- July 26, 2024
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The common refrain and complaint you here about all county commission candidates is this: “The greedy developers control them.”
The proof? Their campaign contributors. Look at the accompanying table below for the four Republican Sarasota County Commission candidates.
But before we elaborate on that, let’s first be clear: It’s wrong to label developers greedy. They do what every business does. They fill an essential need. They provide homes, apartments, condominiums and townhomes for the thousands of people moving to Florida.
And let’s get even more micro: You. A developer built the structure where you reside. And you paid the price because you thought it was a fair deal. You didn’t have to buy that residence. That was your choice.
Why does that make the developer evil or greedy?
What’s more, consider this: Compare the annual net profit margins of the following companies — the first three being national homebuilders:
Lennar: 11.58%, D.R. Horton, 13.3% and Pulte: 16.5% compared to Alphabet: 26%, Apple: 26.3%, Meta: 32% and Microsoft: 36%.
Now, tell us: Who’s greedy?
One more consideration: When Sarasotans decry developers for their campaign contributions to politicians and the politicians for accepting developer contributions, put that in context. Indeed, if you own, have owned or work for a business, put yourself in the shoes of the developer or homebuilder.
Your livelihood, everything you have — plus the business that supports the lives of all your employees’ families; and the business that builds homes for hundreds or thousands of people — is largely dependent on politicians. They rule what you can and cannot do. They make the rules that affect the cost of what you do.
So for all who decry developers, think how you would like your livelihood to be in the hands of elected officials who think you’re greedy and evil. How do you think that would work out?
It should be expected, then, that homebuilders and developers would support the elections of candidates and politicians who are inclined to support the economic arguments for development and homebuilding.
We have argued this for three decades: Florida is a growth state with 350,000 new people a year moving here — all of whom need places to live.
And yet, as the rising prices of housing reflect, we are not building enough residences to accommodate this growth. That’s why we need elected officials who understand this and who are willing to stand up to the immoral forces who oppose development. Yes, immoral.
When Sarasota County Commission candidates say we need to “manage growth,” beware. What they actually are saying is it’s OK for you to have your homes, but they believe they have the power to decide who else has the right to live or build here.
Which brings us to the Republican candidates on the Aug. 20 primary ballot for Sarasota County Commission:
Commission Districts — Only voters in the districts with contested elections are permitted to vote.
District 1: From University Parkway south to State Road 72; roughly east of McIntosh Road to the county line.
Candidates: Republicans Alexandra Coe and Teresa Mast
Coe and Mast are competing to replace term-limited Mike Moran.
Give them credit and gratitude. It takes courage and perseverance to pursue public office.
It also takes humility — the ability to remember to be a servant of the people and to resist an addiction to power, traits rarely seen in politicians. As a longtime Tallahassee wag once told an aspiring legislator, there are only two reasons people seek public office: to be somebody or to do good. If you are motivated by the first, don’t run.
In Coe and Mast, at least in their written comments, they want to do good. The question, then, is which of them would be better for you, for individual taxpayers? Not better for the collective or the county government; better for every individual’s liberty and property.
They are both longtime Sarasota County residents — Coe, 30 years; Mast, 45 years. Both have sought public office before. Coe, 60, was elected in 2020 and 2022 to the Charter Review Board; was a 2018 candidate for the County Commission; and has been active for many years in the Sarasota Republican Party. Mast, 58, ran for school board in 2016; served after that on the Sarasota County Planning Commission.
They’re both engaged citizens.
To judge them on previous experiences that would translate to the job of county commissioner, Mast is decidedly more qualified. In addition to developing an understanding of county codes and having voted on land-use issues as a planning commission member, Mast has been vice president and president of the Davin Group Inc., a custom residential design and remodeling business, for 32 years; and for 10 years served as Sarasota County’s business relations coordinator. She has seen county government work first hand.
Coe, meanwhile, describes herself as “an experienced cultural sustainability practitioner, creative social innovator, farmer, statesman and an anthropologist with a strong commitment to addressing global challenges through sustainable agriculture policy and environmental stewardship.” (For more on her eclectic passions and skills, go to: Linkedin.com/In/CoeAlexandra/).
Suffice it to say there is a gap between Mast and Coe in business and government experience.
If Coe has any edge over Mast, it would be as the commission’s unpredictable, nonestablishment member. She has no ties to the region’s development and construction circles and could be an independent voice among four other members of similar political philosophies. It’s often good to have at least one voice on a board willing to challenge the prevailing views.
Fiscally, Coe and Mast talk the talk.
Coe: “Government should not overly burden our labor or our land with excessive taxes. Instead, it should strive to be efficient, transparent and focused on serving the needs of its citizens without infringing on their financial freedoms.”
Mast: “We need leadership that consistently prioritizes the interests of taxpayers and scrutinizes how every dollar is spent. I advocate for maintaining the lowest possible taxes while delivering the highest quality of life for all residents.”
In Mast, voters have a candidate who understands what it takes to operate and manage a business and the burdens government creates when it intervenes where it should not. But because of her heavy support from developers and contractors — as well as her husband’s role as CEO of the Suncoast Builders Association, Mast has the challenge of being able to make decisions independent of their influence.
Mast did not respond to the Observer for comment on how she can assure voters of that.
For our tastes, while Mast and Coe profess fiscal conservatism, they also are strong advocates for the county government to intervene with aggressive growth management and controlling where development occurs. This will satisfy the voters who think Sarasota’s growth is out of control.
But whoever is sitting in the five commission chairs, they must keep in mind their primary job is to keep Sarasotans safe; keep taxes at a minimum; create a framework for businesses to thrive and economic growth; and that all government regulation on development and people’s property rights will make Sarasota increasingly unaffordable for our children and grandchildren.
Overall, Mast has the better experience and qualifications, but she must apply those skills with each vote to what is best for individual taxpayers.
We recommend: Teresa Mast
District 3: Republicans Tom Knight and Neil Rainford
The contrast is simple.
When Sarasota County Commissioner and former state senator, state representative and Sarasota School Board member Nancy Detert died Aug. 4, 2023, the choice to fill her seat seemed obvious: former Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight.
Knight, 61, a Republican, had served 12 years as a successful and popular sheriff and 20 years in the Florida Highway Patrol, last rank of major. He was (and is) a 50-year resident of Venice; graduate of Venice Elementary, Venice Junior High and Venice High schools. He served 10 years on the board and a term as chair of the Venice YMCA and has been involved in numerous other not-for-profit organizations throughout Sarasota County. His wife, Tracy, is a longtime Venice business owner; and they have two children, graduates of Venice schools.
In addition to these community roots and involvement, with his experience as sheriff, Knight had plenty of exposure to and interaction with county, state and municipal governments. He could do the job.
But there was just one problem. Gov. Ron DeSantis remembered that Knight in 2018 supported then-Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam for governor.
Instead of Knight, DeSantis, with the urging of some Sarasota Republican Party insiders, appointed to Detert’s slot a then 36-year-old, politically ambitious Republican climber who checked the right conservative boxes — Neil Rainford.
New, young blood.
But let’s be honest: an outsider for District 3.
Rainford is from the Northeast, born in New York City, grew up in Arlington, Mass. He attended Florida State University, where he focused on urban and regional planning. He moved to Sarasota in 2009. He married Amy Mullet and joined the Mullet family’s longtime Sarasota business, becoming a senior project executive at Mullet’s Aluminum Products.
Rainford’s entry into Sarasota Republican Party politics began as a volunteer “door-knocker.” His enthusiasm propelled a quick rise. In 2018, he ran for public office himself, winning a seat on the Charter Review Board. Two years later, he was appointed to the Sarasota County Planning Commission. Also during this time, he became secretary of the Sarasota County Republican Party.
Clearly, a young leader on the political move — winning the favor of Republican insiders and the governor to be appointed to a $105,000-a-year County Commission job; representing a district into which he and his wife moved after his appointment. (They own a home in Nokomis and their first home in Sarasota).
The contrast between Knight and Rainford is more than age and their roots and service to the district.
They both profess to be fiscally conservative. One of Knight’s three campaign pledges: “Stop budget and tax bloat.” The county budget has increased 63% since 2019, while population has increased 10%, compelling Knight to argue the commission should be lowering the county’s millage rate. Knight also rails against current county commissioners for wanting issue bonds and borrow to build a new administration building, new sheriff’s building and a new facility for mosquito control.
Rainford, meanwhile, has been advocating in recent budget talks for the largest decrease in the millage rate in more than 25 years. He also asked in a recent commission meeting whether the Sarasota County clerk of courts, as a cost-saving measure, could rent space for less than constructing a new storage center downtown.
Rainford and Knight seem to be in sync on infrastructure as well — the need to keep up with the county’s growth. But Knight is questioning some of the commission’s road choices, noting increasing congestion, in particular in District 3.
As far as their conservative principles, there isn’t much that separates Knight and Rainford. But Rainford’s campaign will be inundating the District 3 voters with negative, truth-twisted mailers, TV ads and social media, portraying Knight as a liberal.
In a recent video, Sheriff Kurt Hoffman stooped so low as to disparage his benefactor, saying when Knight “took a knee for Black Lives Matter … he lost my vote.”
Of course, Hoffman disingenuously doesn’t provide any context — or how Knight and former Sarasota Deputy Police Chief Pat Robinson successfully prevented BLM riots in Sarasota. Knight was on the scene of the BLM marches, Hoffman was not.
For Rainford, apparently, context doesn’t matter. He has signed on with political consultant Anthony Pedicini, who specializes in truth-twisting soundbites to tear a candidate down.
For Rainford, there is another legitimate concern. Sixty percent of his campaign contributions are related to development and construction (see table). It would take a lot for him to shake off the charge and perception that the developers control him.
Rainford did not respond to the Observer on how he will address his independence.
While we tend to favor new leaders with new ideas entering the political arena and can say Rainford has shown promise in his short stint on the commission and could do the job, the perception is Rainford is enjoying the seduction of power and money and where it leads.
Knight, in contrast, has the roots, the history, wisdom, principles, accomplishments, intellect, passion, determination (he has knocked on more than 7,600 doors in the district) and, importantly, an independent voice to do what’s right for the District 3 constituents.
We recommend: Tom Knight
Three items Sarasota County voters should hold in their minds for the primary and general elections to fill the seats for the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board:
When you consider $1.6 -billion goes through the accounting department of SMH each year; the system has more than $1.3 billion worth of structures and highly sophisticated equipment; that it treated more than 1.6 million people in 2023; and that it has more than 570 physicians and 10,000 employees, all of that requires board members with diverse skills, high intelligence and the ability to sort and meld details with 30,000-foot-level strategic thinking.
Board members cannot be one-issue agitators. Ask board members Patricia Maraia and Bridgette Fiorucci, two RNs who were elected to the board as part of an anti-administration, Medical Freedom slate in 2022. They will tell you the responsibilities of hospital board members go far beyond a platform of “medical freedom,” “patient autonomy,” “transparency” and “accountability” — four pillars of this year’s slate of four Medical Freedom candidates.
All from a raucous wing of Republicans in south Sarasota County, spearheaded by retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn, the four candidates are seemingly obsessed with and stuck in the COVID past. They want to re-litigate and harp on what happened with patient treatment during COVID. To wit:
Asked what are the top three priorities SMH needs to address, candidate Dr. Tamzin Rosenwasser replied the first priority is: “Tracing what went wrong during COVID, not just at SMH, but all over our nation, for all of us to understand and correct it.”
Challenger Tanya Parus says she “champions medical freedom and patient autonomy, advocating for informed healthcare decisions without coercion.”
Mary Flynn O’Neill, Gen. Flynn’s sister, says she “is committed to transparency and accountability of all operations … ” (and) “pledges to advocate for the protection of all patients and … true medical freedom.”
Good for their earnestness. They mean well. And of the four, Dr. Rosenwasser has the experience and credentials to be an effective board member. But first they all need to get over what happened in 2020 and 2021 during COVID.
With 100% probability, you can go to every hospital in America and find it did things it now wishes it did not do during COVID. It was a chaotic, uncharted period — as if bombs were being dropped every day on the American medical system. Every hospital made mistakes.
What’s more, what public hospital anywhere at the time would dare risk being a complete outlier in the medical establishment and go against federal health care officials’ protocols and guidelines? Most likely: none.
To be sure, the SMH board and administration did their best. And they learned from COVID, affirming that by making a commitment recently to patients having the right to decide their treatments. No coercion.
Done. Over. Move on.
Which brings us to our final points:
The litmus test for every election is how well the incumbents have performed. In that vein, the SMH System is an exceptional organization. All the data show it.
That is a reflection of the hospital board’s oversight. The incumbents are doing an admirable job, and it and the administration have great, positive momentum — expanding SMH’s Venice hospital and on the verge of building a hospital in North Port. There is no need to change, no need for disruption.
As for the two open seats — At-large Seats 2 and 3 — when you put the skill sets and experiences of Kevin Cooper and Pam Beitlich up against those of Medical Freedom candidates, Dr. Stephen Guffanti and Ms. Flynn O’Neill, Cooper and Beitlich would add better and even more depth and breadth of useful knowledge to the board.
Lastly, the Medical Freedom side has said there are too many business people on the board and that it needs more medical people focused on patient care. To that: Every successful business person knows, above all, if his or her business is to succeed, the satisfaction of its customers is always the business’ highest priority. They get it.
We recommend: Sharon Wetzler DePeters (incumbent), Sarah Lodge (incumbent), Kevin Cooper and Pam Beitlich
Sarasota County’s Charter Review Board is so obscure it’s likely most residents don’t have a clue it exists; what it does; or that its 10 members are elected.
But it’s there, and its elected board members are charged primarily with serving as a conduit between citizens who want to change the county’s governing constitution and the voters.
In other words, if a citizen or group of citizens wants to propose a change to the county charter, the proposed change can be brought to the charter review board for review. If two-thirds of the board agree that measure deserves a public vote, the proposed amendment would be placed on the ballot.
Board members also can recommend charter amendments. And again, if two-thirds of the board approves, the amendment would be placed on the ballot.
Voters also have the option of placing amendments on the ballot via petition and voter signatures.
Historically, most members elected to the charter review board have adopted — appropriately — a conservative Hippocratic Oath toward the charter: “Do no harm.” Don’t mess with it.
That is the correct approach, and there are four candidates in the Aug. 20 primary who would maintain a hands-off, albeit thoughtful and careful approach to the position.
We recommend: Nicholas Altier, Tom DeSane and Greg “Tex” Bukowski.
