A hotly contested Sarasota County School Board race just exposed a significant schism between Vice Chair Caroline Zucker and an area representative in Tallahassee—and may create new divisions on the board next year. State Rep. Jim Boyd’s political committee, Building On Your Dreams, just dropped $1,000 into coffers for Teresa Mast, the candidate challenging Zucker’s re-election.

I asked Boyd in a short Twitter exchange why he made the donation and he credited Mast’s “conservative, student focused leadership.” When I asked if he worried about creating a rift with the local board, he made clear one already existed, referencing the Florida School Boards Association’s “suing the state (and losing each time) for us giving parents and students Ed options.”

The obvious allusion was to a recent FSBA decision to sue the state over a vouchers program. Interestingly, Zucker as president of FSBA last year encouraged the association to end its legal fight with lawmakers after suffering setbacks in court. “My first motion as president,” she tells me, “was to eliminate that lawsuit, to get us out of that. I thought it was detrimental to our major goal, which is looking out for children.” But she originally supported the suit, and has not forgotten. Mast says she would “absolutely not” have supported legal action in the first place, and welcomed Boyd’s endorsement and his committee’s donation.

Disagreements between state lawmakers and local governments are nothing new, and in a year when candidates for president on down choose to highlight pugnacious messages over unifying ones, Boyd’s actions aren’t completely unexpected. They did, however, create a minor headache for the man who signs the committee’s checks.

Eric Robinson, the most prominent campaign treasurer in the region, made the leap from political player to politician this year when he ran without opposition for a seat on the School Board. This November, he will serve on the body alongside either Zucker or Mast. But Robinson also chairs and acts as registered agent for Building On Your Dreams, a committee that spent close to $3,000 for services with Robinson’s accounting firm so far this year.

Robinson emphatically explains that he doesn’t make calls on who the committee supports. From my short interaction with Boyd, I don’t doubt that. This choice was made by the representative, not the school board member-elect. “It doesn’t bother me if Boyd wants to give money to someone running for school board,” Robinson says. But Robinson won’t endorse in the Zucker-Mast race. He didn’t like when sitting board members campaigned against Bridget Ziegler for an open seat two years ago, and he has no reason to be at odds with colleagues before taking his oath of office. He does acknowledge his work managing finances for political entities could get sticky once he starts serving on the board (though I see little difference with the stickiness we see today), and doesn’t know what he will do when clients spend money to unseat school board members two years from now.

Zucker says she doesn’t care about Robinson’s involvement. “That’s his choice,” she says. “I want to stay in my lane.” Ironically, that’s the problem Boyd has with Zucker and the FSBA—that they keeping cross into the Legislature’s lane.

But Robinson right now is driving two cars on the road. His day job involves assisting politicians as they drag race each other, but as a politician himself he wants to avoid a collision. Now that he’s an elected official, a greater scrutiny will surely come to his outside political activity. It’s time to put both hands on one wheel.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor of SRQ Media Group. 

The sign above was recently installed at Lido Beach in preparation for the many boat racing fans who attended the July 4Suncoast Charities for Children Sarasota Power Boat Grand Prix.

This year’s races were seen around the world via television and by thousands of fans up close and personal on Lido. An unprecedented effort was also made on race weekend to successfully protect sea turtle and bird nests on shore as well as manatees and dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico. Thanks to all involved for another great event and all of the extraordinary measures to protect our wildlife.             

But, the boat races are a one weekend per year event on one beach. As all SRQ readers are aware, our region has been blessed with several of the world’s finest beaches.  Each is special in its own way. Each is enjoyed with much delight 365 days of the year.

Since Steve Leatherman’s (aka Dr. Beach) 2011 rating of Siesta Key Beach as the Best Beach in America, Sarasota County has invested about $21.5 million to expand and modernize Siesta Key Beach amenities.  Our weekly Sarasota employee volleyball games are held on Siesta beach most Friday evenings. We all love Siesta Key Beach.  The south portion of Siesta Key was also stabilized through beach re-nourishment earlier this year.

Like Siesta Key beaches, all of our area beaches require tender loving care.   All of our shorelines must remain buffered and stable not only for beach enjoyment but to protect homes, businesses, roads and our infrastructure.  As sea levels are predicted to rise, we are going to continue to face even greater beach and shoreline protection challenges over the next 50 years.  

The awesome Venice Beach was last re-nourished in 2015.   In cooperation with the City of Sarasota, the pristine Longboat Key Beach is in the middle of being re-nourished this year. To finish the Longboat re-nourishment, sand will be recycled to Longboat from the New Pass channel (between Longboat and Lido) where it has naturally accumulated.  

The family oriented Lido Key Beach is now in serious need of stabilization and re-nourishment.   This past May, Tropical Storm Colin took about 30 feet off of much of the shoreline. At South Lido, the Gulf could soon be crashing up onto buildings.

Although some question and criticize the Army Corps of Engineers over their role in beach stabilization, they are the best experts available and in place to manage this ongoing responsibility. They have the best data, computers, software and by far the most experience in providing guidance in maintaining America's shorelines and beaches. We are hopeful a permit will be issued in the near future to stabilize/renourish Lido Key Beach.  

Unfortunately, it seems few trust government anymore on anything.  I hope this mantra ends someday. We might remind ourselves from time to time that our government did put a man on the moon, played a vital role in advancing the internet, and generally does a decent job regulating our safety in many ways, including aviation, food and drugs, and in Florida, shoreline protection. If we can't trust the US Army Corps on guiding us or helping protect and preserve our shoreline, well who can we trust on a subject of this magnitude? 

Although I have had very positive experiences with the Corp’s work, careful scrutiny of what they and the state suggest and permit is warranted. Public input is taken seriously as well and is built into the shoreline maintenance process.  

In the weeks ahead, the City of Sarasota will be proposing an enhanced cities and county partnership to better monitor, protect and maintain Longboat, Lido and Siesta beach shorelines.  

This new initiative will provide much greater transparency regarding our shoreline protection efforts and attempt to marry local expertise and interest with powerful new state-of-the-art technology now available to us.  

We all need to be partners and assure ourselves and all beach and boating aficionados that all of our special beaches, including Siesta, Lido and Longboat, and boating channels, will not be harmed by shoreline protection efforts that wisely reuse local sand.

New technology allows us to synthesize weather events, shoreline changes, shoal data and boat channel monitoring, in near real time. These breakthroughs will allow us to work together locally to perfect our local, state and federal partnerships to maintain all of our beaches in a timely, responsible and cost effective manner for decades to come.

Great communities work together to work through issues like this to get the best possible results for all. See you at the beach!

Tom Barwin is city manager for the City of Sarasota. Forward any thoughts you may have on this or related subjects to:  thomas.barwin@sarasotagov.com 

This summer has been a very different one for me personally, which I’ll explain in this column. As such, I decided to change my normal focus and write here about awareness and gratitude. I once heard the adage, “Your health is like the weather—often taken for granted until things get stormy.” And that rings true for me today more than ever. As president of Ringling College of Art and Design, my world is filled with to-dos: meetings, lunches, dinners, events, speaking engagements, exhibitions and more. But earlier this month, I was forced out of my role as president and became a patient, actually a patient twice, at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. 

My first visit was due to a routine hip replacement surgery, which was relatively uneventful, and I left the hospital sore and tired but on the mend. Five days later, I found myself back in the hospital with gastrointestinal bleeding that landed me in the ER and ICU at SMH. It was scary. Never in my life have I been more aware of or grateful for the extraordinary teams of healthcare leaders, professionals and staff we have here in Sarasota. While in the emergency room, the doctors thought I was stabilized until a short time later I unexpectedly began losing blood at an alarming rate—and that’s when the rush to the ICU happened. I was quickly prepped to receive an emergency endoscopy to repair a tear in my esophagus. I woke up eight hours later in the ICU wondering what in the world happened, but fortunately alive and well. I had lost eight units of blood. Four days later, I was released into the care of my amazing spouse, Patricia.

I am someone who is always off to the next thing, often not taking the time to reflect and appreciate what has been done. Well, this experience changed me and my view of life.  I cannot adequately put into words my ultimate respect for the “community of care” that is available to us as residents of the Sarasota and Manatee area. We are a small city, and our worlds often collide—as do our industries and experiences. And my exceptional experiences at SMH strengthened my appreciation for the intersection of healthcare and design because, as we instill in our students, the heart and soul of great art and design lies within the human experience. Our worlds bolster each other, work together and coexist. And never have I seen that more clearly than at SMH, where I was treated with the utmost dignity, consideration and kindness.

So, during this time of reflection, I encourage you to consider how you can best support our healthcare system and help others in need. One relatively simple way is to give blood. As the recipient of donated blood, I can truly attest to the significance of this gesture, and you never know who your generous gift will help. At the end of the day, we all exist together in this culturally rich and deeply caring community, so let’s please support each other when and where we need it the most.

Dr. Larry R. Thompson is president of Ringling College of Art and Design. Find a donation center: http://www.scbb.org/ or https://www.oneblood.org/. 

All Faiths Food Bank and the Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation recently held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate Eat This Bus, a colorful and memorable converted school bus which will deliver snacks and meals to vulnerable children in south Sarasota and DeSoto counties. Sarasota and DeSoto counties have a large number of 'food deserts," where households have no access to transportation and have no supermarket stores to access fresh fruit, vegetables and often healthful whole foods within a mile of their homes. While the school bus was donated by the Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation, the bright and colorful design was created by Laura Coyle, director of creative services at All Faiths Food Bank.  

All Faiths Food Bank

Robert Davie and Associates Landscaping, a 40-year veteran of landscape design was just featured as the main event in Landscape and Design magazine for a recent renovation evoking a true fashion-forward design concept. This particular project was a redesign of a home that had a definite '90s feel and was in need of a fashionable facelift from top to bottom. This entailed a new pool, pool enclosure, spa and outdoor kitchen. The plans included several seating areas, water and fire features, landscape makeover and stunning LED lighting. The look can be described as avant-garde with touches such as canvas and steel cantilevered awnings and brushed stainless steel and wood columns.  

Robert Davie and Associates Landscaping

The Education Foundation of Sarasota County will host the region’s first student SRQHacks Hackathon, an intense three-day immersion experience, pairing student and mentor teams working together to create technological solutions addressing our community’s critical issues. The goal of the Hackathon is to identify underserved youth, ages 13 through 18, who have great potential yet come from low-income settings that may limit their opportunities, and expose them to technology, coding and careers available in the computer science field. The Education Foundation of Sarasota County is actively recruiting qualified volunteer mentors who represent developers (programmers, engineers, computer-science college students), designers (front-end developers or graphic designers) and innovators (educators, entrepreneurs and problem solvers) to work with the students. It also is asking for sponsors to invest in this multifaceted event.  

Hackathon

Thrilling music, exciting new voices and compelling theater will launch Sarasota Opera into its 58th season of presenting grand opera on the south Florida Gulf Coast, the first season in 28 years to not include any operas by Giuseppe Verdi. Starting this fall, Sarasota Opera will launch an exciting new venture entitled Sarasota Firsts, in which the company will produce operas never before seen on the Sarasota Opera House stage. For the 2016-2017 season, Sarasota Opera will present three operas in association with this new series as well as remount operas that have been beloved by Sarasota Opera audiences for years. Starting at just $19, single tickets for the 2016-2017 season will go on sale exclusively online Monday, August 1.  

Sarasota Opera

In order to help young people aging out of the foster-care system, Goodwill Manasota and the Children’s Guardian Fund are partnering on the Good Futures/Coaches Corp. program to provide caring, individualized attention and guidance in the development of independent life skills for foster youth ages 18-24. The program will assist with finding stable employment, understanding the principles of budgeting income and saving money, securing stable housing, achieving post-secondary education and healthy living.  

Goodwill Manasota

Recently, members of the Combat Wounded Veteran Challenge and SCUBAnauts International joined forces with scientists from Mote Marine Laboratory to plant nursery-grown corals near Looe Key. This event marked the fifth year of a unique coral restoration partnership that enables citizen science volunteers to participate in cutting-edge marine habitat restoration. This project has already helped restore more than 1,000 corals on the reef.  

Mote Marine Laboratory

The Humane Society of Sarasota County (HSSC) is the proud recipient of a $2,000 grant from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) for the expansion of its Adoption Ambassador program. The Adoption Ambassador program is an ASPCA initiative that empowers volunteers to foster a pet, promote the animal in their community, identify potential adopters and finalize the adoption process. ASPCA research has shown that programs like Adoption Ambassadors help reach a new pool of adopters and result in lower return rates than traditional shelter adoptions. Not only are lives saved, but space, time and resources are freed up at shelters.  

Humane Society of Sarasota County