Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/352007
He proposed Newtown as a business genera- tor. "There is a strong demand for additional restaurants and general retailers, house- wares, shoes, general merchandise. It could be an incubator for start-up restaurants and food trucks," he said. After the good news came the bad. An unflattering review of the city's Information Technology (IT) Department was aired. "I commissioned the study to find out where the department was," said Phil Hurwitz, the city's IT director. "Two of the items are technical and eight are procedural. We are going to be actively fixing these. The first two items are complete already." "We have a lot of work to do," added Hurwitz. "If 10 is perfect, then we're about a six." There were no motions or calls for consensus to take action on any of these items. ACTION DEFERRED Everybody likes free samples — except the city's code enforcement corps. After a St. Armands business ran afoul of the "code cops," the owner asked the city mothers and fathers if samples could be liberated from tyranny to be "free" for passersby to taste. City Attorney Bob Fournier asked whether anybody objected to his review of the no-free-samples provision of the code so he could report back later. He received a nod of approval. Another St. Armands request was pushed off. After some confusion and a bit of rancor this spring, merchants and residents in the area Plans to increase water rates drew a crowd to City Hall on July 21 to speak to the commission. Photo by Stan Zimmerman Sarasota News Leader July 25, 2014 Page 18