Monday's letters: Concerns about strong mayor, COVID tests, high gas prices, more

Sarasota Herald-Tribune
·4 min read
Sarasota City Commissioners Erik Arroyo and Liz Alpert are sworn in at City Hall in January 2021. In November, the commission chose Arroyo as the new mayor, a largely ceremonial post.
Sarasota City Commissioners Erik Arroyo and Liz Alpert are sworn in at City Hall in January 2021. In November, the commission chose Arroyo as the new mayor, a largely ceremonial post.

‘Strong mayor’ requires checks, balances

Sarasota’s Charter Review Board is considering a popularly elected mayor (“City of Sarasota committee indicates support of an elected mayor form of government,” Nov. 11). It’s unclear whether it would have “strong” executive powers or serve as more of a “speaker of the house” (as in Venice).

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Despite the success the city enjoys (with Sarasota listed among the Top 5 places to retire for the last five years), a handful of business special interests are pushing for a boss mayor with the sole ability to:

• Control the budget.

• Pick committee members.

• Circumvent the Sunshine Law, with the ability to broker backroom deals.

• Hire and fire city employees, including the city administrator.

Those powers would give us a mighty strong mayor. The “strong mayor” model is 60% more likely to lead to bribery, patronage and abuse of power, and is less motivated to employ professional city managers like our Marlon Brown, according to research presented to the Charter Review Board.

Perhaps there are charter board members gearing up to run for the strong mayor role. Regardless, this isn’t about them. It’s about a system that makes it just a bit too easy for corruption to creep in.

If we end up with an elected mayor form of government, let’s temper it with checks and balances.

Shirl Gauthier, Sarasota

Require all patrons get COVID tests

If both the people who have and those who have not taken the shot can be infectious, why are not both sets of people required to be tested before they can attend a performance in Sarasota?

The #SafeSarasotaArts COVID protocol protects no one as only a few people are truly noninfectious who attend the shows – the ones who have been tested.

If these organizations are truly interested in a safe environment, all people need to be treated the same and be required to have a negative test within the past 72 hours. Otherwise, what is being practiced here is disregard for the safety of the audience or discrimination or both.

Pandora Seibert, Sarasota

Biden to blame for jump in gas prices

Paul Krugman’s column “Policy and the fog of politics” (Nov. 20) addresses escalating gasoline prices by stating that “… developments outside the control of any president are driving a price rise.”

But this president stopped construction of the Keystone Pipeline, slow-walked approvals for new drilling and suspended drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Gasoline prices have risen 41% since his inaugural.

A year ago, we were energy independent; now we are asking OPEC to increase production and the White House is tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Krugman predicted that the stock market would crash if Donald Trump were elected president. So much for prediction skills.

He is not stupid (defined as lacking normal intelligence) and certainly not ignorant (defined as lacking knowledge). In fact, he is a highly educated economist, but is blatantly deceitful.

I am hard-pressed to recall any instances in the past few years where he has not found a connection, however tangential, between conservatives and all the world’s economic difficulties. He admits, “In reality, economic perceptions are largely shaped by media coverage – and, increasingly, by partisanship.”

Perhaps this should be stated under his byline.

Fredric Jarrett, MD, Sarasota

Justice prevailed in Rittenhouse case

The Rittenhouse verdicts were what justice and the case facts demanded, a conclusion from this Democrat, retired judge and supporter of police reform.

Articles in the Nov. 22 paper relate the comments of academics that future vigilante confrontations are encouraged, the judge made multiple rulings favoring the defense and inadequate provision was made for information on juror backgrounds and biases.

Some comments were intemperate, considering the background of volatile unrest. They conveniently ignored the trial evidence, which experts viewed as damaging to the prosecution, predicting the outcome.

One article asserted that the verdicts made President Joe Biden’s prospective options for correctives more difficult and sensitive. “Outraged” progressives blame him for not getting police reform laws passed. Never mind extensive party negotiations in the Senate and no leverage with a filibuster.

Democrats demanded the legislative repeal of qualified immunity. It does not apply to criminal prosecutions of a police officer, being limited to the individual liability of officers when sued civilly.

Suits often seek millions in damages and always name police departments and local governments as defendants. Why? Because they have deep pockets and can pay. A police officer's pay renders them judgment-proof. Why haggle over a symbolic right?

William Herring, Sarasota

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Be wary of 'strong mayor' model, make all arts patrons get COVID tests