State's special interest favoritism plagues Manatee

If you are a Manatee County resident who worked hard to change the makeup of the Commission in 2024 to align with your goals and ideals, I can't blame you for feeling utterly hopeless and planning a move to Wyoming.

The political shenanigans that have come to light in 2025 are, putting it mildly, disgusting.

Are we "Smarter than a 5th grader?" Apparently not.

If you assembled a classroom full of elementary school students, and gave them a presentation about the benefits on the environment of keeping significant buffers between construction and wetlands, I am sure they would come up with a standard of more than 25 feet. Those kids would align with the current Manatee County commissioners in drawing up laws to add more distance to the state's guidelines.

That's what our previous commissioners did until the board in 2023 voted to eliminate the additional county buffers and once again align with the state. It was an arrogance that was nearsighted, as the county's political Republican leaders couldn't foresee that residents would finally put down their collective voting foot.

What resulted was the Commission you have now, which is short on political savvy but long on heart. There is an awkwardness to meetings, and the ability to get things accomplished has, indeed, taken a hit.

Even so, the Commission has strong leaders, including George "In George we Trust" Kruse.

Kruse has Columbia smarts and Columbo common sense. Yes, he is a Republican, but he is not party-bound when it comes to directives that are carved to benefit a special interest group. But even Kruse is flummoxed by the latest round of political wrangling that is coming out of Tallahassee.

Apparently, our commissioners have been advised by state agencies that if they don't cease trying to stop builders from using every last inch of land up to our waterways, they will give Manatee a taste of the big stick. In this case, they have threatened to swat our local commissioners like flies with Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Kruse cancelled the Aug. 21 meeting in which a vote was going to be taken to put the additional wetland buffers into effect. If you haven't been following all this, the state agencies have threatened Manatee with Senate Bill 180, which was put into effect to help citizens and businesses recover from hurricane damage. It had the best intentions, until those pesky self interest groups got involved.

Language was slipped into SB 180 that prohibits local governments from adding “more restrictive or burdensome” amendments to its comprehensive plan or land development code.

Kruse explained that state agencies have warned local politicians that they could be suspended from office if they try to go against state guidelines.

Consider this from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "All local governments have clear jurisdiction over actions on the buffer lands that surround wetlands. In many important ways, local governments are better situated than state and federal environmental authorities to control activities on the lands that surround wetland resource areas, because they are not just concerned with wetland functions, but also with surrounding land uses and the benefits wetlands provide for their communities."

And this from the same report (Planner's guide to wetland buffers for local governments), "If a wetland area cannot absorb the stormwater it normally absorbs, the chances of flooding will increase further downstream; if the wetland cannot serve as home for wetland species and vegetation, community values and quality of life will be impaired. Local governments that have wetlands within their boundaries have the opportunity to conserve these resource lands and to control or compensate for activities and development that might impair their benefits to the community and the environment."

The key now is whether you are using elementary school students or special interest lobbyists to define what "more restrictive and burdensome" should mean when it comes to hurricane relief legislation. Should all county activity to limit out-of-control growth be dismissed even if it has absolutely zero to do with hurricane relief?

Manatee County would like to know how this is all interpreted, and to do so, has decided to take part in a class action lawsuit expected to be filed in September by Weiss Serota Helfman Cole and Bierman of Boca Raton. In a story by David Jones of WESH 2-Orlando, Jones writes that attorney Jamie Cole of the aforementioned law firm said there is much concern over the "intrusion into home rule authority."

He quoted Lake County Commissioner Anthony Sabatini as saying, "SB180 shuts down every single government lever of control. It's beyond partisan politics. It's just corruption versus the people."

Lake County is just one of the 10 municipalities that has decided to join Cole's lawsuit. Manatee County commissioners voted 6-1 to pay $10,000 to join the lawsuit at the Sept. 2 Commission meeting.

The commissioners have noted that just trying to explore interpretations of the SB180 language could get them suspended.

“It’s become apparent to everybody that there is no intention of people from Tallahassee allowing us to fight in court,” Kruse said to the East County Observer. “Everything is teeing up for the fact that they intend to just try to suspend people from office.”

Kruse said threats have been made to remove elected officials in Key West, Fort Myers and Orange County for taking actions that are thought to violate SB 180. 

So what can you do?

Politicians paid the price for going against voter interest in the 2024 Commission elections. You can call your local State Representative Bill Conerly or your local State Senator Jim Boyd and let them know how you feel about the state superseding local government. The voters changed the commission, and they can change their state legislators as well if they don't carry their desires to Tallahassee.

This always has been a Gov, Ron DeSantis stronghold as well, but if the governor suspends locally supported commissioners from office, that could change in a heartbeat.