Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/90018
Sarasota News Leader October 5, 2012 rights for a housing unit on environmentally sensitive lands, and transferring those rights to lands more suited for development as iden- tified within the Sarasota 2050 plan provisions ...." The memo says the goal is to have the com- prehensive plan amendment adopted by June 2013. Before the Oct. 23 vote, discussions between commissioners and the manager of the county's Natural Re- sources Department revealed that the orig- inal ESLPP ordinance did not specify 10 per- cent of the voted ad valorem tax revenue in the program would go toward land maintenance, in spite of com- missioners' assertions that that was their in- tention when the first ESLPP referendum was held in 1999. "The ordinance [related to the ESLPP] does not specify the distribution of the funds," Amy Meese, the Natural Resources Department manager, told the commissioners. Instead, Meese pointed out, the ordinance specified that any debt associated with the program be paid first. Then, the remainder of the ad valorem tax revenue would be split, with 90 percent going toward the purchase of more land and 10 percent going to mainte- nance. "There's something really wrong with that," Commissioner Nora Patterson told Meese, "because what you're basically doing is not Page 27 honoring the commitment to keep 10 percent of the monies allocated for maintenance." County Attorney Stephen DeMarsh pointed out that his recollection was that the 90/10 split was not part of the referendum question put before voters, but "was part of the liter- ature delivered to people to explain the [ES- LPP] program." what we thought was a principle of the program. I'm not saying it's anybody's fault, [but] it's a pretty loose principle. County Commissioner Nora Patterson It sounds as though we're violating "But it was a stated policy to everybody when [we] went out and asked them to vote for this," Patterson said. Before the referen- dum, people asked her constantly, "'How are you going to maintain the land?'" she said, "and the answer was, 'We're setting aside 10 percent of the money raised.'" "Certainly, that's an area for board direction," DeMarsh said. Meese explained that staff had been follow- ing the same policy since the ESLPP began in 1999: paying the debt obligation first, then using the remaining revenue according to the 90/10 split. "It sounds as though we're violating what we thought was a principle of the program," Patterson said. "I'm not saying it's anybody's fault," she added, but "it's a pretty loose prin- ciple." When Chairwoman Christine Robinson asked whether the situation had been explained to the Planning Commission before its members voted to recommend approval of the process