Longboat commissioner-elect discusses local control, dredging, Ohana's seawall

Nick Gladding will be sworn in as the newest Longboat Key town commissioner after running unopposed to replace Ken Schneier as District 3’s representative. The current president of the Republican Club of Longboat Key, Gladding formerly was a land use and environmental lawyer and was appointed by former Gov. Charlie Crist to serve on the Florida Energy and Climate Commission. Gladding spoke with the Longboat Observer in his study to discuss key issues ahead of his swearing-in this March. The following are edited excerpts of the conversation.

You have experience with land use and environmental law, and also served on the Florida Energy and Climate Commission. How will that background, along with your Planning and Zoning Board experience, help you in your role on the Longboat Key Town Commission?

I hope it will. One of the things I’ve learned with the Planning and Zoning Board over the last couple of years is they wait for the Commission to give direction. That experience has been great for me because I now understand how that direction can be given, and it comes from the Commission. There’s hardening and strengthening the coastlines, and we’ve got to do something better with our beaches. There’s an issue and somewhat of a debate about the use of groins, particularly on the northern end. It’s not clear to me, yet, whether we should be adding more or not. We’ve got to get into that debate.

I’ve got a pretty good background on advocacy, both as a lawyer but also because I’ve had experience in Tallahassee. As a result of that, I dealt a lot with the legislators up there and with FDEP and FDOT. As a result, I believe that I can bring some assistance here as an advocate in Tallahassee. I really want to be able to help because I still have good contacts in Tallahassee. I want to advocate for allowing the state to give us more tools locally.

The relationship between Tallahassee and local governments has seemed to be more combative than collaborative lately. Is that something you’ve seen?

There seems to be a problem going on in the sense of the state wants to tell localities don’t do things. They want to run everything out of Tallahassee. That’s not the best way to do it. I think we should work with the state to kind of turn this around a little bit. Work with us, not just to dictate things. That didn’t used to happen as much, but you’re really getting this sense that local people can’t do things that interfere with what the state is saying. I want to kind of work on that.

Canal maintenance is an issue that will come before the commission this year, and I wonder what your take is on how it should be funded and what other discussions need to be had before work begins.

The big issue is who is going to pay for it. The people who don’t live on canals don’t want to pay anything. The problem is similar to the debate about whether people who live on the bay side should have to pay for sand on the gulf side. There ended up being an 80-20 split on that. They’re looking at this with canals now, but not all the commissioners and not all the town people agree, so it’ll be interesting how it comes out. My theory is that we get some benefit even though we’re not on canals because it’s part of Longboat Key. It will probably impact the values of everybody that lives on Longboat Key. If we aren’t going to take care of the canals, then what’s going to happen overall? But to the question as far as how I would vote on it, I wouldn’t want to get into that now.

Another environmental topic that has brought some talk among Commission is regarding the Ohana seawall now that the property has changed hands. How should responsibility be split between local governments and landowners when it comes to downshore erosion and seawall repairs?

That’s why I got into environmental law. The whole reason I got involved years ago was because I found it fascinating between private interests, governmental concerns and the threat of the environment itself. Right after the Clean Water Act was passed in the mid '70s, that’s when it all started. When I got into my first case, it was in Connecticut. It involved a problem similar to that where a private company had a metal reclamation business sitting on a river intake and they thought they had the rights to do whatever, the state said no, and furthermore it was causing long-term degradation to the river. It was fascinating to me.

Turning to this, it’s the same situation. You’ve got the Ohana’s new owners. They feel they’re grandfathered in to leave the seawall there, but then you have the impacts the town is concerned about when it comes to beach degradation and erosion to the south of the wall. That tension between private rights and the government and then possibly the impact of the environment, that’s the crux of it that I think is fascinating. If I were representing the homeowner, I would try to make a deal. I would be looking at that if it comes up before me.

The first vote you will take as commissioner is who will be mayor. Do you know who you are going to support for that?

I’m going to support the current vice mayor (Debra Williams).