Former county Commissioner Maio appointed to Environmentally Sensitive Lands Oversight Committee

Term to run through November 2027

More and more often, as he neared the end of his second and final term on the Sarasota County Commission, Al Maio of Nokomis talked about the importance of the county’s land acquisition programs.

In fact, he occasionally asked Nicole Rissler, director of the county’s Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department, to update the board and the public on how much county land had been preserved, including parcels purchased for use as parks.

This week, Maio, who stepped down from the board in November 2022 because of term limits, won appointment to the county’s Environmentally Sensitive Lands Oversight Committee (ESLOC). His three-year term will run through November 2027.

The unanimous vote came as the current county commissioners approved their Nov. 19 Consent Agenda of routine business matters.

A county staff memo in the commission’s Nov. 19 agenda packet explained that the expiration of an ESLOC’s member’s term had created the vacancy for a person representing business or development interests. Maio had submitted an application on Sept. 22 to serve on the committee, the memo added. Another document in the agenda packet indicated that he was the only person to apply for the open seat.

In his application, Maio identified himself as a planner.

Responding to the application question about why he wanted to serve on that advisory council, Maio wrote, “For two years as Chairman of the Sarasota County [Commission] I attended these [ESLOC] meetings. I am a strong supporter of the 1/4 mil tax collection for environmental and or parks lands by the County and its renewal.”

He was referring to the voter-approved tax that dates to 1999. It provides the funds for the county’s acquisition of property through the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program and the Neighborhood Parkland Program. On the November 2026 General Election ballot, county citizens will be asked whether they wish to continue that tax; it is set to expire at the end of 2029.

A June update provided by Rissler of Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources and her staff said that more than 40,300 acres had been protected countywide “through more than 90 land and conservation easement purchases,” while the Neighborhood Parkland Program had “acquired a total of 25 properties,” comprising 116 acres throughout the county.

Maio also noted in his application that he has a business relationship with the county through his work with the Kimley-Horn consulting firm in Sarasota. He was a principal of that company before he resigned in preparation for his first run for the commission, in 2014. A Sarasota News Leader check of his LinkedIn account found that it does identify him again as a principal of Kimley-Horn, as his application indicated.

He also wrote in his application that Kimley-horn engages in engineering, planning, environmental studies and landscape architecture.