Of Partnerships, Conflicts, and Gossip - I heard recently from a City Commissioner, and also read in one of the weeklys the other day that there is some concern among unnamed "Main Street" interests over the fact that I recently accepted a seat on the board of directors of the Sarasota Downtown Partnership (DTP). My first reaction was to wonder, if this concern is out there, why someone didn't just say "hey Mike, what's up with this thing about you and the DTP board? Isn't there a conflict there?" After all, I have to be one of the easiest people in town to locate, and I would have had an opportunity to answer. Since nobody did, I'll address the issue here.

The DTP recently expanded its board to include a number of people intended to broaden its scope; it is the Downtown Partnership. County Administrator Jim Ley, Police Chief Pete Abbott and I are all new members on the government side, along with people like Joe Moraca who is there representing the Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations. I believe this collaboration is a good thing, as the interests of the Partnership and the interests of the City and County will typically be the same. When DTP Executive Director Tony Souza came to town, he and I talked about strengthening the connection between the DTP and city government, which started with the city's rejoining the DTP as a corporate member, a move that was applauded when announced at one of their large functions. I didn't hear any comments about conflicts related to the city being a member of the organization, and don't think being represented on their board creates any more conflict than being a member.

Beyond that, one of the stated issues is that Pete Schneider, who is a city employee under my span of control, signs special event permits, and the DTP sometimes has events. Actually the DTP has moved away from being an event-driven organization. They still conduct the Saturday and Wednesday Farmers' Markets, but those are not done via the special event process, they have both been approved by the City Commission, and implemented through administrative agreements. Interestingly, in the "old days" the Downtown Association, precursor to the DTP was very much event driven, and for some time Mr. Schneider himself sat as a board member, including the first year or two I was in Sarasota. Rumor has it he also poured a mean beer at many of those same events. I didn't hear anything about conflicts at that time. If the DTP were to apply for a permit, the rules would be the same as they are for anyone else.

It is of course possible that at some point the interests of the city and the interests of the DTP might diverge. In that case, my obligation is clearly to the city, and I will act accordingly should that situation occur. Having served on a number of not-for-profit boards during my career, as do many in public service, elected or appointed, I realize I must always be aware of potential conflicts. I am happy to address issues anyone might have regarding potential conflicts that I might not be seeing, and as I said I'm very easy to locate down at City Hall - or on this blog.

City Parks - What do you think? - Tomorrow the City Commission and city staff, along with some members of our parks advisory board, will be traveling to Lakeland to visit some of the city parks in their system. We will be asking them to evauate the overall level of quality of our city parks, and staff sees the Lakeland system as a good benchmark. Ultimately, the questions revolve around whether the commissioners are interested in making a larger investment to achieve a higher level of service in our parks, particularly for maintenance.

We think we have a great park system, and the status quo may be just fine. But with Atkins Park under constuction, and Payne Park soon to be, it's a good time to make this type of evaluation. So my question is this - what do you think about the overall condition of our city parks? If you were in charge, what would you do more of, or less, of, or would you leave things just the way they are?

There are no right answers here, we're just seeking your opinions. What do you think? One tricky part though - if you think things should be changed considerably, are you willing to consider slightly higher taxes to make that happen? (There's always a catch, isn't there?)