Conerly finds it “regrettable” that he and his colleagues won’t support home rule

State Rep. Bill Conerly (R-Bradenton) told the Bradenton Herald this week that it was “regrettable” that the legislature did not find a way to fix SB 180, which has prevented the Manatee County Commission elected in 2024 from restoring wetland protections and managing overdevelopment. 

"It is regrettable that the legislature was unable to address the necessary revisions to SB 180," Conerly told the Herald. "Although extensive discussions and deliberations occurred regarding how to best refine the statute—specifically to provide local governments with clearer guidance on how the law should apply—unfortunately, the tensions between the legislature and the governor allowed many good bills to die in the process. I remain committed to collaborating with local government officials to pursue these essential changes during the next legislative session, should the court not provide a definitive ruling in the interim."

I'm sorry, but that is pure grade-A poppycock. 

“Representative” Conerly did not lift one finger to fix a problem he helped to create, because Conerly serves the interests of developers, rather than his actual constituents. 

SB 180 was a broad public safety bill passed in 2025. One of its elements included provisions to prevent local governments from making it harder for property owners who experienced hurricane damage to rebuild their homes by enacting more burdensome requirements than those already in place at the time of the storm. 

Just before it was passed, Rep. Fiona McFarland (R-Sarasota) inserted a controversial amendment that significantly altered the bill's intent. Local governments would be banned from adopting regulations deemed more "restrictive and burdensome" to any property owner, including those affecting new development projects.

This was an enormous gift to developers, especially here in Manatee County, where they had failed to maintain a bought-and-paid-for majority on the county commission in 2024. As a result, the newly elected board couldn’t fix the insane wetland policy, inadequate impact fees, or the evisceration of the urban development boundary. Conerly and our other representatives in Tallahassee knew this going into the session and said as much.

Pinellas County Republican Nick DiCeglie filed a bill that would have fixed those elements of SB 180, and if Conerly wanted to help, he would have filed a companion bill in the House. He did not. As an excuse, he usually mumbles something about the contentions between the governor and the legislature, seeming to suggest it would have had no chance of being signed into law.

So what? Do your job and let voters mobilize to put pressure on the governor to sign bills they overwhelmingly support. It’s obviously much easier to wage a pressure campaign on one elected official than on an entire legislative body.

If you still need more proof that Conerly is a developer puppet and don’t have time to go back and review how many times he shilled for developers as chair of the Manatee County Planning Commission—including when the original ordinance rolling back those protections was being passed—simply look at his vote this year on SB 399, an even more brazen attempt to dismantle home rule. As I wrote last week, Conerly, Senator Jim Boyd, and Rep. Will Robinson all voted in favor of this insult to their constituents.

Conerly is facing a primary challenge from smart-growth advocate and retired Coast Guard CWO John “Captain” Phillips in August. Vote accordingly.

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch's next novel, Fish Kill, is scheduled for release on April 20. His other books can be found here. He can be reached at editor@thebradentontimes.com.