Manatee County Commission District 3: Diana Shoemaker

Age: 65

Current occupation: Executive director, Elders Action Network

Resident of Manatee County: 25 years

What are the three top priorities/issues facing the county, and how should the commission address them? 

• Infrastructure: Infrastructure is an urgent issue facing Manatee County as a result of the unmanaged growth over the last several years. 

As the county continues to grow, we must ensure the infrastructure needed to support that growth keeps up. 

The recent flooding shows how urgent the need to address our infrastructure is, and how vulnerable our current infrastructure is. Our roads, public utilities and public services must all be continually evaluated and made a top priority. 

To fund these improvements, the new County Commission must revisit the conversation on impact fees. Impact fees allow us to require developers to help pay for the additional infrastructure needed.

• Increasing access to housing for all residents: More focused attention is needed in addressing the current housing gap if we are going to remain economically viable as a community. 

For a growing segment of residents, if they can even find safe and adequate housing, costs are close to 50% of their income. This puts a tremendous strain on the hundreds of employees who keep our schools, medical facilities and hospitality service running. 

It also has the impact of increasing the number of homeless in our community, among them now is an increase of older single women. 

Incentives work in part to bring builders into our community. I would work with staff and residents to explore partnerships that offer targeted solutions to meet particular housing needs. Tunnel to Towers is a great example of building appropriate housing to address a particular segment of our community.

• Environment: The natural resources of our community brought many of us to Manatee County and fuels our tourist economy. The explosive growth over the past several years has placed a burden on our natural environment. 

Short-term decisions, such as reducing wetlands buffers to benefit builders, will continue to have a negative impact on the quality of life for all of us. The County Commission should revisit this decision in conjunction with environmental experts who can give us the important facts about how to maintain a healthy and robust environment as we continue to grow. 

We can’t do things like reduce the wetland buffer and not expect consequences. Manatee has long been a place that has maintained its natural beauty, that’s what attracts people here, and we should preserve it.

Why are you running for office? 

I’ve lived and worked in Manatee County for 25 years, and I care deeply about this community. In the last few years, I’ve seen the County Commission stop listening to its constituents and serve the interests of special interests instead. 

At times, this County Commission has outright disrespected citizens who are sharing their concerns. We deserve better representation than that. I’m running because we need to rebuild a County Commission Manatee County residents can trust. I’ll do that by being transparent in my decision making and being a voice for the residents living here.

What makes you more qualified than your opponents for this office? 

I have a long history of leadership in the community. Having worked for many local non-profits, including serving as president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity in Manatee County, I have relationships with stakeholders through the county. 

As a 25-year resident, I’ve seen the changes Manatee County has gone through, and I know what smart growth can look like. My work with Habitat for Humanity has given me an excellent base of knowledge to address access to housing, in particular, as well as given me experience in running an organization and managing a budget and employees.

Affordable housing — what can the Manatee County Commission do to increase the supply of workforce housing? 

Incentives that we provide only go so far and do not guarantee increased production of the housing we need for essential workers. 

The County Commission should begin to broaden its search for solutions by researching and exploring solutions that have worked in other communities and seeking additional partnerships that can help us target and build housing that will be affordable to this important segment of our residents.

If elected, you likely are going to be asked many times to allow changes to the county zoning code for certain projects. What is your philosophy toward zoning? 

Our zoning plan is not only a guide for how we want our county to look and grow, but it provides a set of expectations for residents for how the land around them will be used.

Changes to zoning should be made judiciously, taking into account the input of county staff tasked with evaluating those requests. We should not consider only the short-term outcomes of those zoning changes, but the long-term needs of our community.

What is your position on the Future Development Area Boundary — keep it; abide by it; eliminate it? Why? 

We should keep the FDAB in place, for at least the foreseeable future. The loudest voices calling for moving the FDAB line are developers who want to build on land they knew had restrictions, while continuing to oppose paying the full impact fees to cover the infrastructure. 

Land that has been historically used for agriculture is not ready for development without serious investment from the county in bringing water, electricity and sewer out to those areas. 

The FDAB is part of how we make sure growth doesn’t outstrip infrastructure. Manatee County wants and needs to grow, but we need to make sure that growth is managed.

Growth — What is your philosophy on how population growth should be addressed in Manatee County? 

Growth is inevitable, and as residents, we know Manatee County is a wonderful place to live, work and play. But with this growth comes a need to manage it responsibly. The last few years has shown that unmanaged growth has consequences. We must stop making short-term decisions that have long-term impacts on the health of our community.

Roads/Transportation — What should the County Commission’s strategy be to address the county’s increased road needs? 

The unmanaged growth of the past few years has led to significant impacts to our roads and traffic. We should ensure we are listening to the experts, whose job it is to design the best roads, while providing input about our community’s needs. 

We need to think about our roads at a county level; changing traffic patterns in one area has ripple effects around it. Increased volume on our roads will not go away; it’s a consequence of our growth. We must create infrastructure to support it.

What is your position on impact fees? 

Developers benefit enormously from the infrastructure built to support the housing they create. They rely on the county to provide utilities as they build, otherwise they couldn’t sell those houses. They should help pay for that infrastructure to be built, and that’s why we have impact fees.

Rather than moving ahead with the smaller amount the County Commission recently approved, we should have revisited the study to see if our county was justified in charging more. In not doing that, we put the burden on the taxpayers rather than the developers.

What is your position on land acquisition for conservation and preservation? 

Manatee County voters overwhelmingly supported this when it was on the ballot a few years ago. The County Commission has an obligation to follow through on the will of voters to acquire land for conservation. 

Manatee County is already a place known for its natural beauty; expanding on that is good for residents, good for the environment and good for tourism. Land preservation is a key piece of managed growth, to ensure that natural beauty will be there for future generations.

What grade would you give the County Commission on managing the county’s tax dollars? What needs to be changed in the county fiscal management? 

Talking to residents during the campaign, it is clear they would not give this County Commission a good grade. That is because, in part, to wasteful spending (I give some concrete examples in the next answer), and also because of the lack of transparency from this County Commission. 

We need to do a better job listening to the experts as we spend our tax dollars and listening to the public about how tax dollars should be spent.

Increasing the transparency around how we spend our tax dollars is a crucial piece of fiscal management that this current commission has abdicated. I would work to bring that transparency back.

Can you identify any area where you think the county’s spending should be cut, or any area where more needs to be spent? 

We should evaluate all significant funding changes this County Commission has made the last few years. A few glaring examples show the need to be critical about all increased spending.

In two years, the county nearly doubled the amount it was spending on public relations and communications, bringing the total to roughly $500,000. Communicating with the public is a crucial job of the County Commission, but that dramatic increase in spending raises red flags.

A very recent example is the approval of approximately $800,000 for the supervisor of elections. The previous supervisor, a trusted public official with decades of experience running that office, had not seen a need for these funds. The new SOE, with no prior experience, determined these funds were needed, with little justification, and the commission handed it over. I would consult with the new SOE about whether these funds are required.

What is your position on the county’s current millage rate — is it satisfactory? Too high? Too low? 

Our millage rate is probably about right. At the moment, we’re slightly below but near the state average. The reality is that with the growth of the county, combined with the current impact fees being set where they are, the opportunity to reduce the millage rate isn’t likely in the near future, without cutting needed services. 

If we’re able to get some of the spending mentioned in the prior answer under control and get developers paying their fair share, there may be an opportunity in the future. 

Right now, the concerns I hear from people as I campaign are about things like infrastructure and housing, that require tax funds to address, not our tax rate.

How would you describe your philosophy on the role of government and on taxation? 

It is the government’s responsibility to ensure citizens’ tax dollars are spent wisely, to support the services that benefit the residents of Manatee County. As stewards of the public’s money, the County Commission must be transparent in its decision-making, and have the trust of the people whose tax dollars they are spending, so citizens can have confidence they are only paying the level of taxes necessary.