Sarasota now has two fake boards

A community's mental health isn't something you kick down the road - unless you're Sarasota County's Board of Commissioners. Local experts volunteered 526 hours to review and recommend the most valuable mental health services for our citizens -- only to watch Moran, Maio, Ziegler, Cutsinger and Detert punt -- incoherently. Carrie Seidman.

The same five Commissioners agreed there's no space west of I-75 left for affordable housing, then granted Pat Neal's request to dodge a formal commitment to build affordable housing east of it. Sarasota's moneybags developer apparently can't afford affordable housing -- details in The Sarasota News Leader.

This Tuesday, Nov. 29, the newly elected Sarasota School Board will meet to consider terminating the Superintendent - no reason given. Brennan Asplen has high marks for his performance. Karen Rose made the motion. "Asked about the motion following Tuesday's meeting, Rose continued walking past a Herald-Tribune reporter and declined to comment." 

To email all School Board members: schoolboardmembers@sarasotacountyschools.net

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How much are Sarasota Commissioners worth?

Maio continues to lead the way in net worth among Sarasota County commissioners, latest state Commission on Ethics filings show

Sour

Source: Sarasota News Leader, November 25, 2021 by Rachel Brown Hackney, Editor & Publisher

Cutsinger in second place, with Detert reporting smallest figure

Sarasota County Commission Chair Alan Maio continues to outpace his board colleagues in terms of net worth, the latest Florida Commission on Ethics financial disclosure filings indicate.

However, Maio reported a smaller figure for 2020 than he did for 2019, his latest report showed.

As of June 17, Maio wrote that his net worth was $3,082,300. In June 2019, he noted that the figure was $3,252,097.

In second place, Commissioner Ron E. Cutsinger of Englewood reported that his net worth as of July 1 was $1,589,314 — slightly more than half of Maio’s total.

Commissioner Michael Moran narrowly edged out Commissioner Christian Ziegler for third place. Moran reported that his net worth as of April 30 was $927,150.25. That compared to $620,716.38 as of May 1, 2020.

On Dec. 31, 2020, Ziegler noted, his net worth was $876,233.25. That was more than three times the amount he listed as of Dec. 31, 2018: $206,324.83.

Ziegler won his District 2 seat during the November 2018 General Election.

Rounding out the board members, Commissioner Nancy Detert attested that her net worth as of Dec. 31, 2020 was $392,213. That was up slightly from her Dec. 31, 2019 total of $322,206.

More detail here

Board to consider proposal to dedicate a Quad Parcel to builders

Mike Moran and Al Maio – the two commissioners who voted for James Gabbert’s giant, outdoor debris pulverizing plant on the SW Quad parcel – are now pushing a building lobbyist's proposal that would put a builder's showcase there, despite the fact that the proposal violates the Conservation Easement approved by the Board in 2020.

M&M were joined by Cutsinger and Ziegler in the 4-1 vote to fast-track the BIA proposal.

Excerpts below are from the 4.29.22 Sarasota News Leader article.

With Detert objecting, County Commission authorizes staff to negotiate with Manatee-Sarasota Business Industry Association to take over Florida House lease and move building 

April 28, 2022 by Rachel Brown Hackney, Editor & Publisher

Making the motion, Commissioner Moran calls for ‘plenty of public input’ on proposal during future board meeting

Commissioner Michael Moran this week won the support of his other three colleagues to authorize county staff to start negotiating with the Manatee-Sarasota Business Industry Association over the future of the Florida House.

Formally, Moran specified county talks with the Business Industry Association (MSBIA) “and/or any nonprofit that’s affiliated with [it]” to take over the county’s lease of the 4454 S. Beneva Road site in Sarasota where the Florida House stands. That lease will end on June 30, 2027, county staff has noted.

Further, Moran called for allowing the MSBIA or the nonprofit to move the building before that lease expires.

The MSBIA has created a nonprofit organization called the Building Industry Institute....

The MSBIA proposal in a June 7, 2021 letter from its CEO, Jon Mast, to County Administrator Jonathan Lewis — plus comments from MSBIA board member Teresa Mast, who addressed the commissioners at an Open to the Public comment period during the commission’s Feb. 8 meeting — included the desire to move the Florida House to one of the Quads. Those four county-owned parcels are adjacent to the Celery Fields.

Although the latter area officially is a county stormwater management project, it also is an internationally known bird-watching destination.

In October 2020, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve a conservation easement over the Southwest, Southeast and Northeast Quads, in collaboration with the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast, which is based in Osprey, and the Sarasota Audubon Society.

The MSBIA has shifted its focus to a Southwest Quad site. ...

Detert said she objected to Moran’s motion. “We haven’t had a lot of meetings about it,” she began. “We probably need to.” ....

She said she believed all of the commissioners have met with MSBIA representatives one-on-one. “You’re kind of writing a motion in favor of one corporation,” she told Moran. ....

When Chair Alan Maio called for the vote on Moran’s motion, Detert repeated her objection to it. The motion passed 4-1.

. . . leaders of the Florida House Institute — which has become Southface Sarasota — have adamantly expressed opposition to the MSBIA proposal.

... former Florida House director Matt Ross, who founded the company Eco$mart, in 1993, stressed to the commissioners during public comments on Feb. 23 that in his 29 years of working with the Florida House, he had “not seen the [MSBIA’s] presence at all.”

When the Florida House suffered through “lean times” in the early 2000s, Ross continued, “Where was the builders’ association? They weren’t there.”

MSBIA head Jon Mast

...

Notes below on key points -

===========

Some key takeaways:

1. The Board chose to promote one proposal – from a lobby, the Manatee/Sarasota Building Industry Association BIA – over Commissioner Detert’s motion to hear from staff about several options for the Florida House.

2. The BIA Lobby wishes to take for its own use a parcel that was given to the people of Sarasota (via two Environmental Non-profits, Sarasota Audubon and the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast) to protect a bird nesting preserve and to foster community with a civic use – a Sarasota history archive, for example.

3. The BIA Lobby wants to rezone the SW Quad to ILW – Industry, light manufacturing, warehouse – apparently not finding any incompatibility with the Conservation Easement.

4. The county’s own documents and Conservation Easement reflect the fact that the intent of the Conservation Easement was for civic or government use, and use by a private organization is expressly disallowed by its terms.

5. Those who have had long and intimate participation in the Florida House say the Lobby has lied in pretending to have helped the Florida House when it needed it, or taken any interest in it before now.

Citizens for Sarasota County (CSC) is a coalition founded in 2014 to promote ethical, responsive government that preserves and enhances Sarasota's unique natural environment and cultural heritage while building a sound local economy based on effective stewardship and innovation. 

Rumble Report 3.29.2022

Below is a transcript of notes shared on Facebook by one attendee during the Sarasota County Board discussion of what to do about Rumble, the alt-right online platform that somehow discovered Sarasota (through Enterprise Florida, according to Commissioner Ziegler). 

Here's the "trending" page on Rumble taken the day before the hearing:

Last fall, the Board gave the Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota the OK to explore a prospective deal that would give $825,000 tax dollars as incentive to the company to move its headquarters here. A building has been identified as Rumble HQ on Longboat Key, but does not appear to yet be occupied. No money has yet been approved - the deal is still in the works.

On March 29, 2022, citizens attended the Board meeting seeking to speak to the issue. They were concerned that this platform, which consistently trends toward nonsense about the last presidential election being stolen and similar themes, would receive tax dollars. Prior to the meeting, over 1500 citizens had signed a Petition calling for any deal with Rumble to be quashed.

There was also disgust that Rumble offers one of the only platforms where Russian Television (RT) can be accessed outside of Russia. RT is Putinganda, a myopic self-justifying view of the invasion of Ukraine where even the word "war" is not permitted to be used.

A contingent of Ukrainian citizens, mostly from North Port, attended the meeting, some with flags. One man from Ukraine spoke eloquently about the deep division between Ukrainians and Russians. He said Russian media always lies, and worried that it would take footage from platforms like Rumble, twist it to its own purposes, and use it to support Putin's effort to overpower Ukraine.

Instead of beginning the official meeting with Open to the Public, Commission Chair Al Maio asked the Board to discuss what to do regarding the EDC idea of awarding tax dollars. The discussion became protracted as Commissioner Ziegler presented all the reasons he sees as valid to incentivize a media platform like Rumble to come to the county - jobs, basically.

Eventually Maio allowed a few citizens to address the issue, but told others who had come to speak that they would have to wait until later in the day - possibly to the end of the meeting.

Below are brief notes on the Board discussion leading up to the curious way in which two Commissioners' proffered motions to resolve the Rumble morass tumbled, or fumbled, into a bumbling virtual stalemate.

Notes from the BCC meeting, taken live 3.29.22:

===

Commissioner Detert at beginning of meeting moves that the County takes no further steps toward offering a tax dollar incentive to Rumble for moving to Sarasota County. Seconded by Cutsinger.

Commissioner Ziegler taking a large amount of time going through the presented justifications for bringing Rumble to Sarasota - without actually taking a stand on the motion.

Ziegler wants to amend Detert's motion - he wants the Board to discontinue all economic incentives via the EDC. Moran, who has been critical of the EDC in the past, supports Zig's amendment. Detert speaks against Zig's amendment and does not wish to make a decision on all economic incentives today.

Commissioner Ziegler's amendment to the motion passes 3-2 (Cutsinger, Zig, and Moran for, Detert and Maio against).

Ziegler is now saying he will oppose Detert's motion - he sees people opposing Rumble as "cancel culture" and advocating false information.

Detert's motion is up for a vote, but now she is saying that having passed Zig's amendment, her motion is moot. The county atty says they still need to vote on the main motion, which included Zig's amendment.

Detert's motion FAILS (Moran, Ziegler, and Cutsinger vote no). This cancels Ziegler's motion - he just voted against his own amendment.

Ziegler moves to table the discussion to end all economic incentives until the Board's next meeting. Maio seconds.

Detert says the EDC should be invited to the meeting at which ending all taxpayer incentives will be discussed.

Board unanimously approves motion to postpone discussion of taxpayer incentives.

In brief: the Board punted. There was no decision about Rumble, and none on the amendment to cancel all economic incentives. The Board's dodge has put discussion and any decision on the Rumble taxpayer incentive off to a later meeting.

===

When available, a link to the official video of the Board meeting will be posted here.

Background:

WUSF / NPR

https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/politics-issues/2022-03-28/rumble-still-airs-russia-state-controlled-news-channel-headquarters-could-soon-be-in-sarasota

New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/business/media/rumble-social-media-conservatives-videos.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/technology/parler-rumble-newsmax.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/technology/parler-app-trump-free-speech.html

Citizens for District Power to Board: Don't Make CRB Undo Charter Amendment

 To the Sarasota County Commission:

The people of Sarasota County have spoken again—County residents support electing Commissioners by Single-Member District (SMD). 

In 2018, 60% of county voters in all five Districts and across party lines endorsed SMD.  Now, on the 2021 Sarasota County Citizen Survey, residents support SMD for a second time.  (See Sarasota News Leader article below this message.)

Single-Member Districts is an established method of representation.  

Nineteen FL counties elect Commissioners by SMD, including Collier, Broward, and Escambia. The FL Legislature and US House of Representatives are elected by SMD. Nancy Detert, who now sits on the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners, previously was elected to the State Legislature through Single Member District Voting. In that office she represented the interests of both her local district and of all residents of Florida.

SMD is in the Sarasota County Charter based on the 2018 voter mandate. SMD is not on a “trial run” and should not be under review or on a path to repeal. Three of five County Districts elected Commissioners by SMD last November. Two Districts (about 40% of county residents) will elect Commissioners by SMD in 2022.    

As a growing community, each District has unique issues.  Sarasota County should provide opportunities that promote public dialogue by holding District-level town hall meetings and offering other resources to facilitate communication.  

Please withdraw your request for the Charter Review Board to review SMD on October 20, 2021.

Please share the status of the CRB request for review of SMD.  

Citizens for District Power (CDP)

Bill Zoller

Pat Rounds

Tom Matrullo

Glenna Blomquist

Adrien Lucas

Susan Schoettle

==================================

Sarasota News Leader 

Plurality of county residents responding to 2021 Citizen Opinion Survey
expresses support for Single-Member Districts voting method for County Commission seats 

September 30, 2021 by Rachel Brown Hackney, Editor & Publisher 

Only 26% of respondents disagree with change 

This graphic shows the breakdown of responses to the survey question about Single-Member Districts. Image courtesy Sarasota County.

About 40% of the 1,250 respondents to Sarasota County’s 2021 Citizen Opinion Survey expressed support for the Single-Member Districts voting method that citizens approved during the November 2018 General Election, Joshua Scacco, a professor at the University of South Florida, told the County Commission this week.

Using a scale of 1 to 5, Scacco added, that meant the support reflected a score of about 3.3.

Only 26% of the respondents disagreed with the change, he said.

A team with the University of South Florida’s Institute of Government handles the survey each year. Its partner is HCP Associates of Tampa.

In May, Commissioner Nancy Detert stressed to County Administrator Jonathan Lewis that she wanted a question on the 2021 survey about Single-Member Districts. She and her colleagues over the past year have contended that the people who approved the Sarasota County Charter amendment in 2018 did not understand it.

That amendment restricts voters in a district to voting just for County Commission candidates who live in the same district. Previously, commission races were contested countywide.

During a Sept. 28 exchange with Scacco, at the conclusion of the presentation of the survey results, Detert alluded to two speakers who criticized the board members earlier that morning for requesting that the question be on the survey.

                            Joshua Scacco. Image courtesy University of South Florida

“Did anyone in the general public complain that you asked certain questions?” Detert asked Scacco.

A professional call center handles the actual survey after the USF/HCP team has developed the questions, he replied. “We would have to go back to the transcripts of that particular question to get an idea.” Scacco added, “I wouldn’t expect that there would be much there.” Nonetheless, he told Detert that he would make certain to include the information in a final report on the survey, which the team would deliver next month. (See the related article in this issue.)

Pat Rounds addresses the commissioners on Sept. 28. News Leader image

During the Open to the Public period for comments at the start of the Sept. 28 board meeting, Pat Rounds of Sarasota, a member of a group called Citizens for District Power, reminded the commissioners that 60% of the citizens who participated in the November 2018 referendum on Single-Member Districts approved it.

Rounds contended that the commissioners began “sowing seeds of doubt” about the voting system “immediately after the first three districts elected commissioners by Single-Member Districts [in November 2020].”

Rounds also pointed out, “One of you even likened Single-Member Districts to a question about septic tanks [also requested for inclusion in the 2021 survey], calling [the voting system] ‘sludge.’” Rounds was referencing a comment Detert made during the May discussion.

“The people of Sarasota County have now told you twice that they want direct representation and accountability for county commissioners,” Rounds continued. “Will you finally listen?”

Noting that they also had asked the county’s elected Charter Review Board members to undertake an analysis of the effects of Single-Member Districts, Rounds urged the commissioners, “Please stop any review of Single-Member Districts as a step on the path to justify a repeal effort. Each district should experience Single-Member Districts for at least a full term before any ‘review’ is even considered. Do you agree?”

As usual with Open to the Public comments, no commissioner engaged Rounds in discussion.

The second speaker, Tom Matrullo of Sarasota, also pointed to the commissioners’ comments about voters having been confused. “Your new survey resoundingly shows the opposite,” he said. “Sarasotans want and need Single-Member Districts voting.” He further referenced the fact that survey respondents in 2020 reported their top stressor was population growth and new development and that that remained the primary issue of concern this year.

“Around the county,” Matrullo continued, ”people are anxious, upset and even enraged at how oversized developments receive blanket approval despite the reasoned objections of those whose homes, neighborhoods and lifestyles are impacted.”

He added, “Development issues usually affect people within a single district.” He noted the controversy on Siesta Key regarding proposals for four hotel projects with room counts ranging from 100 to 170, for an example. “The mega hotels on Siesta Key have little direct impact on the people of Old Miakka,” Matrullo said, “and threats to the rural life of Old Miakka do not impinge on folks in Wellen Park.”

Old Miakka is located in the far eastern portion of the county; Wellen Park is near Venice.

A graphic shows the Old Miakka Planning Area, outlined in blue, as presented in a county neighborhood plan completed in 2006. Image courtesy Sarasota County

“The county currently has no satellite offices, online facilities or public town halls,” he stressed, through which the board members could engage the public in discussion about issues at the district level. “District dialogue must become a priority.”

After the presentation of the survey results, Commissioner Christian Ziegler proved to be the only board member who did voice continuing anger over Single-Member Districts.

“It’s going to be tough to change my mind on just how bad of a form of government that is,” Ziegler said. “I think people want to vote for all the commissioners. … But it’s tough to get that thought out, you know, in a survey … unless you have a conversation with people. This doesn’t change my mind on Single-Member Districts.”

Sarasota, FL: Conspiratorial cluster of Ninjas, Truthers, QAnon Theorists . . .

 How Sarasota Became the Conspiracy Capital of the United States

Mike Flynn

[Mike Flynn] the former general and QAnon icon lives just 25 minutes away, in Englewood, and is part of a growing cast of pro-Trump conspiracy theorists, insurrectionists, and election truthers who call Sarasota County home.

Overstock.com founder and uber–conspiracy theorist Patrick Byrne recently purchased six properties in the country, all at extremely inflated prices. Cyber Ninjas, the company with no election audit experience currently running the recount in Arizona’s Maricopa County, is headquartered in Sarasota County.

Charlie Kirk, head of the pro-Trump, far-right group Turning Point USA, which is targeting local school boards around the country, also lives in the county. As does Florida Sen. Joe Gruters, one of Trump’s closest political allies in the state and someone who promoted buses full of pro-Trump rioters heading to Washington on Jan. 6.

And let’s not forget Maria Zack, the conspiracy theorist who believes that the 2020 election was somehow stolen through the use of Italian military satellites. She also now lives in Sarasota County. Vice, 9.12.21

The Zieglers: 

Bridget Ziegler

 

Like all the other groups, parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty denied to VICE News that it organized the event, though messages shared by leaders of the Florida chapter of the group suggest they were closely involved in the running of the event.

 

Moms for Liberty burning masks in Brevard County, FL

Christian Ziegler

 The group was founded last year by Bridget Ziegler, a member of the Sarasota County School Board and the wife of Florida GOP vice chair [and current District 2 Sarasota County Commissioner] Christian Ziegler, who organized buses for people to travel to Washington on Jan. 6.

Christian Ziegler is also the owner of Micro Targeted Media, a digital marketing company that says “we do digital and go after people on their phones.” 

In the words of Chris Anderson, columnist for the Sarasota Herald Tribune, “Sarasota County has somehow become the Conspiracy Capital of the World."  Vice, 9.12.21 

 

Chris Anderson: Conspiracy theorists keep popping up in Sarasota County

Maria Zack is the latest mole of misinformation tied to our area. She still thinks the 2020 presidential election was rigged, and wait until you hear this doozy of a reason how: She is convinced that foreign powers used a military satellite in Italy to change votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden on election night. 

Zack, who in 2016 formed a Super Pac backing Ted Cruz and discarded Trump as incompetent, has claimed she presented her “ItalyGate” satellite evidence to Trump in person as he ate dinner on Christmas Eve at Mar-a-Lago.

And, of course, she's tied to Sarasota County, which has somehow become America's Mecca of Misinformation. According to state records, Zack is president of a company called Nations in Action, which lists a P.O Box at a UPS store on Clark Road as its address. Herald Tribune, 9.14.21

 Chris Anderson: The secret moves of the Cyber Ninjas moneyman

[Patrick] Byrne, the multimillion-dollar moneyman funding the Sarasota-based Cyber Ninjas in the fantastical quest to find voter fraud in Arizona, thus handing the presidency back to Donald Trump, is a little on the questionable side himself. 

Byrne, meanwhile, is behind a pair of non-profits that have given the Cyber Ninjas nearly $5 million to audit 21 million ballots cast in Maricopa County, Az. during the presidential election. The long-overdue results have been delayed because some of the ninjas have coronavirus. 

Now, it's not that James and Jennifer Vett were looking to sell their six-bedroom, five-bathroom cul-de-sac home in the Oaks Club in Osprey. It's just that Byrne really, really wanted to buy it, and in June, his company offered $3.35 million for a house valued at around $1.5 million, according to the Sarasota County Property Appraiser's Office, whose records revealed even more notable purchases. 

Byrne's company – originally called Manatee Investments LLC – bought two more houses and a condo in the Oaks recently, and he paid over $1 million above the appraised market value for one of the homes. 

In June, his company also purchased a 10,000 square-foot building on Venice Avenue, which was the former home of Bayside Gynecology. Dr. Michael Wolpmann said he was not looking to sell, but who was he to turn down $2.5 million for a building appraised at $654,300?  Herald Tribune 9.9.21.

 

Mike Flynn

From rural Sarasota to Trump allies' inner circle: Who is the Cyber Ninja leading Arizona's audit?

Many assume [Cyber Ninjas' head Doug] Logan got involved with the Byrne, Flynn, and Powell team through one of his contacts in the cybersecurity world, perhaps through his federal contracting work.

[Overstock CEO Patrick] Byrne and [disgraced Trump General Mike] Flynn also have Sarasota County connections. Flynn bought property there in April, and Byrne followed suit in June. Joe Flynn, Mike Flynn’s brother who is involved in the nonprofits funding the Arizona audit, has owned property there since 2018. Herald Tribune 9.20.21