HOLMES BEACH – A request for funding to the city’s police department to help cover the expense of beach patrols was approved by Manatee County leaders, but the approved amount wasn’t as much as city leaders hoped for.
During an Oct. 11 commission meeting, Holmes Beach Police Department (HBPD) Chief Bill Tokajer said that $46,412 had been offered to the city as compensation for officers patrolling the county-owned Manatee Beach and Kingfish Boat Ramp. While the amount is the same as was given to the department the previous year, it didn’t include the increase that city leaders were hoping for.
Tokajer said that the funding doesn’t come close to covering the more than $250,000
per year in manpower and other costs officers have documented and presented to county commissioners in the past. He said he’d spoken to Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes and was told that despite delays to the project, city leaders were being blamed for the loss of grant funding for renovations at Kingfish Boat Ramp and, as a result, no increases in police funding were being considered.
Mayor Judy Titsworth said with increases in costs over the past year, the county offering the same amount of money as in the previous fiscal year was actually defunding the patrols.
The issue of funding for HBPD patrols of county properties is the latest chapter in a list of ongoing problems between the city and county.
Utilities turnoff questioned
As Manatee County prepared for impacts from Hurricane Ian and evacuations were called for on Anna Maria Island, county leaders announced that water would be turned off to the Island the afternoon prior to the anticipated arrival of the storm. Tokajer said in a statement that he had called county officials to ask them to delay the turn off of water and sewer utilities to allow those services to continue for first responders who would not yet be evacuating.
During a Sept. 27 press conference about the storm and evacuation process, Hopes claimed that Tokajer had contacted him to request utility services remain on for residents who weren’t evacuating. Hopes went on to state that he would not be extending the time for the utility turnoff because he didn’t want to risk damage to the county’s utility infrastructure. Hopes also urged residents to take the storm and evacuation orders seriously.
A week after the storm passed, Titsworth issued a statement on Oct. 5 through the HBPD’s social media page stating how proud she was of city staff for their assistance to residents and property owners before and after the hurricane. She also publicly commend- ed the city’s residents for heeding the evacuation orders and leaving prior to the storm. During a Sept. 27 commission meeting, city leaders had even joked that the storm had fixed the traffic problems on the Island due to so many people evacuating.
Kingfish defunding questioned
The battle over utility turn-offs prior to Hurricane Ian was preceded by disagreements over why county officials were forced to return grant funds for planned Kingfish renovations. Hopes and county commission Chair Kevin Van Ostenbridge both stated during public meetings that the renovation plans had to be abandoned because permits were being held up in the city’s building department. Hopes said the permits Department of Environmental Protection couldn’t be extended another time. County staff members also noted during a commission meeting that the grant funds couldn’t be extended either.
Titsworth said in a city commission meeting that the city doesn’t have the power to hold up permits, nor had that happened in the case of Kingfish. She added that the city’s building department staff had been working with county members for months to get the permits approved and continued working on the permit applications after being told by county leaders that the project would be put on hold.
Issues between the city and county stem back to when Van Ostenbridge first took
the dais and demanded that Titsworth and city commissioners end their resident-only permit parking program near the beach and allow public on-street parking for beachgoers throughout the city. City leaders refused to change their stance on public parking on residential streets, stating that Holmes Beach has more public parking spaces than the other two Island cities and that they won’t sacrifice residents’ quality of life.
