Our View

Hey, who’s running this city, anyway — Michael Barfield or the city commissioners?

Those who follow the escapades of Sarasota City Hall should be quite familiar with Barfield. He’s the guy who, in the name of a self-righteous group known as Citizens for Sunshine, holds city officials and others hostage in the courts with lawsuit after lawsuit of alleged violations of the state’s Sunshine Laws.

Another way of putting it might be to say he has mastered the destructive craft of legal extortion, weasling money from the city and taxpayers for his livelihood, all under the guise of fighting public corruption and standing for truth, justice and the American way. (Extortion, by the way, is defined as the act of getting money, etc., by coercion, threats, misuse of authority, etc.)

Barfield apparently has become such a Darth Sidious at City Hall that Sarasota city commissioners are afraid to go to the same public events for fear they trigger another Barfield attack.

This is how pathetic this has become:

Last week, Diane Taylor, administrative assistant for the Sarasota City Commission, asked City Attorney Robert Fornier if there might be Sunshine Law violations if two or more commissioners attended an upcoming Argus Foundation luncheon. The keynote speaker is to be Dr. Michael Crosby, chief executive officer of Mote Marine Laboratory. And part of his topic is expected to be about Mote’s ambitions to develop a world-class aquarium on city property near the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center.

Uh-oh.

To be sure, Mote’s ambitions are likely to come before the City Commission. So to avoid potential Sunshine Law violations, commissioners wanted to know whether they could attend the Argus luncheon.
Fournier, snake bitten and scarred by Barfield’s lawsuits, answered with four options:

1) “Two or more commissioners attend the event, do not speak, just listen and hope that this is not an issue of interest to Citizens for Sunshine. In other words, this option is taking the risk.

2) “Two or more commissioners attend the event, do not speak, just listen and leave if and when the subject of seeking a commitment from the city to re-locate the acquarium comes up. (This option may also present some risk, however I think it would be minimal if all the commissioners left at the right time.)

3) “Send one commissioner to this event in accordance with a rotation protocol agreed to by the commissioner whereby the commissioners would take turns attending events where it is reasonably foreseeable that a subject to come before the commission will be the subject of a presentation or discussion.

4) No commissioners attend this event.

Really?

This is preposterous — letting the threat of Barfield govern the commissioners’ attendance at events. Or, as Kerry Kirschner, former mayor of Sarasota and executive director of the Argus Foundation, said: “If we are going to bring this community together, we have to stop this nonsense.”

Indeed. City and county commissioners should be at the forefront of being seen at meetings and events affecting the direction and future of their jurisdictions. They need to stay in touch and connected with the people they represent. Show leadership; don’t cower.

As for the threat of Barfield and Citizens for Sunshine, there are simple ways to avoid Sunshine Law violations; public officials elsewhere do so all of the time. Don’t sit together. Don’t discuss the issues together. Don’t go to the microphones during the Q&As. In fact, having a room of 200 attendees as eye witnesses is a wonderful safeguard.

Finally, there’s a simple rule town commissioners follow on Longboat Key, and it guarantees Barfield will never have the opportunity to accuse them of a Sunshine Law violation at an event or meeting. It’s call the Duct Tape Rule. Elected officials imagine that, with the tape over their mouths, they’ll never have to worry.

+ Misplaced priorities
We had to love the comments of Sarasota entrepreneur Dr. Mark Kauffman about the palms on Palm.

These are the 26 palm trees that were slated for removal two years ago but won a reprieve last week, thanks to the T-huggers.

Said Kauffman: “I tried to count the number of orange trees on Orange Avenue, lemon trees on Lemon Avenue. There are no hills on Hillview Street, no mounds on Mound Street. I couldn’t find any coconuts (on Cocoanut Avenue) — I couldn’t find any of those things.”

That was Dr. Kauffman’s way of saying diplomatically: Once again, the Sarasota city commissioners caved.

They went one way two years ago, approving the removal of the trees for a new landscaping scheme in sync with the landscaping the city installed on the other side of the street.

But then, when the environmentalists started whining at City Hall, commissioners choked and shriveled and backed off — delaying any work for three months and ordering city staffers to determine if they can preserve the trees and fix a persistent flooding problem in that short stretch of the sidewalk.

This is a small issue in the context of the city’s many issues (e.g. the funding of its $200 million-plus pension liabilities). But it’s extraordinary nonetheless. It’s yet another example of the incompetence and misplaced priorities that persists at City Hall.

Incompetence: The city staff and City Commission originally approved the relandscaping of this stretch of Palm Avenue two years ago. And yet, apparently, judging from what happened last week, no one on the city staff two years ago, or during any of the 20 or so public meetings regarding this, had the presence of mind to think about options for what should be done with the 26 90-year-old palm trees.

That seems rather incredulous, especially in this community, where the environmentalists are usually all over any threat to a sprig of grass, and city staffers in turn typically are in tune with whatever is environmentally PC.

An oversight? What were they thinking? As the cynical answer goes: Apparently, they weren’t.

Misplaced priorities: It is equally incredulous that the pressure from Sarasota environmentalist Jono Miller (and others) apparently far outweighs the concerns and well being of the taxpayers whose properties front the swale and palm trees in question.

They are taxpayers who have skin in the game. Their livelihoods are affected by what goes on in that stretch of Palm Avenue. Jono Miller has no skin in that game. He lives and works elsewhere.

More important, those property owners and businesses fronting that section of the street have been paying taxes year after year after year after year. And they presume, reasonably, that a portion of those taxes would entitle them to the expectation that the city 1) would maintain the trees in the city property — at least to help to control the rats; and 2) would take steps to eliminate the flooding that the swale causes on the sidewalk in front of the businesses.

Who or what is more important: people who contribute to the community every day in labor, volunteerism, economic vitality and taxes? Or 26 90-year-old palm trees that serve as a haven for rats?

Perhaps it’s a blessing that Commissioners Paul Caragiulo and Shannon Snyder are moving off the commission. Two fewer flip-floppers to deal with, leaving only three more to displace.

Meantime, here’s an idea for what should be done to preserve the 26 palms on Palm Avenue: Transplant them to Jono Miller’s front yard.

MEDICAID PART II
Last week on this page we said we would follow-up this week with an alternative to expanding Florida’s Medicaid rolls. Other timely issues took precedence. The Medicaid follow-up will appear Sept. 4. — Ed.