County/Island Feud Spills Over into Hurricane Response
Posted
Dennis "Mitch" Maley
HOLMES BEACH – The ongoing tension between the Manatee County Government and that of the City of Holmes Beach escalated during Tuesday’s Hurricane Ian evacuation when a clip from a press conference given by Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes went viral on social media.
The entire island was under a mandatory evacuation, effective 8 a.m. on Tuesday. Islanders were instructed to be off the island by sunset at the very latest and were told that water and sewage lift stations would be turned off at that time.
Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth said that she had been in contact with Kevin Van Ostenbridge, the Manatee County Commissioner who represents the island cities, in the days leading up to the storm and informed him on Tuesday afternoon that residents were heeding the evacuation order and that her city looked like a "ghost town“ as a result. The mayor said she relayed a request from her chief of police that the water be left on a little longer for first responders and that the commissioner said he’d pass it on.
At a press briefing that evening, however, Hopes accused Holmes Beach Chief of Police William Tokajer of calling him while he was en route to the briefing and asking him to keep the water on so that island residents could stay put rather than evacuate.
A snippet pulled from the briefing was posted to TikTok and went viral–possibly because it was tagged with the hashtag #islandboys, which is typically used by the teen rap group of the same name, one of the most popular accounts on the platform.
In the clip, Hopes says:
"Well, when I have the police chief of one of the largest cities on the island call me on my way here to this briefing to ask that we do not turn the water off so that his residents can stay on the island, that’s a pretty good indicator that there’s a problem. And I’m gonna do everything I can if I have to drive out there myself.“
Hopes then accused island residents of putting the entire county’s water system at risk.
"And so because residents on the island want to stay there, if we were to leave that water on, and then we have a problem, we could have to shut down the entire system for everyone in Manatee County because some people wanted to stay on the island É“
The clip has nearly 500 comments, the vast majority of which were critical of island residents.
Tokajer told TBT that he soon began receiving calls and texts regarding Hopes’ statements. The chief took to the Department’s Facebook Page Monday to dispute Hope’s account.
After referencing Hopes’ statements, Tokajer wrote:
"Nothing could be further from the truth.
The County Administrator is the one person the Island residents, County residents and Municipal Leaders should be able to look towards for the facts. Especially during a storm event.
I did call Dr Hopes I asked that he revisit the order to turn off the water to the island on Tuesday at 6 pm for the Safety of First Responders. Dr. Hopes stated he was on the way to a meeting at the EOC and would discuss and call me back.
I did not make the request because I wanted water for our residents who refused to leave, but because our First Responders, the Holmes Beach Police, Manatee Sheriff's Department, West Manatee Fire and Bradenton Beach Police would not be leaving the island until the wind was too dangerous, which at the time of the phone call was not expected till mid-morning Wednesday.
Mayor Titsworth had the same conversation with Commissioner VanOstenbridge, telling him of the First Responder, Police and Fire needs, telling him the island looks deserted because people are taking this serious and evacuating.
When asked about the evacuation by Dr. Hopes, I advised him that we have clearly put out the message of the mandatory evacuation and the dangers of staying and that most of our residents had taken heed to the warnings, but we will always have a few hold outs that don’t leave.
As Island leaders we could not be prouder of our residents, business and property owners as they took Hurricane Ian very seriously, sandbagging, and boarding up businesses and residences. Coming to the City Hall and the Police Department to get over 1100 re-entry tags for those who were evacuating to be able to return. "
Tokajer told TBT that he only made the request once the storm’s path had veered south and was very clear that it would be for the benefit of first responders who were staying posted until wind speeds reached prohibitive levels.
"It’s disappointing that, in the middle of a hurricane response, I had to spend time explaining to people that it wasn’t true,“ said Tokajer.
Titsworth told TBT that it unfairly painted island residents in a selfish light.
"I don’t know why he would say that,“ said Titsworth. "It made it sound like islanders were these elitists who were jeopardizing the entire county’s water supply because they didn’t want to evacuate, when, in reality, they took this storm and the evacuation very seriously.“
Water to the island was shut off more than an hour before sunset, which led island officials to question whether the decision was punitive.
The strife between Holmes Beach and the county began immediately after Van Ostenbridge was elected to the seat in 2020. The first-term commissioner and current chair accused the city of jeopardizing the county’s beach renourishment funding by reducing public parking after a decision was made to no longer allow visitors to park on residential lawns along the roadways and some of the other spaces where parking had once been allowed.
Van Ostenbridge suggested that Holmes Beach should lose funding as a result, a position that he did not amend once it was explained that he had misunderstood beach access requirements and that the city remained far in excess of the spaces required. The commissioner then successfully blocked tourist tax revenue requests from the city, which he acknowledged was in response to the city refusing to acquiesce to his demands on parking.
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