The commission’s new members were eager to sell themselves as tough on developers, to mixed results
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: December 11, 2024
Host: The Manatee County Commission has a new chair. At the commission meeting on Tuesday, he was voted in unanimously, and as the sole nominee. Commissioner George Kruse will hold the gavel beginning January. Meanwhile, a sitting commissioner who will be facing re-election in two years, sent a signal he is trying to make amends with an anti-development minded base.
Johannes Werner: Riding an anti-development groundswell by Manatee voters, Kruse was re-elected as one of two at-large commissioners, first beating incumbent Kevin VanOstenbridge in the Republican primaries, then winning against a Democrat in the general elections.
George Kruse
Although he is a four-year veteran, this is the first time for Kruse to be chair. He was skipped in the previous county commission, after he became the skeptical odd-man-out in an otherwise developer-friendly commission.
The new commission did not waste time to show they want to be tough on developers. Surprisingly, the first off to the races was a sitting commissioner. Jason Bearden made ripples at the start of the meeting, by bringing forth two motions on issues that were not on the agenda: One was about ensuring traffic concurrency rules are followed, to make sure new development accommodates the growing number of cars and trips. The other one was about bringing impact fees charged to developers to 100% of the amount a consultant recommended nearly a decade ago.
Both motions passed unanimously, after some huffing and puffing by Bearden.
One community activist suggested Bearden’s move was underhanded, because it ignored the higher impact fees another consultant recommended in a more recent study funded by the county. Entrepreneur Glen Gibellina, wearing a t-shirt that said “Free-range gadfly”:
Glen Gibellina: Let me bring up the speed here. You used an old study from 2015, right? You didn’t use the new one from Banesh in 2022 that you should have. And according to George Kruse, we were only getting 40% of the cost to build that road or the infrastructure. That holds true today. So, before the old board went out, you divide it into four years at 25%. At the 2015 study, we spent like 50 grand on an updated study that was great. It would have got us close. But what’d you do? “Oh, we’ll make it 100%, but at the old 2015 rate.” We were still getting cheated out of 60% of the real cost.
JW: And community activist DeAndra Griffin.
DeAndra Griffin: We have been here, our schools have been robbed from impact fees, I don’t know if you guys remember the shortage in our school systems some, what was it, 10 years ago? We’ve been dealing with these impact issues for, like Glen said, 20 years. And I thought we are making great strides when we implemented the impact fees previously, and now I find out that we’re here today still talking about implementing the right fees to these builders.
These builders don’t have a right to put their expenses on the people here. I think many of us are conservatives and we believe everybody needs to pay their fair share. Yet, every time we come here, when it comes down to this, we’re having to fight with these builders to get them to pay their fair share or we’re going to be sued.
At this point, I don’t care if this county gets sued anymore. It’s time to fight and make them start paying their fair share. That’s my sentiments today. Thank you so much.
JW: Reporting from a lively Manatee County Commission, for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
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