The Florida Auditor General’s Office will conduct a follow-up audit of Sarasota County Schools’ budget oversight. The move came after contractors could not document some 40 percent of costs of the Suncoast Technical College branch in North Port for state auditors in January.

State Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, asked the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to take a further look at the books. “Wherever you see an almost 40-percent failure rate in a certain area, it makes you question what’s going on,” he said. “You want to see how widespread a problem is.”

The audit in January found district records lacked documentation of general condition costs for the branch campus. “The District had not established policies or procedures for effectively monitoring and documenting the reasonableness of general conditions costs,” the audit read. Auditors were able to get records for $47,294 of such costs but not for a remaining $28,355.

Sarasota Superintendent of Schools Todd Bowden said he understood Gruters’ concern. He was present in Tallahassee when the audit committee voted, though he noted he was already in the Florida Capitol testifying to a legislative committee on teacher salaries, and would not otherwise have made the trip for an audit vote.

He supports another outside audit to look closer at the numbers in question. “They have identified this as an issue of potential concern," Bowden said. “They made a decision to make a deeper dive.”

Gruters, whose children attend public schools, says he’s happy with the quality of curriculum, and as a parent that’s all he cares about. But as a state senator, he said he has to act as a watchdog on fiscal accountability. A further state audit will look beyond the sample of costs with Suncoast Technical College and see if it’s in fact indicative of a larger problem or if it was largely an anomaly.

Bowden notes that since the last audit, the district has brought in an internal auditor, a move that adds financial accountability. Gruters applauded that move, but said it’s also important to have external review by the Auditor General as well.

Rendering courtesy SchenkelShultz Architecture: Suncoast Technical College North Port branch.

Waterfront custom home builder, Perrone Construction, CMSA Architects, and landscape architect, Hazeltine Nurseries have broken ground on a new custom home located on Bird Key. The three have a remarkable history dating back to the early 1980s building some of Sarasota’s most notable landmark homes, some of which are in excess of 20,000 sq ft.

Often, clients who have worked with the Perrone Construction and CMSA team are repeat clients, several of which they have built as many as four homes for. The first project Rich Perrone and Cliff Scholz ever collaborated on was an impressive estate in the Oaks Club while they were just in their mid-twenties. Perrone even built Scholz’s own home. Over the years the companies have evolved, Perrone Construction is now a multi-generational run company with over 200 years of combined building experience with Rich and Ricky Perrone as the principals, and CMSA has formed a partnership between local architects Cliff Scholz and Daniel Shaffer, and Colorado architect Rick Oswald.

This new project is bringing the team back together again for an encore. The owner hired Perrone Construction and CMSA after purchasing a home built in 2003 by both Perrone and CMSA, 622 S. Owl Dr., and the adjacent lot, 626 S. Owl Dr., on Bird Key. The transitional French architecture of the new home will complement the original, adjacent structure. 

Residents in the Bradenton community and surrounding areas will have the opportunity to receive free dental services at Family Dental Care of South Bradenton on Saturday, November 2. Dr. Nichole Koby, Dr. Quyen Dang and team at Family Dental Care of South Bradenton will be improving the oral health of the community as part of Free Dentistry Day, a day dedicated to providing free dental care to the growing number of Americans without dental insurance. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 108 million Americans are living without dental insurance.

There is increasing evidence that links oral health to overall health and well-being. The signs and symptoms of over 100 medical conditions, including diabetes, HIV/AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease and oral cancer may first be detected through traditional oral examinations. During this Free Dentistry Day event, a choice of one cleaning, filling or extraction will be provided to patients on Saturday, November 2, between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. at 3565 53rd Avenue West in Bradenton. Patients will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please call 941-758-3996 or visit www.FreeDentistryDay.org.  

Robert K. Lincoln, founder and partner of the Law Office of Robert K. Lincoln, P.A., was named the Best Lawyers® 2020 Land Use and Zoning Law “Lawyer of the Year” in Sarasota. Lincoln also was selected by his peers to be included in the 2020 Edition of Best Lawyers in America for both Land Use and Zoning Law and Litigation – Land Use and Zoning.  

Lincoln, who is certified in City, County and Local Government Law by the Florida Bar, specializes in land use and local government law and litigation. Lincoln has been recognized by Best Lawyers® for Land Use and Zoning since 2010 and for Litigation – Land Use and Zoning since 2011. The Law Office of Robert K. Lincoln, P.A. has been recognized by Best Lawyers® since 2016 as a Best Law Firm in Sarasota in the areas of Land Use and Zoning Law and Litigation-Land Use and Zoning. 

Founded in 1981, Best Lawyers in America highlights the top legal talent in America through an exhaustive selection process of peer evaluation based on professional expertise.  For the 2020 Edition, 8.3 million votes were analyzed, and the top attorneys exemplify a standard of extremely high overall feedback for excellence and influence. 

Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota County announced the 2019-2020 Corporate Board of Directors and Foundation Board of Directors as the agency prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2020 as a leading youth-serving organization in Sarasota and DeSoto Counties.

The executive team of the Corporate Board includes Chair Lee DeLieto, Michael Saunders & Co.; Chair-Elect Meghan O. Serrano, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP; Secretary Ric Saba, Law Office of Richard D. Saba, P.A.; and Treasurer Ken Freeman, Gartner Executive Programs. The Corporate Board also includes Hank Battie, Cravats’ Custom Clothiers & Haberdashery; Michael Beaumier; Fatima Demlak, STAR Leadership Training Student Representative; Jaime DiDomenico, Cool Today; Eric Kaplan, Louis and Gloria Flanzer Philanthropic Trust; Karen Madden, Baldwin Risk Partners; Michael Moulton, Michael Saunders & Co.; Richard Perlman, Exam Works; Dr. Richard Rehmeyer, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System; Robert Scheb, Bowman, George, Scheb, Kimbrough, Koach & Chapman; Ric Smalley, Merrill Lynch; Lee Thacker, Caldwell Trust Company; Lee Wetherington, Lee Wetherington Companies; community volunteers David Glorius, Dr. Robert Gussin, Nancy Mina, Mark Morrison and Tom Shapiro; and Former County Commissioners Gene Matthews and Nora Patterson.

The organization also announced the 2019-2020 Foundation Board of Directors including Chair Brian Palmer, Palmer Accounting Group, PA; Chair-Elect Neil McCurry, Sabal Palm Bank; Secretary Christine Davis, Crews Bank & Trust; and Treasurer Alexandra Armstrong, community volunteer. The Foundation Board also includes Chad Gates, Band, Gates & Dramis, PL; Herbert Hoffmann II, Morgan & Morgan; Mark Huber, Michael Saunders & Co.; Amy Hunt, Wells Fargo; Jon Lee, LCM Capital Advisors; Robert Scheb, Bowman, George, Scheb, Kimbrough, Koach & Chapman; Brian Skarbek, Cypress Trust Company/Cypress Capital Group; Robert Wagner, Brown & Brown of Florida, Inc.; and Rob Weiss, Provenance Wealth Advisors; and community volunteers Barbara Lancer, Mike Scharf and Steve Townsend.