Sarasota County endured four tropical systems in 2024. Two — Hurricane Helene in September and Hurricane Milton in October — were major wind and storm surge (coastal flooding) events, including upstream flooding in lower Phillippi Creek. The other two — Invest 90L in June and Hurricane Debby in August — were potent rainmakers that produced considerable inland flooding, with Debby causing tens of millions of dollars in flooding damages, including its effects in many areas that never had experienced significant flooding.
Following an in-depth report on the possible causes of that historic flooding by stormwater engineering consultant Steve Suau of Sarasota, County Commissioner Tom Knight, in calling for corrective action to prevent a recurrence, said, “I think we need to have the courage to do what we need to do right now.” However, despite commissioners’ continued expressions of concern about staff progress in resolving identified deficiencies, not nearly enough has been accomplished to protect those who rely on the integrity of the Phillippi Creek drainage watershed.
A dike breach between Cowpen Slough and Phillippi Creek, which created much of the flooding in the Laurel Meadows neighborhood following Debby, has been restored to proper condition. Yet, there remains great concern that widespread shoaling along much of Phillippi Creek both contributed to the flooding events in 2024 and still is a clear and present danger to neighborhoods flooded in last year’s storms. Dredging of the creek, especially between its mouth and Beneva Road, appears essential to preventing another catastrophe in the event future storms inundate the area this summer and fall.
Moreover, the county’s stormwater management plan should be updated to deal with a 15-inch rain event in 24 hours, rather than the current 10-inch event, in recognition of the effects of climate change in raising sea levels and increasing the odds of major rain events in our area. Further, new developments should be required to develop stormwater mitigation for an 18-inch rain event.
In a blog post on May 2, county resident Tom Matrullo expressed concern about the significant increases in the annual cost of stormwater management to homeowners, while few of those homeowners have seen maintenance on drainage systems in their neighborhoods or encountered county officials reaching out about flood mitigation. He proposed a three-point plan to improve that situation:
“First and foremost, for transparency and accountability, the County Administrator should be directed to untangle the Stormwater Utility from Public Works and consolidate this enterprise fund as an independent business center similar to its other enterprise fund, the Sarasota County Water and Sewer Utilities. [We agree with this proposal or, at the very least, that the county should consolidate stormwater management with water and sewer utilities, as all three are integrally related.]
“Second, the internal core expertise and capacity of the Stormwater Utility staff needs to be built to proactively manage the technical, operational, and customer service aspects of the stormwater program using cost-effective and state-of-the-art technologies. This will require a restructuring of leadership, organization, and staff expertise. As such, market-competitive salaries must be considered to attract competent and qualified full-time employees. The creation of a culture of multidisciplinary collaboration and a proactive sense of purpose must be a priority of leadership.
“Third, to address customer dissatisfaction and meet public expectations, the Stormwater Utility should conduct annual if not routine open houses to engage with community representatives within each of the five primary watersheds: Sarasota Bay, Little Sarasota Bay, Dona/Roberts Bay, Lemon Bay, and Myakka River. These open houses should be used to review maintenance schedules with existing and new residents and to solicit comments on other maintenance needs from customers.”
The county administrator is responsible for accomplishing all that is necessary in effecting these changes, and it is incumbent on the commissioners to make clear to him that failure is not an option. What appears to us to be foot-dragging by the county administrator and the Public Works Department director must give way to a proactive plan of action to mitigate the risks we continue to face with the approaching hurricane season, now only 17 days away. The commissioners have made clear that additional resources in the resolution of this threat are available — an offer that was rebuffed by the county administrator as unnecessary.
Perhaps it is time to plainly spell out the consequences if such intransigence continues to the peril of county taxpayers.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: The Sarasota News Leader welcomes letters to the editor from its readers. Letters should be no more than 300 words in length and include the name, street address and phone number of the sender (although only the name and city of residence will be shown in the publication). Letters should be emailed to Letters@SarasotaNewsLeader.com, with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line. Letters actually published will be based on space available, subject matter and other factors. We reserve the right to edit any letters submitted for length, grammar, spelling, etc. All letters submitted become the property of The Sarasota News Leader.