Longboat Key Town Commission seats confirmed

Your new Longboat Key Town Commission became official at noon Monday without requiring any ballots to be cast in March.

Town Clerk Trish Granger sent a congratulatory email to two incumbents and two commission newbies Monday afternoon informing them they become commissioners for two-year terms in March.

That’s because the noon deadline for candidate qualifying passed Monday without any of the seats having a challenger.

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.

Newbies to the dais are District 1 Commissioner Armando Linde and District 5 Commissioner Ed Zunz.

Linde was successful in obtaining District 1 Commissioner Lynn Larson’s seat. Larson is departing in March after serving three consecutive two-year terms. Term limit requirements prevent Larson from running for the term.

Zunz steps into the commission seat held by his wife, Pat, for the last two terms.

Longboaters, though, should still plan on getting 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 to get it on 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.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]