Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/313059
such action materialized, though the culprit was convicted. Snyder has consistently voted against the annual city budget, seldom saying why. And last month, he voted against the city's first "clean" audit in several years, refusing at the time to explain his decision. He said at a later meeting that the auditors "didn't present the financials." Despite the city's having one of the lowest ad valorem tax rates in Florida, Snyder has vocally attacked any suggestion of a rate increase because he fears downtown condominium residents would "flee the area." Snyder also has consistently voted to sup- port creation of a come-as-you-are shelter for homeless people and vagrants in Newtown, saying he fears the U.S. Department of Justice is planning to hold the city in contempt of a Miami federal judge's decision regarding lack of appropriate designated facilities for home- less people to use restrooms in downtown Sarasota, for example. And he helped to ban the city police from engaging in outreach efforts in vagrants' camps, saying officers should enter such areas only if called to them to investigate crimes. Normally, the State of the City address is a virtual bouquet of good deeds and prideful accomplishments. It has even been a video production, providing a tour in color of those deeds and accomplishments. This year Snyder has the bully pulpit. His opinion of the state of the city could be some- thing very different from what the public has seen in the past. Perhaps all that explains why Shannon Snyder does not want to be a city commissioner any A new mayor will be elected in Sarasota on Friday, May 16. Photo by Norman Schimmel The mayor's term is for one year. It took 50 weeks to get Mayor Shannon Snyder's portrait included in the group at City Hall. Photo by Stan Zimmerman Sarasota News Leader May 16, 2014 Page 18