The ballots are in and Anna Maria is staying the course with the city commission.
407 votes were counted Nov. 3 at Roser Memorial Community Church, 512 Pine Ave., re-electing Commissioners Carol Carter, Doug Copeland and Dale Woodland to rejoin the Anna Maria City Commission.
Of the 622 ballots, 407 were cast in person at Roser and 215 were absentee ballots.
Roser Memorial was Anna Maria’s only balloting station.
Woodland is top vote-getter with 267 votes, Copeland with 265, and Carter earned 256. Candidates John Damato and Penny Naylor trailed behind earning 118 and 85 respectively.
According the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections office there are 1,187 register voters in Anna Maria.
With 622 votes cast, 52.4 percent of the registered voters cast their choice.
The commissioner-elects will be sworn into office at the next commission meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, at Anna Maria City Hall, 10005 Gulf Drive.
The commission also will decide on a new chair and vice-chair. Chair Chuck Webb and Commissioner Nancy Yetter currently serve the commission in those roles.
Voter tallys
Roser Absentee Total
Woodland 267 137 404
Copeland 265 123 388
Carter 256 137 393
Damato 118 72 190
Naylor 85 66 151
Total ballots cast: 407
Absentee ballots: 215
Congratulations to Carol Carter, Doug Copeland and Dale Woodland on their re-election. I am gratified by the strong show of support from the residents of the community who have been paying attention, understand what is at stake, and have made their voices heard loud and clear.
Clearly the best commission we’ve had in the 30 years I’ve lived here, these commissioners have thoughtfully considered all interests and drafted legislation to bring our city back into balance. The statistics don’t lie – we have way more vacation rentals than we did when we were balanced and it has driven away people who came here to live in a community not a tourist town. We have always had vacation rentals and enjoy the people who come here because they have been longer term and repeat visitors and have become part of the community themselves. We want that but we’ve tipped the scales too far and have violated our own comp. plan which says we are a residential community. Do residential communities need businesses? Yes – desperately – and we all need to shop locally.
We now have before us a real opportunity to rebuild our lost community, register the vacation rentals and ask the few who don’t manage them well to do so. We need to end, once and for all, the construction of any more large, loud, out of scale party houses now permeating our neighborhoods. We will have laws in place and enforcement of those laws. The Sheriff’s Department falls very short of doing a good job on this problem so we have our own enforcement thanks to the Mayor.
The real estate community has sued the city because of their paranoia that they will somehow lose money if we return to what we were – a small community with some great vacation renters and visitors. That isn’t going to happen. They need to look at the big picture, drop the lawsuits, sit down with the commission and become part of the solution.
Outside developers and investors will probably find their paranoia is better based than the realtors. The biggest plague that has come to Anna Maria Island and many other small towns in Florida like ours is people who value making money as they destroy other people’s homes, lives, history and peace. Our commission in Anna Maria along with Mayor Dan Murphy have stood up and said “enough”. We were asleep at the switch but woke up and begged our commissioners to help….and they did. It is a complex and convoluted task but they have done their homework well and have begun to move forward actually doing things and not just talking about them.
As it turns out, the voting majority of our fellow residents feel the same way. The State of Florida hasn’t done us any favors with the Bert Harris Act but we have rights contained in our comp. plans, pre-existing ordinances, and new legislation that we can exert. We have people with vision already working on ideas to rebuild the lost community. We need to make ourselves heard in Tallahassee along with St. Augustine and the Florida League of Cities and get back Home Rule where it belongs which is NOT in Tallahassee!
So thanks Carol, Doug, Dale, Nancy and Chuck – and Dan – for providing vital leadership. I can’t wait to see where we go next and for once I know it will be forward toward more solutions.
Janet Aubry
North Shore Drive
Anna Maria