Manatee County Commissioners to Assign ELMAC Members

BRADENTON – At Tuesday's meeting, the Manatee County Commission voted unanimously to make a change to the number of members that will comprise the Environmental Lands Management and Acquisition Committee (ELMAC). The approved motion also changes how commissioner-nominated members will be appointed to the committee.

Established by the Manatee County Commission in 1993, the ELMAC committee was formed to advise county commissioners on matters of land acquisition and management. Upon its formation, ELMAC had no dedicated source of funding for land purchases and served only to advise the county of suggested land acquisitions. However, this changed in November of 2020, when 71 percent of county voters passed a referendum to "finance the acquisition, improvement, and management of land to protect drinking water sources and water quality, preserve fish and wildlife habitat, prevent stormwater runoff pollution, and provide parks," agreeing to tax themselves around $50 million in order for the county to protect and preserve county lands.

In the year following, ELMAC was designated by the commission as the committee that would oversee advisory of how the revenue approved by the taxpayers for preservation lands would be spent.

EMLAC previously existed as a 15-member committee, but with Tuesday’s vote, the commission expanded ELMAC to be formed as a 17-member committee. The committee members–originally comprised of four at-large resident appointments (citizens residing anywhere in the county), one member resident of Long Boat Key, one member resident of Anna Maria Island, and nine remaining citizen appointments with a specific resume of expertise or specific community involvement–received a nomination to the committee by board members and nominations were approved by a majority vote of the board.

The change to the total number of committee members was made to accommodate each of the seven county commissioners independently appointing one citizen member to ELMAC. The change–as explained in Tuesday's meeting–is intended to help spread out and better balance the geographic representation of the members who serve on the committee.

With the change of 15 to 17 members, each district commissioner will now personally choose a citizen appointee who resides within the district they represent, and that appointee will assume their role on the committee without requiring a board vote for approval. Likewise, each at-large commissioner will also select one citizen appointee to the committee–from any district in the county–and their appointees will also assume a seat on the committee without undertaking a board vote for approval.

One existing at-large citizen appointment to the committee, as well as the nine citizen expert positions, will remain unchanged from the committee’s previous arrangement. These positions will continue to require open nominations by board members and a board majority vote for approval and appointment to the committee.

In mid-December, the commission approved a resolution that established a liaison board member to the citizens' committee. The liaison is not included as a committee member, cannot vote with the committee, and is not counted as one of its 17 members.

Commissioner James Satcher was nominated and approved by the commission to serve as the board member liaison to ELMAC, although Satcher had hoped he might chair the committee and serve as a voting member. Despite his efforts to make that so, Commissioner Satcher’s colleagues largely disagreed and voted only to approve a board liaison for the purpose of attending committee meetings and to facilitate better coordination and communication between ELMAC and the county commission.