Talking over the elected mayor with Matt Orr, a vocal supporter
February 24th, 2009 by Cooper Levey-Baker in News, Politics, Sarasota-Manatee
This morning, I had a long, productive conversation about the elected mayor/commission expansion issue with Matt Orr, Sarasota man about town and the guy behind This Week in Sarasota. (Matt is also, full disclosure, a friend of mine.) Orr is a big-time supporter of the referendum on the March 10 ballot, but remains unaffiliated with the Elected Mayor Now Committee (which we’ve covered here and here). He is so energized by the measure, he put together a video promoting it (you can see it after the jump), including some man-on-the-street interviews to help make his point.
Orr is just plain frustrated with the status quo on the City Commission, and thinks Sarasota needs an elected mayor system to get past the pettiness of neighborhood-driven politics. “I feel pretty confident that I know a lot about real estate and development,” he says, “but I’m not qualified to run a city, and when you get five people who are not qualified to run a city, you have neighbors whispering to neighbors.”
One example he cites is the commission’s recent decision to build a parking garage near the intersection of Palm Avenue and Main Street. A handful of developers had come up with proposals for the property (one even called for a W hotel), but minor commission concerns sidetracked each project. Orr scoffs at City Commissioner Kelly Kirschner’s post-vote quote: “We can do a world-class garage.” To Orr, it’s exactly that kind of small thinking that won’t fly should the new system be approved by voters.
He’s clear that it’s not enough to simply elect better commissioners. “If you have one person, you have one person who’s accountable,” he says, drawing a comparison to last fall’s presidential election: Bush failed, so his party was thrown out of the White House. Accountability in a nutshell.
Here’s Orr’s video:
February 24th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Matt is dead on, Sarasota is in desperate need of some serious leadership.
If you live downtown, you should expect to have restaurants, bars, and retailers as your neighbors. Enough with the CAVE (citizens against virtually everything) groups. They have way too much influence with the commission.
March 5th, 2009 at 2:18 am
The City limits of Sarasota are WAY beyond downtown. Did you know that JP ?
March 5th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Matt’s video is dead stupid.