Manatee County consent agendas cause controversy

The consent agenda typically goes relatively unnoticed during Manatee County Commission meetings. 

However, consent agendas have drawn more attention since a roundabout on University Parkway, where Legacy Boulevard meets Deer Drive, was approved on the Nov. 12, 2024 consent agenda.

It was then that the plans changed from building upgrades to the current signalized intersection to building a roundabout. The county’s current capital improvement plan still shows the signalized intersection being upgraded. 

Some citizens and commissioners said the consent agenda was used to approve those changes without public input. They called the move sneaky and deceptive and questioned if Sunshine Laws were violated in the process.

The East County Observer asked Manatee County officials to explain what the purpose of the consent agenda is and how staff members use it. 

Bill Logan, the county’s information outreach manager, gathered information from staff members and the administration to break it down.

While there is no formal definition of what the consent agenda is, in practice, the consent agenda is made up of items that commissioners can approve all at once to streamline meetings. 

Without having to approve each item individually, commissioners can focus discussions on matters that require more detailed consideration. 

The entire agenda, including the consent agenda, is prepared by County Administrator Charlie Bishop. Items cannot be added to the agenda without his approval. 

The regular agenda is for items that concern policy direction and require decision-making. Items placed on the consent agenda are “routine, administrative or already settled.” 

County staff members noted that items placed on consent are never “hidden or rushed.” 

Commissioners are briefed a week prior to the meeting on the details of both the regular and consent agenda items. Commissioners also have the power to pull any item off the consent agenda at the beginning of the commission meeting for further discussion by the board and to be reviewed by the staff.

The remainder of the consent agenda can then be approved without those pulled items. 

Circling back to the roundabout

The roundabout is a nearly $6.5 million project, but staff members said dollar amounts, no matter how high, do not determine if an item is put on the regular agenda or the consent agenda. 

The roundabout landed on the consent agenda after the Public Works department brokered a deal with Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park, LLC., to build the roundabout and be reimbursed by Manatee County for half the construction costs. 

The roundabout was titled on the consent agenda as an “execution of reimbursement agreement with Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park, LLC., for transportation improvements.”

Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club residents complained that the title was too vague to understand that a roundabout was being built at the main entrance to their neighborhood. On top of that, it was the No. 44 on the Consent Agenda list.

To have known the contract involved a roundabout, residents would have needed to click on the individual item to pull up its supporting documents. There are three documents attached — the reimbursement agreement, a map of the location, and a staff report that includes background information on the project.

This year’s consent agendas have contained anywhere between 25 and 75 items.

Country Club resident Carol Cooper said residents shouldn’t be expected to comb through every single item. 

But that single agenda from Nov. 12 illustrates that combing through the agendas is exactly what concerned residents need to do because Item No. 43 approved six roundabouts in Parrish.

The item was similarly titled, “execution of a reimbursement and impact fee credit agreement with Hawk Parrish Lakes, LLC for transportation improvements and right of way dedication — District 1.”

Commissioner Bob McCann said that titling something “transportation improvements” is meaningless. If the title doesn’t offer enough information and is misleading, it can violate the Sunshine Law.

“The title should be accurate, too,” McCann said. “If it says road improvement, it should say what phase and where. I think that’s important.” 

McCann also argued that every item put on the consent agenda should be something that was already resolved. But in the case of the roundabout, it should not have been placed on consent because it was “controversial.” 

“People were still looking for an answer on this and were told the answer would come in December,” he said. “It came on Nov. 12. The idea is to give sufficient notice.”