Appointment comes after residents call for such a position
During the April 22 Open to the Public comment period for the Sarasota County Commission meeting that day, Nadia Bowen, was the very first person to address continuing concerns of residents along Phillippi Creek about the need for emergency dredging before the 2025 hurricane season begins.
“Speaking on behalf of the Southgate Community Association, Bowen said, “There needs to be somebody at the county solely dedicated to this project who works tirelessly, 24/7 on this project until it gets done. There’s a ton of work to do,” she continued, “and there’s just too much work for the current staff [in the Stormwater Division and the Public Works Department].” (See the related article in this issue.)
The very next person to address the board that day, Christy Molyneaux, a Phillippi Creek homeowner who has testified about repeated flooding of her home during the 2024 storms, told the commissioners that she and others representatives of SAND (Supporters of Action Now on Dredging), along with Southgate residents, met the previous day with Spencer Anderson, director of Public Works, and Paul Semenc, manager of the Stormwater Division. “And I appreciate that they took their time to meet with us,” Molyneaux added.
“We need a person solely working on all the moving parts of Phillippi Creek dredging, someone who will go the extra mile to try and expedite the process,” she continued. Misters Anderson and Semenec are directors of busy departments,” Molyneaux pointed out, “and Phillippi Creek is not getting the attention that it should.”
She did thank the commissioners for their “sense of urgency.”
Following Molyneaux to the podium, yet another SAND member, David Ochs, urged the board members to “assign a hard-charging, no-nonsense, get-it-done, in-your-face point person who will eat, breathe and sleep this Phillippi Creek dredging issue.”
During the commission’s regular meeting on May 6, held at the R.L. Anderson Administration Center in Venice, Ochs was back at the podium during the Open to the Public period.
Reminding the board members that four people on April 22 “strongly advocated for a Phillippi Creek ‘point person,’ ” Ochs said, “You listened and acted. Thank you for ensuring that a point person was assigned. Currently, he’s being very responsive to citizen inquiries.”
On May 6, Jacob Crabtree, another member of SAND, was the first of the Phillippi Creek residents to speak who mentioned the new “point person” assigned to help them with their concerns.
He, too, expressed his appreciation to the commissioners for “giving some guidance to put some additional resources in place,” with John Morgan having been appointed “to directly oversee the dredging project [for the creek]. That’s a great, great step forward,” Crabtree said.
The second speaker that day to talk about Morgan was Molyneaux. Reminding the board members, “My home flooded three times with the storms [in 2024],” she also them. “We now have a ‘point person’ for Phillippi Creek, John Morgan, and he has assured us that he will work diligently to advocate for all things Phillippi Creek.”
In response to a Sarasota News Leader inquiry this week, the Public Works Department staff provided details in a May 6 email about John Morgan.
“He is on the Stormwater leadership team as the Watershed Planning Manager,” the email said.
“John has been with the county for 5 years and on the Stormwater team for almost 6 months. Paul Semenec [the Stormwater Division manager] decided to appoint him as the Public Works Phillippi Creek dredge point person, with Spencer’s support,” the email continued.
“Paul Semenec decided to have John lead the effort, in addition to being supported by two other engineers reporting to John,” the email added. “John will continue to perform this role for Phillippi Creek in addition to his other assigned duties.
“John’s job duties include advanced managerial work, including specific oversight of the [county’s Capital Improvement Program], watershed planning and monitoring, the water quality team, the County’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, and the Neighborhood Environmental Stewardship Team.”
Further, the email noted, John spent 23 years with the Coast Guard. Most of those years, he was directly involved with environmental response and enforcement, including post-hurricane response and recovery.”