The scenario that unfolded at the Oct. 15 Sarasota County Tourist Development Council meeting reminded us more than a little of a poorly scripted comedy show.
Sarasota County officials learned recently that state law requires the largest city in a county to have a seat on the TDC board. As North Port has overtaken the City of Sarasota in population, the North Port City Commission appointed one of its members, Dave Garapola, to take that TDC seat. Yet, as Garapola sat in the TDC meeting audience on Oct. 15, the council members – led by Chairwoman Nora Patterson – debated the state law, nattered on about the possibility of expanding the membership and whined about any possibility of local government representation diluting industry representation.
When Patterson finally spotted Garapola and told him to "come up and join us," he probably wished in hindsight that he had turned and run for the door.
Finally, the TDC members unanimously passed a motion calling for Longboat Key and North Port to hold ex officio seats on their board for the time being.
Frankly, we believe a video of this session should be required viewing for anyone invited to serve on a local government advisory board. It should be labeled: "An Example of How Meetings Should Not Be Conducted."
Of course, with almost all the Sarasota County TDC money locked into specific uses anyway, the board members really don’t have much money to "play" with. And any recommendation they make to the county commission can be ignored. Was it really necessary then for the TDC members to carry on the way they did about North Port "playing" with them?
Patterson and all the other council members should have known going into that meeting what the situation was with the North Port seat. They should make it their responsibility to stay up-to-date on any matter relative to their work on the council.
Patterson, especially – having been a county commissioner since 1998 – should have acquired some expertise about dealing with government issues. Doesn’t the Florida Legislature have staff she could have consulted on the state law at the center of this dispute if she found the law so ambiguous?
It has been our experience that – while it may take some time to find the right person – a legislature has at least one staff member with sufficient knowledge to answer any question about a particular statute.
Instead of carrying on a not-so-funny comedy routine, the TDC members should have gone into that Oct. 15 meeting clearly apprised of what the state law does and does not say. Then, they could have carried on an intelligent discussion about their response to the law.
Regardless of what the outcome would have been then, at the very least we’d like to think poor Dave Garapola wouldn’t have been treated as the black sheep of the family having shown up for Thanksgiving dinner.
October 29th 2009 - 6:52AM