A New Start for this Blog

It may well be time to restart this blog. Why? Because as of May 21, 2013 there are now 705 registered voters residing within voting Precinct 541. This precinct was established last year by the Supervisor of Elections for Sarasota County for the express purpose of defining a voter catchment area that was representative of West Villages Improvement District (WVID) lands. The map shown at left was provided by the Supervisor of Elections office.

As you can see, Precinct 541 is just the WVID district lands, including the 2,000 plus acres to the South, referred to commonly as the Gothfried Creek Subdivision. This land is outside of the North Port city limits; but still within Sarasota County and the WVID defined boundaries. Per a report from the Supervisor of Elections office, dated May 21, 2013, there are now 705 registered voters in Precinct 541. This includes both property owners and renters who have registered to vote from within the district. Seasonal and absentee property owners who legally reside (and vote) elsewhere are NOT included in the voter rolls.

According to the state legislated charter for the WVID, and also as described in Chapter 189 of the Florida Statues which govern special taxing districts like ours, once there are a minimum of 500 registered voters in the district, the voters MAY petition the district's board of supervisors to call for a REFERENDUM QUESTION vote on the next ballot (must be within 6 months of the petition validation date) so that the voters in the district can decide IF they want to have a popularly elected supervisor on the district's board of supervisors.

The number of supervisors that could be elected by popular vote is dependent on the "percentage of urban development" within the district. ONE supervisor is allowed if urban development is between 0 and 25% completed. At 26% or more of urban development, a second supervisor could be popularly elected, and there is a sliding scale defined in Chapter 189 that ties percent urban development to the number of popularly elected supervisors allowed for the district. The determination as to what is the current percent of urban development is made by the district engineer.

SO, I say lets get started on a petition to get that referendum question on the ballot by the end of 2013. Candidates interested in the supervisor's job could emerge in early 2014 just in time for the charter mandated June 2014 election of the next district supervisor to the board. That election could be a popular vote election held at the polls and decided by registered voters, instead of the current ONE ACRE / ONE VOTE land owners electorate now in effect which heavily favors the larger land owners (developers) in selecting who sits on the board that spends OUR money!