Lewis to have details ready for County Commission consideration during July budget workshops
An approximately 35-minute-long discussion about stormwater issues, which Sarasota County Commissioner Mark Smith began during his board’s regular meeting on June 3, ended up with a unanimous commission vote directing County Administrator Jonathan Lewis to proceed with removing stormwater activities from the Public Works Department and creating a standalone Stormwater Department.
The Public Works Department appears to have included a Stormwater Division since approximately 2003, based on a history of the county’s Stormwater Environmental Utility prepared by Assistant County Administrator Mark Cunningham for Lewis. On June 3, Lewis provided that history to The Sarasota News Leader.
Along with that document, Lewis issued a statement to the News Leader, explaining that the June 3 direction he received from the County Commission called for staff to “develop scenarios to create a Stormwater Department.” Those scenarios, he added, “will detail the staffing, funding, functions, assets, and logistics of eliminating the Public Works Department and creating two departments — one a Stormwater Department, and most likely, the other would be a revamped Transportation Department. While there are many steps involved in the process, the County Administrator has asked staff to take the necessary steps to have at least initial information ready to present to the Commission at the July budget workshops.”
Those workshops are scheduled for July 1 and 2 this year; in recent years, they have been conducted in late June.
Commission Chair Joe Neunder joined Commissioners Tom Knight and Mark Smith on June 3 in stressing the urgency of having a county department dedicated solely to stormwater initiatives, including appropriate levels of maintenance.
“We need to act today,” Neunder said. “We need people that are doing stormwater only 24/7/365.”
“We are so far behind the 8-ball here in our community,” he continued, “that we need to get all hands on deck.”
“I don’t think we need to get through a storm season” before creating the separate department, Knight told his colleagues.
Further, Neunder pointed out that the new department “would have complete, autonomous control” over what the Office of Financial Management calls “Fund 440,” in which all county stormwater assessments are deposited. Neunder previously discussed that fund with Public Works Director Spencer Anderson during the board’s regular meeting on May 20 and during the May 21 stormwater workshop.
“This is consolidation and efficiency,” Neunder said on June 3.
“That’s a board policy decision,” County Administrator Lewis responded, “That’s up to you all.”
Neunder also took the occasion of the June 3 discussion to criticize staff’s scheduling of the board’s third stormwater workshop for the afternoon of May 21, following a three-hour-long budget workshop that morning. Additionally, Neunder indicated his frustration with Public Works Department Director Anderson’s failure on May 21 to respond to issues that Neunder has raised numerous times this year.
‘I’m not happy about the timing’ for the next stormwater workshop
The June 3 discussion began when Commissioner Smith was providing his report to his colleagues. He inquired when staff was planning the next stormwater workshop — the fourth this year.
Lewis replied that, based on prior board direction, staff was preparing for that fourth workshop to take place in August, after the commissioners return from their annual, summer break. He reminded the board members that the same county employees who have to plan those workshops are “focused on stormwater recovery and with hurricane season,” which began June 1.
“It would be beneficial to them,” Lewis added, to hold that fourth workshop after the board has its first August meeting, which is scheduled for Aug. 26.
Neunder noted that the last day of the board’s summer break this year is Aug. 16.
“I’m happy to hear everyone’s out there in the field, shoveling away,” Smith told Lewis.
However, Neunder said, “I’m not happy about the timing on [the next workshop].” He reiterated the statement to underscore that view.
“I thought I had made it clear [to staff] a day would have been good,” he said, referring again to the scheduling of the half-day May 21 workshop. “We desperately need to have a morning meeting on this, when we’re all fresh — and we’re going to be into hurricane season,” he noted.
Moreover, he pointed out, late August is “three months into [hurricane season].”
“Not grinding an ax here,” Neunder continued, “but I’m not happy with the direction and the speed [of stormwater initiatives this year].” He added, “I’m hearing from the community on this. … I just want that clear for the record.”
Neunder also stressed, “Make no mistake: This board will move at the speed of light to make sure that we’re prepared. Time is of the essence here.”
The May 21 stormwater workshop, Commissioner Knight noted, “was definitely tedious and long, like Commissioner Neunder said.”
Residents’ stressing urgency in need for storm season preparation
After Neunder called on Commissioner Knight for Knight’s report to his colleagues that day, Knight began, “Want to build on that,” referring to Neunder’s concerns about inadequate Public Works Department preparation for the hurricane season that began June 1.
Reminding his fellow commissioners and the public that he was just elected to the board in November 2024, Knight indicated that he recently had completed in-depth research on county stormwater issues.
Knight pointed out that, like Commissioner Smith, he had been hoping that day to learn more from the county’s Stormwater Environmental Utility Advisory Committee during a presentation of its annual report. That report was included on the board’s June 3 Consent Agenda of routine business matters. (See the related article in this issue.)
Referring to county residents’ months of requests for greater attention to stormwater issues and their focus on the “urgency for this community,” Knight further noted, “I think public confidence has waned in us.”
Then he offered his proposal for the creation of an enhanced division within Public Works that would be focused on stormwater management and maintenance, with its own director. The reopened Midnight Pass on south Siesta Key would be part of its purview, Knight noted.
Staff’s training should be up-to-date, he continued, and staff initiatives should be in “timely compliance” with a 2022 report undertaken for the county that also served as the basis for changes in the calculation of stormwater assessments. Those modifications went into effect for the 2023 fiscal year.
Knight added that he was concerned about a number of stormwater issues, including the timeline for staff’s submission of applications for the necessary state and federal permits for the dredging of Phillippi Creek and the need for regular updates from staff to the commissioners, so the board members can respond appropriately to their constituents.
Regarding the May 21 stormwater workshop, Knight said, “The biggest thing that concerned me” was the lack of a plan for the Public Works staff to provide a higher level of service in regard to stormwater maintenance, along with the lack of details about how to pay for that.
Referencing remarks by Anderson, the Public Works director, during that last stormwater workshop, Knight said he knew that staff had begun advertising for an assistant director for Public Works, who — Knight indicated — would be focused on stormwater initiatives. However, Knight stressed, “The most important thing is that we have public confidence.”
In response to a question from Commissioner Ron Cutsinger, Knight pointed out, “It’s a heavy lift on one division” to deal with all of the county’s stormwater issues. Knight referenced comments that he has heard from the public to the effect of “We’re still digging out from the last hurricane.”
The county needs a staff member, Knight continued, who can focus on “our waterways,” who understands all of the facets related to obtaining permits, and who could regularly provide the commissioners information about the stormwater work.
Further, he made it clear that he wants regular updates about stormwater maintenance in public settings.
Knight also referenced a fall 2024 report produced by Steve Suau of Sarasota, a former county stormwater employee who has a consulting firm. In that report — using data from Public Works staff members but working independently of them — Suau recommended a number of steps the county should take to prevent future flooding of neighborhoods. The report analyzed what led to extensive damage of county homes during the 2024 hurricane season, especially the Laurel Meadows community, which stands near the intersection of Palmer Boulevard and Lorraine Road.
The following is an email that Suau sent Neunder on May 21, which Neunder forwarded to Lewis and Anderson:
In response to Knight’s comments, Commissioner Cutsinger pointed out, “We’re moving into the heart of our hurricane season right now.” Therefore, Cutsinger added, he felt it would not be appropriate to proceed with Knight’s proposal “at this time.”
“We would be tasking staff with an enormous process,” Cutsinger stressed. “It would be great” to discuss the recommendation during the August stormwater workshop, he said, and perhaps include it as a board priority for the 2026 calendar year.
Two departments, instead of Public Works, perhaps
County Administrator Lewis told the board members that staff believes the Stormwater Division should remain within Public Works, but he indicated that enhanced budgeting and staffing — including the hiring of an assistant director dedicated to stormwater — would be part of the commission’s 2026 fiscal year budget workshop discussions on July 1 and 2.
Commissioner Teresa Mast asked Lewis for confirmation that “you are going to have a separate assistant director who oversees … stormwater-related issues and concerns?”
Lewis responded that that assistant director would report directly to Anderson, the Public Works director. In fact, Lewis continued, he expects the commission will need to discuss the potential hiring of a separate assistant director who would be in charge of transportation issues, so Anderson would have the time to focus on higher-level matters.
The transportation position does not have to be part of the July budget considerations, Lewis said.
Both of those assistant directors, Lewis added, likely would need to be certified professional engineers.
Chair Neunder emphasized that it would be up to the commissioners to decide whether to budget for a separate employee to oversee transportation issues.
Mast asked that Lewis provide information to the commissioners during the July budget workshops regarding the responsibilities of the two assistant directors, noting that that “would be very helpful.”
He assured her that that was his plan.
Addressing Lewis, too, Commissioner Smith began, “With all due respect to our Public Works director … I agree with Commissioner Knight. I believe that [stormwater] should be a standalone department,” with a director who has stormwater engineering expertise.
However, Knight explained that his proposal was to keep the Stormwater Division within Public Works, though he called for it to function independently, with a director who also would be independent, not an assistant to Anderson.
Knight again emphasized his desire for regular reports from that employee to the commissioners.
At that point, Lewis sought clarification, since Knight had talked about a division, while Smith had called for a separate department. Department directors report to one of the assistant county administrators, Lewis pointed out.
Knight apologized to Smith for misunderstanding Smith’s remarks.
Chair Neunder said he believes stormwater issues should be handled by a separate department, whose director would report to Lewis or the assistant county administrators.
Lewis explained that with the removal of stormwater initiatives from Public Works, the county essentially would be left with a Public Works Department focused on Transportation issues; thus, a Transportation Department.
“And, hopefully, Spencer [Anderson] would want to do one of those two jobs,” Lewis added, referring to serving as director of the Stormwater Department or director of the Transportation Department.