BOCC Reverses on Parking Garage, Public Comments and Historical Site Management

BRADENTON—The Manatee County Commission held its first regular meeting since the community learned the outcome of the Aug. 20 local primary elections. The only incumbent commissioner to have advanced through the primary races brought forward multiple controversial items previously enacted by the board or administration, and commissioners voted unanimously to stall or reverse them.

Commissioner George Kruse—who defeated Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge in the primary, securing his place as the District 7 at-large incumbent on the upcoming November ballot—added the three items to Tuesday’s meeting agenda.

Placed under “commissioner agenda items,” Kruse added for board discussion certain parking garages’ design work, the county’s Historical Sites transfer from the clerk to BOCC, and an item addressing the public’s ability to comment on the local government’s social media pages and posts.

Opening the items, Kruse explained that while the outcome of last Tuesday’s primary likely signifies a near-future shift of the board’s majority and overall direction on some of the most high-profile actions undertaken by the BOCC over the previous four years, he brought the select three items for discussion immediately—before new commissioners are sworn in—due to the point of each item in the approval process, the upcoming FY25 budget adoption, and the opportunity to reverse course on the items before taxpayer funds are expended on items a new board is unlikely to support.

The current commission had previously approved county procurement officials to move forward with advertising a Request For Qualifications (RFQ) and to seek possible public-private partnerships for the design of three new county parking garages—one at the Bradenton Area Convention Center, one at the Lakewood Ranch Premier Sports Complex, and another at the public beach at Anna Maria’s Holmes Beach.

Kruse proposed the board delay any further expenditure or forward motion on the garages until after the general election so that newly elected commissioners could have the opportunity to weigh in on the projects, and any that did not receive majority support of the future board did not cost taxpayers unnecessarily.

“I don’t want to spend money on design,” Kruse explained to his fellow commissioners, “until a new board comes in and opines on it.”

The proposed parking garage at Holmes Beach has faced significant public backlash and was an initiative largely believed to have been brought to life by Van Ostenbridge to punish Holmes Beach City Mayor Judy Titsworth.

After Kruse stated the case for his proposal, Van Ostenbridge made a motion to “table any further expenditures” for the Premier, Holmes Beach, and the Bradenton Convention Center parking garages and to “suspend the RFQ.”

Kruse seconded Van Ostenbridge’s motion. Put to a vote, the measure passed unanimously.

An existing parking garage located downtown adjacent to the county administration building requires replacement due to structural hazards. Tuesday’s vote did not impact the project, which will continue to move forward as previously approved.

A second item raised by Kruse for board action regarded a decision made by a majority vote of the board almost a year ago to remove oversight of the county’s Historical Sites from the county clerk—where they had resided for nearly 40 years.

On Sept. 12, 2023, an agenda item was mysteriously added to a Tuesday meeting agenda on Friday evening before the meeting and after the deadline to submit written public comment for that meeting had already passed.

Like the Holmes Beach Parking Garage initiative, many members of the public believed the BOCC's “taking” of the Historical Sites from the clerk was rooted in the hard feelings Commissioner Van Ostenbridge harbored against Clerk Angel Colonneso and the Clerk’s IG for its audit finding that Van Ostenbridge had inappropriately spent county funds on the purchase of voter data.

At the time, Commissioner Kruse questioned what the instigation for the item was or who had placed it on the agenda, given that the board and county staff had never previously discussed the topic. It was never revealed publicly what the inspiration or motive was for the agenda measure.

When put to a vote, Kruse was the only commissioner who voted against it.

This Tuesday, as Kruse brought the item back for reconsideration, he explained that in updates from staff and county administration, he understood that the process of the transfer remained “unclear” a year after the board approved it and that funding questions were still unanswered.

Van Ostenbridge ultimately motioned to approve rescinding the board’s previous decision to remove the historical sites from under the clerk's purview. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Amanda Ballard.

After comments by Commissioner Mike Rahn—who criticized the placement of the historical sites under the clerk and the overall management of the sites by the Clerk’s Historical Resources Department—Commissioner Ballard chimed in.

Ballard argued that because other county governments do not have their historical sites organized under their county clerk offices, she believed Manatee County doing so was “outside the lane of a clerk.”

However, after providing comments in support of removing oversight of the historical sites from under the clerk, Ballard added, “I did lots of research, and then I read lots and lots of citizen emails—and they all said the same thing—the citizens don’t care whether I think it’s within the purview of the Clerk of the Court.”

When put to a vote, rescinding the board’s previous action regarding the historical sites was passed unanimously 6-0, with the District 1 commissioner seat vacant.

The final item proposed by Kruse under commissioner agenda items on Tuesday was a motion to direct the county administrator to direct staff to turn commenting “back on” on the county’s social media pages.

Social media comments were administratively turned off late last year, and despite Kruse previously questioning during a meeting whether such a decision counted as a policy decision that should have been made by a vote of the board, no clear answers were provided as to why the decision was made or by whom, and no other commissioners appeared to have an appetite to intervene. 

Members of the public cried foul of the action, with many arguing that shutting off social media comments was an attempt by the local government to silence public voices. The public’s opinion appeared only bolstered by the fact that the year earlier, in 2022, Van Ostenbridge had single-handedly ended the public’s ability to phone into BOCC meetings to give public comment.

Following Kruse’s proposal that the board restore the public’s ability to comment on the county government’s social media accounts, Ballard introduced a motion to return the public’s ability to phone into meetings to provide public comment by phone.

“I’ve always been in favor of bringing back call-in public comments,” Ballard said on Tuesday. “I’ve brought it up on at least two occasions. The will of the board was not there.”

Commissioner Kruse had also made multiple attempts to restore call in public comment but struggled to get support for his motions beyond Ballard.

After the board discussed and heard the county attorney’s advice, two separate motions were made regarding public commenting. The first was for the county attorney’s office to return to the board's next scheduled meeting with a revised policy for social media comment moderation so that commissioners could move forward with restoring the option to the public, and another motion was to restore meeting call-in comments.

When put to a vote, both measures were approved unanimously by commissioners. 

Click the video below to replay each of the items presented under commission agenda items and board discussions during its Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, meeting.