Commissioner Knight asks staff to seek law enforcement agencies’ view of proposal, after voicing concern about subjectivity issue
During the Sarasota County Commission’s regular meeting on Sept. 22, in Sarasota, Shawn Yeager, director of the county’s Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department (PRNR), formally reported that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) had refused to implement an Idle Speed/No Wake zone in the 300-foot area immediately offshore of Ted Sperling Park on South Lido Key.
In a June 3 letter to a PRNR staff member, Shayna Fisher, administrator of FWC’s Waterway Management Unit, wrote, “Based on our review of the area and the information provided [by county staff], the proposed regulated area does not meet the criteria for establishment of an Idle Speed, No Wake zone.”
Fisher added, “Specifically, the application does not demonstrate the existence of physical or navigational conditions contemplated by Section 327.46 [of the Florida Statutes] within the proposed regulated area adjacent to Ted Sperling Park.”
However, Fisher noted, “The evidence submitted, including citations, written warnings, and accident data, may support a finding that the area experiences unsafe levels of vessel traffic congestion, a significant risk of collision, or a threat to boating safety. Such conditions may warrant the establishment of a Slow Speed, Minimum Wake zone.”
Following about 35 minutes of discussion on Sept. 22, the commissioners voted unanimously to direct staff to work on trying to gain the agency’s approval of a Slow Speed/Minimum Wake designation in a 300-foot-wide area offshore of the South Lido park.
Yet, Commissioner Tom Knight did ask Yeager to talk with the affected law enforcement personnel first, to learn whether they feel they could enforce such a standard.
Knight did not make that part of his motion, though.
The board’s 2025 request for the Idle Speed/No Wake zone was a response to years of pleas from South Lido residents for help in stopping reckless boating in the waters adjacent to the county’s 150-acre park, which is located within the city of Sarasota.
Members of the public had provided details about the numbers of calls for law enforcement aid, and they had shown the commissioners multiple videos and photos that illustrated the activities on the shoreline and offshore.
One resident who had appeared before the board members multiple times — Celine O’Connor of South Lido — provided The Sarasota News Leader a copy of the email she sent the commission before the discussion this week. Explaining that she was overseas and unable to attend the Sept. 22 meeting, O’Connor wrote, with emphasis, “Frustratingly, the FWC has not approved or accepted Sarasota County’s request to establish a ‘No Wake or Idle Speed’ zone off Ted Sperling Park and South Lido. We encourage the County to pursue the establishment of an alternative ‘Slow Speed/Minimum Wake’ boating safety zone, as suggested by the FWC in correspondence as a potential way forward.”
As noted in one of the slides that Yeager, the PRNR director, showed the board members during his Sept. 22 presentation, the South Lido Beach “is located at the confluence of the Gulf, Big Sarasota Pass, Sarasota Bay and Brushy Bayou.” Because of the strong currents created by that situation, Yeager pointed out, South Lido Beach “is not designated as a swimming or bathing area.” Yet, he noted, the waters on the bay side of South Lido Beach “are very popular for motorized and non-motorized boating activities.”
He also explained that county staff works with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, the Sarasota Police Department, FWC and “contracted security [personnel]” to address activities that are unauthorized or illegal in the park itself or in the surrounding waters.
“We also have an excellent partnership with [SPD] on a daily basis,” he said.
Then Yeager provided slides denoting the timeline that led up to the board’s December 2025 vote. That came after FWC refused to implement a motorboat exclusion zone within 300 feet of Ted Sperling Park at South Lido Beach; the commissioners had voted in favor of that zone during their regular meeting on Oct. 21, 2025.
If the commissioners wanted staff to pursue the potential implementation of the Slow Speed/Minimum Wake zone, Yeager told them this week, staff would do so.
‘Oftentimes we need a disaster’
After Yeager completed his presentation, Commissioner Mark Smith was the first board member to comment.
“Unfortunately, with government,” Smith said, “oftentimes we need a disaster before we do anything too drastic … like stop signs. We have to wait for a couple of people to get hit …”
He added that the Sperling Park problems are akin to that example. Thus, he expressed support for staff to pursue the less stringent zone.
At one point, Chair Ron Cutsinger referenced the death last year of a Baltimore Orioles Minor League player; that came in the aftermath of a crash of another jet ski with the player’s jet ski. Cutsinger added, “We don’t want to see that again.”
Commissioner Knight, who served three terms as the county sheriff, offered his recollection that, in the past, “Boaters were able to be stopped without having an infraction or a violation. [When] that became something of an issue,” he continued, the law was changed to prohibit that.
The Idle Speed/No Wake designation, Knight pointed out, “is very easy for law enforcement. The boat’s in the water; it’s simply drifting.”
Then he said he would like to know what local law enforcement personnel think about their ability to contend with violations if the county is able to get the Slow Speed/Minimum Wake designation implemented. “That becomes subjective,” he explained of judging how fast boaters and jet skiers.
When an officer is trying to determine something on a more subjective basis, he cautioned, citations get “challenged a lot.”
He would not want the county to invest in buoys to mark a Slow Speed/Minimum Wake zone, Knight said, unless law enforcement leaders believe their officers can enforce it. He noted the “waste of time and money,” otherwise.
He also reported that he has visited Sperling Park. “It seems like law enforcement has really changed the behavior out there, if you want to say it that way. … When I go out there, I see a lot of Sarasota [Police Department] boats …”
Nonetheless, Knight agreed that staff should work with FWC to learn whether the agency ultimately would approve a Slow Speed/Minimum Wake zone offshore of Sperling Park.
Chair Cutsinger then asked Yeager, “In your conversations with FWC, has there been any indication how they would view the difference between this and what we asked for?”
Before Yeager replied, Cutsinger did acknowledge, “You can’t say, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ definitely.”
“I can’t speak for FWC,” Yeager confirmed Cutsinger’s assumption. “However,” Yeager continued, based on staff’s interactions with FWC representatives after the agency denied the Idle Speed/No Wake zone request, “they may be amenable to a Slow Speed/Minimum Wake [designation].” Still, he noted, “No guarantees.”
Then Cutsinger referenced Knight’s concerns about enforcement. When a driver is traveling at 90 mph on Interstate 75, Cutsinger pointed out, a law enforcement officer clearly can tell that the vehicle is exceeding the speed limit.
He also noted the videos that South Lido residents had shown the commissioners, depicting jet skis moving fast and rapidly changing directions in the waters offshore of the park. “There wasn’t a question [about their speed]. … They were going 90 [mph], in other words. They were tearing it up.”
Those situations, Cutsinger indicated, should be apparent to law enforcement personnel.
He told Yeager, “I’d be in favor of moving [the new request] forward.”
Concern about penalizing safe boaters while addressing ‘some bad actors’
Commissioner Teresa Mast pointed out that what prompted the discussions about trying to implement safer conditions offshore of the park were “really some bad actors on some jet skis and not necessarily the boats that were participating in activities out there.” She asked Yeager whether her recollection was correct.
He indicated that it was.
Mast continued, “I want to be thoughtful,” adding that she did want to pursue a “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” scenario. Noting the “very responsible boaters” who enjoy the waters around the park, Mast said she “would hate to see them infringed upon if they’re not behaving in a fashion that would not be appropriate.”
Mast added that she also was interested in taking whatever action would be easiest for law enforcement personnel to enforce, as a means of encouraging “people to change some behaviors.”
Commissioner Knight responded, “From my understanding, many of those [jet skiers shown in residents’ videos] weren’t from this area, that they migrated here during [the COVID-19 pandemic].” (Sarasota County Government staff, with commission direction, moved more quickly to reopen parks and recreation facilities to the public than other areas did.)
Knight added that he understood, too, that law enforcement action had prompted many of the jet skiers to return to the locations from which they had originated; he mentioned “Orange County.”
Then Knight asked Yeager whether Yeager and his staff had observed changes more recently, compared to what was occurring at the park two years ago.
“I think that enforcement has remained consistent,” Yeager replied.
Yeager did provide a few figures about citations. As of Jan. 12, as shown in Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office correspondence that the News Leader received from the PRNR staff in response to a public records request, the Sheriff’s Office’s Marine Patrol had logged 50 contacts “over the past 12-18 months for various violations in the general area near Ted Sperling Park.”
This year, the Sarasota Police Department (SPD) has issued 17 citations to-date, Yeager reported; 10 were for careless operation of vessels.
In 2025, he added, SPD issued four citations; one was for careless operation. In 2024, he noted, the count was five citations, with three for careless actions.
“So there has been an enhancement [of law enforcement activity] in that area,” Knight responded.
Nonetheless, he said, he did not believe that having buoys and signage in place regarding a Slow Speed/Minimum Wake designation was going to change people’s behavior. “I don’t think speed limit signs [prevent] people from speeding.”
Further, Knight cautioned his colleagues that if they are able to win FWC approval for the Slow Speed/Minimum Wake standard at Sperling Park, people at other county locations likely will start asking for similar action. “We need to be prepared for that, too, as we think through this rationally.”
Knight proceeded to make the motion, directing that staff send the request to FWC for the Slow Speed/Minimum Wake designation. Commissioner Smith seconded it.
Then Commissioner Joe Neunder pointed out — as he has during past discussions about Sperling Park — that, in his youth, he worked as a lifeguard at the facility. Even though Yeager reminded him that swimming is not supposed to be allowed offshore of the park, because of the strong currents, Neunder told Yeager, “Having a lifeguard presence out there might just be some optics that the general public would enjoy …”
Moreover, Neunder noted, lifeguards could pass out flyers letting the public know about the park regulations.