Tensions rise in commission campaign

At a City Commission candidate forum Monday night, incumbent Eileen Normile’s opening statement elicited both applause and boos from the audience at the Sarasota Garden Club.

That reaction — and the remarks that inspired it — highlights the deepening divide the commission race has taken on in advance of the May runoff election. In her two-minute statement, Normile called attention to challenger Liz Alpert’s perceived lack of involvement in city issues.

Normile said she hasn’t seen Alpert around City Hall or at City Commission meetings, and pointed out the advisory board on which Alpert is a member hasn’t met since 2013. She encouraged the crowd to Google each candidate, arguing that Alpert — who has run for statewide positions in the past — is merely interested in holding office.

Throughout the statement, Normile drew a stark, direct comparison to her opponent, a tactic atypical of the race to date.

“Who has a civic footprint in Sarasota?” Normile said. “Who is Liz, and where has she been?”

Alpert called that line of attack bogus. To illustrate her commitment to civic service, she said she served on the city’s Human Relations Board and her condominium association board while also attending law school.  

“It’s an attempt to make it look like I have been doing nothing in my community as compared to my opponent, which is not true,” Alpert said. “We’ve just been doing different things in the community.”

Drawing lines

With the field narrowed down to four — Normile and Alpert in District 2, and incumbent Stan Zimmerman and challenger Shelli Freeland Eddie in District 3 — it’s easier for candidates to draw a comparison to an opponent. Still, another dividing factor is the intrusion of local parties into a nominally nonpartisan race.

In both districts, the challenger is a registered Democrat who received a formal party endorsement before the March general election. Likewise, the incumbent is a registered Republican who welcomed party support to even the playing field. And so, the runoff election has taken on a decidedly partisan flavor.

At Monday’s forum, the candidates almost universally decried the partisan politics despite the current state of the campaign.

Normile went a step further, stating the charter should be revised to further prevent party involvement. Normile said the current commission has functioned smoothly despite being split along party lines, and that more overt partisan affiliation could derail that harmony.

“Once you’re divided amongst party lines, there are barriers there,” Normile said.

Alpert, whose success Normile has attributed to political party support, agreed the race should be nonpartisan. Still, she fought back against the notion that the Democratic Party involvement in this race was unique.

“Every election has had partisan party involvement; this is not the first time,” Alpert said. “It’s just now, everyone is making it an issue — but it is the party’s place to get your voters out.”

Sending a message

Despite the general opposition to partisan politics, a mailer sent to city residents this week appears to be a sign of the changing times. 

The mailer, sent by Tampa-based political action committee Working Together for Families, is an attack on Alpert. The message highlights two liens a condominium filed against Alpert in 2008 and 2014 for unpaid dues and maintenance fees, and says Alpert supports raising taxes.

“Do you pay your dues?” the mailer reads. “City Commission candidate Liz Alpert doesn’t!”

Alpert says she’s never said she’ll raise taxes and fees on retirees and the middle class, as the mailer claims. She said the attack was a sign that her opponents were willing to do whatever it takes to make up the gap from the March election, in which Alpert received the highest percentage of votes — 43.7%.

“They’re desperate, and they’re doing what they can to attack me and attack me personally,” Alpert said.

Normile said she was unaware of who was responsible for the mailer. She added that she had also seen direct attacks from the local Democratic Party before the March election.

“Is that a result of taking away the nonpartisan aspect of city government? Sure,” Normile said. “There’s no place for it in the city. It’s sad. This should be based on competence and issues and nothing else.”

In District 3, the race has not gotten as heated as in District 2. Still, the candidates drew attention to the difference between themselves and their opponent Monday. For Zimmerman, the contrast was illustrated during one question at Monday’s forum.

Asked to speak about City Manager Tom Barwin’s proposed plan for addressing homeless issues, both Eddie and Alpert described the plans as relatively similar to the recommendations of consultant Robert Marbut. But Zimmerman and Normile said the housing-first model Barwin advocated for was a major departure from Marbut’s recommendations.

“It demonstrated to me that they’d either never taken a look at what we’d been offered before or at what Barwin put on the table last week — or both — because the two are radically different,” Zimmerman said.

One of Eddie’s priorities is improving the city-county relationship. Although Zimmerman agrees that is a major concern — he’s met with County Commissioner Carolyn Mason to discuss the topic — Eddie disagrees with Zimmerman’s assertion that joint commission meetings have proven to be an ineffective tool.

“I’ve said from the beginning of my candidacy that I favor more joint meetings between the city and county,” Eddie said. “I don’t think we’re as far apart as we think we are.”

The runoff election will be held May 12, and the victorious candidates will be sworn in May 15.

TOP PRIORITIES

To get a sense of what issues matter most to the four individuals vying to join the City Commission, the hosts of Monday’s forum asked the candidates to identify short-term and long-term issues they’d like to tackle.

District 2

Liz Alpert

Short term: Homelessness and traffic congestion

Long term: Bayfront development and North Trail
redevelopment

Eileen Normile

Short term: Traffic, homelessness and affordable housing

Long term: Bayfront development

District 3

Shelli Freeland Eddie

Short term: Repairing city/county relations, addresing pension obligations

Long term: Affordable housing, transportation

Stan Zimmerman

Short term: Balancing the budget

Medium term: Affordable housing

Long term: Sea level rise