- March 30, 2025
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As is often the case on Longboat Key, whenever there is an election for Town Commission, Longboat Key voters have good, competent choices.
Likewise, this is also true: The quality of Longboat’s candidates typically are superior to those we see on ballots elsewhere. And when Longboat’s commissioners are elected and serve, they typically do a superior job to what we see elsewhere.
Longboat voters are fortunate.
This is the case again for the upcoming March 11 Town Commission election for the at-large seat. Longboat voters have two candidates — Steve Branham and Deborah Murphy — who are more than qualified and would serve taxpayers well.
It’s a tough choice. Neither one would be wrong. Indeed, it would be a plus for Longboat taxpayers if both candidates could win.
In Deborah Murphy, Longboat voters have a candidate who already served on the Town Commission. In March 2023, she won the District 5 seat (representing the northernmost part of Longboat Key) in an uncontested race.
On the commission, Murphy was an engaged commissioner, clearly well-versed and well-prepared at Town Commission meetings after digesting the volumes of reports, memos and documents required of the volunteer job.
When you meet and speak to her, you will see Murphy, 69, is a high-energy doer, part of her DNA. Prior to her and her husband moving permanently in 2019 to Longboat Key, Murphy spent 30 years as CEO and owner of Standard Supplies Inc., a family-owned construction supply and steel fabricating firm that served the greater Washington, D.C., area. Murphy was the family’s third-generation CEO.
While running the 125-employee company, Murphy also served as chair of the Metro Washington chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors, a 500-member organization and among the 10 largest chapters in the U.S. In her home of Gaithersburg, Maryland, she also served as the president of the local Rotary Club.
“My husband says if there is something that needs to happen, ask Debbie,” Murphy says.
Having weathered the booms and busts in construction, Murphy brought her business ownership skills and financial acumen to the Town Commission. She also became an advocate for the town and Town Commission to raise its attention toward north Longboat Key issues — the planned roundabout at Broadway and Gulf of Mexico Drive and the persistent flooding issues plaguing the north Longboat neighborhoods.
Murphy also was the leading advocate to have Manatee County fund a community center facility in the vacant grocery store in Whitney Plaza — although the county has since rescinded its lease.
In her campaign for this at-large commission seat, Murphy emphasizes that with all of the upcoming projects affecting north Longboat, the residents there need a third commissioner (in addition to commissioners Sarah Karon and Debra Williams) from the Manatee half of the Key. Five of the seven commissioners live in Sarasota County.
“As a commissioner,” Murphy said, “my responsibility would be to listen to the concerns of the residents, see how much of a cumulative need there is and go to the town and see whether it’s grants, assess people for more money, or, one of the things they’re talking about in Sleepy Lagoon is creating a (taxing) district, like beach renourishment … We have to elevate these infrastructure things to a higher level.”
Murphy says she also would like to elevate the town’s relationship with the Manatee County Commission. “Quite frankly, I’d like to see not just these commission meetings when we go meet with them and talk about parking issues or traffic issues. We need to have a working group that actually looks at projects and has timelines. I don’t see any real commitment to having dedicated project pipeline as to what Manatee County is willing to do to invest in Longboat.”
Hanging over Murphy’s campaign for a second election to the commission is her resignation from the commission in December 2023, 10 months after being sworn in. Murphy resigned after objecting to a new state law requiring more personal financial disclosures than previously mandated. She said the mandate was too intrusive.
Those requirements subsequently are suspended and pending a judge’s ruling. Asked recently whether she would resign a second time if elected and if the disclosure requirements were reinstated, Murphy told us: “I don’t want to go so far as to say if they brought it back that I would resign again. I would have to see what it looked like and what it entailed.”
Resumes alone do not make the candidate. But if you studied the extent of Branham’s involvement in Longboat Key and the region over the past decade, plus his 27 years in the U.S. Coast Guard, all of that would make a convincing case. He is as qualified and deserving as anyone to serve on the Longboat Key Town Commission.
A sampling:
Master of National Security Strategy, National Defense University; M.B.A, Case Western Reserve University; B.S., U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
Rear Admiral-Commander, Seventh U.S. Coast Guard District — Chief executive of USCG’s busiest of nine districts worldwide, including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and the entire Caribbean Basin. Led more than 11,000 employees in accomplishing the USCG’s 11 major mission areas, including search and rescue; all maritime law enforcement and marine/port safety regulatory, inspection and enforcement activities. Responsible for a budget of $90 million annually.
Rear Admiral-U.S. Coast Guard, chief financial officer —Responsible for the development, justification, allocation, expenditure and accounting for the USCG’s $10 billion annual operating and capital acquisition/improvements budget. Responsible for review and vetting and approval of all planning proposals service-wide.
U.S. Coast Guard Operational Command at Sea — Served six, two-year tours of duty at sea in the Atlantic, Pacific, Caribbean and Great Lakes regions; commanding officer for four of those tours aboard USCG cutters ranging in size from 95 to 378 feet.
Chairman, Longboat Key Consolidated Retirement System Board of Trustees — Managing $45 million fund for the past 10 years;
President, board of directors Suncoast Blood Centers — Four years as president, six years as a director, $15 million budget, four-county service area;
President, Longboat Key Kiwanis Club, three years;
Board member and fund-raising event chair, Longboat Key Garden Club, 10 years
Board member, Longboat Key Foundation.
With all of this experience, the 69-year-old Branham has been exposed to myriad crises and challenges at all levels. Voters can be sure that when tense moments arise or difficult dilemmas confront the Town Commission, Branham can and would bring thoughtful, measured wisdom to his fellow commissioners and to the decision-making process.
Likewise, he is well-versed on Longboat Key, having been a resident here for 13-plus years and married to Susan Phillips, the retiring 27-year assistant to the town manager and the town’s public information officer.
While Branham lives on the south end of the Key, he also knows that an at-large commissioner cannot be partial to any one area and must be more global than the commissioners from the town’s five districts. He says the commission’s vision is “to ensure that Longboat stays Longboat and that we remain a premier community receiving exceptional service. I am committed to building on that reputation.”
This is a tough call for voters.
For much of Longboat’s history, there has been a common path to candidates becoming town commissioners.
It starts with years of volunteering in Longboat’s community organizations, then serving on one of the town’s boards — the planning board, tax oversight committee, retirement system, etc.
We’ve seen how town commissioners have developed a reputation of trust among Longboat’s residents before seeking office.
Branham has walked that path. Murphy, by contrast, started at the top.
Murphy makes a somewhat valid point of having more of the north Longboat perspective on the commission. When you live an issue daily, you pay more attention to resolving it.
All told, however, Longboat residents know more of who Steve Branham is versus Deborah Murphy.
Her enthusiasm and energy are contagious; Branham’s steadiness is reassuring. Either way, Longboat residents cannot lose. But we’ll give a slight edge to tradition.
We recommend: Steve Branham
Shall the town of Longboat Key be authorized to borrow money through a State Revolving Fund loan, not exceeding $33,000,000, bearing interest not exceeding maximum legal rates, maturing over a term not longer than 25 years, payable from revenues of the town’s water and sewer utility system and a backup covenant to budget and appropriate legally available non ad valorem revenues, to finance the design and construction of a subaqueous wastewater line across Sarasota Bay?
The town has no choice but to replace the rotting 50-year-old line. It popped a leak on the mainland side of the pipe in 2020, signaling bigger issues would soon follow.
The question became: How to pay for the new line.
The town charter requires a referendum for any borrowing that exceeds $6 million.
The town staff’s due diligence produced a clear choice — the state revolving loan fund (see table).
To be sure, the principal and interest on that loan will increase your town water bill. But as is often noted, it makes sense to spread that cost over 25 years. Future residents should also pay for the use of that pipeline over the next 50 years.
We recommend: Yes
Shall Article II, Section 13, of the Charter of the town of Longboat Key be amended to allow the Town Commission to cancel the Town Commission’s July regular voting meeting with advance notice of at least thirty (30) days prior to the meeting date?
As Longboaters know, come summer there typically is not a lot of pressing town business in July and August. Commissioners clear their agenda in June and typically take a two-month hiatus.
The charter already officially permits the August recess. The proposed amendment merely codifies a permissible recess in July.
A cynical way to look at this amendment is that it’s a good move — the fewer times commissioners meet the less damage they can do to taxpayers (wink, wink).
We recommend: Yes
Shall Article III, Section 3, of the Charter of the town of Longboat Key be revised to address a potential conflict with the Constitutional prohibition on officers holding dual office and allow the Town Manager or Town Commission to appoint a qualified individual to serve as acting Town Manager in the event of the Town Manager’s temporary unavailability or inability to act?
Town Attorney Maggie Mooney-Portales says the intent of the proposed revision “is to remove the ‘administrative officer’ language from the Section 3 in its entirety because most of the town’s administrative officers are technically ineligible under the Florida Constitution from serving in the acting town manager position when the town manager is unavailable or unable to act.”
“The constitutional dual office restriction applies to town administrative officers such as the police chief, town clerk, town finance director and planning director, to name a few.
“If the town ignored the constitutional prohibition and appointed an administrative officer as the interim town manager anyway, any action taken by the appointed town officer could potentially be challenged as being void and of no legal effect. This could create problems for any contracts entered into or employment actions taken during the interim period.”
Unfortunately, the March 11 ballot does not provides voters with the language that will replace what already exists. Mooney, however, provided the Observer with that new language. If approved, the charter would be revised to read:
“(b) Acting Town Manager. By written notice filed with the town clerk, the town manager, or in his absence, the Town Commission, shall designate an assistant town manager, or a qualified town administrative officer individual, to exercise the powers and perform the duties of town manager during any temporary unavailability or inability to act.
“During such unavailability or inability, the Town Commission may revoke such designation at any time and appoint another officer of the town qualified individual to serve until the town manager shall return or the unavailability or inability shall cease.”
We recommend: Yes
