Tracing the history of the city-county rift

A 2014 joint effort between Sarasota County and the city of Sarasota to construct a homeless shelter led to acrimony, harsh accusations and ultimately, no solution.

“There is a clear path by the administration in the city to sabotage this process,” County Commissioner Joe Barbetta said at the time.

That same summer, discussion about the future of the downtown SCAT transfer station saw the city question the county’s thought process and clamor for more control.

“You’d rather be driving the bus than under the bus,” City Commissioner Shannon Snyder said.

In January of this year, the county sought the transfer of city-owned land as promised in a 2003 agreement. The lack of response from the city angered the county, and the city attorney would later call the original agreement a sham.

Time and time again, when the city and the county begin working together on major policy issues, they have found themselves eventually butting heads.

Though some individuals downplay the severity, there’s a general agreement that there is a divide between the two governments that has become more pronounced over the past five years. 

But the divide didn’t always exist.

In 2005, the city and county were in the midst of what City Attorney Robert Fournier called a “love train” in a memo earlier this year. (That memo, naturally, was written to address ongoing tension between the city and county.)

What made the love train derail, and how can it get back on track? An examination of the past 15 years of city-county relations shows a rise and fall driven by financial issues, philosophical differences and personality clashes.

The Origins

When Mike McNees became city manager in 2001, the entire country was grappling with a recession after an unprecedented period of growth.

An equally daunting challenge, city staff warned him, would be dealing with County Administrator Jim Ley.

“Jim was a tough guy to negotiate with,” McNees said. “He certainly fought for the things he thought were in the county’s interest.”

Ley highlighted some of the issues dividing the two governments at the beginning of the decade: funding the downtown Community Redevelopment Area, county management of city-owned parks and city firefighter pensions after city-county fire services were consolidated. 

“The common theme in all of them is money, as always is the case,” Ley said.

The use of downtown CRA money — city and county property tax revenue that could be spent only on improving downtown Sarasota —was a particular point of frustration for Ley.

The point of the CRA, Ley said, was that it would eventually reap benefits via increased property values. By the early 2000s, he wondered if the investment would ever actually bear fruit.

 “I thought they weren’t doing what it takes,” Ley said of the city. “They chased a lot of development proposals away.” 

In early 2003, the county presented a major vote of no confidence in downtown Sarasota. The county agreed to explore the possibility of moving hundreds of workers from downtown offices to a building near I-75 formerly used by Arthur Andersen.

City Attorney Robert Fournier has questioned the motives of the county during this period. In a March memo, Fournier suggested the relocation served as a ploy to extract crucial concessions from the city — one that would prove successful in just a few months.

“I believe that the county administrator skillfully exploited the panic he had engendered by his announcement to the county’s benefit and the city’s detriment,” Fournier wrote.

Ley chaffed at Fournier’s assessment. He said a county analysis showed the unincorporated offices would save money, and population growth in the county skewed to the south — creating an incentive to relocate county workers.

Either way, the city acted swiftly to keep the county in place — and out of the flames of the potential relocation, the two sides forged a strong relationship.

“Everybody had different interests, but working together was going to get us a lot farther,” McNees said.

The Love Train

If the city and county began 2003 at a breaking point, they ended the year heading optimistically into the future.

By summer, the two boards had hammered out a memorandum of understanding outlining eight “principles of agreement.” In the document, the county agreed it would attempt to keep its offices downtown, and the city agreed to transfer the former police station site at 2050 Ringling Blvd. to the county, among other points.

Ley says change came about because the heads of both boards simply had the will to get to work:

“It was Lou Ann Palmer and Shannon Staub, when we were at an impasse, that got wrapped up in us working together,” Ley said. “They went to their boards and they got the authority to work out a solution.”

Staub, who served on the County Commission until 2010, said she didn’t recall any issues between the two governments after the MOU was in place. She said the two boards had great respect for one another.

“We worked right there; City Hall was within walking distance. It was a good feeling when the two commissions worked together and we would leave smiling.” 

— Former County Commissioner Shannon Staub

 

“Maybe it’s the fact that women don’t pull punches, so it’s easy to work with just about anybody to get things satisfied,” Staub said. “And if not, you agree to disagree — and to not hold it against them in the next conversation.”

The harmony went beyond the two commissions; both administrators found they clicked with one other, too. The two met on the basketball court as well as at City Hall.

“Business is business, and we dealt with it professionally,” McNees said. “That’s what people in our position are expected to do. ... It just was never personal.”

Still,  the city and county never codified the vast majority of the principles in the MOU.

Fournier took a critical tone regarding the tangible progress made in the wake of that agreement. Despite the lack of concrete results, both Ley and McNees bristled at the assertion that the positive vibes were ultimately a false high.

“The city attorney made a silly comment, suggesting there was some sort of a ‘love train’ going on, as if people were delusional or in some state of euphoria,” McNees said. “I think it’s remarkably cynical to say that, when the elected officials and appointed officials had a sense of cooperation, that’s something to belittle.”

In hindsight, Staub agreed it was a missed opportunity not to iron out the details of the MOU.

“I think the city commissioners and county commissioners felt so good about reaching this understanding that we didn’t think about future commissioners misconstruing it,” Staub said. 

Fournier said when he attempted to codify elements of the MOU, he got pushback from administration and commissioners who worried about jeopardizing the city-county peace. Even today, McNees doesn’t know if the environment was right to solidify the agreements in the MOU.

“We tried to deal with each other in good faith, and I don’t think there’s a whole lot of misunderstanding about what was intended, because those things are written down,” McNees said.

In 2007, at least two crucial elements of the newly sunny city-county relationship were eliminated: economic stability, and City Manager Mike McNees, who resigned that January.

“I think it’s a shame that Mike had to move on, because I felt like we were really beginning to work in a rhythm together,” Ley said.

The Decline

Like McNees, Bob Bartolotta became city manager during a recession. Unlike McNees, the economic downturn Bartolotta faced was more severe and his personal connection with Ley was not as strong.

“I think the relationships were cordial, but that doesn’t mean the positions were always agreed on,” Bartolotta said. “Sometimes you just have fundamental philosophical differences.”

“Sometimes you just have fundamental philosophical differences. That’s not totally unusual in government. Sometimes, you have to just agree to disagree.” 

— Former City Manager Bob Bartolotta

The late 2000s set the stage for conflicts playing out today. The city and county attempted to codify elements of the MOU, but Fournier said the county wouldn’t commit to quantitative measures of its downtown presence.

Eventually, negotiations stopped — Fournier said he and Bartolotta realized they were “being taken for fools.” The issue is still festering today.

A 2010 interlocal agreement returned the control of all “nonregional” city parks to the city, allowing the county to withdraw hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding. Today, as the economy recovers, the city has expressed an interest in potentially revisiting that agreement.

After Bartolotta took over, the downtown CRA once again became a point of contention for Ley. Although he was happy to see the CRA produce projects such as the new Whole Foods, as downtown grew, he believed the city was once again moving away from spending funds on major projects to beef up property tax revenues.

“Part of what had me frustrated is, I was more and more convinced that the city was using CRA money for operating purposes,” Ley said, criticizing the city’s use of CRA funding on police services. “(Bartolotta’s) argument was, ‘We have more intense development downtown, which increases our police responsibility.’ Well, that’s why you’re supposed to be growing your tax base.”

Set to expire in 2016, renewing the downtown CRA has become another point of disagreement between the city and county today.

Although Bartolotta refrained from negatively characterizing the relationship between the city and county during his tenure, he also shied away from describing it as healthy.

“I would say there were some successes over the last 10 years,” Bartolotta said. “I’m not saying the relationship was good or bad.”

The Present

As leadership has shuffled —Tom Barwin replaced Bartolotta in 2012; in 2012, Ley was replaced by Randy Reid, who was then replaced by Tom Harmer in 2014 — the relationship between the city and county has grown icier.

Over and over again, similar problems arise. For the city, the issue of “dual taxation” — getting taxed for county services but not receiving the same level of service as unincorporated county residents — has become a growing sticking point. The county has expressed frustration with the city’s decision-making, highlighting a philosophical divide.

The current administrators characterize the city-county relationship as strong — pointing to areas of collaboration such as stormwater management and emergency medical services — but they admit there are hurdles when it comes to making policy.

“I know one of the philosophies that drives our county is the lowest possible tax rate, but at what point do you expand the discussion to include quality of life, improving services and maybe the exorbitant costs of continuing to do business as we’ve always done it?” Barwin said.

 “I think financial pressure has forced a little bit of friction onto the county and others,” Harmer said.

It’s easy to get the sense history is repeating itself. Earlier this year, the county, interested in obtaining the city-owned Ringling Boulevard property promised in the 2003 MOU, reached out to the city in pursuit of the land. After hearing no response, the county halted plans to expand services along Ringling Boulevard, suggesting the city might not be a good fit for new county offices.

“I question whether the county can stay in downtown at all,” County Commissioner Christine Robinson said. “We shouldn’t be fragmented.”

Learning from the Past

With both city and county elections taking place since November, there is a sense of optimism among the boards that they can forge a better relationship soon. 

With the advantage of perspective, those officials imparted wisdom about how to facilitate a healthier working environment.

“The two bodies will never agree on everything because to some degree, there are elements of the relationship that are zero sum,” McNees said. “My attitude was about solving a problem instead of fighting only for the best interest of the city.”

“I always tried to see both sides of the story,” Ley said. “It’s about being respectful. It’s not two boys standing at a tree and trying to piss up it to see how high they can go.”

“We met at least two times per year with the city of Sarasota,” Staub said. “That, I think, helped a lot with communications, and you could get projects that could be looked at jointly on the table.”

“Sometimes, you have to just agree to disagree,” Bartolotta said.

Both sides plan to revisit issues that have divided them. The city is pursuing a new homelessness plan and wants to extend the downtown CRA before it sunsets in 2016. The county is still interested in obtaining the former police station land. Both parties are working together on transportation issues this summer.

As the two sides prepare to come to the table to discuss those topics and more, they have an opportunity to change the narrative — even if reviving the love train seems unlikely. 

“It doesn’t seem like this should be such a big issue, but it gets bigger and bigger the longer it takes and the more people chatter about it,” Staub said.