Vote in precinct that includes Wellen Park may reveal residents stance on North Port contraction

NORTH PORT –  Two races on the Nov. 8 ballot involving Precinct 541 in the city of North Port may provide insight into how city residents living west of the Myakka River might ultimately vote, if given an opportunity to decide whether they city limits should contract.

In both races, proponents of the push for North Port to de-annex land west of the river did well among voters who would be allowed to weigh in on that issue.

Last month, the North Port City Commission reaffirmed its denial of a resident-led push to contract the city – or at least put the question to residents west of the Myakka River through a referendum – when it reopened an April, 29, 2021 decision against shrinking the city limits.

Related: Commission again denies residents effort for contraction

The decision, which did not involve any new evidence, satisfied an order from 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Hunter W. Carroll, who ruled against the city in a motion brought by a group of West Villagers after that original decision.

Carroll told the city it had based its initial decision on “conclusions” rather than facts.

City commissioners based their Oct. 27 decision on facts as presented by experts.

The West Villagers' attorney is developing a new challenge to that decision in circuit court, as well as moving to ask Carroll to compel the city to hold a referendum on the issue, as outlined in Chapter 171 of Florida statutes.

West Villagers seeking the the city's contraction are "confident that the court will overturn the city’s ruling and will seriously take a hard look at forcing them to hold a referendum, in accordance with the Florida statutes,” said John Meisel, chairman of the board of West Villagers for Responsible Government – which uses the numeral 4 as an abbreviation as well as in its web site address: https://www.wv4rg.org.

Residents would need favorable rulings in circuit court – as well as subsequent legal challenges – before a referendum could happen.

On Nov, 8 Meisel, handily won the resident representative seat on the West Villages Improvement District board of directors.

West Villages was rebranded as Wellen Park by the master developer. The West Villages Improvement District was created as a special government to oversee the development of the former Thomas Ranch, much of which was annexed by the city of North Port more than 20 years ago.

Ironically, Meisel is succeeding Victor Dobrin, another architect of the de-annexation movement, on that board.

Dobrin ran unsuccessfully against Phil Stokes for the City Commission District 5 seat.

Stokes won 11 of 12 precincts. In precinct 541 – which also includes voters east of the Myakka River – Dobrin received 70.4%.

Meisel won 71.91% of the vote in his win against Kevin M. Shaughnessy for the development district.

According to the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Office, there are 7.654 voters registered in Precinct 541 and 6,038 votes were cast there – a 78.9% turnout.

But only 5,227 people opted to vote in the District 5 race – which means 811 people who live there left that race off the ballot.

In contrast, 5,415 people in that precinct weighed in on the North Port referendum on whether to issue bonds to pay for the widening of Price Boulevard and 5,358 on a North Port referendum question on a city charter amendment.

A total of 5,113 people voted in the West Villages board race, according to the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Office – though there’s no readily available record of whether people who were eligible to vote in that race opted to leave it blank.

Meisel said the vote in his race could be used as a proxy for how a de-annexation question may fare as a referendum question but cautioned it’s not a 100% accurate proxy.

“There were, maybe, people that voted for me that have a different view on de-annexation and I respect that,” Meisel said.

Meisel then added that his results, combined with the results of the District 5 City Commission race were significant, especially since the race boiled down a question on contraction.

"His platform was based on opposing the de-annexation," Meisel said, referencing Stokes. "That he only was able to capture 29% of the vote in the area to be considered for contraction speaks volumes.”

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: Voters in North Port precinct have have tipped thoughts on contraction