Residents are ‘thrilled’ at the commissioners’ vote, though some wish they’d taken action sooner.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: June 6, 2025
Host: The same day the all-Republican Manatee County Commission vented their frustrations about how hard it is to shrink government, their all-Republican peers in Sarasota seemed headed in the opposite direction: At their meeting on Tuesday, the Sarasota County Commissioners instructed their county administrator to show them what it would take to create a new county department for stormwater management. That message is having quite the impact on constituents.
Johannes Werner: Allison Werner felt abandoned by county government when her dream home on Phillippi Creek was flooded during last year’s storms.
Dredging of a Sarasota waterway. Photo courtesy Sarasota County
Allison Werner: I live on Philippi Creek—on a tributary of the creek—and it rose during Debby. The creek had to have risen probably 20 feet. It engulfed my street, my property, the first floor of my home. Everything on my ground level was under four feet of muddy creek water, and it didn’t recede for two days.
JW: That sentiment did not change when she observed a recent county commission workshop on stormwater management. She felt the staff were not answering questions and not sharing the sense of urgency she felt. But on Tuesday, her feelings turned 180 degrees.
AW: It’s storm season. It’s been eight or nine months since these floods happened, and there’s been no concrete action. I felt really frustrated by that. I was so thrilled. This, to me, felt like a major step in the right direction and major progress. It really renewed my faith in our community government doing what it’s supposed to do.
JW: So what happened? Just before lunch break, rookie Commissioner Tom Knight started an unscheduled discussion on how to better manage floodwater systems. Mark Smith amplified it, and Chair Joe Neunder gave it the last push.
Knight opened the discussion expressing a sense of urgency and proposing the creation of a new county department solely in charge of floodwater management.
Tom Knight
Tom Knight: It is such an urgency for this community. It is important. I think that public confidence has waned in us, so I’m going to make a discussion of making our stormwater a separate department, name stormwater division manager. It would exist as the importance of stormwater maintenance and management and would be inclusive of the constant oversight of Midnight Pass.
JW: Mark Smith agreed, and Joe Neunder underlined Knight’s sense of urgency. The motion instructs the county administrator to come back with recommendations on how to create an independent stormwater department, while continuing the search for an assistant utilities director in charge of stormwater, for now.
County Administrator Jonathan Lewis first said a separate department would “duplicate” efforts, seemingly arguing against the creation of a new department. But Lewis eventually took a whatever-the-bosses-tell-me attitude.
He said his staff may be able to come back to the commissioners with a clear picture at the July budget workshop. And he said a new stormwater department could be created by October 1.
Commissioner Ron Cutsinger pushed back a bit, saying it was too late or too complicated to implement that kind of change in the middle of hurricane season. But he did vote for Knight’s motion.
Photo courtesy oSarasota County
Connie Neeley represents the Forest Lakes Homeowners Association, which saw some homes flooded by Phillippi Creek last year. Neeley says she was “thrilled” by the discussion and vote. She says a separate department should create more fiscal clarity, after confusion over where revenues from stormwater assessments have gone in the past.
Connie Neeley: Part of the need, in my humble opinion, to establish stormwater as its own department is to unbind all of the operational redundancies and the lack of clarity that seems to exist. This comes from months of asking questions and participating in weekly county meetings. How do you claim that you do not have money to maintain a creek when you’re taking in—in this case, this year—$27 million? It was disclosed that there’s $17.3 million that was available. That seems to be a bit of a surprise.
JW: Reporting for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
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