WCIND grants Sarasota special exception

When law-enforcement agencies in Sarasota County submitted more funding requests than allotted by the West Coast Inland Navigation District, some weaknesses to the five-member board that oversees waterways for five counties on the Gulf Coast were exposed.

Sarasota County Coastal Resources Manager Laird Wreford at a July 10 Sarasota County Commission meeting did some quick calculations that avoided rejecting any of the 22 WCIND funding requests and only slashed the five law-enforcement applications by 9.8%, however they still only comprised 31.7% of the amount Wreford recommended funding.

The WCIND board at a July 18 meeting at Venice Town Hall voted unanimously to allow Sarasota County to exceed the 30% cap on funding for law enforcement up to 32% for the 2013 fiscal year.

But, the organization’s chairman, Charlotte County Commissioner Robert Skidmore, voiced concern about the fact that Charlotte County had to deny some of its applicants in law enforcement to meet the cap, noting that the county has a new sheriff who could return with more requests.

“It’s fine with me if the board wants to raise the cap,” said Sarasota County Commissioner Nora Patterson, who, as a member of the WCIND board, requested the special exception. “But, I know we’ll get larger and larger requests.”

That spilled into more policy issues the board had yet to configure: how to regulate the reservoir of taxes it receives and uses for emergency regional projects and whether to set a minimum balance for each locality’s County Navigation Improvement Fund.

Sarasota County had to reach into that coffer for more than $500,000 to satisfy funding requests, leaving $250,000 left for any urgent waterway needs during the fiscal year.

But, the WCIND meeting continued until nearly 4 p.m. without reaching an agenda item about minimum reserves, sparking some frustration from Manatee County Commissioner John Chappie.

“We’ve been talking about this for 10 years,” he said.