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Tag: 2024 Holmes Beach election

Editorial: Fresh air

Written by Sun staff on . Posted in Editorial, Opinion.

The red stripes on the American flag are intended to remind us of the sacrifices made by members of the armed forces who died to enable us to – among other things – get a good education and vote.

A lot of people don’t think their vote counts, and some of them don’t vote as a result- only about a third of Anna Maria Island voters did.

But last week, a whole new group of elected officials started on their way either to an elected office or to the November election, thanks to voters who believed their vote counts and who bothered to vote.

Those who were elected are not the old guard or the good ol’ boys, which comes as a bit of a surprise, fresh air-wise.

If you’re of the opinion that your vote doesn’t count, think about that before the November election.

Come to The Sun’s candidate forums on Wednesday, Aug. 28 at Holmes Beach City Hall at 6 p.m. and on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at Anna Maria City Hall at 6 p.m. and get educated.

Then vote.

You might be surprised.

Whitmore seeks return to city commission

Whitmore seeks return to city commission

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – After working in the private sector for 18 months, former Manatee County commissioner Carol Whitmore is ready to step back into the local political spotlight, this time on familiar ground.

Whitmore is racing against three other candidates in the hopes of landing one of two available seats on the Holmes Beach city commission, the place where she started her political career before being elected as mayor and later elected to the county commission.

If elected, she plans to bring her ability to cultivate good relationships with other elected officials to the table.

“You need people who are willing to be open,” Whitmore said, noting that she has good contacts within Manatee County and with state leaders.

“I can act like a buffer,” she said. “They (other elected officials) want to hear from an elected official who has credibility.”

Whitmore said she’d like to help city leaders let the past go and move forward to build new, better relationships with Manatee County and Florida state elected officials. One of her greatest strengths as an elected official, she said, is building and maintaining relationships while also working in the city’s best interests to benefit the residents and visitors.

“I want to be there to support Judy (Mayor Judy Titsworth) and the commission but try to get us back on track,” Whitmore said.

Over the years, she said she’s seen three attempts to consolidate services across Anna Maria Island. Whitmore said she’s in favor of giving that a try if all three city governments can agree and they’re willing to move slowly to see what works and what may adversely affect the residents and visitors to the Island. She’s not, however, in favor of consolidating the city governments.

“I don’t support consolidating the cities at all. I believe in home rule,” Whitmore said. “I’ve lived here 55 years. I believe in home rule 100%.”

Removing all the existing structures at Manatee Beach to build a three-story parking garage is not a viable solution to traffic issues, she said. Whitmore added that she thinks funding for the project would be difficult to obtain, particularly when there is a county-owned parking garage in downtown Bradenton that needs immediate replacement. She said she thinks there are other solutions available to add public parking spaces, if needed.

Tourist development tax funds, Whitmore said, have a very narrow application under state regulations, though she thinks those monies could potentially be used to advertise or subsidize additional parking options at local churches.

Whitmore also said she hopes to use her public relations skills to help keep residents informed and work to help the three Island cities present a unified front on issues that affect all the municipalities. She said she thinks the strongest skill she can bring to the city is her ability to develop and maintain interpersonal relationships along with her ability to listen to the residents and help find solutions to problems.

“I’m honest,” she said. “And I think if you’re honest, you’ll never get in trouble.”

Romberger throws hat in commission ring

Romberger throws hat in commission ring

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – Bill Romberger, owner and agent at the Anna Maria Island Real Estate Corp., is hoping voters will consider him for the city commission when going to the polls in November.

“I didn’t want it to turn into an Anna Maria situation,” he said, stating that he wanted to make sure that voters have a choice when it comes to choosing Holmes Beach city commissioners in November.

The local resident and Realtor said he’s been living on the Island with his family since 1995 and has seen a lot of changes over the years. He said he thinks the current elected officials in Holmes Beach are doing a good job and, if elected, he hopes to support continued efforts to improve water quality, protect the environment and oppose consolidation of the three Island cities and a proposed parking garage at Manatee Beach.

Currently a member of the Clean Water Ad-hoc Committee in Holmes Beach and the Surfrider Foundation, Romberger said that keeping local waters clean and Island stewardship is paramount on his list of priorities, if elected to one of the two open seats on the city commission.

“I’m an environmentalist,” he said, adding that he wants to protect the Island’s natural resources. “We need to look at things that can be done to, if nothing else, we don’t hurt the Island anymore, that it’s going to be hurt with the amount of tourists and development that it encounters.”

Romberger said he’d like to be a liaison to the clean water committee if elected so that he could work closely with those members to bring some of their projects to fruition.

“I think that would be my top priority,” he said.

Another priority, he said, would be to encourage native landscaping and minimalist landscaping to reduce water usage and stormwater runoff.

Romberger also said that he is a large supporter of the efforts to maintain home rule and is against consolidation and efforts to build a three-story parking garage at Manatee Beach. If it was fiscally responsible to consolidate services among the three Island cities, he said that would be worth serious consideration.

“I spent my whole life in island beach communities and always thought it was important that the small communities keep their local government,” he said.

If elected, he said he’d like to work with property owners and local businesses to develop affordable housing for workers. Romberger said he feels there’s a way to incentivize business owners to create or provide affordable housing on the Island for some of their workers or to encourage property owners to turn short-term rentals into reasonably priced annual rentals.

He said that if the city’s budget allowed, he could see giving financial incentives to property owners or helping to subsidize the rent for workers at brick-and-mortar locations on the Island.

Romberger is answering questions from the community at The Sun’s Holmes Beach Candidate Forum on Wednesday, Aug. 28 at 6 p.m. at Holmes Beach City Hall.

Titsworth shares re-election hopes, goals

Titsworth shares re-election hopes, goals

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – Judy Titsworth has already served three terms as mayor, but she’s not ready to step down yet.

Titsworth is up for re-election on the November ballot and after running unopposed in 2020 and 2022, this year, she’ll face challenger Mike Roth.

“I feel that the community still needs me,” Titsworth said about her reasons for running for re-election. She noted that in her time as mayor, the city has worked to improve its failing infrastructure, reached a healthy reserve amount in case of a natural disaster, and worked to improve water quality with the Islanders 4 Clean Water campaign. One of the thing’s she’s most proud of is the revitalization of City Field with the creation of a larger dog park, installation of a new playground, bocce ball, pickleball and shuffleboard courts and the skatepark.

“That’s proof of what the community can do when it comes together,” she said, indicating the skatepark and accompanying skate bowl were funded by community members.

With good people in office and working behind the scenes at city hall, Titsworth said she feels that the community can continue to take steps forward into a future with a good quality of life for both residents and visitors. She does not, however, support having a community manager.

Titsworth said that a community manager, one city manager serving all three Anna Maria Island cities, would mean that the cities are consolidated, something she strongly opposes unless the voters band together and decide that’s what they want to do. “If the voters want it and are in favor of it, I’ll support it,” she said of consolidation, though Titsworth added that she hopes it never comes to that. If consolidation did happen, she said it would not only put a lot of people out of work, but it could also cost taxpayers more money to implement than it would save, remove current community protections and remove the character of the three Island cities. She fears that hiring a single manager for the Island would either lead to consolidation or be a disaster for employees and property owners.

“That would be extremely messy and everything would run at a snail’s pace,” she said of hiring a community manager for the Island, noting that one person would have to manage time and responsibilities across all three cities working with three different governments. “Nothing would ever get done.”

She did say that she feels there are more ways that the three cities can work together and streamline efforts to the benefit of the community, something she’d like to work on if leaders in Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach are amenable to the discussion.

One of the issues that has plagued the city for the past few years is a strained relationship with Manatee County leaders, a problem that bled over into the city’s relationship with Florida state leaders.

Titsworth said that issues with the county stem back to four years ago when she refused to publicly endorse then-county commission candidate Kevin Van Ostenbridge. Now a county commissioner and also running for re-election, Van Ostenbridge took the dais for the first time by announcing his plans to oppose the city of Holmes Beach on a parking garage at the county-owned Manatee Beach. The issue has since escalated the issue to the state Legislature, which approved a bill allowing county leaders to build a three-story garage at the beach without regard for the city’s approval processes. The relationship between the county and city has continued to deteriorate over the years.

“The only thing that’ll change those relationships is to elect people who care about relationships back in office,” Titsworth said. “Local politics shouldn’t be Republican and Democrat. It should only be about quality of life issues. Once it became where quality of life wasn’t the focus, environment wasn’t the focus and all it was is greed and power, this is why we’re where we are today.”

“As hard as I’ve tried to mend a relationship, they don’t want a relationship with the city of Holmes Beach,” Titsworth said of the Manatee County commission. “It’s like you’re trying to make friends with a wall and there’s no breaking down that wall at this point. It’s up to the voters.”

Another issue facing the city is development, something that she said she doesn’t disapprove of but feels must be controlled to preserve the quality of life for the city’s residents.

“I’m not against development. I’m against out of control development. We’re always going to have change; we’re always going to have to adapt,” she said. “You have to be a good steward to the community you’re building in and that’s where we see that divide. They don’t care anymore. And that’s where I’m going to continue to fight for the citizens. I’m going to continue to fight for quality of life. If accepting money from certain funds means we’re trading off on quality of life, I’m not going to accept that money. We’re doing alright. Our population’s on the rise. People want to live in Holmes Beach. So, we’re making the right decisions.”

The biggest issue facing the city, she said, is water quality. And while she said she’d love to reduce the millage rate, she’s more concerned about funding infrastructure to help preserve properties on the Island for years to come.

Titsworth said she’d love to see everyone in the community step up to do their part to help improve water quality, including reducing impervious surfaces and installing native plants.

Titsworth will be answering questions from the community at The Sun’s Holmes Beach Candidate Forum on Wednesday, Aug. 28 at 6 p.m. at city hall. Submit your questions by Monday, Aug. 26 to news@amisun.com.

Newcomer ready to take mayoral seat

Newcomer ready to take mayoral seat

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – Mike Roth may be a political newcomer on Anna Maria Island, but he has plans for what he’d like to see in the community if residents vote him in as mayor in November.

“I’ve been on-Island for over 20 years,” Roth said, noting that he and his family visited almost every weekend from their primary residence in Tampa. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he said their Holmes Beach house became their primary residence and it’s a move that neither he nor his wife have regretted. Roth made his career in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret before making the move to the Army Reserves and switching careers to banking. He said he still works as a banker with an office in Tampa though he enjoys working from home most of the time and says that his work and his training with the Reserves will not impact his ability to serve as the city’s mayor.

In fact, he said his retirement from an active military life is what enabled him to be able to run for mayor. “I’ve had people say you should run for mayor, but I couldn’t. Now I can.”

Once he retired from the military, Roth said he began attending city commission meetings and was happy giving suggestions during public comment until the parking garage at Manatee Beach discussion came up.

“It doesn’t even make sense to me why we don’t have someone outside of the Island agreeing with us that it’s a waste of money, it’s going to environmentally impact a great location and it’s going to be a real pain in the butt for Manatee County residents who normally park in that lot to not be able to use it for a couple of years while the construction is going on.”

When Mayor Judy Titsworth went to Tallahassee to speak with lawmakers before the bill was passed and didn’t sway any votes, Roth said he felt the city was facing a serious issue.

“That’s when I was like there’s something wrong,” he said. “I’ve got to figure out what it is and I’ve got to do something about it because I’m that person.”

Roth said a new injection of ideas and solutions could be what the community needs.

“No one comes here to start their political career,” he said, adding that, after speaking to some community members and Manatee County leaders, he feels that he can help to mend relationships with other political leaders.

“They made it very clear to me that it’s one individual,” he said, noting that while he doesn’t have an issue with any elected officials in Holmes Beach, some local politicians do, something that he would hope would change if he was elected as mayor.

“You can find creative solutions to bring both parties closer together or you can just ignore it,” Roth said. “From an outsider’s perspective, they believe that we’re not willing to compromise, we’re not willing to do anything to help Manatee County.”

One of his primary goals would be to create a better relationship among the city, the county and the state.

“We are their largest capital contribution but we have the smallest voice,” he said, noting that there are so few voters on the Island that without some give and take with Manatee County leaders, consolidation of the three Island cities would happen.

Roth said county leaders would like to have an Island-wide planner or manager, one person who would oversee planning and building to help bring agreements among the three cities to handle Island-wide ordinances. He said environmental impact would be another item that could be handled by the Island manager.

Over the next few years, Roth said it’s imperative for the three Island cities to work together and see what services can be consolidated and where resources can be shared, another goal of county commissioners.

“Manatee County is telling us they want us to do that,” Roth said. “The fact that we don’t want to do it doesn’t mean we just ignore that. And that’s going to be our problem. We have to have some level of compliance with the state of Florida and with Manatee County. We have to be able to communicate with them and keep them updated on what we’re trying to do because otherwise they can do something drastic like what they’re trying to do right now. I do believe both of those (consolidation and the parking garage) can go away. The biggest concern I have is, and I’ve asked the outside parties if they can wait until after the fifth (Nov. 5) because I really am just offering my capability, because if I don’t get elected, that’s fine. The powers that be have already told me what they plan on doing if I don’t win and I’m like okay, well the Island will be very different. May be good, may be bad, but most likely bad, in my opinion. And that’s what worries me. It’s not about me. It’s not about I’m so much better, so much smarter, so much faster. I’ve got a lot of experience in leadership and in business. I think both of them will apply here very rapidly. I do believe we have a good city government in general, I just think it needs a more professional way of handling things outside the Island and better communication with the county and the state of Florida.”

Other goals, he said, would be to incentivize owners to give city center businesses a facelift to make the area more appealing, work to conserve the environment and create better solutions to stormwater and tidal flooding.

Submit your questions to Roth for The Sun’s candidate forum at news@amisun.com.

Sun to host candidate forum

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Featured, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – Meet this year’s mayoral and commission candidates at The Anna Maria Island Sun’s Holmes Beach Candidate Forum and get your questions answered.

The Sun is hosting an in-person candidate forum on Wednesday, Aug. 28 at 6 p.m. at Holmes Beach City Hall, 5801 Marina Drive.

City commission candidates including former Manatee County Commissioner Carol Whitmore, Planning Commissioner Steve Oelfke, incumbent Commissioner Dan Diggins and newcomer Bill Romberger are scheduled to attend to answer questions from the community in a public forum. Questions begin at 6 p.m. with a mayoral candidate forum beginning immediately afterwards.

Holmes Beach mayoral candidates Mike Roth and incumbent Mayor Judy Titsworth will discuss their plans for the future and the current issues facing the city.

While The Sun has some questions for the candidates, we also want to ask the candidates your questions. Please submit your questions to The Sun at news@amisun.com and specify if they should be asked during the commission or mayoral forum. All questions submitted for the candidate forum will be asked anonymously during the forum and candidates will not have access to the questions beforehand. Candidate questions must be submitted no later than Monday, Aug. 26 to be included in the forum.

If you can’t make it in person, the forum will also be streamed live on The Sun’s Facebook page with on-demand replay available after the event concludes.