Miller nominated by Commissioner Mast
Venice attorney Mariah Miller will become the newest member of the Sarasota County Planning Commission, thanks to a split vote of the County Commission during its regular meeting on Jan. 27, held in Venice.
Commissioner Teresa Mast nominated Miller, who was one of eight persons who had applied for the seat.
Miller will take her seat on Feb. 5, when the Planning Commission will meet next, as noted in a county staff memo included in the Jan. 27 agenda packet.
As that memo explained, Planning Commissioner Ryan Murphy, a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, had resigned; the memo indicated that he did so in December 2025. The term for the seat to which he was appointed on Aug. 27, 2025 will expire on Aug. 31, 2029, the memo added.
Commissioner Tom Knight nominated Murphy during that late August meeting. Neither Commissioner Teresa Mast nor the current board chair, Commissioner Ron Cutsinger, supported Murphy for the seat. Mast had nominated Ryan Lieberman of Sarasota, who works with the Barrington Group of Sarasota, a multifamily housing real estate firm.
Lieberman is a member of the Suncoast Builders Association, for which Mast’s husband, Jon, serves as CEO, as The Sarasota News Leader reported last year.
After Mast put forth Miller’s name on Jan. 27, Knight nominated Thomas J. Fitch of Venice, a retired CPA.
Then, when Chair Cutsinger called for the vote, Commissioner Mark Smith joined Mast and Cutsinger in approving Miller’s appointment.
In response to the county application question regarding why she wished to serve on the Planning Commission, Miller wrote, “I want to serve on this advisory council to serve the community I was raised in and will raise my family in. The best way to improve Sarasota County while maintaining Sarasota County’s charm is to have locals on boards. My generation is more frequently moving back and I would like to represent. Also, I love civics!”
She also noted, “I am born and raised in Venice. I went to Florida State for my undergraduate degrees and Stetson Law School for my juris doctorate. I moved back to Sarasota after graduating law school to work at a law firm. I have now moved back to Venice were I have my own practice. I am a real estate and land use attorney.”
In his application, Fitch — Knight’s nominee — wrote the following about his desire to serve on the Planning Commission: “I’d like to help align and advise County leadership as to projects’ compliance with technical planning standards, then provide ranking of qualifying projects based on the County’s Comprehensive Plan. I’d also like to recommend revisions, if needed, to the existing Comprehensive Plan. I served in this capacity in Mecklenburg County, NC.”
Charlotte is located in Mecklenburg County.
Fitch noted that he is a CPA and had served as chief financial officer of a Fortune 500 company. He added that he had been a member of the Citizen’s Capital Budget Advisory Council for Mecklenburg County, which has a population of 1.2 million; he served three, two-year terms. Further, Fitch wrote that he had experience preparing strategic plans “for a wide variety of business units” of an approximately $7-billion enterprise.
During comments that were part of the board’s Open to the Public comment period at the start of the Jan. 27 meeting, county resident and city business owner Martin Hyde pointed out that the majority of the county commissioners previously served on the Planning Commission. (They are Mast, Cutsinger and Commissioner Joe Neunder.) Thus, he told the county commissioners, “It’s fair to say that [the Planning Commission] is effectively the ‘subs bench’ for future, wannabe commissioners.”
Hyde added, “My concern is the makeup of [the Planning Commission], which is overwhelmingly from the establishment of the local Republican Party, which is, in itself, largely funded by development money. If the qualifications are to be tone-deaf to the wishes of the community,” he stressed, “I venture, thus far, you’ve done a good job.”
If the county commissioners wanted the planning commissioners “to be representative of the community,” Hyde continued, “it’s time for a re-think.”
The Planning Commission long has been viewed as the county’s most important advisory board, as its members review applications for land-use changes and proposed amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, which guides growth in the community, and then make recommendations to the County Commission on whether to approve them, modify them or deny them.
The other applicants
The other persons who had applied for the open seat were as follows, as shown in materials provided in the Jan. 27 agenda packet:
- David Stershic, of Sarasota, a retired member of the Sarasota County Fire Department who is a part-time superintendent for the Willis Smith Construction firm in Sarasota. He is interested in serving on the Planning Commission, he wrote in his application, so he can “participate in and hopefully affect the processes, procedures, codes, etc. to ensure Sarasota has and is adhering to prudent, comprehensive practices.”
- Randy D. Boyd of Sarasota, who is self-employed with the Boyd Investigative Group/Boyd Security Group. “As a fourth generation resident of Sarasota,” he wrote in his application, “I believe it is my responsibility to help Sarasota move forward with planning and development in a productive, common sense manner.”
- Rick Eaton of Venice, a retiree. He noted in his application that he is interested in holding a Planning Commission seat “[t]o help prevent future floods and to help make Sarasota County a model for others to follow on the topics of clean water, nature, wildlife and quality of life. Our current development culture is a trainwreck and [it’s] been proven deadly. A serious [re-evaluation] has to occur with serious concern by all parties involved.”
- Thomas Arthur of Sarasota, a real estate agent with Michael Saunders & Co. in Lakewood Ranch. In his application, he explained the following in regard to his desire to serve on the Planning Commission: “As a property rights advocate, and someone who is in the real estate business, I see both the importance of community service and understand the value in both residential and commercial presence within a thriving community.”
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Benjamin Elliott. Image from his LinkedIn account Arturo D. Lopez of Sarasota, an architect who — he noted in his application — had “worked for two of the top architectural firms in the state,” Sweet Sparkmanin Sarasota and WJ Architects of St. Petersburg. Lopez added that he is the studio director for the latter. In response to the application question about why he wanted to serve on the Planning Commission, he wrote that he is “[u]nhappy with the amount of housing development approved in Sarasota County.”
- Benjamin Elliott of Sarasota, a construction project manager with Power Design in St. Petersburg, wrote in his application that he wanted to serve on the Planning Commission “because I care deeply about Sarasota County and believe thoughtful, disciplined planning matters over the long term. Serving on the Planning Commission would allow me to contribute careful judgment, respect for adopted policy, and a balanced perspective to decisions that shape the community’s future.”