Change to be reflected in documentation for board’s first public hearing on proposed budget, set for Sept. 10
In previewing a discussion that is expected to take place during the next Sarasota County Commission stormwater workshop — scheduled for Sept. 5 — County Administrator Jonathan Lews has told the board members that he and Ben Quartermaine, the new Stormwater Department director, plan to recommend that they adopt a lower stormwater assessment for the 2026 fiscal year than the one they approved in early July on a preliminary basis.
During the commissioners’ Aug. 19 budget workshop, Lewis noted their agreement earlier this year to dedicate to stormwater efforts a total of $90 million from a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant the county received in January for unmet needs in the wake of the 2024 hurricane season. He also pointed to the $15.7 million in appropriations for stormwater work that they approved during their meetings on July 8 and 9.
Then Lewis told them that he and Quartermaine had talked about the assessments, adding that Quartermaine began working on county stormwater issues before he formally started his new county job on Aug. 11.
In fact, Lewis added on Aug. 19, it might be two years before a higher assessment would be needed.
During a discussion that was part of their early July budget workshops, the Sarasota County commissioners agreed to advertise higher stormwater assessments for the 2026 fiscal year — which will begin on Oct. 1 — in an effort to ensure that the new Stormwater Department will have sufficient revenue to pursue backlogs of maintenance, including the removal of large sediment deposits in Phillippi Creek.
On July 2, Spencer Anderson, who was overseeing the Stormwater Division as part of his responsibilities as director of the Public Works Department, showed them a range of proposed assessments.
With waterway maintenance work factored in, the annual increase for a property owner would be $17.95, Anderson noted in a slide; that would equate to an uptick of $1.50 a month.
The base assessment would rise from $31.41 to $36.41, while the charge per square foot of impervious area would climb from $16.35 to $27.08, the slide added.
Kim Radtke, director of the county’s Office of Financial Management, explained to the board members that they could lower the assessments after the figures had been advertised in the Truth in Millage (TRIM) notices that the Sarasota County Property Appraiser’s Office mails out each August to county property owners. However, they would not be able to raise the fees after they approved the not-to-exceed numbers for the TRIM notices.
On July 2, Commissioner Ron Cutsinger was the first of the board members to tell Anderson that he felt it would be necessary for the Stormwater Department’s budget for the 2026 fiscal year to include funding for waterways maintenance, given the months-long backlog of work that Anderson had reported to them, as a result of the 2024 storms.
(A chart contained within the Stormwater Department’s weekly work update for Aug. 11 through Aug. 17 says that the maintenance backlog that existed prior to June 1 “is planned to be completed by September 1, 2025.”)
Cutsinger noted that South County creeks have problems, too, though Phillippi Creek in North County has been a primary focus of the board.
“We want to go all in with the waterways,” Commissioner Tom Knight said during that budget workshop. “We don’t want to under-advertise,” based on the commitments the commissioners have made to the public, “and then not have the capabilities of doing [the work].”
Commissioner Teresa Mast concurred with Knight that choosing the highest funding option “gives us the most flexibility.”
However, Phillippi Creek residents, who have appeared at many County Commission meetings this year to plead for county staff’s attention to problems, argued against raising the stormwater assessments. They contended that they should not have to pay for county staff’s failure to perform sufficient waterway maintenance over the years.
As Anderson himself has acknowledged, Phillippi Creek has not been dredged since 2000.
During his Aug. 19 workshop remarks, Lewis recommended that the commissioners pursue engagement with the public about waterways maintenance and then “develop a program that works for you all.”
The board should adopt a maintenance program before addressing how much money will be needed to sustain it, Lewis added.
“That is a relief,” Chair Joe Neunder responded to the assessment comment.
Exceeding the minimum level of service
In the meantime, county staff has continued to document Quartermaine’s attention to his department’s responsibilities.
During an Aug. 15 video, Quartermaine explained that the county’s Stormwater Environmental Utility (SEU) “covers maintenance of our
existing systems, but also capital improvements to our existing systems.”
Among the types of maintenance that county employees purse, he continued, are the removal of sediment in canals, the mowing of ditch banks and accesses to the canals, maintenance of weirs and gate systems throughout canal systems, and the operation and maintenance of the Celery Fields Stormwater Management Project.
A minimum level of maintenance is required in accord with the county’s permit to undertake such work, Quartermaine continued. However, he stressed, staff’s goal is to “meet or exceed that minimum level of service.”
Further, Quartermaine explained that the basic level of service calls for no flooding of a structure during a 100-year storm event, which entails 10 inches of rain falling within 24 hours.
Additionally, he noted, the basic level of service in regard to roadway flooding is that no neighborhood road should have more than 12 inches of rain on it. That is the maximum, Quartermaine indicated, that a county Fire Department or EMS vehicle can handle.
He also took time to discuss the level of service for stormwater maintenance in general. The number of times each year that maintenance is undertaken depends “on the type of infrastructure that we’re talking about,” Quartermaine pointed out. For example, he continued, ditches and swales “have a different level of service than canals.”
Quartermaine added, “Regular maintenance throughout the year is crucial to ensure that the system operates during storm season. It’s not what we do in August, it’s what we’re doing in January,” during the dry season, that is critical, he said.
Subsequently, in an Aug. 20 county video, Quartermaine talked about maintenance underway at what is called the Main A Canal of Phillippi Creek, which is “a large canal that drains a good portion of Phillippi Creek east of [Interstate 75].”
A crew visible behind him as he spoke was removing dams from the canal, he noted, to ensure that the waterway “is functioning as efficiently as possible.”
Quartermaine added that that work was expected to be completed within two to three weeks, as the Main A Canal is about 3 miles long.
Workers also were removing vegetation along the banks of the canal, he pointed out.
County staff routinely is posting stormwater maintenance updates — including photos and videos — on the county’s Facebook page.
For example, on Aug. 26, a video clip shows a Stormwater Field Services crew using what is called a Menzi Muck “to mow vegetation and check the canal near the Beneva Road Legacy Trail Bridge.”
The post explains, “This maintenance is a continuation of … work featured yesterday, with crews moving upstream along the canal to clear vegetation and inspect the stormwater system to ensure it is functioning properly.”
That Aug. 25 post said, “Stormwater Field Services crews were out today using the Menzi Muck to mow vegetation and inspect the canal located off Beneva Road before Fruitville Road.”