State pressure for consolidation on Anna Maria Island is back on the front burner.
Anna Maria Mayor Mark Short and Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth told The Islander Sept. 4 about their plans to respond to a recent letter from state Sen. Jim Boyd and state Rep. Will Robinson Jr, both R-Bradenton.
In 2023, the legislators called on the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to study the potential consolidation or dissolution of the island’s three municipalities.
OPPAGA completed the study last year and reported that merging or eliminating cities could negatively impact the island, but streamlining municipal services could lead to cost savings.
Boyd and Robinson asked the island mayors to provide ideas for the potential streamlining in January.
While Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie did not provide a response, the other two cities responded in February.
Now, legislators are requesting a progress update.
“As we prepare for the 2026 Legislative Session, we want to follow up on our previous correspondence concerning the OPPAGA study and the discussions we initiated last year about streamlining services and improving efficiencies among the three island cities,” Boyd and Robinson wrote in an Aug. 28 letter to AMI’s mayors. “We recognize that recovery efforts have demanded much of your attention, but these conversations remain critical for the residents and taxpayers of Anna Maria Island.”
“Given the broader budget environment and the Legislature’s continued emphasis on efficiency and accountability, we need a clearer understanding of where things stand before we move into the appropriations process in Tallahassee,” they wrote.
The legislators called for updates on:
- Any steps taken since the OPPAGA study to explore shared services or cost-saving measures;
- Efforts to coordinate operations across the three cities to reduce duplication and improve efficiency;
- How these priorities are reflected in the cities’ budgets and plans moving forward.
“While we remain committed to supporting Anna Maria Island and its recovery, we need to understand what progress has been made at the local level to ensure we are working toward the same goals,” Boyd and Robinson wrote.
They called for the mayors to respond by Oct. 1 “so we can consider these matters as we enter the appropriations process.”
Short and Titsworth said they had spoken about the matter and were set to meet to discuss a potential joint response to the state legislators.
However, they acknowledged that little to no progress has been made on streamlining island services — and pointed to the extensive and continuing efforts the cities have put into recovering from the 2024 storms as the reason.
“We haven’t consolidated in any department,” Titsworth said. “We take care of each other on an as-needed basis. I don’t think any city at this point has found any great reduction in cost.”
“Our focus has been on the recovery from two of the greatest catastrophes the cities have ever had to deal with. … We haven’t had adequate time to come up with anything other than just being there for each other,” she added. “I’m sure they understand that that’s where our focus needed to be.”
“We have all been extremely focused on recovery and repair from the hurricanes and, in addition to that, we’ve all been very focused on getting ready for this (storm) season,” Short said. “There’s been no rest in terms of dealing with that stuff.”
While Chappie did not respond to a Sept. 4 call from The Islander, a draft letter from the mayor to the legislators was introduced at a Sept. 4 city commission meeting. The letter mirrors the other mayors’ messages in describing the “overwhelming and unrelenting” work of rebuilding from last year’s storms.
However, Chappie also points the finger at the other cities for a lack of consolidation progress.
“Despite our repeated offers to engage in broader conversations about shared services, the other municipalities have not expressed a desire to move forward,” he wrote.
Ultimately, the draft letter states that the city remains open to future dialogue and requests that the legislators not disadvantage the city in the state appropriations process.