The Nov. 2 election could make waves in Holmes Beach.
Voters will choose from a field of five city commission candidates to fill three open seats — a majority of the five-person commission.
Commissioners Terry Schaefer, Carol Soustek and Jim Kihm currently occupy the seats.
Kihm declined to run, stating he had personal reasons, while Schaefer and Soustek are running to keep their seats alongside two former commissioners, John Monetti and Pat Morton, and political newcomer Renee Ferguson.
Commissioners serve two-year terms and earn $7,690.
Candidates have raised a variety of issues during their campaigns, which began in August with qualifying.
The primary issues deal with policing, traffic, home rule and the city’s park-by-permit program, established last year to reduce streetside parking along beach access roads.
The candidates can be found some mornings waving to passersby at key intersections and their signs, planted around the city, advertise their values in mottos and slogans, including:
- Ferguson’s “Residents First,”
- Monetti’s “Smarter & Friendlier Govt,”
- Morton’s “My Community My Responsibility,”
- Schaefer’s “Ready, Willing & Able.”
Soustek’s signs do not state a motto or slogan.
About the HB referendums
The Holmes Beach ballot also will include a referendum on a proposed land swap at 104 34th St., as well as a school district tax question that appears on ballots countywide.
The land swap ballot item asks: “Should the city vacate 2,500 square feet of right of way that bisects property located at 104 34th Street and convey and transfer such 2,500 square feet to the bisected property owner in exchange for the city’s receipt of 2,911 square feet of beachfront property from the property owner along with other considerations as set forth in Ordinance #21-14?”
Property owners Jessica and Jon Cooper, who is coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, proposed in May to exchange their beachfront land along the erosion control line and pay $10,000 toward an environmental project for a section of city-owned right of way between the property and the beach.
The swap would allow the private owners to replace the existing structure, which encroaches on the city right of way, with a new home and a swimming pool. It also prohibits the use of the property as a rental home for 10 years.
The city charter requires that ordinances vacating or changing the uses of direct and indirect beach access must be approved by commission and referendum vote — and commissioners approved the item for ballot inclusion in June.
This is the first application of a charter rule that passed on the 2019 ballot, with 704 “yes” votes and 152 voting “no” to require a supermajority vote of the city commission and a referendum in the next general election approved by a majority of voters, for the city to sell, vacate, convey, transfer or abandon real property or rights of way.
The only other item to check on the Holmes Beach ballot is a districtwide referendum asking voters to approve extending the School Board of Manatee County’s ad valorem tax that is currently in effect through July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2025.
The referendum asks voters to keep or scrap the school’s special 1-mill ad valorem property tax, first approved with 51% of the vote in 2018.
At the polls
St. Bernard Catholic Church, 248 Harbor Drive S., is the polling place for the city’s two voting precincts, 303 and 305, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on Election Day.
People must bring a valid photo ID to vote.
The Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office had sent out mail-in ballots to 1,216 of the 2,763 Holmes Beach voters as of Oct. 22, according to SEO Chief Deputy Sharon Stief.
Voters had returned 392 mail-in ballots to the SEO as of the same date.
To learn more about the election and candidates, go to votemanatee.com.