HOLMES BEACH – Her voice said it all. “We won,” declared Peggy Meyers on Tuesday.

That’s the day she got the e-mail from USPS (United States Post Office) officials stating, “Based on traffic issues, lack of parking at the USPS branches and the additional information that was presented at the community meeting, your request to add PO boxes to the Holmes Beach CPU (contract postal unit) is granted.”

“We proved our case easily, and they did the right thing,” Meyers said.

“I am pleased that the USPS will maintain full service in Holmes Beach and continue to provide residents in our area with convenient, efficient postal service,” U.S. Congressman Vern Buchanan said.

The issue began when contract holders Meyers and Jack Jackson said they planned to retire, and USPS officials said they could keep the CPU, but not the 230 post office boxes, which they said could be relocated to Anna Maria or Bradenton Beach.

Meyers and Jackson maintained that without the post office boxes, the contract is financially unfeasible, and if no one takes the contract, it could result in the loss of all postal services at that location.

Mayor Bob Johnson sought help from Buchanan, who called for a town hall meeting with representatives of the USPS. Residents in attendance made a strong case for keeping the post office boxes, and Buchanan said he would take their case to USPS officials in Washington, D.C.

“We have been working closely with local stakeholders to impress upon USPS the importance of keeping these PO boxes in service, especially the traffic issues that would arise and the lack of parking at other USPS branches,” Buchanan said. “They considered all of the factors we presented to them and arrived at the right decision.”

Johnson added, “It’s a perfect example of what representative government is all about. It didn’t make sense for the community, they contacted their representative and he acted. It was heartening for me.”

Meyers and Jackson immediately put up a sign declaring victory, and Meyers said, “I want to thank everyone for their support, not only those who came to the meeting, but also those who signed petitions. And I want to thank Mayor Johnson and Congressman Buchanan for their help.”

BRADENTON BEACH – The outcome of the recall election now lies in the hands of the city voters who will determine whether Mayor Bill Shearon remains in office or is replaced by Vice Mayor Jack Clarke.

Shearon’s supporters have now exhausted the legal and administrative challenges they presented in their unsuccessful efforts to have Clarke removed from the ballot. On Tuesday, May 5, Judge Gilbert Smith denied John Metz’s request for a temporary injunction that would have halted the election.

When issuing his verbal order, Smith said Metz failed to meet the burden of proof.

Afterwards Clarke said, “I’m gratified by the court’s decision. I can now focus 100 percent on what I anticipate will be a successful campaign. I cannot speak highly enough of Attorney Mogensen and her paralegal Mr. Barfield. They provided the best possible representation in this case.”

On Friday, Smith followed up with a written order that said the court could only issue an injunction if the requesting party demonstrated a likelihood of irreparable harm, unavailability of an adequate legal remedy, a substantial likelihood of the original suit succeeding on its merits and considerations of the public interest that supported an injunction.

“Having weighed the relevant facts, the court concludes the plaintiff has failed to demonstrate sufficient cause for a temporary injunction disqualifying Clarke from the mayoral recall election,” he concluded.

With or without prejudice?

The day after the injunction request was denied, Metz filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice. Clarke’s attorney, Andrea Mogensen, responded by noting that he already forfeited the ability to dismiss without prejudice when he improperly filed his suit in Sarasota County and later had it dismissed without prejudice before refiling in Manatee County, the proper jurisdiction.

In a letter sent to Metz on Thursday, May 7, Mogensen informed him that she filed a motion to have his voluntary dismissal struck based on the two-dismissal rule that requires the action to be dismissed with prejudice instead.

“I respectfully request you amend your notice of voluntary dismissal to state that it is with prejudice as soon as possible. If you refuse to do so, I will have no choice but to resist the voluntary dismissal as being dismissed without prejudice. Doing so will incur attorneys’ fees and costs, for which I will seek to recover from you under the provisions of Florida statutes,” she wrote.

As of Sunday the dismissal remained unresolved.

Hearing loss

Metz, a former attorney, represented himself at the hearing. He contended Clarke failed to comply with the resign-to-run law that requires an elected official to submit a pending resignation 10 days before attempting to qualify for another elected office.

Mogensen successfully argued that her client did all he could to comply with the accelerated qualifying period ordered by Judge Andrew Owens in early April.

When testifying, Clarke said, “I immediately sat down, wrote my letter of resignation and sent it to the city clerk. I feel I substantially complied with the law, and it was not my place to question the judge.”

Mogensen also suggested Metz was interpreting the resign-to-run law contrary to what was intended by the state legislators that adopted it. She said the law’s intent was to ensure that anyone wishing to run for a seat being vacated be given time to do so, and the law applies more to the office being vacated than the new office being sought.

City Attorney Ricinda Perry supported that argument when she testified that the city charter mandates a vacated commission seat will be filled by commission appointment rather than special election, which meant no one tried to run for the ward 1 seat Clarke will vacate, win or lose, after the election.

Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett, a co-defendant in Metz’s suit, testified that 176 mail ballots had been mailed to city voters and approximately 80 had been returned as ballots cast.

Post-hearing reaction

After the hearing, Bennett’s attorney, James Minix, encouraged Metz to drop the original lawsuit that still remained active after the injunction denial.

“Normally these things are over if you can’t get an injunction. If the election is going to go forward as the judge has now indicated, what relief are you going to get after the fact?” he explained.

Mogensen said, “The city voters will have their election. Any day you can protect the Democratic process and the constitutional rights of the people is a great day at work.”

In regard to potential post-election challenges presented by Shearon or his supporters, Mogensen said, “There are very limited and extreme instances when the judicial branch would intervene in the electoral process.”

The Manatee County Commission has approved a budget change designed to fund three new lifeguard positions at Manatee Beach Park (formerly Manatee Public Beach) and Coquina Beach Park without running afoul of a state prohibition on using resort tax funds to pay for lifeguards.

The positions will be funded by county general tax funds that were allocated for beach maintenance, County Administrator Ed Hunzeker said, explaining to commissioners that beach maintenance will now be funded by $575,000 in resort tax funds taken from the part of the resort tax budget allocated to beach renourishment and maintenance.

As a result, the beach portion of the resort tax budget will now be devoted 100 percent to renourishment, he said.

The majority of the resort tax budget remains allocated to tourism marketing.

The county collects the resort tax from owners of accommodations rented for six months or less who charge the 5 percent tax to tourists, in addition to the 6.5 percent state sales tax.

The budget shifting is necessary because county beaches need additional lifeguard coverage beyond the current 4 p.m. closing time, but state law does not allow the county to use resort taxes to fund lifeguards, Hunzeker said.

Despite that widely-held perception, Okaloosa County officials in northwest Florida used $1.2 million in resort tax funds to pay for lifeguards from February 2013 through July 2014, according to an audit of the county’s finances by the Florida Auditor General’s office, which questioned the usage.

Okaloosa County officials responded to the audit, writing that they used the money for lifeguards after several drownings prompted concerns about safety and tourism.

“The provision of a safe beach is an essential component of promoting the area as a family tourist destination,” the response states, adding that two consulting law firms concluded that using resort tax revenues for lifeguards was permissible under state law if the county’s primary purpose for providing lifeguards is related to promoting tourism. The dispute remains unresolved.

Anna Maria Island beaches soon will be safer with the addition of lifeguards from 4 to 7 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day, later than the current hours, Manatee County Marine Rescue Division Capt. Joe Westerman said.

“If we are actively working rip currents and have crowds, we can hold the lifeguard over until sunset,” which can be past 8 p.m., he said.

Able-bodied, experienced lifeguards should apply to Manatee County at www.mymanatee.org. The salary range listed on the Website is $24,481-$37,315 a year.

SUBMITTED | BRADENTON AREA
CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU

Manatee County Tourist Development Council Chair
Vanessa Baugh presented outgoing TDC member and
Bradenton Beach hotelier Barbara Rodocker a
Champions of Tourism Award at the Tourism Week
luncheon last week.

PALMETTO – A Bradenton Beach hotelier was among those who received a Champions of Tourism Award at the annual Tourism Week luncheon last week at the convention center.

Barbara Rodocker, owner of Silver Surf Gulf Beach Resort and Bridge Walk, who is leaving the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) after 23 years, received a Tourism Ambassador Award from TDC Chair Vanessa Baugh.

“Barbara has been a true leader, mentor and ambassador for not only our industry, but for me personally,” Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Director Elliott Falcione said.

Also honored as a Tourism Ambassador was John Horne, owner of the Anna Maria Oyster Bar in Bradenton. Tourism Partner of the Year was Trevor Gooby, senior director of Florida operations for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Criteria for the awards include achievements, economic impact to the community and the leadership shown by an individual.

Falcione announced the recipients at an agri-tourism-themed luncheon, with 80 percent of the food from local farms, saying that agriculture is the number two industry behind tourism in the county.

Sustainable tourism trends

Florida is second in the country in tourism after New York, said David Randle, managing director of USF’s Sustainable Tourism Program, but its roads cannot keep up, nor can its underwater reefs, water supplies, fisheries, wetlands and forests, he said.

Walt Disney World leads the state in sustainable tourism practices, Randle said, with programs to reduce carbon emissions, including imposing a carbon tax on businesses within the company, projects to conserve species, including gorillas and cotton top monkeys, a no-toxic-chemical policy in Disney’s Animal Kingdom and the establishment of Disney’s Wilderness Preserve.

Sheraton in San Diego has a zero-waste-to-landfill policy and Marriott is reducing its e-waste, he said.

Some tourism-based island countries are addressing sustainability also, he said. St Lucia stores rainwater in two 8,000-gallon containers to serve tourists, while Bermuda employs rooftop water collection on all tourist buildings, and has capped the number of tourism beds allowed, requiring prospective vacation rental owners to wait in line for permits until another accommodations business closes.

Hotel rooms approved

County planning official John Osborne told attendees that several areas in the county have been pre-approved for hotel development; up to 2,000 more rooms can be added to the county’s current 6,200 rooms, he said.

The new hotel rooms are approved for the urban core (downtown Bradenton area), Lakewood Ranch and Lake Flores, the planned development on 75th Street West between Cortez Road and 53rd Avenue West, and will slow the redevelopment of multi-bedroom vacation rentals on Anna Maria Island, Falcione said.

Tourism up

Tourism in Manatee County has increased four years in a row, with 2.9 million visitors in 2014, according to CVB statistics, which also show that tourism supports 21,700 jobs, generating $43 million in state sales taxes and a total economic impact of nearly $995 million, he told attendees.

Since 2010, visitation has increased by 11.9 percent, tourism-related jobs have increased by 21.2 percent and room rates have increased 17 percent, according to the CVB, the focus of which is converting visitors to business owners and property owners, Falcione said.

CVB Executive Manager Debbie Meihls attributed the growth to increased marketing for sports, such as the Ellenton Ice Rink and IMG, agri-tourism, such as Dakin Dairy and Mixon Fruit Farms, and film, such as the Skyway Film Festival scheduled for June 12-14 at the Manatee Performing Arts Center.

CORTEZ – About 28 volunteers cleaned up the mangroves around Sarasota Bay on Saturday during Fishing for Freedom’s First Annual Fishermen’s Cleanup at Cortez Bait and Seafood.

They filled a dumpster with an estimated 6,000 pounds of trash, judging by the weight on the boats, organizer Mark Coarsey said, adding that he’s going to keep some of the old glass bottles he found.

Bags and bags of fishing line were retrieved around Bird Key with Audubon Society volunteers, he said. Bird Key is the island preserve in Sarasota Bay just south of the Cortez fishing village where pelicans and other shorebirds nest. Discarded fishing line ensnares birds, which then often die, entangled in the mangroves where they nest.

They also disposed of an abandoned remnant of a boat near Tidy Island.

After the cleanup, the crews enjoyed a barbecue dinner at Swordfish Grill, with fresh fish supplied by Fishing for Freedom.

The not-for-profit organization, made up of commercial fishermen and others, successfully brought an appeal through the Florida court system to the Florida Supreme Court to reverse the 1995 state constitutional amendment banning gill nets.

During the course of the case, a judge temporarily lifted the net ban twice, but on appeal, the net ban was put back in place, prompting the appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, which has not yet ruled on the case.

joe hendricks | sun

County Administrator Ed Hunzeker and
Karen Clarke listen to the city commission discuss
county stormwater fees.

BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners did an about-face last week in regard to levying stormwater fees on county property located within the city limits.

With County Administrator Ed Hunzeker in attendance, the commission unanimously voted in favor of amending the new stormwater ordinance that reverted back to the language originally proposed by City Engineer Lynn Burnett, which exempted city, county and state properties from stormwater fees.

When addressing the commission Thursday evening during the second reading of the new stormwater ordinance passed on first reading last month, Burnett restated her previous recommendation that government properties be exempt.

She also mentioned that she, Hunzeker, Mayor Bill Shearon and other city and county staff members met recently to discuss stormwater issues. A letter Hunzeker sent to Shearon after that city-county discussion estimated the county could have paid upwards of $132,000 had it been charged for its Leffis Key and Coquina Beach properties.

Hunzeker did not address the commission, but provided comment as he exited city hall.

“We’re very pleased. We’ve partnered with the city on a number of projects, and we’d like to keep that partnership going,” he said.

“We have a long history of taking care of the stormwater issues on our properties, and we’ll continue to do that. Our capital improvement program includes a couple of million dollars for a project down there that’s going to include stormwater and landscaping. We’re very proud of our beaches and our relationship with the city, and we wouldn’t do anything to harm that.”

During public comment, Sandpiper Resort Co-Op resident Doug LeFevre requested the 10-acre Sandpiper property be exempt from paying approximately $15,000 in annual stormwater fees.

Supported later by Vice Mayor Jack Clarke, also a Sandpiper resident, LeFevre said the self-contained Sandpiper system installed at a cost of $142,000 and at no expense to the city does not rely on the city system to mitigate stormwater runoff, drainage, retention and flooding.

Clarke pointed out that the area in front of the Sandpiper Resort is always free of flooding and standing water.

Commissioner Ed Straight chimed in and said, “Gulf Drive has flooded in the same places since I moved here in 1972.”

Burnett said addressing Gulf Drive flooding is a priority, and she noted that Sandpiper residents use Gulf Drive to get to and from their homes and should therefore help offset some of the associated stormwater costs.

Burnett also found some merit in LeFevre’s request. She told the commission Sandpiper not only handles its own stormwater, but also helps manage stormwater runoff from neighboring properties, which lessens the load on the city system.

She encouraged LeFevre to readdress his request when the annual rates are established when the commission adopts an accompanying resolution that determines the dollar multiplier used to calculate fees based on the square footage of a property.

Non-Sandpiper resident John Burns previously spoke in favor of a “religious approach” that treats all properties equal regardless of who owns them. Dovetailing on LeFevre’s request, Burns suggested individual property owners who have previously installed stormwater systems or intend to install infiltration trenches along their Gulf Drive boundaries also should receive some form of exemption.

Burnett said allowing personal exemptions would negate the purpose of an ordinance designed to streamline the billing process by producing a one-size-fits-all approach that no longer factors in previously installed stormwater elements and improvements.

Pat copeland | Sun

as Det. Sgt. Brian Hall and Officer Joel Pierce take measurements.

Holmes Beach Det. Sgt. Brian Hall is currently conducting a criminal investigation of unauthorized sea grape trimming in the 4300 block of Second Avenue.

According to Hall’s report, “On or about April 27, Jose Vivero hired Sunset Tree Service to trim the sea grape trees located on city property along the beach access and the neighboring property without permission from the city of Holmes Beach or the property owner at 4300 Second Ave.

“Vivero had called the city to ask permission or have the city trim the trees on several occasions over the past two years. The request has been denied by the city each time.”

Hall said the sea grapes were trimmed “approximately 60 feet westward down the beach,” and several trees were trimmed to half their height.

“There are little to no leaves left on the trees that were trimmed and cut down,” Hall noted. “All that remains are the trunks and large bare branches.”

Hall charged Vivero with criminal mischief and is investigating possible violations of the Marine Turtle Protection Act. He has contacted the Florida Department of Environmental Protection regarding possible violations of environmental laws.