Tuesday, August 21, 2012
The City Commission voted to not have staff work on a commissioner-presented charter amendment that would give the city an elected/strong mayor.
If Sarasota wants to vote in March on having an elected mayor, someone's going to have to do a petition drive at this point. Sarasota City Commissioners killed work Monday night on a proposal presented by Commissioner Paul Caragiulo to have voters decide if they want an elected/strong mayor. The strong city manager initiative is still on its way to the November ballot. Vice Mayor Willie Charles Shaw and Commissioners Shannon Snyder and Terry Turner voted to have staff stop work on the ordinance while Caragiulo and Mayor Suzanne Atwell voted against the motion. "I could never ever support something that people fought for to get in the way of a federal court case to even bring about this representation," Shaw said. The current form of …
Friday, July 20, 2012
Political video critiques city commission's process while attacking Commissioner Terry Turner, asking voters to elect someone else.
Election season is heating up in Sarasota, and it's for the one in March more than the one in November. A video targeting City Commissioner Terry Turner (at-large) is circulating with an accompanying petition to show support to vote Turner out of office. The video highlights one of his competitors, Richard Dorfman speaking at the Wednesday citizens input session during a special meeting at City Hall where commissioners advertised the millage rate. It was the first chance residents could speak on a proposed charter amendment. "Something doesn't feel right to me in the city when an elected official can use his own money to affect the political process in this city," Dorfman said. "It's not right." The video, posted by Citizen Kane and …
Monday, July 16, 2012
Proposed charter amendment would split the City Auditor and Clerk into two positions and shift more oversight and responsibilities under the watch of the City Manager.
Update/Related Story: Commissioner Paul Caragiulo proposes his own charter amendment to have city voters elect their own mayor. Earlier: Government is a system of checks and balances and a group backed by City Commissioner Terry Turner wants to move some of those functions to the city manager. A charter referendum from the Citizens for a Better Sarasota has garnered enough signatures — 3,297 — and will appear on the November ballot, as first reported by The Herald-Tribune. Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent certified the petition Friday (which can be viewed as a PDF beside this story) and the proposed amendment will be presented during the evening portion of the City Commission meeting tonight at City Hall. This is what the proposed …
Richard M. Swier
9:12 am on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Leadership on the Sarasota City Commission is so bad that they can't even agree to let the people chose if they want a strong Mayor. Go figure! more ›