County administrator initiates discussions with city administrative staff regarding potential transfer of city stormwater work from county to city
Ahead of the Dec. 5 regular meeting of the Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations of Sarasota (CCNA), leaders of the organization announced to members that the City of Sarasota has launched a website to — as they put it — “Keep you Current on all Stormwater Projects.”
The most recent CCNA newsletter pointed to the numerous projects taking place in regard to stormwater, “particularly since the hurricanes in 2024.” The newsletter added, “CCNA is working with both the City of Sarasota and Sarasota County in an effort to protect our communities’ neighborhoods.”
As the newsletter explained, “Since 1991, the City of Sarasota has had an interlocal agreement with Sarasota County to maintain all stormwater systems located in the City of Sarasota. As a result, maintenance, cleaning, and repair of most stormwater systems within City limits are the responsibility of the County. Click to access the Sarasota County Stormwater webpage for more information on the Sarasota County Stormwater system.”
On Dec. 3 — the day before the Coalition issued that newsletter — Sarasota County Administrator Jonathan Lewis reported to the county commissioners that he and county Stormwater Department Director Ben Quartermaine had met with city administrative staff and Nik Patel, the city’s Public Works director, for “high-level discussions regarding why the county might desire to review the interlocal. From the county side we discussed costs as a whole and distribution of costs, differential in development standards historically, equity among municipalities [and] the changing nature of the counties stormwater system.”
He added, City staff members “discussed why they thought it was a bad idea and that the county commission has always had the ability to raise [assessments] to fund levels of service and project implementation within the City.”
Lewis continued, “I told the [interim] city manager that while we are reviewing the overall stormwater utility, we will be reviewing how the interlocal works so the commission has the information it desires to make the best decision from a policy perspective. I told him that with everything our stormwater department is currently doing it will take us a little bit of time. I told him we will keep the city in the loop and involved as we develop any materials. “
Dave Bullock has been the interim city manager since late May, as the City Commission works to hire a new manager to succeed Marlon Brown, who resigned effective as of Oct. 15, 2024.
During the Nov. 18 regular meeting of the County Commission, Commissioner Teresa Mast won her colleagues’ full support for her recommendation that Lewis begin discussions with Bullock by the first of 2026 in regard to the stormwater responsibilities. That would be good timing, she added, as the County Commission plans to start its 2027 fiscal year budget work in February 2026. (The current fiscal year will end on Sept. 30, 2026.)
During the Nov. 18 discussion, both Mast and Commissioner Tom Knight talked stressed the need for countywide stormwater maintenance. “We have an obligation to unincorporated Sarasota County,” Mast said.
She also pointed out that the stormwater assessments paid by city residents total only about $4 million per year.
County funding sought for multiple city projects
As The Sarasota News Leader has reported, the same day that the county commissioners directed County Administrator Lewis to begin the talks with city staff, they also approved two city dredging projects. Those will be paid for out of a nearly $210.1-million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), through its Community Development Block Grant Program that responds to disasters. The county received notice of the award of that money in January. The funds are being dispersed through the county’s latest Resilient SRQ Program.
Given county residents’ pleas for stormwater maintenance — to reduce the risk of more flooding akin to what many of them endured during the 2024 storm season — the county commissioners in April agreed to dedicate $45 million of the HUD money just to the dredging of Phillippi Creek. (See the related article in this issue.)
The board members dedicated another “pot” of the federal grant — $30 million — to the dredging of other waterways, while they also set aside $57,089,300 for initiatives involving “Infrastructure & Public Facilities,” for which public entities — such as the City of Sarasota — nonprofit organizations and the county itself could apply.
The Dec. 4 CCNA newsletter noted that the County Commission had awarded the city funding for the dredging of both Hudson Bayou and Whitaker Bayou, while applications for three city flood mitigation projects are to be considered during the County Commission’s regular meeting on Dec. 16, in Venice. One of those involves St. Armands, as the News Leader reported last week.
Details of the other two follow:
The Dec. 16 County Commission meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at the Robert L. Anderson Administration Center in Venice, which stands at 4000 S. Tamiami Trail. The agenda for the session may be found here. The Resilient SRQ discussion is No. 53, following the reports of the commissioners, the county administrator and the county attorney.