Finally, a Wetland Policy Presentation Worth Listening to

On Thursday, Manatee Planning Commissioners received a staff presentation explaining why it would be a really good idea to reverse an amendment made by the previous board that guts our wetland protection policies, deferring to the absolute minimum required by the state. This presentation was very different from the one brought forward by an outside consultant in 2023.

In the fall of 2023, under the direction of developer-installed puppets on the BOCC, the county began moving forward with plans to eviscerate its wetland protections. Politically-connected developer Carlos Beruff had sued the county multiple times, arguing that requiring such buffers amounted to an unnecessary and illegal taking of land.

Using its own legal department, the county successfully defended the suits because they were utterly without merit. Florida not only allows counties and municipalities to set their own wetland protection policies beyond the bare minimum required by the state, it encourages them to do so. Not to be deterred, developers set their sights on the next election cycle, pouring a fortune into county commission races and successfully tying their candidates to the MAGA wave on red meat social issues while avoiding local policies.

By 2020, Beruff and company enjoyed a slim majority of candidates they backed. In 2022, however, developers doubled down, picking up two more seats after getting another via a gubernatorial appointment. Aided by a team of stooges at the top levels of the administration, the new board didn’t wait long to reverse Beruff’s courtroom losses by changing the rules from within. However, it seemed that they couldn’t find county staff willing to sell their souls and recommend such an asinine change that would surely have deleterious effects on a community whose waterways were already suffering from intense algael blooms.

So, the county actually hired the same “expert witness” Beruff’s legal team used in their unsuccessful challenge to serve as a “consultant" to the county. He gave the board a laughable presentation, telling them that he was unaware of any environmental advantages provided by buffers larger than the state minimum.

The whole farce was reminiscent of a kangaroo court in some banana republic, but the board still voted to “amend” the policy, despite deafening public outcry. That single issue energized the community so much that all the developer cash in the world couldn’t keep the puppets on the board. In a historic outcome, grassroots candidates up and down the ballot won landslide victories over far better-funded opponents.

On Thursday, we got to hear what county staff really thought about the hamfisted idea of gutting our wetland protections. Kara Koenig, Manatee County Environmental Planning Section Manager, gave what Planning Commissioner Matt Bower called the “gold standard” of presentations, explaining in detail while offering study after study that the consultant hadn’t been aware of as to why bigger buffers mean more protection and cleaner waterways. Bravo, Ms. Koenig!

Unlike the hired mouthpiece that gave the so-called expert presentation last time around, Koenig is an actual wetland policy expert. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marine, Estuarine, and Freshwater Biology and earned her Master’s of Science in Environmental Science and Management, specializing in coastal resources management. As she explained to the planning commission Thursday, she was giving them the presentation because her team is the section under development services that implements wetland/wetland buffer regulations for development applications within the county. How novel.

These days, DOGE and its fanboys would like you to believe that government is little more than lazy bureaucrats hiding from work and stealing a paycheck. In reality, hard-working, underappreciated bureaucrats like Koenig and her team are too often the only thing standing between the public interest and the many deep-pocketed special interests eager to do it harm for the sake of a fatter bottom line. This is what democracy looks like when it is allowed to work, which is why so many elites hate it.

An old colleague once told me that democracy is a hands-on enterprise that likes to be touched. Things are much better than they were a year ago, but the developers haven’t given up, and the same top-tier leadership that allowed this nonsense to occur is still in place. Remain vigilant, Manatee County. Maintaining our slice of paradise still requires all hands on deck.

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch is also the author of three novels and a short story collection available here.