Commissioners Linde, Zunz: Sitting soon on a dais near you

Armando Linde and Ed Zunz will become the newest town commissioners in March, after the deadline for candidates to qualify passes without challengers.

By Kurt Schultheis
| 6:00 a.m. November 18, 2015

Longboat Key
News

Your next Longboat Key Town Commission became official at noon Monday, and not one ballot was cast.

After Monday’s deadline for candidates to qualify passed without a single challenge, Town Clerk Trish Granger sent a congratulatory email to two commission newcomers and two incumbents, informing them they will become commissioners for two-year terms in March.

New Commissioner Platforms

District 1 Commissioner Armando Linde and District 5 Commissioner Ed Zunz share their plans for their first term in office:

Ed Zunz

Ed Zunz wants to make sure the Town Commission doesn’t forget the north end of the island and its future revitalization.

Zunz wants a roundabout at Gulf of Mexico Drive and Broadway as soon as possible. He thinks it was a mistake to put all of the town’s BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement money — approximately $968,000 — into pension funds.

He also supports revitalization of Whitney Beach Plaza and neighboring parcels for a future boutique hotel.

Zunz, a retired litigation attorney, also supports a town plan to cull the Longbeach Village peacock population to 12 males.

Armando Linde

Armando Linde says the most pressing issues for Longboat Key are finishing the revision of the town’s land use development codes and comprehensive plan — and doing it more efficiently than the town has over the last three years.

Linde also believes it’s critical to create a fair funding formula to bury remaining neighborhood power lines.

A retired economist for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Linde supports the decision to use the town’ BP settlement money to pay down its $23 million in pension debt.

Newcomers are District 1 Commissioner Armando Linde and District 5 Commissioner Ed Zunz.

Vice Mayor and District 3 Commissioner Terry Gans and at-large Commissioner Irwin Pastor will return to the dais in March for new two-year terms.

Linde will serve in the seat Commissioner Lynn Larson will leave in March after serving three consecutive two-year terms. Term limit requirements prevented Larson from running for another term.

Zunz steps into the commission seat his wife, Pat, has held since 2011.

Longboaters, though, should still plan to wear an “I Voted” sticker on March 15.

With the town’s electorate backing a project not to exceed $25.25 million to bury Gulf of Mexico Drive power lines and utilities two weeks ago, commissioners are ready to craft a second referendum question that will have town staff scrambling to make deadlines for the March 15 ballot.

Commissioners asked town staff at their regular workshop Nov. 9 to devise funding mechanisms for a referendum question that supports a non-ad valorem funding method for the remaining above-ground utilities in neighborhoods and Key side streets.

Commissioners unanimously supported a plan for the neighborhood project that distributes funding islandwide.

The last time the town did not have a commission race was in 2011, when the electorate still voted on term limit and beach bond referendums.