Sarasota County Commission, District 4: Al Maio

Name: Alan Maio

Age: 68

Occupation: Sarasota County Commissioner

Family: Wife, Nancy; 3 adult children, 4 grandchildren

Education: BS in Accounting, Seton Hall, 1972

Elected government experience: Sarasota County Commissioner since 2014 — Vice Chair 2015, Chair 2016

Why are you running?

I want to finish a lot of the initiatives that this Commission and I started over the past four years. These are quality of life and safety legacies for our community and include: completion of River Road; continued extension of Legacy Trail; purchase of Orange Hammock; creation of affordable housing; building a more secure and larger courthouse in South County; and beginning the process of providing more infrastructure for the Sheriff’s Office, which includes a new administration building off Cattlemen Road and new support services facility. My experience and knowledge can help bring these to fruition.

 What do you think are the top three challenges facing the county, and where do you stand on each?

Affordable housing is a large and important challenge; continuing fiscally conservative policies that have not raised taxes, and in fact lowered them, over the last 20 fiscal years (FY 2000-2018 and probably into 2020); continuing the process of building infrastructure, such as four firehouses in past four years and three more over the next few years; completing a new Venice Library and taking a hard look at our jail needs, focusing on a jail diversion program.

 Are you satisfied with how the county commission and staff are navigating budget concerns now and are preparing for possible future budget shortfalls?

I think staff has done a really great job. For Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020, we have no projected shortfalls. Staff has done a great job in cutting more than $5 million for this fiscal year — importantly, these are recurring cuts, not just one time.

What is your stance on paid parking on Siesta Key?

There are too many unanswered questions at this point for me to give a satisfactory answer.

Are you in favor of granting Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium’s request for $20 million to help finance construction of its $130 million aquarium project at Nathan Benderson Park? Mote Marine made a presentation to the County Commission recently, and the consensus among the commissioners was that we would like to help, but only after a hard look at where the tourist tax money — not property taxes — will be spent. The Commission also made clear to Mote that the county will not be the first $20 million to invest.

 Are you in favor of building a new jail to add capacity, or investing in jail-diversion programs?

The jail diversion programs show real promise to save taxpayers’ money and perhaps help some people by keeping them out of jail. At this point, Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight has told us that we will need a new facility at some point in the future. But we are supportive of efforts to push it out as far as possible using the jail diversion method, which diverts people from serving jail time when they really do not need to be incarcerated.