Manatee County seeking advisory board applicants

Following the 2024 election cycle, Commissioner George Kruse said Manatee County citizens showed they wanted more of a say in their local government.

Social media comments have been opened up to the public again on county sites and call-in comments to commission meetings returned. 

Kruse said the citizens can gain more strength by filling positions on advisory boards, but individuals must step forward to fill those positions and to give the boards “more teeth.” 

Currently, Manatee County is seeking applicants for the Affordable Housing Advisory Board and the Environmental Lands Management and Acquisition Committee.

“Previous (commission) boards took away or never gave any voice to the advisory boards,” Kruse said. “We made almost all of our boards worthless.”

As Kruse sees it, most boards are filled by people who want something on their resume because they don’t actually expect to make a difference if commissioners aren't going to listen to them anyway.

Manatee County resident Shannon Keever said as much to commissioners when then-Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge refused to reseat the library board in January because the applicants weren’t “like-minded” with the majority of commissioners.

“I think I can speak for the majority of Manatee County citizens in saying that we don’t feel heard by you,” Keever told commissioners. 

She went on to say that citizens weren’t going to volunteer their time to be ignored. But now, Keever is hopeful with a new board in place. She’s spoken with all the new members except District 5 Commissioner Robert McCann.

“I see a lot of positives coming from them,” Keever said. “They’ve got a vision of improving Manatee County on so many levels. And Kruse has always been very pro advisory board.” 

Keever applied for the Library Advisory Board in December 2023 to fill the seat for a parent who homeschools. She received several communications from the county stating the process was delayed until she just never heard from anyone again. 

January was the last time the Library Advisory Board had enough members to fulfill the requirement of a quorum to meet. 

Kruse said it would've been useful to have such a board during a time when the Lakewood Ranch Library was opening, a decision was made to withdraw from the American Library Association, and when the county is preparing to expand its Rocky Bluff branch.

Current board openings

The Affordable Housing Advisory Board is seeking applicants for seven of its 11 seats, three of which are currently vacant. The terms have expired on the remaining four seats, but three of the current board members are reapplying.

Rowena Young-Gopie is no longer employed by the county, but she oversaw the advisory board for three years. In January, she expressed frustration with special interests and a lack of diversity among the board members.

Kruse called the Affordable Housing Advisory Board “frustratingly unique” because the issue is twofold. The state dictates the seat requirements, and those seat requirements are so specific that they draw individuals with agendas. 

Someone who builds homes for sale isn’t going to push rental housing and vice versa. 

However, if Manatee County wants funding from the state through the Sadowsky Fund, which supports the State Housing Initiatives Partnership and the State Apartment Incentive Loan programs, the county has to follow the state's guidelines.

Kruse said it's difficult to fill some of the seats because the county is at the mercy of a very small group of people. 

For example, one seat requires that the person must also sit on a planning commission. Keith Green, a member of the City of Bradenton’s Planning Commission, is currently filling that seat. 

The ELMAC board has five open seats out of 17, but the open seats are mainly due to the recent election.

Each commissioner appoints one member. Even Kruse needs to appoint a new member because his appointment was Carol Felts, who is now the District 1 commissioner. The remaining seat is reserved for a member of an environmental group. 

Kruse said ELMAC has a little more of a say than other boards, but not as much as it should, so he will be proactively pushing to restructure all the boards to allow citizens more meaningful input. 

As of now, Information Outreach Manager Bill Logan said the county has received one application from a member of an environmental group, three applications for the District 1 seat, one application for the District 3 seat, four applications for the District 5 seat and one application for the District 7 seat. 

"It is expected that application submissions will pick up now that Thanksgiving is behind us and word continues to be spread," Logan said.