Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/235968
Sarasota News Leader January 3, 2014 deal and leave the future of the springs once again in limbo. North Port Mayor Linda Yates told The Sarasota News Leader two weeks earlier that the county offer represented "a major, significant financial burden on South County residents." North Port Commissioner Rhonda DiFranco echoes Blucher's "terrible" comment during the Feb. 11 meeting. "I don't like the idea of de-annexing Warm Mineral Springs from the city," she says. "I think everything that the county offered was 'No way, Jose.'" Page 19 any meeting of City Manager Tom Barwin's ad hoc committee looking for fast responses to homelessness unless its meetings are properly noticed under Florida's Open Meetings and Public Records laws. The other stops the city police from arresting homeless people for using signs to solicit donations from motorists. On Feb. 13, the city agrees to a 60-day ban on enforcement of an already-repealed solicitation ordinance. In both cases, City Attorney Bob Fournier tried to head off court action but was stifled by bureaucratic inertia on one hand and Barwin's reluctance to open up his meetings Two city responses to homelessness — one on the other. Barwin is unavailable for comat the top of the "food chain" and the other at ment, away on vacation in Ireland. the grassroots level — are halted by a pair of legal challenges. One judicial decision stops A man holds a sign on Bee Ridge Road, asking motorists for assistance. Photo by Norman Schimmel