Three commissioners vote against funding a private vocational program, saying it competes with public schools. Jon Mast’s ‘$7.5 million’ t-shirt didn’t help.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: April 23, 2025
Host: Sarasota County is distributing $210 million of federal disaster recovery grants among local projects and organizations. The probably most controversial decision the commissioners took last fall was splitting $15 million for vocational education between public schools and a new program launched by the politically powerful regional builders’ association. On Tuesday, after an embarrassing photo surfaced, the five commissioners revisited the $7.5 million grant award to the builders, which was waiting for a final sign-off. The outcome made the Sarasota County Commission look like they underwent a 180-degree turn from last year.
Johannes Werner: On Monday, the Florida Trident, the investigative outfit that broke the Ziegler threesome story, published a photo of Jon Mast, the chief executive of the Suncoast Builders Association and husband of sitting County Commissioner Teresa Mast. It showed him—apparently during a Halloween party—smoking a cigar and wearing a t-shirt that said “$7.5 million.” Just that.
The Trident article also reported that the builders’ association asked local state legislators to insert $4 million for their program in the pending Florida budget bill. The legislators did insert just $350,000—while cutting $350,000 from a Sarasota County request for shelters.
From left to right: County Commissioners Tom Knight, Ron Cutsinger, Joe Neunder, Mark Smith, and Teresa Mast. Photo by Ramon Lopez.
On Tuesday, the Sarasota County Commissioners got a presentation by the regional builders’ association on why their previous decision to award them $7.5 million in federal disaster recovery funding for a construction trades training program was a good one.
In the presentation, Ryan Lieberman, a vice president of the builders’ association—rather than Jon Mast—stepped up to the microphone. Lieberman clarified that their program will be geared towards adults rather than teenagers, and that there will be little overlap with the public schools’ vocational programs. He also said that the high per-student cost of $30,000 does include construction expenses, and that it will go down. Finally, he said, the builders are catching up with fundraising for the project.
In the discussion that followed, the million-dollar t-shirt photo did not come up.
Mark Smith made it clear he is in favor of leaving the federal dollars with the builders’ program.
Teresa Mast
But Commission Chair Joe Neunder praised public school programs. Teresa Mast said that, while she believes she has the right to vote on the matter, she would abstain.
Arguing that government is best at this, Commissioner Tom Knight—a law-and-order Republican and former sheriff—said he cannot support giving the $7.5 million to a private initiative that competes with public schools.
Tom Knight
Tom Knight: One thing that I believe—I’ve been in government 35 years—and when I was taking my classes at USF, I had a professor say, “Government does it best.” We received the most scrutiny. We received the most audits. Things are put on us like an arrow in government. I wasn’t here when that decision was made, but I believe in our school district. I don’t believe in the competition creating another organization to compete with something that’s already in place.
JW: Neunder made the motion to reallocate the money granted to the builders. Instead, it will go to infrastructure, affordable housing, or a homeowner buyback program. Knight seconded the motion.
Neunder, Knight and Commissioner Ron Cutsinger voted to strip the money from the builders. Smith voted no, and Mast abstained.
Reporting for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
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