New elections supervisor secures 26% budget hike mid-year

Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse has slammed a recent request for a budget increase of $841,340 for the Supervisors of Elections office that was just taken over by former commissioner James Satcher, who Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to be the supervisor of elections after the retirement of Mike Bennett. 

Satcher requested the increase at the May 28 commission meeting.

“It was a made-up narrative to justify a made-up budget that they knew was going to blow through their one ‘No’ vote,” Kruse said. “They knew that walking in, so (James Satcher) felt no obligation to present information.”

Satcher received the budget increase he requested in a 4-1 vote with only Kruse opposed. The increase is for this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.  

Part of the request includes funds to set up two satellite offices, one in Parrish and one in Lakewood Ranch. The Lakewood Ranch office will offer over-the-counter ballots and other voter services, such as registration, updating signatures and changing party affiliations. 

“The closer we get to Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, I think that would be good for everyone,” Satcher said. 

A lease hasn’t been signed yet, but Satcher has enough promising leads to feel confident that a Lakewood Ranch office will be open before the November election. 

Commissioners Ray Turner, Kevin Van Ostenbridge, Jason Bearden and Mike Rahn voted to approve the budget request. Commissioner Amanda Ballard recused herself from the vote because her husband is the chief of staff at the Supervisor of Elections office.

Kruse's "one 'No' vote" was based on both the narrative and the timing. 

“We are dangerously close to elections,” Kruse said. “The timing made no sense to me.”

Kruse also questioned why 95% of the narrative was focused on security, but only 5% of the budget was set aside for security software. 

He asked Satcher what the problem was with prior elections that made the equipment and software necessary. He also cited the Florida Department of State’s Office of Election Crimes and Security Report to the Legislature dated Jan. 15, 2024, which shows Manatee County only having 12 complaints over seven elections in 2020. 

“We’re disproportionately better than anybody else in the state in terms of our elections,” Kruse said. “We’re the cheapest and the best. My problem is we don’t seem to have a problem.” 

Satcher said it wasn’t his style to see a problem behind the scenes and air it on television during a commission meeting. 

“I’m not going to — on something that’s going to be memorialized — say security concerns I have for the office,” Satcher told the commission. “So I guess there is some level of trust that I’m asking for.” 

After the meeting, Satcher said Kruse made too much of the one line item for software and that security falls under additional categories of the budget, as well. 

“We get the equipment, and we have to buy the software for the year,” Satcher said. “(For the following elections), we wouldn’t have to pay for the security equipment again. We would just do the license renewal on the software side, so there are two separate expenses for the same system.”

Satcher said he’s secured audit software and machines and is also bolstering the existing voting tabulation machines. The tabulation machines are 9 years old, so he’s renting back-ups for the election. 

Former Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett said the machines have a life expectancy of 10-15 years. They're checked and serviced before each election, so he never experienced any issues with them. He also noted that all the computers and tabulation machines in the office are less than 3 years old. 

The two largest line items on the budget are under "machinery and equipment" and "regular salaries." Out of the $223,196 set aside for equipment, new auditing machines account for $190,000. The remaining $33,196 is the cost to rent the back-up tabulation machines. 

Under salaries, $51,000 is set aside for a new IT staff member and $29,700 for a new budgetary manager over a fourth-month period. Ballard said the remaining $85,000 will cover a staff payout of vacation and sick hours. 

Scott Farrington left his position as chief of staff the day Satcher was appointed to the office. Satcher and Farrington will face off in the primary to be the Republican candidate in November. Bennett said Farrington's payout request was for $55,000, not $85,000.  

Farrington's salary was $175,177.60. However, he was doing the work of two staff members. Farrington holds a master's degree in Information Systems Management from the University of South Florida, so he filled the IT position, too. Ballard was hired to replace him as chief of staff at $120,000, and a full year's IT salary will cost $153,000.

Outside of Kruse and Rahn, commissioners didn't question the budget increase. Rahn simply questioned how old the machines were. Bearden and Van Ostenbridge lodged allegations against Bennett.

Bearden alleged that Bennett said in a room full of people that he allowed illegal aliens to vote. Bennett said he didn’t say it or allow it. 

Van Ostenbridge asked Satcher if it was accurate that the office was operating “in the red” before he took over, to which Satcher replied “Yes, sir.”  

Both Satcher and the Chief Financial Officer Sheila McLean declined the Observer’s request to speak to the allegation after the meeting. On behalf of McLean, Information Outreach Manager Bill Logan said there was “no more information available.” 

“To our knowledge, they were not in the red,” said Kim Wilder, director of finance for the Manatee County Clerk’s office. 

The FY2022-23 detailed expenditure report shows the office operated $4,533.78 under budget. Bennett said during his 11-year tenure, the office only ran over budget once, during a presidential election.  

The budget itself was under fire for being too low in comparison to Sarasota’s budget of $10 million. Bennett’s budget for FY2023-24 was $3,229,212. The approved increase brings the budget up to $4,070,552. 

“When they compare our budget to Sarasota, they have no idea what Ron Turner (Sarasota Supervisor of Elections) deals with down there,” Bennett said. “For all intents and purposes, Manatee County is one central city — Bradenton. Turner’s got multiple cities to deal with — the city of Sarasota, North Port, Venice. Consequently, he has other issues.” 

Sarasota also had 19 complaints during the 2020 elections, seven more than Manatee.  

“We’re still the least expensive per voter of counties of similar size,” Satcher said. “Not that that’s my No. 1 goal, my No. 1 goal is to have a safe, secure, transparent election.”