Bob Rossmann, First Eleceted Supervisor

At today's land owners meeting, and for the first time ever by registered, eligible voters, Bob Rossmann was elected to Seat 5 of the West Villages Improvement District. He represents the first voice on the board of individual property owners living in the district. Of course the other four board members were installed last month by the new master developer of the district, Mattamy Homes. During the regular monthly board meeting which followed the land owners meeting, the new supervisors were very passive, responding to staff's prompting of agenda items and voting on same.

The district manager did state during the land owners meeting that the sale of property to Mattamy Homes last month DID NOT include the 164 acre parcel at the corner of US 41 and West Villages Parkway. That property remains in the hands of Fourth Quarter Properties and another partner developer who hopefully still intend to put a Publix shopping center there. According to the district manager, this development team still has to work through some serious debt issues, not the least of which is about $5 million in past due district assessments on the property. It doesn't look like Publix will be starting construction anytime this year at that location. Even early 2015 is questionable in my opinion. What a shame!

Just what Mattamy Home's future plans are for WVID still remain a mystery. We will all have to wait and see as these new supervisors begin to assert themselves on the direction the West Villages will take.

Change in Developer

Major events at today's WVID meeting. Fourth Quarter Properties has sold out to a new developer. Their name was mentioned once during the meeting, and I didn't get it. The meeting had to recess for about an hour and twenty minuets to wait for the closing to conclude. Four of the current Supervisors promptly resigned, and four new Supervisors were nominated and elected representing the new Developer.

This means that taxes and assesments that have been in arrears to the tune of about $4 million will now be paid, and the WVID bond debt should be brought current. It also means that maybe now there will be some progress on the Publix shopping center in the near future.

The next board meeting is scheduled for June 24th at the IslandWalk club house for 11 am. General election voting is open from 8 am to 11 am on the 24th, also at the IslandWalk club house for the first popularly elected Supervisor to the WVID board. The next few months should be interesting!!!

Candidate Qualification Period Confirmed

I spoke with Cathy Fowler at the Supervisor of Elections office yesterday and she confirmed that the time period for candidates to file their qualifications was from Monday, April 14 thru 12 noon, Friday, April 18. She stressed that 12 noon was the deadline and NO qualifications would be accepted after that date. Cathy is located in the Sarasota office and can be contacted at 941-861-8605. She did say that qualification packages would be available at the South County Administration Center in the Supervisor of Elections office there.

She also stated that the deadline for the Petition form of qualification for this election had passed. Candidates will now be required to pay a $25 fee. Only the "short form" financial statement is required for candidates; but she did suggest that the form be picked up in advance of qualifying and completed by candidates before submitting the full qualification package. The "loyalty oath" required for qualification can be administered by elections personnel at the time of filing, or may be completed earlier if properly notarized.

As of March 17 when I spoke with her, she is not aware of any candidates having contacted her office about qualifying for the election in June.

Supervisor Election Date CHANGED!!!

At its Tuesday, February, 25, 2014 meeting the WVID Board of Supervisors will discuss and most likely approve resolution 2014-01 which will establish the June Land Owners meeting as the election date for the first popularly elected Supervisor to the board. Previously, the WVID had stated that the election would be held in November as part of the general election ballot. No date or location has been set yet for the Land Owners meeting; but it is typically held on the last Tuesday of the month, or on June 24th in 2014.

Interested candidates for the supervisor office must now REGISTER with the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections between the 67th and 71st day preceding the election date. In this case, that would be during the week of April 14th, 2014. The candidate declaration is made by completing a simple form, a sworn loyalty oath, and the payment of a $25 registration fee to the Supervisor of Elections.

A copy of the draft resolution may be downloaded here. Anyone having interest in this election process or in being a candidate for the office should strongly consider attending the February 25th meeting of the WVID held in North Port City Council chambers at North Port City Hall starting at 11 am.

Referendum is Passed. CANDIDATES needed!!

The December 10th referendum question passed with an overwhelming majority vote for the popular election of our next supervisor to the West Villages Improvement District Board of Supervisors. Instead of the June Land Owners election held previously, the 2014 supervisor election will be decided on the general election ballot in November of 2014. A quick review of the Florida Division of Elections web site shows that candidates wishing to have their names entered on the general election ballot MUST file with the local county Supervisor of Elections office between June 16 and June 20, 2014. For special districts like WVID, the filing forms are very simple and the filing fee is just $25. Candidates who are NOT accepting campaign contributions for their campaign can avoid all of the normally onerous filings, rules, regulations, and costs associated with running for a public office.

So, CANDIDATES NEEDED for the office of Supervisor on the WVID Board of Supervisors.
DEADLINE to file is June 20, 2014.
If interested, contact:

SARASOTA COUNTY SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS
Robert L. Anderson Administration Center
4000 Tamiami Trail S. Rm 114
Venice, FL  34293
Phone: (941) 861-3760
Fax: (941) 861-3770

Office Hours
Monday - Friday
8:30 a.m - 5:00 p.m

Election Date Changed to December 10th

The first date was not available at the IslandWalk club house due to a large holiday party already scheduled. At today's meeting of the WVID, the Board of Supervisors set the NEW date for the Referendum Election as:

Tuesday, Dec 10, 2013, from 1:30 to 5 pm

at the IslandWalk club house

The elections WILL NOT be conducted by the county Supervisor of Elections. Rather, the WVID staff will be the ones conducting the election. Only a simple majority vote of those "qualified electors" that cast ballots is need to decide the question:

Should the next Supervisor be elected by popular vote?

Mark your calendars. Tell your neighbors. There will be NO absentee or proxy voting allowed, so plan to be there in person and cast your vote!

Referendum Election Date Set!!!

The Board of Supervisors set the date for the Referendum Election as:

Tuesday, Dec 17, 2013, from 1 to 5 pm
at the IslandWalk club house

The elections WILL NOT be conducted by the county Supervisor of Elections. Rather, the WVID staff will be the ones conducting the election. Only a simple majority vote of those "qualified electors" that cast ballots is need to decide the question:

Should the next Supervisor be elected by popular vote?

Mark your calendars. Tell your neighbors. There will be NO absentee or proxy voting allowed, so plan to be there in person and cast your vote!

REFERENDUM QUESTION LOOKS GOOD FOR LATE 2013

The petition with original signatures was delivered to the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections office on Thursday, June 20th. It was accepted and the process of validating the signatures has begun. I was told a week or so to get the count...therefore, any day now.

At today's WVID Board of Supervisors meeting the Supervisors have accepted the notion of beginning the process to change to popular election (one supervisor for now, probably for the June 2014 election). They will have 6 months from the date of official notification from the Supervisor of Elections office of the official count to hold a REFERENDUM ELECTION to decide this issue. This assumes that the official count will be 10% or greater of the total number of registered voters. We needed 71 signatures, and I delivered petitions with 119 signatures on them.

That means the REFERENDUM Election should be held sometime before the end of this year. If the voters approve, then early next year one or more candidates for the position will need to emerge and register for the election. In June 2014 the voters will be able to elect the next supervisor to the board.

All good news so far. I was very pleasantly surprised that the board agreed to move forward with this process with little discussion of the matter.

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!

OK. There is Homestead Population Growth

This estimate is based upon the number of WVID properties where the home owners address is listed in property records as being the property address. The assumption is that such properties are owner occupied and hopefully, homesteaded. Also am assuming that there are two owners per property and that they are both good citizens and are each registered voters. A lot of assumptions! The estimate is probably on the high side.

Homestead Property Growth is Flat?

I don't know why, or what it means; but the growth of homesteaded properties in WVID has flattened out. Since Gran Pardiso isn't growing at all, then we are talking about IslandWalk growth. Big sign at front entrance says sales are up 143%; but there doesn't appear to be any growth in homesteaded properties. Does this mean that most sales are for second homes or investment property? Or, does this mean that some of the early homestead buyers have sold out? Or, has the Property Appraiser's office cracked down on improper homestead claims? I just don't know; but it concerns me if our community is becoming more of a non-resident investor owned community and less of a resident, home owner community.

The Deck is Stacked

I took district counsels advice this morning and did some of my own homework. Read what the Florida statutes have to say about public officials and possible conflicts of interest. ESPECIALLY, read the last paragraph for the surprise and twist(ed) ending to this burning question I had:

What is an Annual Land Owners Meeting?

Having never been to one I thought the best way to learn about the Annual Land Owners Meeting would be to read the minutes of the last one in 2010. The meeting lasted exactly 7 minutes!

Annual Land Owners Meeting Coming in June

I've always wondered how WVID Supervisors are selected and elected. I also have never seen a slate of candidates or a ballot form, or been asked to give my vote in the four years that I have been a property owner in the District.  Each year, the District "elects" one new Supervisor to the five member board to serve a four year term. So, just how does the voting work? Well I did some homework this weekend and found out.

WVID Homesteaded Property Population Estimate

How close are we?

500 resident property owners is the magic number required to allow a petition to be sent to the Supervisor of Elections requesting that a popular election be held for at least one district Supervisor.  The number of Supervisors that may be popularly elected is determined by the percent of "urban development" within the district.  0 to 25% allows for one Supervisor to be elected.  The more urban development there is, the more Supervisors that can be elected. Read the Special Taxing District Handbook for more information about Florida Statute 189 and popularly elected Supervisors.  This population estimate is based upon two owners of each homesteaded property within the district as reported monthly by the Sarasota County Property Appraisers office.

GIGO: Garbage In - Garbage Out

Sue sent me an email last night saying there are only 331 homeowners in the association.  That got me back into the Property Appraisers spreadsheet file to look at the data again.  It turns out the spreadsheet file has two lines (records) for each property in the district!!  Everything is doubled in the file, and in my initial count of homesteaded properties.  I sent an email to the PA's office to notify them of the problem.

Bottom line:  as of November we have 156 homesteaded properties in IslandWalk and Gran Paradiso.  Only about 312 resident property owners.  It will probably be a year or so before we really do get close to the magic number of 500.

Sorry for the false alarm.

Popularly Elected Supervisor is POSSIBLE !

I just downloaded the December Property Appraiser list of WVID property owners.  It now shows 311 homesteaded properties in the district.  At two owners per property, that is about 622 individual property owners, and that means that we COULD PETITION FOR A POPULARLY ELECTED district Supervisor ! ! With a concerted effort, it might be possible to "elect" our own Supervisor to the WVID board in June 2011 when the next scheduled property owners election of one new supervisor will take place.

Anyone interested in joining me to begin discussion of how to plan and organize for a petition drive?  Please call or email me: paul9aber@gmail.com or call 468-3843.

Who Owns What?

Ever wonder who owns the empty house down the street?  The Sarasota County Property Appraiser's office publishes a spreadsheet listing all property owners in the West Villages Improvement District.  It is updated monthly and can be downloaded at: http://www.sc-pa.com/Downloads/WestVillageImprovement.xls.  I've put a link to the appraiser's monthly updated copy of this spreadsheet at the bottom of the blog homepage.

I believe that any property exemption code starting with a "9"; e.g. 900 or 918, represents a homesteaded property.  In theory, each homeowner should be a Florida resident and is eligible to be a registered voter in the district.  As of Oct 2010, it looks like there are 147 homestead properties in the district.  Assuming 2 owners per property, that would be about 294 resident property owners.  We would need a minimum of 500 to petition for a popularly elected Supervisor to the district Board of Supervisors.

Who Elects a Supervisor Now?

The WVID legislative charter establishes the district's electorate as land owners within the district's boundaries.  Each land owner is entitled to one vote for each acre (or any portion of an acre) they own.  So, who is the electorate?
In round numbers, WVID is approximately 8,000 acres; all initially owned by Fourth Quarter Properties.  About 800 acres was sold to Pulte Homes for creation of the IslandWalk subdivision (Village C), and about 1,000 acres was sold to Sam Rogers for the Gran Paradiso subdivision (Village A).  Some small portion of each of these land areas has been conveyed to the city or county for roads, drainage, parks, and other public uses; but the number of acres is negligible.
Therefore, the approximate electorate  for WVID would be:
   330 votes from individual residential lot owners (a portion of one acre each).
   650 votes from Pulte Homes (remainder of unsold IslandWalk land).
   900 votes from Gran Paradiso I, LLC (remainder of unsold Gran Paradiso land).
6,120 votes from Fourth Quarter Properties, (remainder of unsold WVID land).
There should be no question in anyones mind as to just who or what the WVID is.

A Long Way to Go

I checked the county property records this morning to see just how many resident homeowners might be in the WVID.  Results would indicate it will be years before we get to the 500 freeholders required to consider a referendum question for an elected WVID supervisor.
   329  Homes having private ownership
   180  Homes that are NOT homesteaded
     19  Homes with other than homesteaded exemptions
   130  Homes that are homesteaded properties

Assuming husband and wife or other legal 2 person ownership per homestead property, that only gives an estimated 260 qualified freeholders currently owning property within the district.  We would need a minimum of 500 to attempt a referendum question on the ballot.