In our area right now, we are fortunate to have several candidates who are knowledgeable and articulate on a broad range of environmental issues.
Unfortunately, the current state of local media is such that it's likely very little broad public attention will be given to our area's local candidates or issues in the 2020 General Election. More on this below.
Here's a brief intro to five of these challengers, all of whom have made the environment a key plank in their respective platforms:
Andy Mele has a long and strong history of advocacy in both New York and Florida, where he's led Suncoast Waterkeeper as well as taking a lead role in opposing the huge gypsum mining firm Mosaic. Andy is running for Florida House District 71.
Mark Pienkosis running against incumbent Mike Moran in District 1, where large-scale developments are getting approved and moving eastward at an accelerated rate. Pienkos sees serious custodianship of the environment as integral to maintaining Sarasota's highly regarded quality of life.
Cory Hutchinson is running for the County Commission against Nancy Detert in District 3 - the Venice area. One key element of his platform is renewable energy. Hutchinson also wants to prioritize infrastructure repairs, to stop sewage spills into our water.
"Our environment is everything," says Alice White, "it's why we chose to live here." White, who's running for the District 5 County Commission seat, has been a longtime North Port voice for good planning and good planting -- In fact she's known as "The Tree Lady."
Brian Kelly is a candidate for Venice City Council and a lifelong resident of Sarasota. A co-founder of Hands Along the Water, his focus is to preserve our lands from over-development, to protect our water quality and the environment as a whole, and to extend the reach of public health. "We must protect our natural resources," he says, adding, "our state's fragile environment is at risk from powerful interests. I am frustrated by developers' destruction for short-term gains. Our kids will pay the ultimate price if we don't act now."
From the sudden spate of super hotels planned for Siesta Key to the efforts of the Old Miakka Community in the most rural eastern portion of Northeast Sarasota, some of the most significant local issues have to do with the impacts of planning and intense development upon the environment.
Each candidate is following his or her individual conscience and commitment, but behind their concerns looms a larger common question, lurking in Red Tide, in storm surges, in ever-stronger hurricanes, in polluted aquifers, in the disappearance of rural life: Is our way of living reaching a breaking point?
Where are the public debates?
None of these challengers is accepting developer handouts. All deserve to be better known. Voters deserve sustained, illuminating, in-depth discussion at this critical time.
No public debates were organized by the corporate media in Sarasota during the August Primaries. The Herald Tribune is not staging any forums or debates for the General Election. And here's no word as of yet from WWSB-Ch 7, or the Observer, or any or our corporate media as to how they will cover the election.
Two local groups are holding online forums: - click the links to obtain their schedules:
Are our media trying to socially distance themselves from these issues? Some residents think so. If you feel that candidates running without large funding from developers deserve more media attention, please sign this Petition:
She cites population disparity in context of passage of Single-Member District Charter amendment, which will affect 2020 elections of commissioners
Commissioner Nancy Detert. Rachel Hackney photo
The last time the Sarasota County Commission adjusted the boundaries of the five districts of its members was in June 2011, in response to the findings of the 2010 U.S. Census.
This week, Commissioner Nancy Detert suggested that the board not wait until the data come in from the 2020 Census to modify the districts again. Her reason? The Single-Member District Charter amendment that won approval of voters on Nov. 6, 2018.
Beginning with the 2020 County Commission elections — which will occur before the next Census figures are final — a voter will be able to cast ballots only for County Commission candidates who live in the same district within which the voter resides. The process will be the same for primaries as for the general election.
Previously, in a General Election, any voter could cast a ballot for a commission candidate in each district race, regardless of where the voter or the candidate lived.
Detert, Commissioner Michael Moran and Chair Charles Hines all were elected in November 2016 to four-year terms. Hines must step down in 2020 because of term limits. However, Detert and Moran will be eligible to run again. Detert, who lives in Venice, represents District 3; Moran, who lives in Sarasota, represents District 1.
These are the results of the Nov. 6, 2018 vote on the Single-Member Districts Charter amendment. Image courtesy Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Office
On Feb. 26, Detert told her colleagues, “We should probably look at redistricting our own districts, just because of the balance in population. There’s a pretty noticeable disparity.”
Even though redistricting will occur in the state after the next Census has been completed, she continued, “I don’t think that we legally need to wait … It’s just something that I feel we need to do, just so that we all serve as close to an equal [number] of people as we can.”
Hines then asked County Attorney Stephen DeMarsh about the authority the Sarasota County Charter gives the board in regard to redistricting.
“The commission can redistrict whenever it wants,” DeMarsh replied, though it must do so in response to U.S. Census results.
Hines then asked that staff look into how long the process would take, as well as the expense and “the best time to do it.”
In response to a Sarasota News Leader question, county Media Relations Officer Drew Winchester wrote in a Feb. 28 email that the last time the County Commission approved redistricting was on June 8, 2011. The board conducted the second of two required public hearings that day.
These are the County Commission districts with population figures current as of April 2011. Image courtesy Sarasota CountyThis is the graphic the County Commission considered in June 2011 for the revision of its district boundaries before it redrew them. Image courtesy Sarasota County
Winchester provided a map of the population of each of the five districts in April 2011.
He was not able to give the News Leader current population data for the districts prior to the News Leader’s publication deadline this week.
However, on Feb. 5, in response to a News Leader question, Rachel Denton, communications and voter outreach manage for the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Office, provided the following figures for the number of voters in each commission district:
County Commission District 1: 57,353.
County Commission District 2: 61,755.
County Commission District 3: 66,030.
County Commission District 4: 64,238.
County Commission District 5: 73,769.
A graphic shows the five County Commission districts in effect since June 2011. Image courtesy Sarasota County Government
In framing her question on Feb. 26, Detert joked, “Just in case the staff had some free time …”
She brought up the topic of redistricting after a nearly two-hour workshop on overcrowding at the county jail. (See the related story in this issue.)
