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Sarasota News Leader October 12, 2012 Another option, Barbetta said, would be for the county to sell the parking lot to a private vendor who would charge drivers. "I'm not in favor of having a private vendor start [charging] people to park or the me- ters," Thaxton said. "It would not cause me a great amount of heartburn to have the re- maining costs funded out of the general fund revenue …" "I completely agree with Jon," Chairwoman Christine Robinson said. While she could not support the county's ab- sorption of the balance of the expense, Patter- son said, "If the board wants to be generous, I am sure everybody in the Village will be hap- py." She was opposed to putting meters in the parking lot, she added. If any meters were to be installed in Siesta Village, she said, the more appropriate places for them would be along the streets. Still, Patterson said, "I think [metered parking will] cause a lot more upset than the kindness of paying [the balance] off." "I am fine without meters," Barbetta said. "I am adamantly opposed to parking meters, period, pretty much in any section of Sarasota County, especially in an area that we are en- couraging folks to go to," Robinson said. After Barbetta made the motion to proceed with plans to abolish the parking district, Pat- Page 30 terson said, "I just can't do it. It seems like breaking an agreement." "Not commenting on any lawsuits," Robinson said, "it appears that we have already broken the agreement in the past, and I don't see us finding a way out of doing that again." Robinson added, "We need to cut our losses and move on." After the vote, Patterson said to Harriott, "I don't really know exactly when the under- standing came to be that we were going to [raise an assessment]," if a business expand- ed, "thereby lowering [the assessment] for ev- erybody else." Patterson added, "I have heard from other people in the Village that that's been going on for years." "Numbers go up and down every year … since the day [the parking district] was created," Harriott said. That was how the improvement district plan was established, he added. "We went through iteration after iteration after it- eration on how to assess this district." Business owners "wanted an incentive for businesses to come in and add parking to their parcels or purchase parcels to add parking," Harriott said, because that would drive down other parcels' assessments. Robinson interrupted Harriott: "I don't want to get into a protracted discussion about the old district. … We still have the pending law- suit to deal with." Take Your TimeYou Have All Week Enjoy The News Leader Anytime - Day or Night