A potential county-state showdown ended up being a no-show. Commissioners also discuss social service funding.
By Dania Hefley
Original Air Date: August 22, 2025
Host: Last fall, Manatee County voters elected a slate of county commissioners firmly in the development-skeptical camp. Their efforts to raise impact fees for developers, return recently stripped wetland protections, and to harden a leaky urban development boundary has led to an escalating tit-for-tat between the all-Republican county commission and the Republican state government. But a land-use meeting on Thursday that could have turned into a showdown turned into a no-show—both by commissioners and activists. Meanwhile, Manatee County seems headed toward a makeover of the process to fund social and healthcare services. Dania Hefley reports.
Dania Hefley: On Tuesday, Manatee County Commissioners postponed two key agenda items they had planned to vote on at a land-use meeting on Thursday, including one on wetland protection and another one to preserve agricultural land east of the urban development boundary. Chair George Kruse argued the entire slate of county commissioners could be removed from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis and replaced with his appointees if they voted to return wetland buffer regulations now. State agencies had made it clear to the Manatee County Commission they would be violating two state laws if they did.
Earlier this month, the Manatee County commissioners voted to join both a lobbying effort and a lawsuit by other counties and cities to change SB 180. That’s a state law originally intended to speed up reconstruction after hurricanes and flooding. The legislature passed it this year with a stipulation blocking counties that have been hit by hurricanes from introducing ordinances that could make reconstruction more difficult.
In a similar case, officials in Edgewater, a city on Florida’s east coast, defied state law SB 180 with a 3-2 vote to keep a construction ban. Although warned they could be removed from office, the council members have not yet been disciplined.
In an interview with WSLR News, Commissioner Kruse said he was “not happy” about the postponement, but that he had to consider the best interests of the county. He stated that moving forward would have led to an “inevitable developer funded lawsuit,” and that the board was taking a step back to be “more thoughtful in the process.”
George Kruse
George Kruse: There are people that want us to take a stand. What was being whispered down to us from on high was, “That’s not really the fight you’re gonna be having.” I said on the dais, “if you told me walking off this board would put back our wetland buffers and solidify our development boundary, I’ll walk off tomorrow.” But that wasn’t the option in place.
DH: Fast-forward to Thursday. There still was a meeting, but without any commissioners, just for public comment on the postponement. Only three people came to speak, and nobody used the call-in option.
All three criticized the use of SB 180 to hamstring local planning efforts. They also defended the commissioners’ decision to postpone. David Dean is a resident of Myakka City.
David Dean: I think it’s a wise move to postpone the vote for now. We can ultimately win this fight if we don’t knock ourselves out.
DH: It’s not clear why so few activists showed up for public comment. Social media posts indicated many more had prepared to make a statement. Ahead of the Tuesday meeting, two anonymous text message campaigns urged citizens to call Commissioners Tal Siddique and Kruse to stand firm on wetlands protection. One of the texts read:
“ronnie desantis and his greedy developer friends are trying to bully OUR county commission into backing down from wetlands protection call [number] today and tell commissioner kruse to stand up to our wetlands.”
Even so, activists held back. One environmentalist told WSLR News that fellow activists feared this could be a trap set up by people close to developer interests.
Rob Brown, a retired Manatee County employee with 34 years of experience in Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, said he viewed the postponement of the meeting as a logical move in response to a legal threat from Senate Bill 180 which could result in local government officials being removed from office. Brown believes that the state bill essentially undermines home rule, and he anticipates the wetlands issue will be revisited once the legal standing of SB 180 is resolved in the courts.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the commissioners met in a work session about millions in county funding for local health and human services non-profits. Chairman George Kruse expressed frustration with the county’s funding system, describing the process as “broken.”
GK: This is a zero-sum game. If you say, “I deserve $50,000”—and I’m not pointing at anyone, I’m just pointing over here—
[Audience laughs]
GK: —then that means I have to take $50,000 away from somebody else. We have smart people deciding that, and they’re supposed to tell us that.
DH: A key point of contention was a proposed 49% increase in funding, with a significant portion dedicated to homelessness and housing initiatives. Kruse directly addressed the county’s two largest non-profits offering homeless and healthcare services.
GK: I’m questioning whether or not putting that roof over their head should come out of a bucket that should be catering to people that are sick… Meanwhile, I’ve got Turning Points and MCR sitting over here like, “I’ll give you some free DayQuil right now.”
DH: Children’s Services Advisory Board member Connie Schengel-Decker responded to Kruse’s argument, defending the board’s review process.
Connie Schengel-Decker: I’ll give you an example of one program that probably isn’t gonna get any funding even if they try to, and that’s a juvenile sex offender program. We know that, chances are, it’s not a very sexy program that someone’s gonna say, “Yeah, I wanna dump a lot of money into that,” but how necessary that program is in our community and the good work that it does.
DH: The final vote for this year’s funding is scheduled for a September 16 meeting.
Reporting for WSLR News, Dania Hefley.
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