Q+A with Pat Zunz

Longboat Key Commissioner Pat Zunz has represented District 5 for four years and previously served on the Planning and Zoning Board and Zoning Board of Adjustment.

Zunz, 77, has also been monitoring the Manatee County School District recently. She says it’s her duty because the town sends approximately $10 million a year to the district. She doesn’t like the way taxpayer dollars are being spent in a district that now seeks a new leader and better performance when it comes to district ratings statewide. 

For Zunz, a retired landscape architect and New York City native, community involvement has been a way of life.

Q: You provide regular Manatee County School Board meeting updates to the Longboat Key Town Commission. Why do you have an interest in the school boards? 

A: The town sends $20 million-plus per year to the Sarasota County School District and $10 million-plus per year to the Manatee County School District. I’m concerned about Manatee, which has a far less superior rating than Sarasota. What concerns me is so much of what goes on in the Manatee district is about political agendas, and the whole business of teaching and focusing on the kids seems to be lost. For the $10 million we provide annually for the handful of students we send, we need to know what’s going on and hold them accountable and provide input. I can’t seem to get the commission interested in this issue that I think is important. 

Q: What’s a major Village issue on which not everyone agrees? 

A: I think the Moore’s redevelopment is a good thing. Not everyone does. It will bring more cars if it’s run successfully like The Shore on St. Armands Circle, but Alan Moore has a plan to valet cars. And some people like the peacocks and others don’t. 

Q: If you could have one wish for the north end, what would it be?

A: That the vacant bank building and gas station get developed in a way that is a great northern gateway for the town that includes a new roundabout. It should include a future boutique hotel that makes the plaza more useful and sustainable. 

Q: What did you learn growing up in New York City? 

A: I lived in Jackson Heights, with a great mixture of people with all kinds of backgrounds, variety and religion. It taught me to keep an open mind and got me interested in a variety of subjects I wanted to learn about. My mother’s parents lived with us, and I learned to read when I was 4 by sitting between my father and grandfather while they read all of the day’s morning, afternoon and evening editions of the newspaper. 

Q: What was life like as a book-publishing editor on Madison Avenue? 

A: I worked for a small publishing house called Chanticleer Press for five years that did work for the large companies like Random House and Simon & Schuster. I was one of three editors who edited fine arts, natural history and children’s books. We would go to lunch with authors and publishers. It was an interesting time to work on Madison Avenue in the 1960s. We didn’t drink, but we saw people who drank their lunch. 

Q: How did you become a landscape architect?

A: I retired as a book editor when we started a family. When my three sons got older, I went back to school and became a landscape designer. My parents were master gardeners, and I love to garden and draw. I had an architect friend who did work on all three of our houses in New Jersey, and he got me a lot of jobs. I opened Pat Zunz Landscape Design and helped design everything from 10-acre properties to rooftop gardens. 

Q: How did you discover Longboat Key?

A: We left Disney World with the kids on a vacation in 1977, and Ed (Zunz’s husband) discovered a scenic way through Longboat Key on our way to visit his parents in Sanibel. We stopped and had lunch at the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort. Before long, we bought a place at The Players Club and moved to Lands End permanently in 2000.

Q: You are up for a third and final term this March. Are you committed to serving another two years?

A: I have no idea. I’m taking it one day at a time right now. I do know that whenever my time is done on the commission, I would like to serve on the Planning and Zoning Board again. 

Q: What do you do when you’re not a commissioner? 

A: Garden and spend time with my grandchildren. Every Sunday, Ed and I host Sunday dinners with all three of our sons and their families at our house. We’re enjoying being grandparents.