Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/264109
The Sarasota city commissioners extended the contract for a consultant on homelessness, upped the ante for Chalk Festival street clo- sures and concurred with a county ordinance b a n n i n g " d e s i g n e r drugs" during the Feb. 18 meeting. And it received a report on efforts to change the city's charter. T h e c o m m i s s i o n - ers agreed by their expected 3-2 vote to extend the contract of Robert Marbut, who is supervising the city and county efforts to address the problems of vagrancy and homelessness. Commissioner Susan Chapman and Vice Mayor Willie Shaw have been consistently critical of Marbut's recommendations. The City and County c o m m i s s i o n s a r e splitting the cost of M a r b u t 's c o n t r a c t and the environmen- tal analyses of two sites he suggests for Commissioner Susan Chapman (third from left) argues for the losing side in a Feb. 18 discussion of homelessness issues. Photo by Norman Schimmel THE CITY COMMISSION TAKES ANOTHER 3-2 VOTE ON CONTINUING INITIATIVES TO COMBAT HOMELESSNESS AND HEARS CAUTION ON ASPECTS OF THE PUSH FOR A NEW CHARTER SHELTER AND CHARTER TALK There is a legal issue of shortening the term of a commissioner elected under the old charter. You cannot deprive a commissioner of a property right to their elected term. Robert Fournier City Attorney City of Sarasota By Stan Zimmerman City Editor