County halts downtown service expansion

Sarasota County commissioners all agreed today, that until the city of Sarasota made a decision about transferring the old police station site on Ringling Boulevard to the county, they would not put a priority on any more projects in that area. 

The police station site was written into a memorandum of understanding that the city would transfer the property of the county; county staff has been spending more than a year trying to get a solid answer from the city, said Commissioner Christine Robinson. 

The city expressed in a previous article that it wanted a better understanding of what the county planned to do with the site, and did not want it to be a parking lot.

"Logic has left the city," she said. "I don't want to see us pour any more money or time into this situation."

County Administrator Tom Harmer presented five county services projects that could be done on or near the Ringling Boulevard, including an expansion to the jail, relocation of central energy plant, a new judicial space and a parking garage. 

The commissioners directed Harmer to set staff priority on the public safety campus proposed for Cattlemen Road and Bahia Vista. Work on this campus has already begun: the county's new emergency operations center and Sheriff's Office training center are already located here. The campus, estimated to cost $95 million, would locate some of the Sheriff's Office services all together. It would have designated facilities for the medical examiner and forensics labs, helping to collect the Sheriff's Office together. Sheriff Tom Knight asked for a centralization of services at the commission meeting Wednesday. 

Commissioners agreed that administration could continue working with the Sheriff's Office to find jail diversion programs and alternative crime and punishment programs. Knight also suggested this at the Wednesday meeting, saying that these kinds of programs could lessen the need for a jail expansion.

But, discussion on the other projects will stop. 

"I am wildly disappointed with the actions - or nonactions - with the city of that property," said Chairwoman Carolyn Mason. "It's bad governance not to live up to that previous agreement. 

Mason, although she agreed with her fellow commissioners, said the county still had to think of the other services that had been listed. 

"We have to do what's best for those services on the rest of the page," she said. "Yes we'd like to have (the police station site) but maybe they'll come around."

Commissioner Alan Maio said "there is no excuse for bad manners" in reference to the city of Sarasota's lack of response when Mason address the city commissioners during a January meeting. 

"I've been scratching my head for three months... you've had to scratch your head for longer," he said. "If this is some sort of clever device to make us do something else, the signal needs to go out that it's failed miserably."

Harmer said the public safety project would have limitation son how much the county could borrow to pay for it, and may lean towards the need for a referendum. The referendum would be have to be voter-approved to support the project.