Sarasota’s Mote Marine wants $5 million from Manatee. Not so fast, tourism officials say
Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium has come up short in its quest for $5 million of Manatee County tourist development funds for its City Island facility in Sarasota.
Monday, the Manatee County Tourist Development Council instead recommended the Manatee County Commission fund $50,000 a year over the next 20 years, a total of $1 million, to help pay for marketing and program expansion at Mote. By law, TDC funds cannot be used on construction projects outside the county.
Mote officials said the $5 million requested and a statement that Mote ranks among the tourist council’s top three priorities, were integral to its efforts to attract state and federal funds for expansion plans.
The request for Mote’s programs at its current City Island facility is in addition to the $15 million that Mote CEO Michael Crosby requested a year ago from the Manatee County Commission for a planned $130 million aquarium facility at Nathan Benderson Park.
In the end, Mote received neither the priority ranking nor the full funding that it sought.
Instead, Mote had to settle for a recommendation that the tourist development council sees Mote funding as a priority, rather than a top-three priority.
Precisely how the requested funds would be spent has been a consistent question by tourist board members, ever since Dan Bebak, Mote’s vice president for Aquarium, Education and Outreach, originally approached the tourist board with the request in September.
Those questions went unanswered Monday.
“The devil is always in the details. That’s why we are asking for the details,” Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston said. “I love Mote, I am on your side, but we need to have some facts to make a decision.”
Mote counsel George Mazzarantani rubbed some of the council members the wrong way Monday when he said Mote had not been able to work with tourist council staff, and had not been given a fair shot in its request for funds.
Mazzarantani called Manatee County the “linchpin” in Mote being able to leverage additional state and federal funds for its expansion plans. Mote has received a pledge of $20 million from Sarasota and five acres of land.
“Support us because we support you. There will be a direct benefit in perpetuity,” Mazzarantani said. “Please help us. Your decision today has much further ramifications.”
Mazzarantani appealed to the TDC to look at what Mote does on a local level not only as a visitor attraction but as a research institute addressing shared challenges.
“Red tide or green-blue algae doesn’t stop at the border,” he said.
The Manatee TDC, made up of representatives from local governments and the hospitality industry, advises the Manatee County Commission on how to use hotel occupancy, or “bed,” taxes paid by visitors to the county.
Ed Chiles, tourist development council member, took note of Mazzarantani’s comment that the board’s revenues have been growing at $1 million a year and that it could afford to support Mote.
“With all due respect, you’re not running this budget. I’m not sure that you have helped yourselves today in these comments,” Chiles said. “We don’t know what the future will bring.”
Mazzarantani apologized for any offense his comments may have caused.
Manatee County Commissioner Misty Servia, serving as chair of the Manatee County Tourist Development Council, said she personally would rank Mote among the council’s top three priorities and would support the $5 million funding request.
Chiles responded that ranking Mote so highly would be unfair to Manatee County interests, such as the arts, which are seeking funding help with a proposed facility expansion.
Approving such a large expenditure for Mote could help put the tourist development council in the red. If the county commission decides it wants to support Mote to the tune of $5 million, it should take the funds from its general fund,” Chiles said.
In the end, Servia cast the only dissenting vote against the TDC’s recommendation.
“It doesn’t get us to where we need to be,” Servia said.
This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Sarasota’s Mote Marine wants $5 million from Manatee. Not so fast, tourism officials say."
