The Sarasota County Commission is considering creating a new department whose sole focus would be managing stormwater, after public trust in their ability to prevent flooding has cratered entering the 2025 hurricane season.
County Administrator Jonathan Lewis has been tasked to find out how the new department would work logistically and financially. He said in a statement that he would eventually present the commission with scenarios involved with “staffing, funding, functions, assets, and logistics of eliminating the Public Works Department and creating two departments − one a Stormwater Department, and most likely, the other would be a revamped Transportation Department.”
Lewis’ goal is to have all this ready to present to commissioners by July’s budget workshops.
The topic was initially brought up by Commissioner Tom Knight at a meeting Tuesday.
“I think that public confidence has waned in us, so I’m going to make a discussion of making our stormwater a separate department named: Stormwater Division Manager,” Knight said.
Focus on Sarasota County’s stormwater management
The commissioner envisioned a department head responsible for knowing the history of stormwater in Sarasota County, ensuring the local officials are trained in flood mitigation, and reviewing what went wrong in recent flooding events. He called the job of managing all county stormwater “a heavy lift” for one division.
Commissioner Mark Smith said he wouldn’t want a new entity to duplicate the existing county stormwater division. He and his colleagues voted unanimously to pass the assignment to Lewis.
The board had some confusion about the difference between a division and a department.
The county’s current stormwater division is run by Paul Semenec and falls under the Public Works Department, which is headed by Spencer Anderson. The Public Works Department also oversees Transportation and Field Services.
Under Sarasota County’s organization, a department is overseen by an Assistant County Administrator and reports to the commission at public meetings.
Jamie Carson, a county spokesperson, said it was too early to say what the commission’s decision would mean for the current incarnation of the Public Works Department. She stressed that nothing has been finalized, and the board does not yet have a solid plan to vote on.
Inland victims of last year’s hurricane flooding have criticized the county for not properly maintaining Phillippi Creek, which hasn’t been comprehensively dredged since 2002. Stephen Suau, a hydrologist who founded the county stormwater division 25 years ago, also concluded in an independent study that a dike breach near Cow Pen Slough during Hurricane Debby was a major cause of the catastrophic flooding of Laurel Meadows.
Christian Casale covers local government at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Email him at ccasale@gannett.com or christiancasale@protonmail.com
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota County wants to create a new stormwater department, but the details are murky
Reporting by Christian Casale, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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