Lewis takes opportunity to talk about county’s ‘storyteller’
Sarasota County Administrator Jonathan Lewis recently declined county commissioners’ offers to add more staff to the Stormwater Division, as it continues to deal with community pleas for sufficient waterway maintenance to be undertaken before the 2025 hurricane season begins.
He also countered comments that Commissioner Mark Smith made about the potential reorganization of county departments that would see the Stormwater Division become its own department.
During his April 22 report to his colleagues, Chair Joe Neunder pointed out that Presidents of the United States have appointed “czars” to oversee especially important issues. Then he asked whether the commissioners — or Lewis — have the ability “to appoint or bring in somebody … for lack of a better word — a ‘stormwater czar’ … to really get flank speed moving … on the stormwater issues and our goals and endeavors currently?”
Neunder added, “Staff is under so much pressure at work. Is it appropriate to bring in … some extra bodies?”
(During the Open to the Public comment period at the start of that April 22 meeting, one Phillippi Creek resident tendered the idea of the county’s hiring a “stormwater czar.” See the related article in this issue.)
Lewis responded that Spencer Anderson, director of the Public Works Department, of which the Stormwater Division is a part, “is our stormwater expert” with more than 20 years of experience. Moreover, Lewis continued, staff does use private engineering firms for assistance. If Anderson felt he needed more employees, Lewis said, he could request them.
“There’s regulatory issues” that Anderson and his staff have to contend with, Lewis added, “but he can do certain things [in regard to] maintenance,” and he has been focused on that.
Further, Lewis told the commissioners, Anderson had submitted the necessary applications for emergency permits to facilitate stormwater work prior to the start of hurricane season. The permits first were denied, but Anderson “had a good meeting with [the appropriate persons].” Lewis indicated that those discussions would facilitate the issuance of the permits. (See the article in this issue regarding commission action on May 6 related to the Phillippi Creek dredging needs.)
Referring to the commission’s 2025 Policy Agenda, which the board members discussed and then approved during their retreat in December 2024, Lewis did note that five of the seven priorities are related to Public Works initiatives.
“It really is about the level of service expectation,” Lewis added, referring to members of the public, “because there’s a big difference between what the community thinks the [annual] stormwater assessment pays for versus all the things they think need to be done.”
Property owners in the county pay the stormwater assessment each year, based on various factors related to their parcels, staff has explained.
Addressing Neunder, Lewis continued, “You guys have to make those decisions of how to allocate that [assessment money].”
Neunder then told Lewis, “Spencer is, I can imagine, under tremendous pressure [with] a huge volume of work. … I am advocating for as much help — whatever he needs. All hands on deck.”
“The staff does appreciate that,” Lewis replied.
Moreover, Lewis said, staff members of other county departments have been asked to convey to Public Works any stormwater issues they observe, as those individuals are engaged in their responsibilities, “so [those situations] can be addressed,.”
Lewis added, “Right now we’re doing OK” on staffing needs.
A department on its own?
At that point, Commissioner Smith brought up the status of stormwater as a separate division “years ago.”
Smith told Lewis, “I think stormwater … is an important enough issue that it deserves to have its own division again.”
About 30 years ago, Lewis replied, he understood that “it was a separate department. When he began work as an assistant county administrator in 2017, Lewis continued, it was part of the Utilities Department.
He moved it to Public Works, Lewis added, because stormwater and transportation “are typically a little bit more connected,” than stormwater and reclaimed water, for example.
“From an administrative perspective,” Lewis pointed out, “[you do not want] to create another whole administrative hierarchy.”
Nonetheless, he conceded, “We can certainly have that discussion at the [next] budget workshop, but it’s not operationally going to help your stormwater [efforts].”
Smith replied, “I still think it’s a good topic of discussion.”
“At your budget workshop,” Lewis said.
Smith acknowledged that that was what he was thinking.
Then Commissioner Ron Cutsinger said, “I wanted to recognize the incredible work of our staff in the past several months here following the [2024] storms. They’ve been under enormous demands on their time … nonstop …”
He added, “We want to make sure that they do not burn out.”
He, too, raised the idea of the commission’s authorizing extra staff for Public Works.
In times past, Cutsinger continued, the county has used grant funds to increase staffing. Perhaps that should be part of the discussion during the board’s next stormwater workshop, which has been set for May 21, he suggested. “I don’t want staff to be hesitant in saying, ‘Hey, you know what: We could use some help.’ … Let us work out how we pay for that and what we do to staff up. … Obviously, these are critical times.”
Commissioner Tom Knight told Lewis, “If you need the funding to move some things more rapidly, I’m sure you would tell us,” or perhaps, Knight added, Lewis would just take the necessary steps on his own.
Knight also noted that he believes that community residents will learn during the May 21 workshop that “probably much more is being done” than they realize to try to prevent the neighborhood flooding that county residents experienced during the 2024 storm season.
Commissioner Teresa Mast did take the opportunity to ask Lewis to respond to a remark that one speaker made that morning during the Open to the Public period for comments. The individual, she noted, had talked about county staff’s needing to wait until the U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD) has signed off on the county’s new Resilient SRQ Program — which will use about $210.1 million in federal funds to respond to ummet needs following the 2024 storms — before any projects can get underway.
(During the Open to the Public period that was part of the board’s regular meeting on May 6, speakers talked about their anticipation that the latest federal funds would be available in June.)
Lewis explained that, just as with the first HUD grant — for the response to Hurricane Ian — staff already has heard the commission’s priorities for initiatives. Therefore, Lewis said, staff is undertaking the steps it can until the county receives HUD’s response to the allocations in the Final Action Plan that the board members approved on April 22. (Resilient SRQ Programs Manager Steve Hyatt has said that HUD would have 45 days to approve the commission’s “buckets” of spending or request modifications.)
Most uses of the money will “be on a reimbursement basis anyway,” Lewis pointed out during the April 22 discussion with the board members.
In the meantime, he continued, just the previous week, staff members “were out there” doing some high-priority, spot work on portions of Phillippi Creek.
Moreover, Lewis pointed out, county staff members are unable to operate like detectives in a 45-minute TV show, who have a crime solved before the episode ends. “We face the same regulatory burdens that everybody else does [in government positions].”
The work of the ‘storyteller’
During the discussion, Lewis did note, “One of the positions we have repurposed” is that of the person on staff whom he said he calls “the storyteller” in the Communications Department.
“The majority of her time has been reallocated to help Public Works and Spencer [Anderson] really tell the story about the work the women and men in Public Works are doing as it relates to stormwater — and really have been doing since the end of hurricane season [in 2024].”
When The Sarasota News Leader inquired about the “storyteller,” Jamie Carson, director of the Communications Department, explained via email, “Per our County Administrator’s direction, we have a team member to serve as a lead in coordinating our storytelling efforts focused on the county’s Stormwater team and operations. It’s a collaborative effort between the two departments, Communications and Public Works, to spotlight the team and all of their efforts in the county to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season. Whether it’s following the county on social media, calling 311, visiting the website, reading the weekly newsletter, or attending a community event, there are so many ways for our community to learn about not only Stormwater but all the services and programs provided by the county.”
In a May 6 email to the commissioners — which Carson also provided to the News Leader — Lewis wrote, “I was asked about how the county staff is communicating about work going on regarding stormwater. While it would be almost impossible to capture the work going on in its entirety, Jamie Carson put [the following] together so you can see the communications efforts in recent weeks.”
Earlier on May 6, Carson had emailed Lewis, reporting, “Here is a recap of Communications’ efforts to highlight and educate our community about Public Works, focusing on the Stormwater Division.
“You’ll see from below that we’ve had over 20 social media postings on each platform, multiple newsletter highlights, and both external and internal stories shared about the Stormwater Division,” she continued.
“Our goal is to highlight Stormwater every day on social media, either through a post featuring a graphic, photo, or video,” Carson added.
“We’ve had over 10 media engagements, and more are already planned in the coming days and weeks.”
Lewis added in his May 6 email to the board members, “Please encourage community members to follow the county on social media and [sign] up for the newsletter.”