Number of members expanded from five to seven
It took about 25 minutes of discussion, but on a unanimous vote taken on May 19, the Sarasota County commissioners agreed to appoint a seven-member Siesta Key Beautification Task Force to work for 24 months in an effort to guide the commission on how best to address the island’s needs in the wake of devastation from Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the fall of 2024.
County staff had suggested an 18-month timeline for the work of the task force, with the group’s final report to be submitted to the commission no later than Dec. 31, 2027. Yet, a county staff memo in the May 19 agenda packet did note the option of the commission’s extending the deadline for that report.
Further, after discussion about the number of task force members, the commissioners agreed to a compromise that kept the county staff proposal calling for each commissioner to appoint one person to the task force, but two at-large members will join those five persons. The latter would be appointed by majority vote of the commissioners, based on applications that staff will receive.
The May 19 staff memo explained the task force’s direction as follows: “The scope … is advisory in nature and includes reviewing existing conditions, identifying priorities, and evaluating opportunities related to streetscapes and corridors, landscaping and vegetation, signage and wayfinding, public spaces and beach access areas, cleanliness and maintenance, and pedestrian safety. The Task Force will provide recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners and will not have decision-making authority or authority to commit County resources.”
Further, that memo said, “The Siesta Key Beautification Alliance (Alliance), a community-based stakeholder group, has engaged with Sarasota County to identify opportunities to enhance the overall appearance, functionality, and long-term sustainability of Siesta Key. The Alliance has emphasized that its efforts extend beyond traditional beautification and include infrastructure improvements, pedestrian safety, resiliency, and coordinated long-term planning.”
The memo added, “The Alliance has also expressed interest in partnering with the County to evaluate funding opportunities and develop a phased implementation strategy.”
As noted in the memo, as well, the county’s Planning and Development Services Department “will coordinate onboarding [of the task force members], schedule the initial meeting, and provide administrative support to assist the Task Force in carrying out its duties. The Task Force will provide periodic updates [to the commission],” along with the final, written report.
Staff anticipates that the task force will meet monthly, as noted in a slide presentation to the board.
The County Commission direction for both the creation of the task force and work on a new community master plan for Siesta Key followed a nearly two-hour-and-30-minute workshop on island issues, which the board conducted on Feb. 10.
During their Open to the Public comment period on May 19, Natalie Gutwein, spokesperson for the Siesta Key Beautification Alliance, which was organized in the aftermath of the 2024 hurricane season, asked the commissioners to allow the task force to work for 48 months, with the potential of another 24 months if the group’s work were not complete at the end of four years.
Commissioner Joe Neunder was the first to propose the 48-month timeline to his colleagues. He noted that if the task force completed its duties earlier, the extra time would not be necessary. “I would say better to have that space and not need it than need it and not have it,” he added.
Commissioners Teresa Mast and Tom Knight initially expressed support for that modification of the timeline.
“I’m very much in agreement with the 48 months,” Mast told her colleagues, noting that, when she was a member of county staff, she served as part of the group that oversaw the development of the Siesta Key Overlay District (SKOD) zoning regulations. That type of process, she pointed out, “takes a bit of time.”
However, both Commissioners Mark Smith, a long-time Siesta Key resident, and Chair Ron Cutsinger opposed the idea.
“Government works so slow,” Smith said. “[If they] get more time, they’re just going to take more time,” he added of the task force members.
“As reports come to us,” Smith continued, if the commissioners felt the group needed more time, they could vote to give it more time. “We have the authority to do that,” he pointed out.
Ultimately, Neunder suggested the 24 months as a compromise.
Further, Neunder proposed the addition of two alternates to the five members. “Things happen in life,” he said, such as illness or other commitments when meetings are scheduled. Therefore, he continued, perhaps it would be appropriate to have extra people available, to ensure that the work could proceed in a timely manner if not all the members could be present for a session.
Commissioner Mast also concurred with that idea.
Yet, Smith questioned whether the alternates would show up for meetings if they were not going to participate in all of the sessions.
Moreover, Mast initially recommended to her colleagues that they vote as a group on applications that county staff would receive from county residents interested in serving on the task force.
Yet, Chair Cutsinger responded, “We’re individually appointing members.”
“I’m saying we don’t necessarily have to,” Mast told him, noting her understanding that applications would be submitted to county staff. “I say we pick five [members], as a board,” she continued, instead of making one appointment per commissioner. “I don’t have any favorites,” Mast did add.
“I wasn’t aware that we were going to take applications, per se, for the five,” Cutsinger said.
Eileen Dutka, office manager of County Administration — who provided the May 19 presentation — reminded the board members that staff will have to determine the eligibility of anyone appointed to the task force. The members will have to comply with all of the county’s advisory board service requirements, she said, plus additional criteria: None of them can be engaged in litigation against the county, under contract with the county or employed by the county, as noted in the county staff memo.
The vetting of the individuals whom the commissioners propose for membership would take place after their names were put forth, Dutka said. Those individuals would be asked to submit applications to staff, she added, for that verification process.
In response to a question from Neunder, Dutka explained that staff would post the information about the openings for the two at-large members of the Siesta Key Beautification Task Force on the county’s Advisory Board webpages by the end of the day on May 19. Typically, she indicated, openings are advertised for three weeks.
Commissioner Mast ended up making the motion calling for the 24-month timeline for the task force’s work, plus the addition of the two at-large members.
Commissioner Smith seconded the motion, and it passed 5-0.
‘Narrow and friendly’ amendments to staff proposal
During her Open to the Public remarks at the start of the May 19 meeting, which was held in Venice, Gutwein of the Siesta Key Beautification Alliance explained that that organization was proposing a total of four amendments to the resolution that the board would address that day in regard to creating the task force.
She characterized those amendments as “narrow and friendly,” noting that they were designed “to set this task force up to succeed from Day 1” and that Alliance representatives would be happy to work with county staff on “the finer details” of them, “once the task force is seated and a coordination MOU [memorandum of understanding] is in place.”
- First, Gutwein pointed out, the Alliance used private funds to pay the $40,000 for a study “prepared by Atwell Engineering and RVi, [which] reflects months of residents’ input, a technical analysis and field work.” The Alliance wanted the County Commission to declare that that study would be “the foundational reference document for the task force’s work.”
- Second, the Alliance called for the 48-month timeline. “Beautification work on a barrier island — design, permitting, [Florida Department of Transportation] coordination, community review, procurement and construction — simply isn’t going to fit inside 18 months,” Gutwein told the board. The Alliance also wanted a clause in the resolution to allow another 24 months, if the work were not completed within the 48 months, she said.
- In regard to an MOU: Gutwein asked that County Administrator Jonathan Lewis execute such a document with the task force chair “within 60 days of seating.” She pointed out, “A clear handshake on the front end on roles, communication and decision flow prevents friction at the back end and lets staff and the task force work as one team.”
- Finally, Gutwein said, until the task force has been seated and the MOU has been executed, the Alliance was asking “that no substantive decisions or hires tied to the [Scope of Work] move forward.”
The only other member of the public who addressed the board about the task force, was Lourdes Ramirez, president of the nonprofit Protect Siesta Key.
On behalf of that organization, Ramirez pointed out during the Open to the Publicperiod that it appears that the task force and the master planning process “have very different goals. Honestly,” she continued, “this has all the markings of a scam.”
She emphasized, “Residents asked for storm resilience [and] traffic and infrastructure improvements.” Instead, Ramirez continued, the Scope of Work for the master planning process includes language about the island’s zoning code and the county’s Comprehensive Plan. “Residents didn’t ask for that,” she stressed. “Frankly,” she acknowledged, “I don’t believe this board asked for that.”
As a result of a state law approved in 2025 — Senate Bill 180 — she further emphasized that if the Comprehensive Plan is amended, “It will be weakened.
“So who has been spending years trying to weaken [the island’s] protections?” Ramirez continued: “Mega-hotel developers. So let’s stop pretending that the master plan is about beautification of Siesta Key.”
She added that the Scope of Work also indicates that another result of the master planning process would be the implementation of a tax on all county property owners, to pay for improvements to the island.
Ramirez pointed out that residential property owners “already are dealing with hurricane recovery, milestone inspections [required by the state for condominium complexes in a certain age range] and special assessments.”
She asked the commissioners, “Do you really think residents should now subsidize improvements that primarily benefit commercial interests and developers like Benderson [Development Co.]?”
Benderson has sought to construct a high-rise hotel on property it owns in Siesta Village. In Protect Siesta Key’s February newsletter, Ramirez reported that the company had withdrawn a proposal it submitted to county staff in 2023 that would enable it to pursue such a project, if that proposal won County Commission approval.