HOLMES BEACH – Holmes Beach city commissioners discussed the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA)’s consolidation study on Nov. 14, which lists the city of Bradenton as a possible annexation destination for Holmes Beach, Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach.
Reading aloud a statement, Commissioner Greg Kerchner said, “When I offered up my last soliloquy, I poured out my concerns over the influence of local developers, about state and county politicians not having our best interests at heart and about the threat of a consolidation being forced down our throats.
“But maybe we can turn this threat into an opportunity. Our job now must be to help the evaluators follow their own guidelines. We must ensure that they learn the unblemished truth about what has already transpired and must guarantee that they have all the facts they need to reach fair and just conclusions so that their recommendations are in the best interests of everyone involved, islanders and off-islanders alike,” Kerchner said.
“We need to wipe away any taint of political wrangling by clearly and fairly highlighting the relevant facts while insisting that all pertinent issues are considered. Unfortunately, this includes all the issues around visitor parking in Holmes Beach, which, for whatever reason, continues to play an outsized role in all our interactions with legislators and other governments,” Kerchner said.
Commission Chair Terry Schaefer said the consolidation of the Island cites would be “the granddaddy of destruction and overriding home rule in our community.”
Commissioners also discussed statements that Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth and State Rep. Will Robinson Jr. (R-Bradenton) made the previous week regarding the study.
Titsworth said she hadn’t planned on addressing the OPPAGA study again until she read Robinson’s comments in the newspaper.
“Just because they’re saying something doesn’t mean it’s true. Just because they keep repeating the same thing doesn’t make it any more true. I don’t know how to respond to this continued narrative – and it’s always directed at me, it’s always directed at our city. We are upholding our charter, our comprehensive plan, our land development code. We care about quality of life. We are showing up to work every day,” she said.
“They keep pointing at the mayor that’s ‘putting up roadblocks,’ the mayor’s ‘that’s not doing what she says.’ I have done every single thing that’s been asked of me except putting unlimited parking in our residential districts. Name me one coastal community that has unlimited parking. There are none. We’ve proven that we have excess parking on any given day. Everybody who wants to can come right now; they just don’t want to because there’s too much congestion and traffic,” Titsworth said.
She noted the city recently created additional public parking spaces along Holmes Boulevard. She also noted she previously took Manatee County commissioners George Kruse and Jason Bearden on tours of the city’s available parking spaces.
“During that peak season tour, there were empty parking spaces in our city right of ways. I showed him (Kruse) the church parking available for overflow. He was amazed. Same thing with Bearden. Spring break, height of season, there were empty parking places everywhere. How can you continue to say we’re preventing families from coming out here? It’s wrong and I’m over the false narrative,” Titsworth said.
Titsworth said the consolidation study is “a power grab from the top down” being driven by state legislators and not by the Island residents and property owners who will have no input on the consolidation study requested by Robinson, Sen. Jim Boyd and the other members of the Manatee County Legislative Delegation.
Titsworth said all three Island cities are thriving.
“Why wouldn’t somebody want the city of Holmes Beach?” she asked. “We have zero debt. We have $12 million in reserves. At a height limit of 36 feet, we have a $3 billion taxable value in our little city of Holmes Beach. The city of Anna Maria is $2 billion. The city of Bradenton Beach is $1 billion. Our three tremendous little cities equal the taxable value of the city of Bradenton and all their high rises and everything else.”
According to the Manatee County Property Appraiser’s Office, the total taxable value of all Bradenton properties in 2023 is $5.91 billion. The total taxable value of all Anna Maria Island properties is $6.15 billion.
The current millage rates in Anna Maria and Holmes Beach are 2.05 mills. The current millage rate in Bradenton Beach is 2.3329. Bradenton is 5.8351 mills and Manatee County is 6.2326 mills.
“Consolidate us into the city of Bradenton, they just doubled their taxable value. This is not about parking. It has never been about parking. It’s about doing what they want to do,” Titsworth said. “I don’t want to play these games. I want them to leave us alone. I promised OPPAGA we are going to work with you and give you every single thing you want from our city. We are a good city. We have so much to be proud of and we have every right to continue to be a city that serves the people who want to be here.”
Titsworth refuted Robinson’s statement that the Holmes Beach population has declined.
“That is not true. Our population is increasing, and it’s because of the hard work of our commission and our boards; and because it’s paradise out here,” she said.
In his recent statement, Robinson said he would support maintaining the height limits currently established in each of the three cities’ charters.
Earlier this year, Robinson co-sponsored state legislation that allows Manatee County to build a three-story parking garage at Manatee Beach in Holmes Beach.
“Representative Robinson said he’d respect the limits we have right now, but he told me if he could have had six stories, he could have gotten 1,500 to 1,700 parking spaces,” Titsworth said.
In support of Titsworth’s comments, Commission Chair Terry Schaefer said, “The commission stands squarely behind you. It seems like some legislators have forgotten where they came from.”
Schaefer expressed confidence that the information provided by each of the three Island cities would support their continued operation as independent cities.
“I was encouraged to hear elected officials will be interviewed. I was discouraged to hear the plan is not to hear from the public,” he said.
Shaefer said he’s been researching the city of Bradenton and Manatee County regarding their debt obligations and financial reserves.
“It’s an eye-opener, folks. Strong positive reserves in all three Island cities. Not so much the case in the alternative. I don’t have any doubt that the whole motivation is financial. I think the garage was a smokescreen. I think it was an issue that they took up to try to taint and create ill will to divide people from off-Island and those of us who live and serve here. I think it backfired,” Schaefer said.
“If anyone is wondering why, the why is the money and the dissolution of charters. Height restrictions go away. If you don’t think there are aggressive developers out there who wouldn’t like to have an opportunity to build something higher than 36 feet in our city and on our beaches, pay more attention to what’s happening where communities don’t have control,” he said.
On Nov. 16, the city of Holmes Beach received a request for information letter from OPPAGA. That letter can be read here.
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Anna Maria officials discuss consolidation study
