New City Electorate is Moving Sarasota Forward

Perhaps one of the most consequential outcomes of the 2018 General Election was the passage of a citizen-initiated amendment to the Sarasota City Charter which aligned municipal contests with the traditional August-November cycle. Supported by a broad coalition of community groups such as the NAACP, ACLU and the Manasota Young Democrats, the bipartisan initiative to “Change the Date” of city elections passed with overwhelming support—63% of city voters thought it would be a good idea to triple participation in city elections while saving taxpayers over $100,000 every two years in costs associated with the administration of a stand-alone, off-cycle city election.

With thousands more city voters having weighed in this year on the selection of three district Commissioners, we now have a much clearer picture of the community’s priorities. The Old Guard minority which had managed to maintain an iron grip on City Hall by holding city elections during the off-cycle, low turn-out format was ousted by the new, larger, more diverse city electorate.

We are already seeing the results of this increased participation at the ballot box—earlier this month, by a resounding 4-1 vote, the newly-seated Commission voted to move forward with zoning text amendments that will allow for the design and implementation of phase one of a world-class public park our community now fondly calls The Bay. Commissioner Jennifer Ahearn-Koch’s obstructionist approach to once-in-a-generation community projects such as The Bay no longer has a “second” in former Commissioner Willie Charles Shaw.

With the new Commission led by a son of Sarasota, Mayor Hagen Brody, Sarasota is poised to recapture the creative, entrepreneurial spirit of John Ringling, Owen Burns and Marie Selby as our cultural institutions can now confidently invest in Sarasota’s future.

Gabriel Hament is a Sarasota native. He has managed and volunteered for sitting city commissioner campaigns.