Sarasota County Commission District 1: Mike Hutchinson

Name: Mike Hutchinson

Age: 72

Family: Wife Eileen Fitzgerald; son Bruce Hutchinson

Bio: Born in Massachusetts, Mike Hutchinson grew up in an Air Force family with five siblings. The family was constantly moving including countries, such as Japan and France. Hutchinson had 16 addresses by the time he graduated high school from International School in Bangkok.

Hutchinson graduated from Virginia Tech and then went to work for the Department of Defense as a computer programmer. He came to Sarasota in 1973 to work for EMR Telemetry, where he started as a software engineer but also worked as a project manager and supervised various engineering groups. In 1996, Hutchinson went to work for Harris Controls in Melbourne, Fla., where he worked on software for monitoring power grids. In 1999, Hutchinson returned to Sarasota to work at L-3 Communications on "black box" recorders. Hutchinson retired in 2007.

Hutchinson joined the Sarasota Technology Users Group soon after retiring. In January 2009, he became a director and then president from 2011 until 2015. He continues as a director and is now the team leader of the Refurbishing Project. The Refurbishing Project restores donated computers and gives them to students or adults who can’t afford to buy one. Starting in 2018 the project started a program called Komputer for Kids, which supplies refurbished computers for public school students.

Lifelong practicing Catholic, Hutchinson attends St. Patrick’s Church on Bee Ridge Road. Hutchinson and his wife, Eileen, live on 10 acres in eastern Sarasota County with a horse and Raven, a black German Shepherd certified for pet therapy.

Why are you running for office?

I am a longtime Sarasota resident and have seen many changes, not all good. I'm running because I'm concerned about the impact recent uncontrolled development has had on Sarasota. Twenty years ago, Sarasota County had a good plan but it has been dismantled over the years, and we are seeing the results today: red tide that lasts for 18 months, traffic congestion and rampant development east of Interstate 75. I believe in a good plan that will improve our water quality.

What are three policy priorities you hope to accomplish, if elected?

1. Infrastructure concurrently built with development: especially roads, water and sewer;
2. Protect our waterways and Gulf; and
3. Protect rural Sarasota and existing neighborhoods.

What role should the county play in helping increase the amount of workforce, affordable housing? What’s your position on allowing developers to increase density if they build and sell a certain percentage of units at below-market rates?

I believe the county government must consider free market principles when planning for affordable housing. Increases in density as an incentive for affordable housing might be appropriate in areas with existing infrastructure and public transportation.

Representatives of the Bay Park Conservancy appear to want to create a tax-increment financing district surrounding the park to help fund the park’s improvements. What’s your position on that?

The city and not the county should decide what is best for Bay Park.

If the city decides to develop a new performing arts center in Bay Park, what would be your position if the city asks the county to help fund it with tax dollars?

Although the county should always find ways to work with municipalities on improving its natural parks, I believe the county does not have the funds to provide for a performing arts center.

According to the county’s preliminary budget, SCAT, the county’s bus service, generates $85,700 a year in “user charges,” while the entire SCAT system costs $31 million a year to operate. What’s your view of SCAT?

As a fiscal conservative, I believe the SCAT system needs to be improved. Improvements might include eliminating bus routes that do not generate enough income or having smaller, more efficient buses.

In what areas of county government spending do you think the county could cut expenses without hurting services?

I believe the county must review all services to determine if expenses can be cut without hurting services. The county should evaluate services to determine if private contractors can do a task cheaper.

What should the county’s transportation priorities look like in the next 10 years?

Roads should be built concurrent with new development. Existing taxpayers should not subsidize roads projects nor pay for transportation needs of the new development. Bike lines should be added in all new road projects while buses should become smaller and more efficient.

Red tide and water quality were huge issues in 2018, resulting in a countywide summit on the topic. What as a county should be done moving forward on that environmental issue?

All sewer plants, not just the Bee Ridge location, should be upgraded. The county needs to have long-term plans to address how new developments handle their sewer needs. The county needs to require new developments hooking to the sewer system to use treated water for irrigation. New developments should only be allowed to be built if it can address infrastructure needs and pay for all government services they need. Until the current sewer problems are fixed, the county should withhold any new development’s certificates of occupancy