City of Sarasota Commission Forum July 18

 Sarasota city commission candidate forum

Thursday, July 18 5:00-6:30 pm

Friendship Center (1888 Brother Geenan Way)

The event will be moderated by WSLR's Cathy Antunes. The format will be focused around voter questions about city issues.

All 7 candidates have been invited to join this conversation with the community.

City Commission Candidate Forum

CityPac invites City of Sarasota Commission candidates to appear at Selby Forum.

 Will they?

l to r: Debby Trice, Mayor Liz Alpert, Erik Arroyo,
Kyle Battie, Jen Ahern Koch

March 28, 2024 

City Commission Candidate Forum

CityPAC is hosting a “job interview” with candidates who have filed to run for a seat on the Sarasota City Commission in the 2024 general election.  

The candidate forum will be held at the

Selby Public library (1331 First Street) 

Thursday, March 28  

5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. 

The candidate forum is free and open to the public. Bring questions to submit.   

The 2024 election is for the seats for all of the city districts: district one, district two, and district three. All candidates who have filed to run for these seats and are seeking your votes have been invited to attend. 

Please see the CityPac website, citypac-srq.org, and the city website, https://www.sarasotafl.gov/government/city-auditor-and-clerk/elections/general-election-candidates-2024, for more details about the candidates.  

The elections for all three districts are held at one time, those for the two at-large seats are conducted in alternate elections in different years. 

Meet the candidates at the CONA Forum

Sarasota County Council of Neighborhood Associations—CONA 

meet candidates at 6:30 pm and attend forum at 

7:00 pm Monday, July 9, 2018

_____ candidate forum _____ 

county commission district two race

Alexandra Coe, Ruta Maria Jouniari, and Christian Zeigler have been invited to participate in the CONA forum at 7 pm on Monday, July 9, 2018. They are all of the candidates qualified to run in the district two race for the county commission in the August primary. Voters elect all county commissioners, who are supposed to represent the entire county. Candidates run in the race for the district in which they reside.

The forum is free and open to the public. Written questions may be submitted in advance or at the forum to be included, as time allows, following the questions posed by our moderator.

_______ plus ______ 

meet qualified candidates for all local primary races

Qualified candidates for any scheduled local race are welcome to attend the 6:30 social before the 7:00 CONA forum in order to make contact with voters and to distribute literature and yard signs, even if not scheduled as a member of the panel for the forum. Because so few forums are scheduled, we are providing this opportunity for all local race candidates.

CONA election forums will be held each month through October at the Sarasota Garden Club 1131 Boulevard of the Arts see www.conasarasota.org/meetings.html for calendar dates and directions

County Commission Forum at CONA

Video of the entire CONA Forum of Sarasota County Commission Candidates can be found at this link.

Four candidates participated in the two-hour Q & A:

Frank DiCicco - Dist. 1

Fredd Atkins - Dist. 1

Nancy Detert - Dist. 3 (current state Senator)

Charles Hines - Dist. 5 (incumbent)

One candidate (Moran-Dist. 1) did not attend - no explanation was given.

Questions covered a good deal of ground -- from land use and the urban service area to impact fees for schools, affordable housing, the county's reserve fund, its relations with the local municipalities, the environment, water, parks, economic development, the Charter Review Board (all said they opposed making it an appointed, rather than elected, body), open primaries, and more.

All five segments of the video (from Pete Theissen) can be accessed at the upper left (where it says 1/5).




Herald Tribune coverage here.

Candidate Forum at CONA: Monday April 11 at 7 pm

Monday, April 11, 2016 at 7 p.m.

- candidate forum -

State House of Representatives

district 72 and district 73

On Monday, April 11, CONA will hold a forum for the candidates campaigning for two seats among our state house of representatives in Tallahassee.

Candidates Edward Elliot James III and Alexandra Cynthia Miller, who are seeking the seat for district 72, and James T. Golden, Joe Gruters, and Steve Vernon, who are seeking the seat for district 73, have been invited to attend.

Using atypical question formats and timing, CONA makes an effort to provide its members and the public with a more thorough understanding of the positions of each candidate than usually achieved at candidate forums. Dan Lobeck will be the moderator of this forum.

Join CONA as we hold the first of our candidate forums for the state and local 2016 elections. Because we and many of our members take vacations in the summer, we are starting early to reach the greatest number of voters. There is much to cover before the primary in August. Our monthly meetings for April, May, and June will be devoted to forums. We video and post our meetings to our site, so our forums will be available through the election in November.

See www.conasarasota.org/meetings for more about CONA. 

social 6:30 p.m. - forum 7:00 p.m.

at the Sarasota Garden Club

neighbors helping neighbors since 1961

Alternative Visions Forum: Hines, Thaxton, Zoller

Video clips from the "Alternative Visions of Sarasota" forum organized by the Better Government Association, and held at the new Gulf Gate Library on Feb. 21, 2015.

The panel included Sarasota County Commissioner Charles Hines, former CONA president Bill Zoller, and former Sarasota Commissioner Jon Thaxton.

Introductory remarks from each speaker below.

Commissioner Charles Hines

Former Commissioner Jon Thaxton



 Community Leader Bill Zoller

Thaxton answers question

Visions of Sarasota County - A forum on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015

FORUM : HOW, WHERE AND TO WHAT END SARASOTA COUNTY DEVELOPS WHILE PRESERVING AND ENHANCING OUR
ENVIRONMENT AND QUALITY OF LIFE

WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 21, 2:00 to 4:00 pm.

WHERE: Auditorium of new Gulf Gate Public Library, Curtis Ave.

Panelists: CHARLES HINES, Sarasota County Commissioner, JON THAXTON, Former Sarasota County Commission, BILL ZOLLER, Past President of CONA.

Moderator: Wade Matthews, Vice Pres, Better Govt. Association.

SUBJECT: ALTERNATIVE VISIONS FOR SARASOTA COUNTY (AND HOW TO GET THERE).

Free and public invited. Presented by the Better Government Association of Sarasota County, a non-partisan, non profit organization. Questions and discussion will follow the presentations.

For more information , please call (941) 923-0671.

"Our eastern farmland will be destroyed in short order"

"Rare accord" indeed - not hard when one side treats open forums as not worthy of their attention:

“When I came before this room three months ago, I thought we could find a compromise between the developer community and environmental advocates,” Porter said. “I no longer believe that’s possible, and our eastern farmland will be destroyed in short order.”   

Sarasota County Commission Candidate Ray Porter at the CONA Candidates Meeting at which wo Republican candidates backed by developer interests failed to make an appearance.