Stormwater system maintenance, county-city cooperation remain unresolved.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: May 30, 2025
Host: Sarasota residents who were flooded last year are putting pressure on the county commission. That, in turn, resulted in three floodwater management workshops. Ramon Lopez takes a look on how ready the county is for the 2025 hurricane season.
Ramon Lopez: Sunday, June 1 marks the first day of the 2025 hurricane season, which runs through the end of November.
Sarasota residents should be preparing for another above-average hurricane season as many areas of the community continue to undergo repairs or rebuilding in the wake of Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton.
SPD officers assist residents in flooded Pinebrook near Phillippi Creek. Photo via Sarasota Police Department on Facebook.
Sarasota County conducted its largest evacuation in history in advance of Hurricane Milton. Sarasota County Emergency Management Chief Sandra Tapfumaneyi says it’s important residents continue to heed calls for evacuation when necessary.
But Sarasota County and City staffers and commissioners are still evaluating what happened when the three major hurricanes hit the area late last year, and they are still working to head off a repeat of major freshwater flooding, storm surge beach damage and widespread Category Three wind damage residents suffered.
On May 21, the Sarasota County Commission held a third stormwater workshop. The nearly four-and-a-half-hour event focused on staff actions to try to prevent a repeat of unexpected neighborhood flooding last year. The focus of the third workshop was on stormwater maintenance.
And the county commissioners voted unanimously to approve a higher level of annual service for the county’s waterways, including Phillippi Creek, coastal streams and creeks.
Much of the marathon meeting considered a dozen recommendations from an outside expert, independent engineering consultant Steve Suau, who identified service gaps in Spencer Anderson’s Public Works Department.
Key options proposed are: identify significant floodplain areas and protect them from development, and clean debris from stormwater streams on a regular basis. Suau also urged regular inspection and better maintenance of those waterways. He believes it is essential that stormwater criteria set back in the 1990s be updated in the face of climate change and based on what science says.
County Commissioner Mark Smith, a guest on WSLR’s “Talk of the Town,” said the stormwater situation is a mess.
Ahearn-Koch, Smith with Carrie Seidman during WSLR’s Talk of the Town. Screen grab WSLR
Mark Smith: Essentially, the Sarasota County maintenance on the creek—Phillippi Creek in particular but the bayous and creeks throughout Sarasota County—hadn’t been maintained to the level necessary.
I’ve made the comment that I ran for office, and I feel like I bought a used car, and I didn’t realize they’d never changed the oil. That’s what it is with the stormwater. Phillippi Creek and other “Conveyance” of stormwater hadn’t been maintained in over 20 years.
RL: Anderson said his workers will continue clearing vegetation in dikes to provide better access for maintenance. And he will hire a professional engineer to manage the fixes.
But Suau and area residents say the county stormwater staffers are moving too slow or are taking wrong courses of action.
The sandbar at the north fork of Phillippi Creek, flooded in the aftermath of Debby. Photo by Jim McWhorter via Sarasota News Leader.
In reviewing Anderson’s prepared presentation to the county commission, Suau wrote in an email that Anderson is not taking his recommendations “seriously or with a sense of urgency.” Suau said staff presentations on the implementation status of his recommendations consistently utilize non-committal and circular language—double talk, in other words.
He also said hiring a so-called professional engineer is a far cry from engaging a subject matter expert/stormwater program director.
“I do not recognize the current program that collects huge revenues but does not meet the community’s basic level of service expectations for maintenance,” Suau wrote. “The good news is that this can be restored with changes in leadership, alignment and culture.”
An interlocal agreement currently provides for consolidated stormwater management between the city and county. The pact lays out responsibility for capital improvements to the stormwater system, such as repairs.
But due to limited resources, the county stormwater brass is recommending termination of the interlocal agreement. They want to turn over responsibility of stormwater management, within the city of Sarasota, back to the city. That’s a move not favored by Sarasota City Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch, who joined Mark Smith on Talk of the Town.
Jen Ahearn-Koch: That is a daunting proposal for us. We don’t have anything really in place to take over the management of the stormwater system. We know that the stormwater system has been neglected and not maintained and not kept up to the level that it needs to be. Not only inheriting this new utility but inheriting a utility that is in really bad shape is not an exciting proposal for the city.
We had our first interlocal, intergovernmental meeting in eight years where it was brought up, and there was really no discussion, and there were no answers. I was disappointed that we didn’t really get the opportunity for the county commissioners and the city commissioners to discuss this. I hope we’ll have another meeting very soon where we will have the opportunity to discuss this.
Stormwater knows no boundaries. Stormwater doesn’t say, “I’m county water. Whoops! Now I’m city water.” Right? “I’m not Manatee water. I’m not Sarasota water.” Stormwater’s stormwater, and it’s best when it’s managed regionally.
RL: Her remarks drew a response from the county commissioner.
MS: This is a matter of negotiation, and it’s not going to be immediate. It’s semi-humorous that the city is saying “Please let the county continue” when the county hasn’t done a really great job.
RL: Suau said the interlocal pact squabble is a distraction from the policy and direction discussion that should be at the forefront.
This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.