Venice council candidates face three forums in five days, as Ian compresses schedule

VENICE – When Waterford hosted its forum for Venice City Council candidates Wednesday evening, it capped off a hectic schedule that included three appearances in five days – starting with the East Gate Picnic on Oct. 22 and a rescheduled forum Oct. 25 at the Venetian Golf and River Club.

Many questions at all three forums keyed on the traditional hot topic in the nonpartisan council election – growth.

This year, that talk has been framed by the recently approved rewrite of the city’s land development regulations – which, among other things, included controversial sections on height in the downtown corridor that helped spur the formation of a citizen's group, Venice Unites, now conducting a petition drive to repeal the entire document.

That same group has also been meeting with city officials in hopes of negotiating changes in height limits and other concerns.

Related: Venice mayor and council candidates reveal their defining issues at first forum

Earlier: Venice officials to meet with group seeking to rescind land use regulations

All four candidates – Frankie Abbruzzino and Nick Pachota, who are running for the Seat 7 slot which is also mayor; and Seat 5 hopefuls Rick Howard and Ron Smith – admit that the recently passed regulations could use some improvement.

Abbruzzino pointed to too much influence by developers and their attorneys.

Both Howard and Abbruzzino expressed an interest in negotiating with Venice Unites, should they be elected to the council.

Pachota stressed that the new land development regulations represented the first major revision in 40 years and were always intended to be a living, breathing document open for revision.

Affordable housing got a wide range of discussion at all three forums too.

Howard, at more than one forum, talked about an 82-year-old woman he met while campaigning door-to-door, who was spending two-thirds of her income on rent.

He also pointed to the novel approach taken by the Venice Pier Group – Pachota’s family business – securing below-market rents for some of its employees and building an apartment for seasonal staff.

For all three, the default answer was some variation of the fact that the city of Venice needs help from other entities, such as the county, state and federal governments.

Smith elaborated on that a little more than the others, noting that there are federal tax credit programs to foster the creation of homes that could be rented out below market rate.

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Abbbruzzino cited the efforts of Family Promise of South Sarasota County and its Pathways Home transitional housing program and the efforts of Habitat for Humanity of South Sarasota County while talking about nonprofits with whom the city can partner to foster the growth of affordable homes.

Too many charter amendments

At the Waterford forum, the candidates were also asked to weigh in on which of the 15 proposed charter amendments were important and which they felt should not have made the cut.

Smith quipped that he would favor a future amendment that allowed only three amendments in one given year.

He later voiced support for an amendment that would allow a person to serve up to 18 consecutive years on the council – three consecutive three-year terms as a council member and three consecutive terms as mayor.

On the ballot: Venice voters to decide on 15 city charter amendments

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The amendment would require a candidate to sit out at least one election cycle after each three-consecutive term block.

“If you want a modest term limit, vote for that,” said Smith, who then added that he’d vote against a charter amendment to increase council member pay and an amendment that would call for the removal of a council member who committed an ethics violation.

Abbruzzino agreed with the amendment regarding council terms and thought that 15 amendments were a lot. He noted that many of the people he talked with outside of early voting at Venice while talking with people voting at the Venice public library found the number of questions confusing.

Howard said he favored the amendment that called for the removal of a council member who had three unexcused absences, as well an amendment that would allow a person appointed to a seat – as when Rachel Frank was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Brian Kelly resigned from Seat 2 – to serve out the remaining tenure rather than run again the following November.

As it turned out Frank switched seats to capture Seat 6 unopposed and Dick Longo filed for Seat 2 and was not opposed then.

Pachota noted that some of those amendments were necessary to remove outdated elements of the charter.

Campaign shadowboxing

Despite the fact that the job of mayor – a ceremonial position that mostly presides over council meetings – is the higher profile position, the Seat 5 race has been the higher profile contest.

Much of that has to do with the fact that Smith has spent considerable time on the campaign trail shadowboxing against Pat Neal, president of Neal Communities.

Much of that is based on Smith’s claim that Neal asked him to drop out of the race and a statement that he would heavily support Howard.

Smith, a Democrat, has also been the target of attack ads financed by the Republican Party of Sarasota County.

Campaign heating up: Sarasota GOP targets Democrat seeking Venice council seat

And: Venice council candidate claims influential developer asked him to drop out of Seat 5 race

At the East Gate picnic, Smith said he thought that Seat 5 was an open seat.

“What I found out was there is an incumbent and he’s a developer and he’s picking candidates,” he added.

That came in response to a question related to the depth of the race for council.

Ironically, Howard referenced that same incident, when he was called by a reporter to ask about that incident.

“I said who’s Pat Neal?“ said Howard, who noted when asked he had only been introduced to Neal one time, during a break in a city council meeting.

“Nobody makes decisions for me, except my wife,” he later told the audience. “And she’s sitting right there.”

Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County for the Herald-Tribune and can be reached at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Affordable housing, growth discussed by Venice candidates at forum