Commissioner Smith leads discussion
Although the Sarasota County Commission has placed a strong emphasis on stormwater issues this year — (see the related article in this issue) — the 2024 annual report of the county’s Stormwater Environmental Utility Advisory Committee ended up on the board’s June 3 Consent Agenda of routine business matters.
That meant no formal presentation of the report had been scheduled.
As a result, Commissioner Mark Smith asked that the item be pulled for comments.
Smith explained to his colleagues that when he met one-on-one with County Administrator Jonathan Lewis in advance of the June 3 meeting, Lewis had explained to him that the chair of the stormwater committee “most likely” would not be present during the June 3 session, given the fact that the report was listed on the Consent Agenda.
“So it’s tough to have a report given by a committee without a committee member here,” Smith added on June 3.
Therefore, Smith continued, he was seeking his colleagues’ concurrence to have the committee chair “come back and make a presentation to us that’s scheduled …”
When Chair Joe Neunder asked for Smith to make a formal motion to that effect, Smith did so, asking that the presentation be provided “at the next available time slot.” He named the chair listed on the report, Miguel Rivera, as the person to handle it.
Lewis asked that the commissioners consider what he called “one small tweak” to the motion. Instead of specifying Rivera, Lewis proposed that the motion call for the presentation to be made by whomever the committee members designated to do so.
Therefore, Smith modified his motion to specify “a representative from the committee.”
“Thank you,” Lewis told him.
Commissioner Teresa Mast seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.
A Sarasota retiree, Rivera no longer is listed as a member of the Stormwater Environmental Utility Advisory Committee, The Sarasota News Leaderdiscovered later on June 3. A review of the annual attendance charts for the committee, which were included in the commission’s June 3 agenda packet, said that Rivera’s term expired on April 30 and that he was not eligible for reappointment until one year had passed.
The county website’s details about the committee note that it has five vacant seats. Three of those, the webpage says, are for members at large; one is for a second City of Sarasota appointee.
When the News Leader inquired of county staff why the report was placed on the June 3 Consent Agenda, with no presentation planned, county staff provided the following statement via email on June 3: “The normal process was followed [for] advisory boards. Items in the consent portion of the agenda can be pulled by the commissioners for later discussion.”
It is not unusual for some the advisory boards’ annual reports to be included on Consent Agendas, the News Leader has observed through the years. However, as recently as Feb. 11, representatives of both the Sarasota Tree Advisory Council (STAC) and the Parks Advisory and Recreation Council (PARC) formally presented their committees’ 2024 annual reports to the commissioners.
The following is the 2024 annual report of the Stormwater Environmental Utility Advisory Committee that was included in the June 3 County Commission agenda packet:
