HOLMES BEACH – In honor of the city’s 75th anniversary, Mayor Judy Titsworth and Digital and Media Strategist Matt McDonough created the new sea turtle-themed city flag that now proudly flies over city hall.
Assisted by Code Enforcement Chief James “JT” Thomas and Code Enforcement Officer Nate Brown, Titsworth and McDonough presented the flag prototype to city commissioners on April 8. The following morning, Thomas and Brown raised the flag that now hangs below the American flag on the city hall flagpole.
The new city flag hangs below the American flag on the city hall flagpole. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
Titsworth said the sea turtle theme coincides with the city’s efforts to protect wildlife and to preserve and enhance water quality – efforts that include the city’s Ad Hoc Clean Water Committee and the city’s Islanders4CleanWater promotional campaign.
Titsworth said the flag also symbolizes the city’s resilience in the wake of the back-to-back hurricanes that struck the city and the Island last fall.
Titsworth said the flag was intentionally designed with no words and no city seal and the turtle insignia is simple enough for kids to draw at school. Titsworth said she and McDonough also spent a lot of time choosing the exact shade of navy blue to use for the flag.
“I just think this is beautiful,” Commissioner Dan Diggins said.
The rest of the commission concurred and expressed support for what may be the city’s first-ever city flag.
“This is perfect. We hit a home run,” Commissioner Terry Schaefer said when praising McDonough for the flag design and the many other promotional efforts he engages in on the city’s behalf.
Titsworth said smaller, pole-mounted signs will be produced for people to fly at their homes and even smaller hand-held flags on a stick will be produced and handed out during parades and city events.
Titsworth also floated the idea of the hosting an old-fashioned carnival later this year in celebration of the city’s 75th anniversary.
“Back when I was a child, we had an old-fashioned carnival at the field. Wouldn’t that be neat?” she said.
She also said she’d like to find some volunteers to reenact a city-themed play last performed 25 years ago. She said the city has the script and just needs somebody to take the idea and run with it.
HOLMES BEACH – Island leaders are under a deadline to respond to a letter they received this month from the new state DOGE task force, and the Holmes Beach mayor has already taken action.
Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order on Feb. 24 that created the Florida State Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) task force. On March 18, the Office of the Governor’s new DOGE task force electronically transmitted a two-page letter to the cities of Holmes Beach, Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach and all other Florida municipalities regarding their financial condition.
Addressed to “Dear Local Official,” the letter begins by stating, “Pursuant to Executive Order 25-44, the Executive Office of the Governor has established an EOG DOGE Team which will use advanced technology to identify, review and report on unnecessary spending within county and municipal governments and recommend legislative reforms to promote efficiency, maximize productivity and eliminate waste in state and local government. These efforts are focused on ensuring fiscal responsibility throughout Florida.
“In addition to assessing your municipality’s publicly available information over the coming weeks and months, the EOG DOGE Team is also assessing compliance with the financial management requirements set forth in section 218.503, Florida Statutes. This provision outlines the circumstances under which a local governmental entity is deemed to be in financial emergency or distress, triggering necessary corrective actions,” the DOGE letter says.
“To fulfill our oversight role, and in accordance with article IV, section 1(a) of the Florida Constitution, we respectfully request confirmation as to whether your municipality has encountered any instances of financial emergency or distress, including those listed in section 218.503(1), Florida Statutes, such as:
Failure to pay short-term loans or obligations when due as a result of lack of funds.
Failure to make debt service payments on bonds, loans or other debt instruments when due.
Failure to timely pay uncontested claims from creditors for more than 90 days due to lack of funds.
Failure to transfer taxes, Social Security contributions or retirement plan contributions as required by law.
An unreserved or total fund balance deficit in the general fund or any major operating fund that persists for two consecutive years.”
The letter says, “If your municipality has encountered any of these conditions since state fiscal year 2018-19, or anticipates potential financial distress in the next six months, please provide a written response detailing the specific circumstances, any corrective actions taken, a point of contact and any additional information relevant to compliance with statutory financial obligations.”
In closing, the DOGE letter says, “Please submit your response no later than April 8 to ensure timely review and, if necessary, assistance from state authorities. If we do not receive a response from you within 45 days, it will be presumed that your municipality is in possible statutory violation and in need of assistance. We appreciate your cooperation in maintaining the fiscal integrity of local governmental operations.”
The letter is signed, “Sincerely, EOG DOGE Team.”
Florida league of cities’ response
The following day, the Florida League of Cities (FLC) distributed an electronic letter to city officials that said, “We are reaching out to confirm that the letter your city received from the Executive Office of the Governor DOGE Team is legitimate and was sent to every municipality in Florida. The governor’s office has requested that each city respond within 45 days of receiving the letter.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis shared this graphic on social media when announcing the formation of the DOGE task force. – Gov. Ron DeSantis | Submitted
The FLC letter includes a draft response cities can use when submitting a response if the city can answer ‘No’ to all five questions posed in the DOGE letter and has not encountered any instances of financial emergency or distress.
The FLC draft response says, “Dear Executive Office of the Governor DOGE Team, This correspondence serves as [City Name]’s response to the financial review letter received from your office. After careful evaluation, we confirm that our municipality has not encountered any conditions of financial emergency or distress, as outlined in the letter, since the state fiscal year 2018-19. If additional information is required, please do not hesitate to contact us.”
In closing, the FLC letter says, “Please note: If a response is not received within 45 days, the governor’s office will presume that your municipality may be in possible statutory violation and in need of state assistance.”
Holmes beach response
On March 20, using the FLC draft response, Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth sent the following recommended response to the DOGE team: “This correspondence serves as the city of Holmes Beach’s response to the financial review letter received from your office. After careful evaluation, we confirm that our municipality has not encountered any conditions of financial emergency or distress, as outlined in the letter, since the state fiscal year 2018-19. If additional information is required, please do not hesitate to contact us.”
TALLAHASSEE – A bill proposing to build a three-story, 1,500-plus-space parking garage in Holmes Beach is speeding toward approval.
House Bill 947, proposed by Manatee County Rep. Will Robinson Jr., passed the Regulatory Reform and Economic Development Subcommittee on March 22 with the unanimous approval of all members present at the Florida House of Representatives with a change to line 15, submitted by Robinson, addressing the enforcement of the bill. The line states that the parking garage can be constructed within the “territorial boundaries of the city of Holmes Beach, without obtaining any permit, approval, consent, or letter of no objection from the city of Holmes Beach.”
The bill is now in the State Affairs Committee for consideration before moving to the House floor for a vote. If the bill passes those two votes, it moves on to the Florida Senate for consideration. If approved there, it would go to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk on July 1 to be vetoed or signed into law.
Though not in Tallahassee this week, Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse appeared before the Local Administration, Federal Affairs and Special Districts Subcommittee on March 15 to voice his support for the bill.
In a talk with The Sun, Kruse said he was in the state capitol for another matter, but the trip coincided with the first committee hearing on the parking garage bill and he wanted to lend support to Robinson.
The hearing was also attended by Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth along with several members of city staff. Titsworth, along with many Island residents and property owners, opposes the construction of a parking garage at Manatee Beach, which is owned by Manatee County but located in Holmes Beach. City leaders passed an ordinance in 2022 banning the construction of multi-level parking garages in the city except by special exception. Though parking garages were previously not an allowable land use in the city without a special exception, the passage of the ordinance bolstered the prohibition after county commissioners began discussing the possibility of building a parking garage in the city as an answer to beachgoer parking constraints.
Kruse said that while he understands that a special exception hearing before city commissioners could have been undertaken by the county, he thinks it would have been a waste of time, effort and taxpayer money due to city commissioners’ passage of the parking garage ban, resulting in county commissioners pushing the matter to the state level.
As of press time for The Sun, Kruse is the only Manatee County commissioner to have taken Titsworth up on her offer to tour the city’s available beach parking. Kruse said he embarked on the parking tour following a town hall meeting he held at the Island Branch Library, and said he spent more than two hours touring city streets and talking with the mayor about parking.
“We looked at probably 100% of the parking spaces,” Kruse said. “I said it when I was up in Tallahassee, I 100% gave Holmes Beach credit. What they’re working on right now is great. What they’re working on is going to be much more hospitable, much more welcoming to residents of Manatee County, staycationers and tourists.”
Holmes Beach city leaders are working to remove sign pollution, placing green numbered parking spot indicators near beach access points and working on an interactive app, with the installation of parking sensors, that can alert visitors to where available parking is located in real-time. The city also provides a map on its website that identifies public parking areas.
“I think everything that Holmes Beach is doing is amazing. It’s great. It’s going to make a world of difference,” Kruse said, adding that he feels that the bill at the state level may be pushing city leaders to work to resolve parking issues.
And though he said the city is addressing parking in as much as they have the capacity to do so, he doesn’t feel the solutions or even the proposed parking garage will fix all of the parking and traffic issues on Anna Maria Island. Even with the loss of the 400-plus parking spaces currently available at Manatee Beach, the parking garage would net 1,000 or more parking spaces, which Kruse said could potentially help provide more spaces for Manatee County residents and visitors.
“I do not think putting a parking garage there is going to fix our parking problem,” he said. “I support the concept of the parking garage. I support Rep. Robinson’s bill.”
“At the end of the day this is a large project in a large CIP within the county that has hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars of projects,” Kruse said. “So, I need numbers first. I need financials first. I’m a realist and I’m somebody who assesses everything with facts. So, I, at the end of the day, need to see where is $30-45 million coming from? What is the timeline for completion? What are we going to do with 400-plus parking spots in the interim during construction? That’s information I don’t have yet because the bill hasn’t passed yet, so we haven’t gone through it. We get to our CIP discussions in the summer when we go through budget, so this hasn’t come up specifically. I support the concept of allowing the county a very reasonable height and reasonable footprint to build additional parking for citizens of the county. Is it 100% guaranteed it’s going to get built? Probably. I know my board. ButamI100%soldonit?Ineedtosee where those numbers are coming from. Is that the best use of $45 million? And maybe it is. I support the concept. I support the idea of giving us the option. And I think that’s the heart and soul of it.”
Kruse added that he feels there could be better answers to the parking and traffic congestion issues on the Island, primarily the installation of a third lane on the Anna Maria Island Bridge along Manatee Avenue to allow for a dedicated first responder and transit lane. With a dedicated transit lane, he said he feels people would be more likely to ride a shuttle service to the beach with their gear if it allowed them to bypass traffic. The reconstruction of the Anna Maria Island Bridge is on the Florida Department of Transportation’s project priorities list but is unfunded.
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – As state representatives discuss bypassing Holmes Beach codes to build a parking garage and dissolving the three Island cities, locals aren’t taking it lying down.
Residents, property owners, business owners, visitors and others who love the Island just the way it is have banded together to get the word out and reach out to Manatee County’s state legislative delegation members in an effort to have their voices heard in Tallahassee.
Led by Holmes Beach resident Laurel Nevans, 950 people had joined Save AMI Cities as of Jan. 23. The Facebook group is dedicated to making the people’s voices heard at the local and state level on both issues.
The battle is focused on a parking garage. Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge wants to build one at Manatee Beach, a property owned by the county but located in Holmes Beach. Before those plans got off the ground, city commissioners voted to not allow multi-level parking structures in their city, a stance echoed by city leaders in Bradenton Beach and Anna Maria. Van Ostenbridge warned city leaders at a public meeting that there would be consequences to their actions.
Now the fight has escalated to the state level with Rep. Will Robinson Jr. initiating a bill to not only override the city’s decision to disallow parking garages but also to break the city’s three-story building height restriction, which is in the city charter. Robinson said he wants to see a four-story parking garage built at Manatee Beach. A four-story garage also would violate the three-story height limitation for unincorporated Manatee County, which is what the Island would likely be merged into if all three Island cities were dissolved by the Legislature.
A cool morning leaves the beach in Holmes Beach nearly vacant, even at the height of snowbird season. – Submitted | Beverly Battle
That possibility arose from state legislative delegation discussions earlier this month to consider hiring the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to study the feasibility of dissolving the Island’s three cities.
Protestors speak out
Members of Save AMI Cities are writing letters to state representatives and looking at other ways to make sure their opinions on the proposed measures are heard.
The Sun reached out to those members to see what they have to say about the two proposals.
“This ‘taking’ of our local cities diminishes our votes and our ability to get those little things done in our communities,” Binky Rogers said. “We have owned in Bradenton Beach for 35 years and lived here permanently for 14 years. I feel that our mayor and city commission have our best interests at heart, and they are very approachable. The ‘bully’ county commissioners will not worry too much about our small Island except, of course, bringing in more tax dollars from all the high rises that’ll appear. All I can say at this point is think hard about who you vote for. We can’t just ‘pave over paradise and put up a parking lot.’ ”
“I recognize the value of tourism to our little island, but it’s the vibrant, quaint, simple life that we fell in love with and that is slowly being destroyed by developers,” Holmes Beach resident and local Realtor Kelly Gitt said. “I am strongly against the proposal of a parking garage and an advocate of slower speed limits, safe sidewalks/bike lanes and paying a toll to come out to the island. I don’t believe the parking garage has anything to do with protecting our beaches or the slower pace of life we love and appreciate here.”
Anna Maria Island residents and business owner Bob Casey, pictured here with his wife, Connie, questions the motives behind two proposals by state representatives. – Submitted | Bob Casey
“I’m a homeowner and small business owner here on AMI,” Bob Casey said. “A parking garage is not the solution and I think the county commissioners know this. How about finishing the parking lot at Coquina? I could be wrong, but I think they have ulterior motives. If they can overrule our three-story building limit it will be like ringing the dinner bell to all the developers. Then AMI will lose its old-school charm that locals and visitors alike enjoy. Our local governments are not perfect (who is?) but they live among us and have our best interests at heart.”
“The tourist board advertises Anna Maria as ‘a taste of Old Florida,’ then does everything it can to destroy that,” resident Janis Ian said.
“It begs the question of what the motivation is for the county commissioners and legislators to try and control AMI,” part-time Island resident Barbara Trinklein Rinckey said.
Chris Arendt referenced an Urban Land Institute study that notes that additional parking on the Island will not solve issues related to reaching maximum capacity for people and vehicles on the seven-mile Island. Arendt called both proposals by the legislative delegation “sham proposals.”
“It’s intimidation, plain and simple,” Arendt said. “Fact is every single Island conservative I know, and that’s many, are vehemently opposed to both the proposals. That should tell you all you need to know.”
“This is outright intimidation to control our Island towns,” Barbara Quinn said. “A garage won’t help the massive traffic caused by overdevelopment.”
“The Manatee County commission wants to keep their thumb on the cash cow that is AMI,” Laura Siemon Seubert said. “And a certain county commission member didn’t get his way, he essentially ran to ‘daddy’ to step in and make the other kids play with him. The county doesn’t care if we turn into another Panama City Beach or Fort Lauderdale. They only see the dollar signs with each bed tax. The ironic thing is a parking garage won’t help the bottom line. The day trippers that will use the parking garage aren’t spending the night. There is no financial gain from a parking garage. And as far as the three cities becoming one? All the charm and uniqueness of the Island will disappear.”
“I thought we lived in the United States?” Bradenton Beach resident Chris Johnson questioned. “Have any of the commissioners talked to the Islanders to see how we feel on the Island? This Island has been in my family’s blood for four generations, and we have protected the Island for years. The beaches are beautiful but there is more to this Island than beaches.”
I would like to thank the residents, city staff and the city commissioners for all of your support during my first term as mayor. The commission has worked hard this year given the challenges of COVID-19 and their adjustments to Zoom meetings. Although we didn’t always agree on issues, they always treated each other with respect and dignity. I also would like to thank all who have contributed generously to our community park as it will be enjoyed for many years to come. I have to admit that even with the many challenges facing our city and country each day, these two years have truly been a labor of love. I know I have said it before, but if it wasn’t for Commissioner Pat Morton and his unrelenting effort to convince me to run for office and to help him get the city back in balance, I wouldn’t be sitting here today experiencing the joy in city leadership as a steward of this fine city. Although I was able to run unopposed this year, I promise to continue to work hard for not only our residents, but for our visitors and our business owners. Stay safe and stay kind.
