IN THE PUBLIC EYE: Commissioner Lynn Larson

Lynn Larson won her seat on the Longboat Key Town Commission in March 2010, becoming just the eighth woman elected to the commission in town history. To win the seat, she defeated not one, but two opponents in the town’s first runoff election in 20 years.

Larson, 61, is originally from Picayune, Miss., and worked as a registered nurse before transitioning to become a rehabilitation nurse in 1977. She moved up to become vice president in charge of rehabilitation-nurse training in the private sector.

Larson was recruited in 1984 by the Florida Department of Insurance and quickly became its first female director, where she served under Bill Nelson and Tom Gallagher, and was promoted to division director of the state’s insurance fund before retiring in 2002.

Larson and her husband, Jim, bought property on Longboat Key in 2000 and moved to the island permanently in 2002.

Larson has served as president of the Country Club Shores Unit IV Association, Longboat Key Police Pension Board trustee, citizen representative on the Sarasota County Contractors Licensing Board and as a paid volunteer precinct clerk for the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections office. She also continues to serve as a court mediator for the 12th Judicial Circuit.

Larson said in late 2009, shortly after she filed papers to run for the commission that her Country Club Shores neighbors convinced her to run for commission because they were drawn to her inclusive style of leadership. Larson and then Mayor Lee Rothenberg were the top two candidates in a January 2010 three-way runoff election that also included Country Club Shores resident Lee Pokoik. She then defeated Rothenberg in the March 2010 general election to win her first two-year term. Larson ran unopposed for her second term in 2012.

She considers fiscal responsibility and reforming the town’s pension plans as two of her top priorities.
Larson has five children, nine grandchildren, a Yorkie named Muffin and a parakeet named Tweetie Bird.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected].