Maio to serve as vice chair; Ziegler, as pro tem
The Sarasota County Commission has elected Michael Moran, who holds the District 1seat, as chair and Alan Maio, who represents District 4, as vice chair for 2020.
The action came during the board’s annual retreat, which was held on Dec. 13 at Phillippi Estate Park in Sarasota.
Commissioner Christian Ziegler, who was elected to the District 2 seat in 2018, will serve as pro tem.
Maio nominated Moran to be chair; no other names were offered.
After the nomination won unanimous approval, Moran made the motion for the other two appointments. Commissioner Nancy Detert seconded it, and it also passed 5-0.
The positions take effect on Jan. 1.
During their December 2017 retreat, looking ahead to the fact that Commissioner Charles Hines would have to step down from the board in 2020, as a result of term limits, the commissioners agreed that Hines would be chair for 2019. Thus, he was elected vice chair for 2018.
Otherwise, they noted at the time, Moran would have been in line to lead the board this year. Moran was elected vice chair for 2019.
Moran and Detert were elected to their seats in November 2016, when Hines won re-election. A former state senator and Florida House member, Detert served as board chair in 2018.
The chair presides at commission meetings.
“It’s a privilege to be selected by my colleagues to serve as chair of the board,” Moran said in a county news release, adding, “I am looking forward to guiding the board through a new year with new goals and new initiatives.”
Those goals and initiatives were the focus of most of the approximately six-hour-long retreat on Dec. 13.
Prior to Moran’s election to the County Commission, he served as vice chair of the Sarasota County Planning Commission. Additionally, he was a member of the board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, and he was involved with the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program and the Guardian Ad Litem program, among others.
Moran moved to Sarasota in 2002 with his wife, Lori, and two children, the county news release notes.