To call Tuesday’s Manatee County Commission meeting surreal would be an incredible understatement. The historic, across-the-board upsets in the August primaries were bound to provoke some sort of reaction from those not up for reelection, but I don’t think that anyone expected things to get this bizarre.
It was hard to know what to make of the first post-election meeting, in which a seemingly humbled Kevin Van Ostenbridge conceded to the fact that “the people have spoken” before lending his vote to two of three reversals lead by Commissioner George Kruse, who had just won a landslide victory over the two-time chair.
In the weeks since, I’ve heard a reasonably reliable rumor that there is a good chance that there will be a vacancy on the Bradenton City Council shortly after the November elections. The story goes that Mayor Gene Brown will push his good friend KVO for the appointment, assuming Brown manages to get reelected himself, a proposition that seems less likely with each release of sewage the city pumps into local waters. If this is true, that might be the incentive for his attempt to rehab his reputation, but again, at this point, it is only a rumor.
Before Tuesday, Commissioner Jason Bearden had been radio silent. That changed in a major way when Bearden motioned to have the county cease its efforts to collect inflated legal fees for TBT publisher Joe McClash related to his challenge of the county gutting its wetland protection policies. Bearden was not able to get anyone other than Kruse to back him, but he then aggressively moved to reverse the wetland policy changes.
Because that change would require a hearing, Bearden had to amend his motion to direct staff to bring such a change back to the board at a future meeting, which passed unanimously.
Obviously, Joe McClash is my close friend and the guy who signs my paychecks, so let’s put that little disclaimer up front. That said, I’ll defer to Commissioner Kruse’s explanation as to why the county’s actions were punitive and absurd.
McClash challenged the county’s action on wetlands on the grounds that it had not followed its own rules in terms of demonstrating an overriding public benefit to the change. It was the very first challenge to take place after the Florida Legislature passed a law mandating that if someone challenges a comp plan amendment and does not prevail, the county (and the developer should they join) could seek to hold them liable for the opposing party(s) legal fees.
McClash, who was representing himself, sought a ruling on whether he would be considered a non-prevailing party if the county had to take corrective action in order to cure such an oversight. The judge ruled that he would, so he withdrew the challenge before a single hearing or even a deposition had taken place, understanding that he could face an enormous financial burden.
Still, the county sought to collect a whopping quarter million dollars in outsourced legal work supposedly incurred merely for research in a few motions and some prepping for what might be ahead. As Kruse correctly pointed out, the county has its own well-stocked legal department, and when developers previously tried to sue the county over the former policies, attorneys with the COA easily defended the status quo themselves.
Yet, for some reason, it was necessary to hire an army of outside counsel to defend the reversal of that policy, not against a filthy-rich developer with its own legal team but against a single self-represented citizen. Kruse accused the county of weaponizing such legal action for the sole purpose of scaring off anyone who might attempt to challenge a future comp plan amendment. I don’t think any reasonable person would see it otherwise.
As local activist and two-time BOCC candidate Matt Bower pointed out during public comment, there is more than a little bit of irony in the fact that the board was seeking to punish McClash for attempting to get the court to do the exact same thing that the board itself did with the very next action it took!
The loudest objections to the motion came from board chair Mike Rahn. Rahn isn’t up for reelection until 2026 and doesn’t seem concerned about the fact that voters in Manatee County have made it painfully clear that they are done with developer lackeys. Perhaps he knows there is no way he’s getting reelected and is banking on one of them giving him a job when his term expires.
Van Ostenbridge objected mostly on the basis of a responsibility to the taxpayers, but that concern should have been expressed when commissioners made the ludicrous decision to pile up massive legal bills instead of using the in-house legal counsel already paid for by Manatee County taxpayers. That spiteful decision could have easily been paid for by the taxpayers because, remember, McClash didn’t lose; he simply withdrew the challenge, and the board did not even attempt to communicate the overriding public benefit.
So, what does all of this mean, and where will Bearden, Rahn, and Ballard fall once a new board is seated? I won’t even pretend to guess at this point. Stay vigilant, Manatee County. We can see some light at the end of the tunnel, but there is still much work to be done.
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. His 2016 short story collection, Casting Shadows, was recently reissued and is available here.
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Dianna
A huge thanks to Matt Bower and the citizens of Manatee County who came to speak during public comment. Matt’s comments were right on target as the public is paying either way because we will not leave McClash to pick up the tab for this alone. Kruse was also right on target with his comments. Those citizens coming to discuss the dam and flooding- please keep coming. This board has the ability to share information with the citizens, yet they keep canceling workshops and refuse to have any real discussion on stormwater issues during meetings. This problem is not going away and needs to be addressed. Again, the meeting ended at 11:30am and there was one citizen on the phone for public comment. Instead of taking the one last citizen you pushed them off until later so clearly public comments are still not important. Reverse all you want. Too little too late, the minority will be voted out in 2 years- because citizens will not forget.
Tuesday, September 10 Report this
sandy
KVO, his usual self, asked the county attorney if the county could be exposed to litigation based on reverting back to the wetlands buffers previously in the Comp Plan. He needs to remember that Delisi (who represented the changes to remove the buffers, after Kimley-Horn was removed) was previously the agent in 2 civil suits regarding the wetland buffers and LOST both in court. The state does not say counties must abide by their regulation. This is only a minimum and they do recommend being more stringent. It helps that Orange County (an inland county) went to a 100 foot buffer for most projects after Manatee County removed their buffers.
I would like to hear the county's reason for using 7 outside attorneys instead of staff attorneys in the case against McClash. If staff could argue the two cases in court about the buffers and win, why did they feel the need to outsource legal services in this case?
Wednesday, September 11 Report this
AllForOne
Hopefully Rahn is a one term commissioner too. Having been around since Patricia Glass represented District 4, Commissioner Rahn is by far the WORST commissioner we have ever had. He has more hot air than the goodyear blimp.
Wednesday, September 11 Report this
David Daniels
The most telling vote against deferring collection of legal fees against Joe McClash was Amanda Ballard. What a waffle, wishy washi sit on the fence embarrassment. She hemmed and hawed. She said she is of two minds. She even qualified hervote by saying “ this is how I feel today” admitting that tomorrow she might feel a different way, and the day after that…I call her vote telling because iit further confirms how indecisive she is. How she has no principle to stand on. This is a no brainer McClash wasn’t being frivolous, the county’s $250K is frivolous. She is an attorney? Can you imagine trying to get a straight answer from her? She doesn’t know her own opinion.
Wednesday, September 11 Report this