficult Tallahassee is when people are hyper partisan? Oh, no, no, no, you know, and that and that's why it's not a good idea to make the county commission hyper partisan, because what you're doing is you're limiting your elected officials ability to represent you. I finally, you know, Bill, you know, created a relationship with Rick Scott, you know, we work together, he came around to education, he supported us. I showed him why our district needed his support. It took years, but we were able to do it. And from that point on, I said, I am not going to get involved in these races, because I just can't represent people if I take sides. And that's why I'm a candidate that has been historically supported by MPs and by Republicans and Democrats, because I'm just not a partisan person. I'm here to get it done. And I will sit with a republican and I will sit with a democrat and I'm not someone that they need to be scared of. Because I'm not To kind of beat that drum, yep.
Thom Mozloom :All right, last question. 90 seconds, and we're gonna hold you to it. He'll just turn off your microphone. 90 seconds. 90 seconds you
Tony Winton :were you have a radio show you understand posts and gates
Thom Mozloom :buy back time this. Okay, why should we vote for you? It's your closing argument.
Raquel Regalado :Listen, I've worked at I worked at the school board in the most difficult times of the school board. When we got cuts at the state level what what they were meeting county is going to face in the next three years can be catastrophic. If you do not have the right people on the county commission. I would be the only working mother on the county commission. I have proven myself as a problem solver. I will find money without raising taxes. I've done it before. I am not a partisan person. I'm just there to get work done. I want to represent my kids and kids like them. And I would love to have your support. I've always listened to the residents of Key Biscayne, I do it respectfully. I do not lose my temper at public meetings or anywhere else. And I think it's time that people have respectful leadership. So vote seven, seven. It's a very easy one to remember 77
Tony Winton :Raquel Regalado candidate for district seven that covers Key Biscayne, thank you for joining us coming, always anti social. We'll be back in just a little bit and we are back on anti social I'm Tony Winton
Thom Mozloom :I'm Thom Mozloom, reminding everybody that we're live. So you're going to hear me move away from the mic.
Tony Winton :We're live on WSFQF Blink radio. Thank you, Tony.
Thom Mozloom :Yeah. Listen, I you know, I think having these candidates come on and talk to us is really important. I mean, it's important for people to hear them and it's important for people to be civically active and engaged in the election process. Not just here, but everywhere, because all over the United States of America, there are county commissioners and village councils, and these are going to be the people who hear and decide on incredibly important issues.
Tony Winton :Right. And they can be all kinds of issues. They can involve environment, they can involve schools, they can even involve food.
Ander Christensen :Food, food, absolutely. So I won't take up too much of your time here. My name is Ander Christensen. I live at 1212 twin Ridge Road. Lincoln has the opportunity to be a social In this country, we have been casually ignoring a problem that has gotten so out of control that our children are kept throwing around names and words, without even understanding their true meaning and treating things as though they're normal. I go into nice family restaurants and I see people throwing this name around and pretending as though everything is just fine. I'm talking about boneless chicken wings. I propose that we as a city, remove the
Unknown Speaker :[loud laughter]
Ander Christensen :excuse me I'm trying to do yeah, excuse me. Come on. I propose that we as a city remove the name boneless wings from our menus and from our hearts views our reasons why, number one, nothing about boneless chicken wings actually come from the wing of a chicken. We would be disgusted if a butcher was mislabeling their cuts of meats but then we go around to pretending as though the breast of the chicken is its wing. Number two boneless chicken wings are just chicken tenders which are already boneless. I don't go to In order boneless tacos, I don't go in order boneless club sandwiches. I don't ask for boneless auto repair. It's just what's expected. And then number three, we need to raise our children better. Our children are raised being afraid of having bones attached to their meat. That's where meat comes from. It grows on bones. We need to teach them that the wing of a chicken is from a chicken, and it's delicious. I propose that we renamed boneless wings in the city of Lincoln. We can call them buffalo style chicken tenders. We can call them wet tenders. We can call them saucy nugs or trash. We can take these steps and show the country that where we stand and that we understand that we've been living alive for far too long. And we know it because we feel it in our bones. Thank you.
Roy Christensen :I would like to just comment here. For the record. That's my son.
Tony Winton :And That was from the Lincoln, Nebraska City Council. It is a video on YouTube you can check it out that's gotten last time I checked approaching a million views
Thom Mozloom :best thing on my social media feed this week. This is the best thing.
Tony Winton :So as we as we talk about social media here, you know, sometimes we talk about things are crazy on social media where things we object to this is actually a fun thing to talk about on social media and joining us live. We're going to send our radio waves all the way out to Lincoln, Nebraska. We have the gentleman you just heard talking,
Thom Mozloom :you're kidding.
Tony Winton :Yes, we have him as a guest.
Thom Mozloom :No way.
Tony Winton :Yes, we are. I'd like to welcome Ander Christensen to the program. Welcome to ANTI-SOCIAL.
Ander Christensen :Hey, thank you for having me on.
Thom Mozloom :Holy smokes. He really is here. He really is here. And I'm your You're my hero kid. Can I ask you a question though? What prompted you to do this? Do you I mean, you know, do you really have
Ander Christensen :I apologize. I can only hear one of you guys.
Tony Winton :Okay. Well, Tom was asking you can you can you what prompted you to do this?
Ander Christensen :Oh, I, uh I go to restaurants all the time with my with my buddies with my wife and when you're going to get chicken wings? I don't know if they do this over in Florida but they overhear they'll ask you Oh, do you want bone interview on bone out? And the more I think about the question, the more absurd it becomes. Like, are you telling you there was a bone originally in your bonus bonus wing? Or are you telling me that you're going to D bone my chicken wing because both of those are not good things.
Thom Mozloom :What What made you want to bring it to the city council though? What what what was the driving force?
Ander Christensen :I will say I think the biggest thing was that I found out you could say anything you want for five minutes. And I thought that it would be a nice break for for just a little bit to have some little bit of levity. This is it's something that I'm very curious about, but it is a joke.
Thom Mozloom :Okay, so let's Talk about the state of politics today. And what you reminded everybody of that you could be on a council and disagree politically, and still enjoy each other's company and laugh. Was there. Was that intentional when you did that? Or is this just a byproduct?
Ander Christensen :I apologize. I can't hear you at all. Yeah, I'm not sure why that is. So
Tony Winton :Tom, I hate that hate to do this to you. But Tom was asking you, you know, what was your I guess, was your intention. He's gonna come over and ask the question again, here, hold on a second
Thom Mozloom :there in the socially nonexistence way. When you did this, did you realize that there was a larger point that, you know, America is really politically divided in very bad ways right now. And you're one act brought people together in a way that says we could sit on a council and we could disagree with one another. But at the end of the day, it's really important that we get along and we can we can have a little laugh every once in a while.
Ander Christensen :Yeah, I think felt like I had no idea this was going to happen at all. I knew that this was not a politically dividing question. I knew this is not something that was going to ruffle too many feathers. My whole intention was on a good one. All right, right. I I want to just have a laugh with my wife and I she's in the back of the video. You can see her trying to hold it together. Yes. She and I just thought it would be a fun thing to do. Like right before I went to the meeting, I sat down for five minutes, typed it out, practiced it on the way. And go ahead. No, go ahead.
Tony Winton :Yeah, I was gonna say has it surprised you? I mean, you were in the New York Times. I think the New York Times that gave it about 500 600 words. Did the reaction surprise you of the of the country?
Ander Christensen :I will be honest that if I had done this a year ago, I don't think anybody would have cared at all. What I think what happened is that there has been so much negativity in the world all around. I feel like people just needed a deep breath. And they seized this one.
Thom Mozloom :Alright, my last question for you. Well, we have you. How did you know to use my wife's nickname for me? In your speech?
Ander Christensen :To Use Your wife's nickname?
Thom Mozloom :Yeah, my wife's nickname she calls me saucy. nugs
Ander Christensen :man, you got to get that changed.
Thom Mozloom :Ander, thank you so much for coming on the show You were awesome and thank you for brightening our day a little bit.
Tony Winton :Thank you Ander. In other words, right and And good luck in your your quest about boneless chicken wings because I agree with you. They are an abomination
Thom Mozloom :is a valuable. It's a valuable cause we know thank you pack a super PAC. Let's hear it everybody for for Andrew Christensen from Lincoln, Nebraska.
Ander Christensen :Thank you very much.
Tony Winton :And we will be back in just a moment with our next guest Mayor Frank Caplan from switching gears to the office of village council in Key Biscayne. We'll be back in just a minute. And we're back on ANTI-SOCIAL on WSQF in Key Biscayne. I'm Tony Winton.
Thom Mozloom :And I'm Thom Mozloom. Joining us in the studio now live is former Key Biscayne mayor and current candidate for Key Biscayne village council Frank Caplan. Now, like our last candidate interview, normally I would ask, "Hey, tell us a little bit about yourself" but you're sort of a fixture I mean, you're pretty well known on the key and so I think I'll start with like, why are you doing this?
Franklin Caplan :Well, that is an excellent question. You know, I think the answer first of all, I want to thank you for doing this it's a it's a good service. It's a great medium for helping people get to know people that aren't because perhaps has been around a long time and well known so it's good thanks. And thanks for having me. Sure. Your see an enemy screensaver there has been a transcendental state so if I, if I not all, I hope the listeners will understand.
Tony Winton :On behalf of our listeners, I'm going to ask you to talk just a little bit directly into the microphone there there. It will do wonders for your voice, but you have to be right on top of it.
Thom Mozloom :Got it. Okay, you could have dulcet tones like mine, Frank.
Franklin Caplan :I'll do my best.
Tony Winton :That's it. Play some jazz will be good.
Franklin Caplan :If I start singing Moon over Miami you'll stop me. I think
Tony Winton :there's a button on here.
Thom Mozloom :Yeah, no, no, no, there's there. We'll we'll definitely cut that off.
Franklin Caplan :So So why me? So this isn't about sports talk in Miami Heat or anything?
Thom Mozloom :No, no, you're you're you're running after a tenure on the council as a tenure as a mayor, you you. You seem to have come into your senses and now you've lost your marbles again.
Franklin Caplan :Yeah. Okay. So how do we do this? So let's try it this way. The week, the qualifying for candidacy occurred? Yep. Monday morning I woke up I was in a different life. I had no intention of doing this at all. The phone started ringing mid morning, I learned that Katie Petros was not going to be seeking reelection. Conversations ensued about what's going on in the village. What, what's at issue coming up in the next term? What's needed to maybe improve the level of discourse and decision Making in the village, what's needed maybe to improve communications with the residents and outreach generally, perhaps, to shore up a good rapport and easy rapport with the administration and the manager. And these conversations turn in my mind to a proposition that is kind of rooted in civics, you know, I've read maybe the Federalist Papers too long and too closely, but you know, there is no real, ultimate retirement in, in civic life for people that are interested in the public, right. And so, you know, it occurs to me we're living in this time, there's a lot going on, we've spent over a long period of time. A lot of growing together as a community. That process involves a lot of discussion and debate on complicated issues over the years, good people, sometimes with philosophical differences, some times with with a better or not so good ability to work in a collaborative way. Over time reach reach a point of consensus on hard things. And, you know, for if we're lucky and smart about building on settled consensus on tried and true things that work, it makes the future easier because we can, you know, build on the future rooted in the past, particularly where the past works. Why, on the other hand, on the other hand, there's always philosophical disagreements. People are always rethinking.
Thom Mozloom :We're supposed to do that.
Franklin Caplan :We are supposed to do that. That's absolutely right. It's healthy and it's part of the process. So the point of that and where the civics comes in, you got to be vigilant, you got to stay involved. You know, it really matters ultimately, who makes decisions and how they make how they work, how they decide how they discuss things with Other people. Okay.
Tony Winton :Well, let me let me Let's try to bring it bring some focus some here early are one of our guests earlier to this show was Raquel Regalado, who, you know talked a lot about a project you are mostly associated with, I believe it's fair to say, is the the creation of the of the program, the high school at the location of MAST Academy. But that is an example of a partnership, right working with the county or in this case working with the school board. That has not always been the case with the village of Key Biscayne and dealing with our neighbors, so to speak, other municipalities, what do you see as current problems and what needs to be fixed and how would you do it?
Franklin Caplan :I think two things occurred to me right off the bat. We are strong locally when we have excellent cohesion locally. If we are fractured on the council, many things are more difficult and may be approaching not possible. Okay, so we need to be we need to work as a body. And then we need to have strategies. So for example, using my tenure as mayor included two preoccupations from start to finish that were primary motivations primary goals, basically every single day. The first was establishing and maintaining a high degree of cohesion, excellent relationships, excellent collaboration, patient ability to work with each other on our council and with the administration. That included very active all the time outreach, with good communication skills and concision with the community. The second part of it was showing up regionally. Not lip service, not just joining organizations, not subscribing to magazines, but showing up working. So for example, in my 10 year, I got involved in The League of Cities by joining the board I became appointed to different things. Those included the Regional Planning Council for Monroe, Broward and Miami Dade. I wound up chairing that organization, I wound up out of that organization serving on the statewide umbrella organization of all the regional councils, the networking, and the learning and the ability to persuade, you know, both become educated but also educate others about our local problems and needs is enormous. So all of those things enable us to have leverage that enabled us to punch way above our weight. Do you thinkthe
Thom Mozloom :that the national political landscape as divisive an angry as it is on both sides has impacted the ability of things to get done on kivus game?
Franklin Caplan :I do. I do. I think that there is a manifest leap option. This element of I'll call it toxicity. Highly regrettably, but I see it there. And it's evident in social media discourse
Thom Mozloom :as it ever
Franklin Caplan :entered ever. I think it's a significant problem. Because in part people that are have a proclivity to keep their information sources and even their relationships within a certain insular confines, you know, talk to each other in that bar. And the propensity for misinformation, false information, even, you know, demagoguery if you want to put a more cynical view on on say, civic sabotage exists in those bubbles. Wow, that's just
Tony Winton :those are strong, strong words. janovic sabotage.
Ander Christensen :I like it.
Franklin Caplan :It exists. And I write it on the board. It exists. Now, you know, I think perhaps there's an example there's an illustration that's current On the debate that's raging about the geo bond.
Tony Winton :Well, we're about to get into that. So good segue.
Franklin Caplan :Okay. And this is not, I don't mean to put this in terms of civic sabotage, but I'll give you an example of what I've noticed. The communication that came out of the Council on this could have been better. Resulting
Thom Mozloom :as an understatement, my friends, it could have been better.
Franklin Caplan :The result was a high degree of confusion and even argumentation in a kind of community overreaction to what some people in good faith sincerely, honestly believed that this this, that this meant or pretended. Now, it's a little while later, it's a couple, but at least a couple of weeks later, there have been good workshops. There's been good dissemination subsequent to this initially flawed rollout. In the meantime, despite the corrective communications with discipline There are people who still believe that this is about 100 million dollar pond.
Thom Mozloom :I can't say it anymore. No,
Tony Winton :we decided to retire that sound
Thom Mozloom :there was a sounder with that. Yes. But
Tony Winton :but but the I guess the question is, uh, you know, how, what is it rooted in Tom's question was about it's filtering down trickling down from the national election, that you're on the ballot, but you're going to be on the ballot with that Donald Trump, you're going to be on the ballot. Every kid with everybody is on the this is a massively important ballot. that's affecting many, many, many issues of the mayor of Miami, everything else? How is it filtering? Is it filtering and that basis on the basis of democrat versus republican Trump versus Biden? How is it filtering down? And is that is that bubble that you just mentioned? Is that what's going on?
Franklin Caplan :First, I am on the ballot with Trump but I'm not as running mate. Let's make that clear. All right, Lord,
Tony Winton :several pages in I think yeah.
Franklin Caplan :The there are two things possibly at issue. And one is that people hear what they want to hear or they want to be validated and what they want the outcome to be right the feedback loop. Well, it's it's partly feedback loop but it's also partly strategy and tactics. So if you latch on to a Shibboleth i think i think the the expression which is kind of utter nonsense in the context of this, have shovel ready, as a as a catch word to describe the untimeliness and fiscal irresponsibility of this, you know, Bond ballot question. That to me suggests tendencia sness, right. This is this is arguing for a desired outcome. Sure.
Thom Mozloom :Okay. None of those projects are shovel ready and project nor should they be because you don't know until you do the study and you have to pay for that.
Franklin Caplan :Well, there's another factor project. jacks are iterative. They progress over time you do permitting you do planning, you design, you get to a stage where there's procurement equipment and contractors and things and all that has to be voted on. All of that has to not only be voted on, and the financing part of it requires to two public hearings, and a supermajority vote, whatever, whatever they are, whenever they come along, that process must be followed. But you can't get to the point of being ready to dig dirt, and then worry about how you're going to finance it and whether the most favorable financing that would have been available could be made available, requiring, for example, a special election and the run up and education that's associated with complicated questions. You know, it really doesn't work in our form of government to just throw caution. questions at the electorate? we don't we don't work by referendum because it's not efficient. It's not workable.
Tony Winton :And and I break this news on the we now know that the political action committee has been formed in Key Biscayne, that's going to be advocating for a yes vote on the bond. We don't know whether another one will be formed against it. I suppose it's quite reasonable. I would be absolutely sure that it would be. So we're going to see all kinds of seeing this entire race, right, characterized by this by the status on this issue. And what else does it say, though, about the notion of how the key should be we asked another candidate about this one of your rivals, about the notion of who votes and who decides? That has been a continuous theme that that came up first with the undergrounding. That was, I guess, sort of the the test vote of the precursor to what we're now the voters are going to be facing with a resiliency issue and the debate, much of the debate there was about Whether or not registered voters vote, or whether or not property owners, including corporations vote do are corporations people. Right? That's that that's that's kind of the issue. How does this play out with this?
Franklin Caplan :Well, two answers. Okay. First, to be specific about the bond. The reason this has to go to the voters on the ballot in this upcoming general election, is because the Florida Constitution requires it. It's as simple as that. There's, there's a discrete simple question on the ballot, which is whether this potentially most favorable form of large scale financing could be available when it's needed. Without that vote, it is not available. So that is self injury. If we deprive ourselves of the tool that may actually be most favorable down the road, but it
Thom Mozloom :seems to me like what you have now though, is vapor because of the debt cap, you punted on the debt cap, which means that the bond issue is, I mean, maybe I'm reading that wrong. It just seems like that those two things.
Franklin Caplan :It's not an all or nothing. It's an increment of what, you know, what would have been projected when you do all of the addition, for all of the projects and all of the categories. You get to a number.
Tony Winton :Did the council make the wrong decision on the debt cap? Because that could have also been on the ballot?
Franklin Caplan :I think that the I think I understand why it came out as it did. But in my view, and I wasn't there debating this at the time, Brad moss was, I think that it was not well done. And look, to be honest, one of the one of the results, the impressions that came about the way it was done, was that it was a trick, a definitional trick a contrivance to call this debt, not debt. Seemed, you know, tricky. It's
Thom Mozloom :Well, it's certainly duplicitous, and we're used to hearing that from politicians At the national level, well, it was an exception. And we're and well, but the tolerance the branding is already in place, right politician, bad politician lie politician being duplicitous again and now it's trickled down. So you have that. You go back to that national conversation trickling down into a general distrust on the island.
Franklin Caplan :I hope I'm right about this. I think that that is true in Congress. I think it's true in many respects in national politics. It's true in Tallahassee. I hope that I'm right in considering that it is not particularly true in Key Biscayne. Well, it's
Thom Mozloom :true in Miami Dade County. It's true
Franklin Caplan :in Miami Dade County, so much so that I didn't want to get married in Miami Dade County.
Ander Christensen :Let's leave it at hold.
Tony Winton :Non binding. But you know, we've had we've had and I think we've demonstrated by word and deed and accomplishments, a good government and keep us gain. Well, let's move on to that because there are a group of candidates who don't apparently believe that they believe For instance, they've said this repeatedly, they keep going this fiscal accountability route. There have been specific suggestions by some to re examine the level of staffing in the police department, the level of staffing and fire, perhaps even the the consideration of returning control back to the county to serve those needs, which of course, is goes back to the founding of the very village itself. What do you think how is administration running? Are we at the right staffing levels and the right compensation levels with police and fire the big drivers of the budget? The what? What's your view of that?
Franklin Caplan :First of all, I don't know what drives those observations. I don't know. The people who propound them and I don't know what their motivations are. But I think they're nutty, actually.
Thom Mozloom :So I
Tony Winton :like making that very clear.
Thom Mozloom :All of the polysyllabic words you just thrown at us?
Franklin Caplan :That's my favorite. It's good that I can do that because I'm in a soft a soporific state after the cnm. Yes,
Thom Mozloom :I do that to gain mind control over you.
Franklin Caplan :Thank you. It worked. I'm in a transcendental state. Look, the the budget, one of the things that never is resolved fully. And finally, is this question because every year, the budget workshops and the budget hearings, plunge into this question. And there are two things that at least two things that happen that create a more dynamic process, let's say and that keeps open. The point that Tom that you observed is part of the healthy part of democracy, which is really looking at settled, it's settled around decisions. millage is one you know, what is the appropriate level of taxation and that correlates to what is our level of service that we that we require to deliver Because we put ourselves to that standard or those standards, plural, and what does it cost to pay for those things? And then of course, on top of that there's there's capital and reserves, and debt service. So every year, we have that debate, to say that the village lacks accountability and transparency is to say nothing at all. It's a completely vapid and empty criticism without any foundation that I can think of. And I've been around a long time. So so to be sure, every now and again and budget line by line by line department by department assessments, every now and again somebody finds a point of waste or inefficiency. Councilmember London's favorite two words.
Tony Winton :I believe that's called a Texas sharpshooter. And are we have a charter logical argument. I have
Unknown Speaker :yet to have to hang that up. Right.
Franklin Caplan :So So when when somebody finds inefficiency when somebody finds mistake. It's fixed. There is nobody that I have ever known known to serve in this government since pre incorporation that is a champion of obscurity and lack of transparency or accountability.
Tony Winton :What about the upcoming as I already started, there's collective bargaining going on you have been in that process as the mayor as a councilman. If you're if you're reelected, you will you will be back to an ongoing negotiations. The village has taken a pretty tough stance saying a complete zero to the to the fire and police unions and and the other employees as well.
Franklin Caplan :We Is it
Tony Winton :a bit let me ask you this. Is it a valid argument to say because of COVID-19 we have to tighten our belts?
Franklin Caplan :I think it's a valid argument to look at expenditures always. And look at revenue sources always. And in this environment. Of course, of course, you know, but the Question of tightening belts in response to this COVID argument has to take into account the actual economic effect of this of this period of time. The actual economic effect is not dire, whether it becomes dire next year or in the future. Look, it's dire for April. It's dire for businesses, but the municipal budget is not driven to an almost an over reactive austerity response in this COVID environment.
Thom Mozloom :All right, Frank. Last question. You have 90 seconds. closing argument, why should we vote for you?
Franklin Caplan :Okay, that's a good one. Look. Council is it's fair to say I think the council's dynamics and communication with each other could stand some improvement. I am aware and many of us that I've served with have been aware of demographic changes, General generational changes, and the need for experience and need for you know, that institutional knowledge to be able to transmit ethos to newcomers who may or may not be curious who may or may not have knowledge. The issues that are before us are important. The decisions that we made will will have lasting consequences for better or for worse. I have worked with five of the incumbents I've served as mayor with two of them. I've been through the foxholes and firing range with all of them. I've had success in communicating, thought provocation to get to sort of coax out of people, why they think what they think, to be able to get people to debate when they weren't possibly ready to and to find ways to build coalitions around issues. I've been successful at that. I think coucil could benefit from that. All right. I think the community needs better communication and outreach. And I have a lot of appetite for that.
Thom Mozloom :Excellent. Well, Frank, thank you for coming on the show today. Yes. Thank
Tony Winton :you for joining us on ANTI-SOCIAL. We'll be back in just a little bit. And we're back on antique social. I'm Tony Winton.
Thom Mozloom :And I'm Tom moslem was a full show, Tony.
Tony Winton :A lot of very heavy issue. Yeah, but
Thom Mozloom :good. I mean, I think everybody handled themselves really well.
Tony Winton :I think we heard a bit of a theme developing though about this national election that's happening that's now filtered down. one candidate trying to avoid being pulled in that direction. Don't know if that's going to work for Raquel Regalado.
Thom Mozloom :ya know, a car wreck a lot. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, when I asked her the question, you know, are you going to run to Trump or run away from him The answer that she gave bed let me do the politician to English English the politician translation, her long answer about bipartisan nature and reaching across the aisle that was I'm running as far away from Donald Trump as I can
Tony Winton :without without actually saying so
Thom Mozloom :that's correct that that's what she said. Right. But and and Frank for him
Tony Winton :and the that the one of the problems is the "I won't take a side" argument in this election cycle. I won't take a side position,
Thom Mozloom :no room for that.
Tony Winton :I don't know if there's any room
Thom Mozloom :unfortunately. Right. There's no room for an independent candidate. You're I mean, we have reached the you're either with us or against us on both sides of the aisle. Right,
Tony Winton :which is sad, but it's a reality. I think voters will be confronting and then of course what Frank Cap lin staking out a clear his alignment with the big issue in Key Biscayne the resiliency bond, which is really kind of split
Thom Mozloom :Yeah, I mean, it's it's so not only did he take that position, but he also took The position of elder statesman and the he's the sane person in the room. That's, that's what he would like you to believe. And he may very well be the question is, is Key Biscayne going to look at Frank and say, been there done that? Or are they going to say, been there need that? That's going to be the differentiation. It's the are you better off now than you were four years ago? question, because he could, he could always go back there.
Tony Winton :Right. And there's so many other issues that you know, remember we have a mayor's race going on in Miami as well.
Thom Mozloom :Now, there's a ton of candidates, man.
Tony Winton :Yeah. Where are we on that? Yeah. Well, here in Key Biscayne we have a total of 10. Yeah. We have gotten yesses from six. We have two more to come. But other folks, we're not really not really happening. [Sound effect of crickets chirping]
Ander Christensen :Even you mean crickets,
Tony Winton :nothing. I mean, there's been no response. We've emailed them. Some cases we've texted them, but no response. So we would need you on the show. I'll just a reminder, it's just 25 days before the ballots get mailed out in Dade County. So sometime around September 30 is when they go out. So a couple of days later, there'll be showing up in the mailboxes of Key Biscayne.
Thom Mozloom :Tony it's not 25 days it's three shows.
Tony Winton :That's right
Thom Mozloom :. Three shows there's three Saturdays left before the ballots go out. And wow, on that note, play the theme music
Tony Winton :it is. We will play the theme music but one more pitch. please reach out to us. We want to hear your views and I'm sure the residents and voters of Key Biscayne want to hear them too. I'm Tony Winton.
Thom Mozloom :I'm Thom Mozloom. Be safe, everybody