June 2017, Land Owner's Annual Meeting

This annual ritual meeting was held at North Port City Hall on June 8, 2017. Surprise....the two supervisor seats up for re-election were won by the two incumbents. They were the only candidates for each seat and the master developer has over 6,000 votes to cast for whomever they want to be elected. You and I only have one vote - per household - for our tiny 1/4 acre of land ownership. All above board and legal. Read the state statute if you don't believe me.

Now next year (2018) will be different. One of the five seats on the WVID board is held by someone elected by the registered voters residing in the district at a general election. That seat has been held by Bob Rossman from IslandWalk and his four year term will be expiring next year in June. Bob has told me that although he has enjoyed his time on the board and that is has been a wonderful experience, he will not be a candidate for re-election in 2018.

SO....any civic minded person interested in being a part of the future development of the West Villages should start considering running for this seat in 2018.

Contact the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections office for more information. If you do not plan to solicit or accept campaign contributions then the registration process and paperwork is very minimal and the filing fee is only a few bucks. The ONLY requirement is that you be a US Citizen. One does not even need to live in or even be a registered voter in the district to qualify!!! Heck, one of my kids from North Carolina or New Jersey could run for this seat.

When can we expect to have more than one of the five supervisor seats filled by a resident (registered voter) elected person? Probably another 4 or 5 years at least. The state statute governing STD boards has a sliding scale that matches the percent of "urban development" within a district to the number of approved, publicly elected supervisors. We got our first seat when there were more than 500 registered voters living within the WVID boundaries. That was easy.

The next trigger is 25% of urban development with the district. When Bob was elected, we were at around 3% "urban development". The district Engineer estimated today that we are only around 12 to 13% "urban development" now. Search this blog for other "GENERAL ELECTION" labeled posts to get the full story on how this system works.