Manatee County Commissioner Robert McCann told his fellow board members Tuesday that any discussion he had of pending developments with residents happened before he was elected to the County Commission last fall.
His comments stemmed from a heated debate that arose June 5 related to a small Lakewood Ranch development proposal the board was considering. The land use decision led to other commissioners raising ethics questions about required public disclosure of board members’ outside communications.
McCann had indicated prior to the commission’s June 5 public hearing and vote on the Lakewood Ranch development that he had not had any outside communication on the issue. On June 17, he clarified that he did have previous communications Jack McGourty in an online video chat, but said it took place before he was elected to the board last November.
McCann opened the June 17 meeting by raising the issue, after the meeting 12 days earlier when Chairman George Kruse called out an unnamed Manatee County commissioner cited in emails as having had previous communications with residents about a pending development proposal by Lakewood Ranch to build 35 homes on about 12 acres.
Kruse cited one out of 182 nearly identical emails sent by residents − many of them from the Esplanade at Azario neighborhood in Lakewood Ranch near the proposed development − that did not delete comments from the original sender, McGourty.
McGourty had circulated an email template for comments to be sent by opponents of the subdivision plan.
A committee member of the Azario Responsible Land Development Coalition, McGourty claimed to be working with an unnamed Manatee County commissioner to shoot down the 35-home Chalets at Lakewood Ranch proposal. Opponents hoped if they could get commissioners to reject the Chalets plan, it would set a precedent against other unrelated development projects in the area − specifically a 234-unit Lorraine Flats multifamily development pitched by American Land Ventures.
Although Kruse and other commissioners stopped short of naming McCann during the June 5 meeting, McCann became defensive and prompted questions about whether he had previously communicated with McGourty on the project without proper disclosure.
“If you ask if I had any oral communication with, you know, Jack McGourty, yes I did but I wasn’t a commissioner at the time,” McCann said June 17.
Tempers rise at the Manatee County commission meeting
McCann opened discussions with a question to Manatee County Attorney Pamela D’Agostino about matters related disclosure of previous communications − a request which she declined to discuss in a public setting.
“Ex parte communications,” McCann said, referring to discussions outside of the formal public hearing process. “If we got a briefing from one party and the other party wasn’t present, is that considered ex parte communications? I’ll ask the county attorney.”
D’Agostino instead asked to discuss the matter with McCann in a private meeting, rather than in a public session.
“Um, commissioner, I think I need a little bit more information than the little bit that you’ve provided here today and my preference would be to sit down with you privately and have a discussion rather than try to opine off the cuff here on the dais at this time,” D’Agostino said.
McCann indicated he brought the matter up because of a Herald-Tribune article reporting on the June 5 commissioners’ discussion of the issue.
“That would be fine, except we had a rant about ex parte communication that ended up in a newspaper article talking about ethics violations,” McCann said.
Intent on erasing any questions, McCann mounted a defense against questions raised about whether he had been involved in any undisclosed communications. He said that emails received should be disclosed and become a part of public record, as they were, and that any previous outside communication over the Chalets at Lakewood Ranch came before he was elected as commissioner.
He read directly from state statute, which indicates outside discussion on issues considered by the board in a more formal judicial-like format, such as many land use matters, must be publicly disclosed.
“It says right in here, you know, even if we do disclose these things, you know, must be made before or during a public meeting at which a vote is taken so that persons who have opinions contrary to those expressed in ex parte communication are given reasonable opportunity to refute or respond to communication,” McCann said.
It was then that he indicated that he explained his earlier meeting online through a Microsoft communications platform with McGourty.
“I was a candidate running, I talked to him on an actual Teams meeting when he was in New Jersey, and ironically Joseph Di Bartolomeo showed up to that meeting in New Jersey, and that’s when he said, ‘After commissioner (Ray) Turner beats McCann I’ll beat Turner and then I’ll be on the dais,'” McCann said.
McCann, Joseph Di Bartolomeo and then incumbent commissioner Turner were in a primary race that ended in a November runoff between McCann and Di Bartolomeo, won by McCann.
“That was the only communication I had with them about what was going on with the county at the time,” McCann said. “So I just want to make sure that from now on we make sure, we make sure we say that anything is disclosed rather than no communication.”
“Sounds good,” Kruse responded.
A quick outburst follows McCann’s statements on public disclosure
Kruse quickly recessed the meeting for five minutes after a back-and-forth broke out between himself and At-Large Commissioner Jason Bearden. Bearden appeared intent to speak about decorum on the dais following McCann’s statements, while Kruse attempted to pivot the conversation back to the day’s agenda.
Tension has been high between commissioners since a post-election hardline stance against development has been taken by District 5 representative McCann, Bearden and District 1 Commissioner Carol Felts because of concerns that county infrastructure has not kept up with growth.
The trio is often outvoted by the majority on development proposals, particularly those in eastern Manatee County, such as the Lakewood Ranch area.
On Tuesday the divide was visible during a contentious 4-3 vote to confirm a hire made by Manatee County Administrator Charlie Bishop to replace Evan Pilachowski, who used to oversee Utilities, Public Works and Financial Management for the county. Bishop emphasized urgency for the role because of the ongoing hurricane season.
The hire was made before McCann could bring up a pitch for a hiring freeze, but was still confirmed by the board. McCann had added the proposal to a previous agenda but opted not to discuss it during that meeting, and the matter flew under the radar and was unopposed during three budget workshop sessions last week.
McCann indicated he intends to introduce plans for a hiring freeze during an upcoming meeting.
McCann presses outside communications one more time before end of Manatee County meeting
At the end of the meeting, McCann asked county attorney D’Agostino to clarify the county’s policies on outside communications about public disclosure of communications. The county had declined to provide the Herald-Tribune with clarification in response to questions about ethics questions raised during the June 5 public meeting.
“There’s actually an opinion memo that was written back in 2000,” D’Agostino said in response to McCann. “It explained that once it is proven than an ex parte communication has occurred, it is presumed to be a prejudicial communication to the determination.”
“So back in 2000 and I think beyond that in 2005, when the board adopted Resolution 05-179, the boards at that time had a preference against engaging in ex parte communication because I can only imagine they felt there was a risk there,” she said. “They didn’t want to run into the issue of inadvertently failing to make a disclosure, so they took the position at that time that their preference was not to have ex parte communication.”
She clarified to McCann and the board that additional communication that is not already a part of public record must also be disclosed publicly.
“Section 286.0115 specifically authorizes counties to either by resolution or ordinance enact a procedure and a process to disclose ex parte communications so that would remove the presumption of the prejudice.”
“So when we ask the board to disclose anything ex parte, that means anything besides those email correspondence,” she said.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Manatee County Manatee commissioner says communication on development was before election
Reporting by Jesse Mendoza, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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