Annexation meetings between Manatee officials are ‘a total joke.’ They’ll be over soon
A host of local government bodies are preparing to terminate an agreement formed nearly 20 years ago as a “long-term growth management strategy” meant to improve interlocal efficiency.
The result of that agreement, better known as The Accord, has been nothing but a “waste of time,” said Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston. At Tuesday’s Council of Governments meeting, he and Palmetto Mayor Shirley Groover-Bryant proposed getting rid of it altogether.
“Quite honestly, there’s no need for The Accord anymore,” Poston said. “We haven’t met in a couple years. If we don’t need it anymore, why don’t we drop it?”
“Is it critical that we get rid of it? No, but when we talk about redundancy, that’s a redundancy. I think having the Council of Governments meetings has been beneficial and I do think that’s a waste of time sending each of board members to something just to find out the health conditions of the rest of them,” Groover Bryant added.
The Accord was formed in 2002 during what Poston called “a contentious time,” when county officials wanted more control over the decisions of city officials. It created the Joint Planning Commission, which features representatives from the school board, Palmetto, Bradenton and Manatee County, and which meets very rarely — usually for just a few minutes each time.
Most of the JPC’s discussions centered around the subject of giving green lights to annexation proposals throughout the county, but the committee is a non-binding board that doesn’t have the final say on any government’s final decision.
In recent years, a number of officials have questionedwhether The Accord was still necessary given the lack of any governing power. County Commissioner Betsy Benac told her fellow representatives that trying to figure out that system has been “very confusing.”
“It’s a feel-good document that we don’t know how to operate under,”she said. “I certainly don’t have any problem getting rid of it.”
Bradenton Councilman Gene Gallo, who has been the city’s representative since the committee’s inception, put it bluntly.
“The JPC meetings that we have had have been a total joke,” he said. “I’m the chairman of that and I know what was said before the meetings and after the meetings, nine times out of 10 people that were involved said ‘I don’t care what the city of Bradenton does’ or ‘I don’t care what the city of Palmetto does.’ That’s your government, do what you want to do.”
While there seemed to be agreement among most officials that it was time for The Accord to be nullified, it wasn’t possible for them to take any action at the joint government meeting. Instead, County Commissioner Stephen Jonsson suggested that each body hold votes terminating their involvement in The Accord as soon as possible.