Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/207831
Sarasota News Leader November 8, 2013 It was very hostile, but it was caused by the commissioners, not because of the administrator. Now [former Administrator Randall] Reid was a tough guy, blunt. The county he received was in shambles, and you can't be coddling and so soft. He wouldn't have accomplished as much as he did if he didn't have a firm line. Page 60 York, I wasn't as offended as some might be by his bluntness. I worked on it myself over the years, trying not to sound too much like a New Yorker. News Leader: Do you support the Domestic Partnership Registry and the proposed Human Rights Ordinance? News Leader: What do you think was the red Ramirez: I'm really glad the county is turning into being more open-minded. As somebody line that Reid crossed? who has friends who are gay and friends who Ramirez: Sarasota 2050. He had the nerve are lesbians, they are lovely people, and I to question and not do things exactly the don't know why we have to be so hung up developers' way, and thou shalt not cross a on this. I don't know enough about what the developer. Domestic Partnership Registry does, but if it allows them to visit loved ones in a hospital, if it allows them a few things, leave them alone. News Leader: How would you evaluate his All they want to do is love. I don't understand tenure? the hang-up. Ramirez: I've been doing this 11 years, going over what the county does, and the process he was putting in place to make what the county is doing more transparent was really good. It used to be that when you read a report or an agenda item, it was already planned what was said, it was geared, and everything was suppressed. I liked [what Reid did] because then we could make our own determination. There should never be discrimination. I'm Hispanic. My first time out of New York City, and it was Yonkers, not another country, I went to apply for an apartment. I was married to my first husband. We had the superintendent tell us, "The landlord will not accept you, because you're Hispanic." And you're talking about Yonkers, NY, not the Third World, the Deep South. So they said, "You have to use By putting the people in place that he did — a different last name," and we had to pay by outsiders, too — they were setting up the cashiers check, so we could have a decent process really well. So I really felt he was apartment in a decent neighborhood not too far from the school. So discrimination? Yeah, going down the right path. I'm real sensitive to that. He could be blunt, but there are times in which you don't get to the bottom line till you That first experience was a real blow to me. ask a few questions. And there were times And no, I don't believe anyone should be he was blunt. An occasional "Please" would discriminated against, except developers. be nice. Probably, because I grew up in New [Laughs.] That's terrible. %