Charter Review Board — District 5: Mike Shlasko

Age: 65

Occupation: Retired from Career in information technology

Political party: Democrat

Previous political offices: None

About: Mike Shlasko has been a full time Venice area resident for 11 years. During a 35-year career in information technology, hee held a variety of senior level positions in software development, business development, marketing and administration. Shlasko owned a small computer business for 13 years, so he knows what it takes to meet a payroll, provide health insurance and comply with government regulation. He also worked for global Fortune 500 corporations doing business with federal, state and local government. In that later role, he visited every state in the U.S. and learned to appreciate the diversity of this nations people and the government institutions that represent us.

Since retirement in 2010, Shlasko has given back to his community in a variety of volunteer roles. In his six years as a board member — and now former president — of his homeowners association, he presided over the upgrade of much of the common infrastructure and the restatement of bylaws and deed restrictions without ever raising annual dues. As an avid conservationist, for the past seven years Shlasko has worked as an FWC permitted sea turtle conservation volunteer and shorebird monitor on the beaches of Manasota Key.

Mike just celebrated his 40th Anniversary with his wife, Andrea, and they have two sons who live in the NY Metro area.

If elected, what will be your top three priorities during your term?

Preserving the Charter Review Board as an elected body.  In spite of a recent decision not to continue to study this issue, I expect it to resurface for a fourth time as those who are satisfied with the status quo have demonstrated that they will do whatever is necessary to make it more difficult for citizens to amend their charter.

Educating citizens about the structure of their government.  Though three months of campaigning for this office one thing is abundantly clear, 90% of the citizens of Sarasota County have no idea what their charter is, what the Charter Review Board is or how their local government is structured. The Charter Review Board needs a much more visible web presence, and an ongoing plan for community outreach by all board members if it is to be effective in fulfilling its mission.

Advocating for single-member districts.  Our county has grown to the point that it is extremely difficult to run for county-wide office and win the required 100,000 votes without raising large sums of money from special interests.  We need to restructure our election process to allow for a path to elected office for grass roots candidates representing the interests of diverse segments of the county population and geography. Single-member districts will allow a grass-roots candidate, not necessary beholden to political party power brokers, to knock on enough doors to earn the approximately 20,000 votes required to win election. 

Do you think the board should take a more active or passive role in determining potential changes to the charter?

I support the vision of the original authors of the charter of a body designed to act as a check and balance within the structure of our government and one that should proactively act when required.   Section 2.8B defines the role of the board very clearly: “On, behalf of the citizens of Sarasota County, the Charter Review Board shall review and recommend changes to the County Charter for improvement of County Government.”   

What is your position on the idea of turning the Charter Review Board into an appointed position, rather than an elected office?

I strongly oppose such a change.  Every time the Charter Review Board takes actions that appear to threaten the power of the County Commission this idea resurfaces.  This latest iteration was related to the ill-conceived and clearly unconstitutional proposal for a citizen’s grand jury.  While I am very disappointed that any Charter Review Board member would vote to study an unconstitutional idea, I strongly support every citizen’s right to appear before the board and make their opinions known.  That right is protected by the first Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Powerful special interests have suggested that we do not need such an elected board, that the board does not take input from Sarasota County Constitutional officers, and that the board does not listen to our business community.  Those who make such suggestions seem to forget that all of our Constitutional officers are being elected with campaign contributions that come primarily from the business community and that Section 7.1 (iii) of our County Charter specifically empowers our County Commission to pass an ordinance to put a charter amendment on the ballot independent of the Charter Review Board.  So why is it that they fight to eliminate this check and balance in our government structure?  Why is it that they continually make proposals for other charter changes that would make it more difficult for citizens to propose and pass charter amendments?  These are the questions that every citizen — and the media — should be asking.