Worry surfaces this week about holding multiple referendum on the General Election ballot
The Sarasota County commissioners this week voted unanimously to back away from placing a referendum on a new jail on the November 2026 General Election ballot.
The action followed an Oct. 21 discussion that Sarasota County Administrator Jonathan Lewis initiated with the board members. It came immediately after Kim Radtke, director of the county’s Office of Financial Management (OFM), won the unanimous support of the commissioners for two other November 2026 referenda. Both relate to proposed changes to the Sarasota County Charter related to bonding limits.
The Charter restricts the county to a bond issue no higher than $30.5 million, when the repayment of the bonds will come from property tax revenue, a county staff memo explained. (It was included in the agenda packet for the Oct. 21 County Commission meeting, which was held in downtown Sarasota.)
Further, the memo noted, the county is limited to $30.5 million in refinancing existing debt to gain debt service savings.
One referendum question will ask voters to “allow the County to issue debt in excess of its bonding limitation only during a declared emergency by the Governor or President and only to be used on emergency response and recovery related to the declared emergency,” the memo emphasized.
The second proposed Charter amendment “would allow the County to refund existing debt in excess of its bonding limitation where debt service savings is available through a refinancing of existing debt issues (bonds and notes) or where interim financing (commercial paper) is being refinanced with long term debt. This amendment only applies to refinancing existing debt [as] new projects will still be required to be issued under the Charter Cap (or approved by voter referendum),” the staff memo stressed.
Radtke of the OFM and Steve Botelho, deputy county administrator and chief financial management officer for the county, have noted the Charter caps during past discussions with the board.
As the Oct. 21 meeting had begun at 9 a.m., and it was about 4 p.m. when Radtke came up to the podium for her remarks, the commissioners did not engage in any discussion about her proposals.
Commissioner Mark Smith made the motion to approve the proposed 2026 referenda on the Charter amendments, and Commissioner Teresa Mast seconded it. Neither offered any comments at that point, either.
The motion passed 5-0.
Then County Administrator Lewis broached the topic of the jail referendum, prefacing his remarks with the fact that he did not know whether the board members would want to discuss the issue at that time.
“Having a lot of things on a referendum is generally not a good idea, in my experience,” he said.
In the spring of 2023, during a discussion with Nicole Rissler, director of the county’s Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department (PRNR), the board members seated at that time had agreed to conduct a November 2026 General Election referendum on the continuation of the county’s voter-approved Land Acquisition Program.
The Land Acquisition Program is set to expire in 2029. Yet, as Rissler had pointed out during the March 2023 budget discussion, county staff not only was working to purchase more environmentally sensitive lands and property suitable for parks, but staff also needs to provide more public access to the land it owns — and cover the rising costs of maintaining existing amenities.
At one point in that discussion, then-Commissioner Mike Moran pointed out that he was “pulling the fire alarm” on the fact that the Land Acquisition Program would run out of funding before it expired in slightly more than six years.
During the 2023 fiscal year budget workshop, Moran noted that staff anticipated spending $4,458,216 to maintain the land it had bought through what staff then called the Environmentally Sensitive Land Protection Program (ESLPP). Yet, as shown in other slides, staff also expected to have only $3,032,114 available for that purpose. Thus, staff would have to use $1,426,102 from the ESLPP reserve fund to cover the difference.
As of Oct. 1, 2022 — the beginning of the 2022-23 fiscal year — the estimated fund balance for the ESLPP was $2,450,168, a slide said.
What about the jail?
After Lewis brought up his concern to the commissioners during their Oct. 21 meeting, he reminded them that staff was continuing to work through the jail design process. “I think finishing that would be valuable,” he continued, “but I do think it begs the question for me and my staff: Does the board still want to proceed with the referendum on the jail in 2026.”
He pointed out, “The time is short [to prepare for a referendum].”
If the commissioners believed the initiative should be delayed, Lewis said, “I need direction.”
“I think that’s a heavy lift,” to have three referenda on one ballot, Commissioner Tom Knight was the first to respond.
(In May 2016, when Knight was serving his second of three terms as Sarasota County sheriff, he withdrew support for a planned $191-million county referendum for Sheriff’s Office facilities to be constructed on Cattlemen Road in Sarasota, along with a new fleet facility for the agency that had been proposed on Laurel Road in Nokomis, plus a new South County Courthouse and renovations at the county’s Robert L. Anderson Administration Center in Venice.)
(“We need the buildings really, really, really bad,” Knight told The Sarasota News Leader in an interview, referring to what was being called the Public Safety Campus on Cattlemen Road, along with the fleet facility. However, he added, he believed the timing was not right for the ballot measure, given the fact that the City of Venice already was working on two referenda of its own for the November 2016 General Election ballot. Additionally, Knight noted, the potential existed at that time that the county would pursue a separate referendum in November 2016. Discussions had indicated that that would regard a Major League Baseball Spring Training stadium for the Atlanta Braves in South County.)
On Oct. 21, Knight — who was elected to the commission in November 2024 — also reminded his board colleagues that, during their last discussion about a new jail — conducted in late August — they heard a presentation about a Sheriff’s Office recommendation regarding construction of a facility in downtown Sarasota where the inmates in the West Wing of the jail could be transferred and held while the West Wing was demolished. Then, a new jail could be constructed on the site of the West Wing, which is the county detention center’s oldest facility.
During the commission’s regular meeting on Aug. 27, Brad Gaubatz, manager of the county’s Capital Projects Department, explained that the new option potentially could save taxpayers about $30 million in construction costs and approximately $170 million in operating expenses.
The scenario would eliminate the need to construct a new Criminal Justice Center (CJC) to replace the building standing at 2071 Ringling Blvd., where the Sheriff’s Office administrative offices used to be housed. The offices of 12th Judicial District State Attorney Ed Brodsky and Public Defender Larry Eger remain in the CJC, along with county records and offices of nonprofit organizations whose missions are related to law enforcement and the courts, as noted during the commission’s Aug. 19 budget workshop.
On Oct. 21, Commissioner Knight characterized the Aug. 27 discussion as having “shifted gears a little bit more.”
Then Knight told his colleagues, “My personal thoughts for this board would be we … hold off on the jail referendum [plans],” at least until staff completes its review of the West Wing option.
During the Aug. 27 meeting, Gaubatz said he felt it would be December before he could bring the commissioners more reliable cost estimates to consider.
“I agree with Commissioner Knight,” Commissioner Mark Smith said during the discussion this week. “I do think we should go forward with the design,” he continued, “in order to find the direction that we would like to go … The need will still be there,” he pointed out, “but the timing’s off.”
Smith added, “I think we really need to hone in on what we’re asking [voters] for and where we’re planning on building it.”
Delaying the referendum, he continued, “also will help us solidify the costs, so we are asking [for] exactly what we need [for the new jail].”
Commissioner Teresa Mast added, “I also think it’s really important that it’s so transparent when you do a referendum. It’s vital to our citizens that they have an opportunity to understand what it is that they’re voting on,” she said, “and I do not think it’s in the best interest of the county as a whole [to schedule numerous referenda].”
Mast also pointed out, “I don’t think that you ever want to set yourself up for failure or confusion.”
Smith ended up making the motion to refrain from pursuing the 2026 jail referendum “at this time,” but to direct staff to continue to pursue the design work discussed in August.
Commissioner Ron Cutsinger seconded the motion, and it passed 5-0.
“Thank you for the direction,” County Administrator Lewis said.
The News Leader did inquire of Sheriff’s Office staff whether Sheriff Kurt A. Hoffman would like to provide a statement about the decision. In an Oct. 23 email, Hoffman said, “I understand the county has many hard decisions to make as it relates to their correctional facility. Naturally, I’m disappointed, but the reality remains, and this problem is not going away.”
Both Hoffman and Maj. Brian Meinberg, commander of the Sheriff’s Office’s Courts and Corrections Division, have stressed to the commissioners their concerns about the continuing overflow of the facility’s population. The jail routinely has been over capacity for the past several years.