Hats off to Manatee county for both of these quality of life projects. It is our local government who listened to residents and worked to win the grants to make Manatee a better place to live. Home rule is the best government.
Am seeing Speir as a way to avoid the issues of the Gruters (being the funnel through which all the dark money flows, while taking a cut), but he seems very uniformed very supportive of the policies folks have recognized as needing to be voted out asap. Yes, let's get rid of the corruption, but the package deal he seems to be supporting needs to be rejected as well.
So thanks for the interview, perhaps folks voting by his party alone will choose him in the primary — better than Gruters — making it easier to select someone such as Kirschner or one of the better opponents in the general election.
I prayed on this as well and I was informed you should NOT run for any public office after your horrible term as a commissioner and an even worse tenure as interim tax collector. If you are in need of money, I am sure there are other opportunities as a used car salesman perhaps.
WOW! “We the people” . . . Now we the people need to decipher - all candidates “party platforms”. It is a heavy lift! Take time to look up the Republican and Democratic Platform. To bad the “no party affiliates” don’t have an opportunity have this - find out why! I know the letter on my voter ID card breaks down the Party’s platform priorities into topics - ie Environment, affordability, health care etc. Find out if the party that represents you on your voter ID card reflects your moral compass, your concerns, your world!
State politicians chose to expand a college that did not have land to expand upon. They tried to buy SRQ airport land until the FAA stopped them to protect the long term best interests of the SRQ airport. Then they tried to get the Ringling Museum land from FSU. That failed too.
Most recently the state legislature voted to close USF-SM to give their land and buildings to New College. State politicians were willing to damage the SRQ airport and the Ringling Museum to expand New College. They will destroy USF-SM to save their pet political project described in John Oliver's piece.
Predictable political overreach by one political party rule of state government. If you don't like this- support election reforms like open primary elections, proportional representation and ranked choice voting.
Why do they want to take the mayor off being the tie breaker vote? Why do they not want the mayor to be a council member? I am not for or against, I just want to understand what the issue is about?
Good article and I plan on voting against the bill even though I am a home owners. However, while I realize this is a far left paper (at east opinion part), I wish there would be some (maybe one) articles/op-eds arguing the other side. It helps make for an informed voter.
Add these issues to the long list of documented examples of a complete lack of integrity shown by Charlie Bishop. Yet this and previous boards seem afraid to fulfill their oversight responsibilities. Not only has Mr Bishop not been held accountable - commissioners haven’t even asked questions. They know he violated public records law - they put a clause in his new contract requiring him to comply. They know he is responsible for falsely claiming that removing wetland buffers was “county initiated.” And that he used taxpayer money to hire Beruff’s consultant to pitch the lie. We are still paying for that fraud in legal fees and the loss of wetlands. A new board should demand an investigation into how that went down. Into how our own staff was ordered silent. Another recent example is the disastrous decision to purchase cheaply made kennel trailers for our shelter. Then Mr Bishop vindictively pursued volunteers for exposing their unsuitability. Vindictiveness is Mr Bishop’s management style. We have not had a county leader with integrity since Beruff and Pedicini, through their puppet commissioners, pushed out Cheri Coryea. First we got Hopes, then KVO slipped in Charlie Bishop in the same meeting in which he (KVO) rejected the national search candidates - after we paid to fly them in. An organization is a reflection of its leader. It is long past time Manatee had an administrator who leads by example.
Commissioners totally do not understand the issues created by Airbnb and short term rentals. They refuse to workshop or discuss, their only concern is the 30+ million in bed tax collected....meanwhile they leave residents in a very dangerous situation as they are forced to manage the disaster created by these disrespectful guests. This is a serious safety issue for residents. These owners should be responsible for their guests but they are not. Something needs to change. All complaints should be attached to the agenda so they can no longer be hidden. Thank you LWV for your notes and citizen comment information.
Than you Bob for clear intelligent thougtful commentary. You say here what we all see every day. You are in the trenches each day and see the real world happenings and real time destruction of the quality of life in our once beautiful and now UGLY county thanks to the unbridled uncontrolled greed of the BERUFFS NEALS BENDERSONS REX JENSON SMR and national builders and the complete destruction of our quality of life. It will be very difficult to fight the stooge lackeys on the county commission and the proliferation of overpaid bureaucrats loafing and sucking off of our tax dollars while they ignore the homeowners who actually care about the future of East County (west county is gone) and continue to ram though their tacky sterile junk everywhere. the TRAFFIC IS HORRIBLE and worse every week. The quality of life is deteriorating every week thanks to these developers who have run WILD for years and controlled their lackeys in the local government - some gone like that WHITMORE and the other prior tools, some here like KRUSE still doing their best to wreck whats left of the quality of life of our homes. Some of us didnt work all of our lives to live in a parking lot full of strip malls like Orlando and Miami but thats what these developers want while they line their pockets. How many MILLIONS DO THEY NEED? HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH BERUFF? JENSEN? NEAL? Its never enough because they will never stop. The voting populace needs to wake up and get behind you and your team Dr. Mccann before they finish us off in the next few years
Homeowners and taxpayers remember - YOU WILL BE LOOKING AT THIS SUBURBAN BLIGHT AND TRAFFIC FOR YEARS TO COME- IS THAT HOW YOU WANT TO LIVE? Thanks for being open and vocal Dr Mccann, I know my friend Carolann Felts would be very proud of you for standing up to these greedy pigs who are wrecking our homes with their unending trashy developments.
This is even more reason to reject Rahn and Ballard. In 2023, when they were not up for election, a packed chamber and some 500 pages of public comment begged them not to gut the wetland buffers. Ballard, Rahn and Bearden's response was to give the public the middle finger. They did the same for policy 2.1.2.8 which allows developers to leapfrog the rural boundary line. They did the same when Commissioner Kruse was pushing for maximum impact fees. Ballard and Rahn (and Bearden) voted to use an old study to keep impact fees at a minimum. The inescapable lesson here is that, if Rahn and Ballard are re-elected,, they will go back to giving the public the middle finger on developer-related issues. Don't let them hide from their record. Vote out Rahn and Ballard on August 18th.
People should read Tales of Old Florida and then they would understand why the Eden of the United States has been destroyed. Too many Eves taking a bite of the apple.
Mr. Green would have some big shoes to fill. Lisa Gonzalez Moore has done a wonderful job keeping constituents updated and fighting for us in the 4th District. I was skeptical of Councilwoman Moore prior to her election because of her close ties to real estate as an attorney. But, her awareness of our community concerns has always been her focus and for that we're all very grateful.
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