'We all lost a champion yesterday': Sarasota County commissioner Nancy Detert dies at 78

Sarasota County Commission vice chair, long-time public servant, golfer and grandmother Nancy Detert passed away peacefully at her home in Venice on Wednesday.

"It is with deepest regret and sadness that Sarasota County and the Board of County Commissioners must acknowledge the death of our dear friend and colleague Sarasota County Commission Vice Chair Nancy C. Detert," the county said in a statement Wednesday night.

Detert, who was 78, had represented District 3 on the Sarasota County Commission since 2016, including one year as commission chair. Her district includes Venice and parts of North Port.

Gov. Ron DeSantis will appoint someone to fill the remainder of Detert's term, which ends in November 2024.

Nancy Detert's legacy: A dream becomes a village

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Detert was born and raised in Chicago and attended Siena Heights University in Michigan. She, her husband and three sons moved to Florida in 1978, according to her Sarasota County biography.

She went on to serve on the Sarasota County School Board from 1988 to 1992, in the Florida House of Representatives from 1998 to 2006 and in the Florida Senate from 2008 to 2016. She also ran for the area's congressional seat in 2006.

Detert has nine grandchildren and has received countless awards from state and local organizations.

Detert served in numerous capacities

The Republican Party of Sarasota County said in a statement that it deeply mourned the loss of Detert, who “has been a stalwart working on behalf of the people of Sarasota County for 30 years.” The party said Detert is well-known and respected by people in both political parties, whether they agreed or disagreed with her positions.

“Nancy did her homework, knew the issues and knew the people in her community,” the statement said. “She was always an honest broker, doing what she believed was right, even if it hurt her politically. She was a beloved mother, grandmother and friend to so many.”

State Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, said Detert was willing to “stand her ground” for the ideas she believed in.

“She was willing to hold her ground, and you don’t see that very often in elected officials,” he said. “And so I think that’s why people respected her so much.”

Bill Galvano, current general counsel of New College of Florida and a former Senate president, served in the Florida House and Senate for much of the time that Detert was there. He remembers that when debates were taking place on the Senate floor, sometimes senators would be looking at their folders or wouldn’t be fully engaged with the debate. Detert, on the other hand, had “laser focus” and was listening to every word being said, Galvano recalled.

In the Legislature, Detert took on key public safety issues, successfully pushing legislation that outlaws texting while driving and another bill that sets minimum training standards for 911 workers. She sponsored a series of bills that resulted in a major overhaul of the foster care system, giving foster kids more freedom to go on overnight school trips and do other activities and allowing them to stay in the system longer.

More: Senate names foster care item after Detert

Galvano remembers that if Detert had an issue with something, “she’d come in and just cut right to the chase about it.”

Former state senator Lisa Carlton said that in the Legislature, Detert was able to able to both be a team player and maintain her "sense of independence and integrity."

Her time on the Sarasota County Commission

On the County Commission, Detert would sometimes break from the rest of the board when it voted on a proposal. She was, for example, the only commissioner to vote in November 2021 against special exceptions meant to allow a seven-story luxury hotel and a five-story parking garage to be built on Old Stickney Point Road on Siesta Key.

Commission Chairman Ron Cutsinger said it was "such an incredible privilege to have worked with her." He recalled that she had a way of “cutting through the noise and the nonsense and getting right to the heart of an issue."

She also could bring humor to a situation, Cutsinger said. She labeled him “the godfather of Englewood,” as he represents the Englewood community and lives there.

A golfer and mentor

“We all lost a champion yesterday,” said Kathy Lehner, the president and CEO of the Venice Area Chamber of Commerce.

Lehner was Detert’s golf partner in a summer golf league for the last 10 years. She said that sometimes other women golfers would meet Detert and didn’t know who she was. When they found out, they thanked her or expressed admiration of her, Lehner recalled.

She said Detert encouraged her to apply for the job at the chamber. Detert, she noted, “just advised me things to do, say and believed in me to go for it and get it.”

She said Detert was a trailblazer “in a man’s world.” She was a mom who cheered on her sons' sports teams when she was elected to the School Board.

Advocate for the Loveland Center

An affordable housing complex at the Loveland Center in Venice – which allows adults with developmental disabilities to live independently – is named the Nancy Detert Residences. As a state senator, she shepherded legislation that allowed for apartment complexes like the one at Loveland and secured state funding for its construction.

“Over the years she fiercely advocated at the state and local level for the housing needs of the most vulnerable citizens of Sarasota County and the Venice community, culminating in the opening of the Nancy Detert Residences in 2016,” said Patrick Guerin, the Loveland Center’s president and CEO, in a statement.

The organization is planning to expand its Venice campus and build The Villas at Loveland Village, which will be affordable housing for low-income families and seniors on a fixed income. Detert proposed that the County Commission use funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to help pay for the project, an idea which the board approved.

Guerin said Detert told him the upcoming project would be her final legacy.

“Nancy was a true champion for our community and her presence will be dearly missed,” he stated. “Our thoughts and prayers are with her family at this time.”

A service will be held for Detert at Epiphany Cathedral in Venice, but the date and time will be chosen after the Easter Holy Week celebrations are concluded, according to Mark Pritchett, the president and CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation. A memorial celebration honoring her life will be held at the Venice Community Center on either April 21 or 22. That date will be determined once the service at Epiphany is finalized.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Long-time Sarasota County politician Nancy Detert has died