In 15 years of covering the Manatee County Commission, I don't know that I have ever witnessed anything as bizarre as District 1 Commissioner Carol Felts' performance Tuesday when the board was to vote on an application to rezone nearly 220 acres of Parrish farmland from agricultural to planned residential development.
Pope Ranch is in Felts’ district and surrounded by neighborhoods that endured some of the worst flooding in the county during last year’s hurricane season. Developer Pat Neal’s particularly aggressive ask is not only located in an inauspicious part of the county, but the timing of his request seemed beyond tone deaf.
Commissioners heard more than an hour of public comment from neighboring residents, most of whom are Felts' constituents, who opposed the application, many of whom had suffered significant losses from hurricanes Helene and/or Milton. Several, including engineer Mark Vanderee, noted the lack of meaningful work that the county had done in implementing a stormwater management plan or assessing the current state of stormwater drainage systems in the area.
Commissioner Jason Bearden had a litany of thoughtful, well-articulated questions related to the engineering aspirations of the project that did a good job of highlighting the complexity of what was being entertained. Several people commented that he had to have gotten help, to which I responded, Good. Every commissioner on the board who is not an engineer, which is to say all of them, should come as well prepared as Bearden did Thursday, especially when the stakes are so high.
Fortunately, it seemed evident that the votes would not be there, and the application was destined to be denied by a 4-3 or 5-2 vote. However, Commissioner Amanda Ballard had to leave the marathon meeting before it ended. Neal’s attorney, Ed Vogler, asked that the board grant a continuance so that the vote could be conducted before a full board, a routinely extended courtesy.
Sensing that the board had the opportunity to deny a deeply unpopular application, Commission Chair George Kruse recessed the meeting. During the short break, Ballard was successfully contacted to rejoin the meeting via Zoom with a hard out of 6:30 p.m.—less than seven minutes from when the meeting reconvened.
Kruse was obviously shocked to see that Felts, who had already made her reasons for opposing the project known ad nauseam, had placed herself back on the board for additional deliberation. Kruse had just said that they had a full board for the next six minutes and thirty seconds, telling Felts she was really “gambling on this one” by insisting on speaking again.
Once she had the floor, the first-term commissioner took her sweet time, so much so that it almost seemed like she was trying to run out the clock. She spoke very slowly, added absolutely nothing of value, cried, and otherwise “pontificated, bloviated, and babbled” (her own words) through a barely coherent screed of drivel. Then, when Commissioner Kruse tried to scramble to get a vote, Felts said she would be excusing herself to use the bathroom!
Commissioner Ballard, presumably because she had childcare responsibilities but just as likely to spare herself another moment of Felts’ blathering, dropped off the call at some point during the strange affair. As a result, the next vote was on the applicant’s request to be heard before a full board. It was approved.
Instead of delivering a significant victory to her constituents, Felts was solely responsible for keeping an application destined to fail alive. The scene was so bizarre that someone actually asked me if I thought development forces might have somehow compromised the commissioner. For the record, I don’t, but if you cannot tell the difference between how she acted at the meeting and how you would expect someone deliberately trying to tank a victory to act, I ask you, does it really matter?
My guess is that the commissioner somehow thought she was entitled to have her moment ahead of the vote and was just grandstanding in front of the constituents from her district who were watching either in the chambers or online. If so, that’s not much better.
During her rant, Felts preached that those who came to give public comment “weren’t getting paid” to be there. Well, she was getting paid to be there, quite generously in fact, and she owed it to those who were not to focus on delivering the result they so desperately desired. All she had to do was stop talking and take the win. She didn’t, and Neal’s project lives to fight another day. Nice work, Commissioner.
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 is also the author of three novels and a short story collection available here.
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sandy
Maybe the county attorney should have a meeting with Commissioner Felts on procedure. She had already deliberated for almost 15 minutes on this project. When it came up for the vote on denial, she got on board to deliberate again which lead to Commissioner Ballard dropping off which know ahead of time she would at 6:30 and because the applicant wanted the full board to vote for denial, it failed. A continuance was granted so now we have to go through this ll over again. Felts added nothing new and got belligerent when Kruse tried to stop her from repeating herself. I admire her passion but she needs to know when to deliberate and when not to. She gave new life to the Neal project that was almost denied before she started her second rant.
Saturday, May 10 Report this
rayfusco68
My reading of this article leads me to think that Ms. Felts actually orchestrated the continuance on purpose. It is hard to believe that she didn't understand what was happening. If she truly didn't she doesn't belong on the Board.
Sunday, May 11 Report this
WTF
And all I said was....... in response to this in all fairness the Commissioners that are on the phone, need to STAY ON THE PHONE. We pay you over 100K a year and you have a duty and responsibility to fulfill a properly noticed meeting to the very end.
But yes Carol, stop while your ahead next time.... WLYB
Sunday, May 11 Report this
iambillsanders
Unbelievable
Sunday, May 11 Report this
klmsinc
All I can request from you Mitch is to ask her and get her reply and then print it. That would be good journalism. Thank you for the report!
Sunday, May 11 Report this
Kelly
It would have been just to have it denied. But, it would have been continued anyway with a full board or not. Siddique was clear with a point of order that he wanted "due process" for the applicant to get the opportunity for a continuance. A continuance to no time certain avoids the inevitable denial appeal for a while.
Monday, May 12 Report this
NA74
I do hope these board members have a clear memory of the last election cycle. We, the people of this county are not going to put up with the BS any more. We don't want more development, we want better traffic solutions, and water/flood management.
Monday, May 12 Report this
Debann
NOT SURPRISED...just different players on the BOCC . .REAP WHAT YOU SOW....
Tuesday, May 13 Report this