Candidate: Robin Williams

I’m a retired biology & environmental science teacher & lifelong community advocate. I’ve spoken at the Sarasota County Commission, School Board, & Sarasota Memorial Hospital. I’ve analyzed legislation & drafted resolutions on issues in the public interest. I’ve run meetings, put agendas together, served on boards, and am President of the Democratic Public Education Caucus of Manasota. I was on the NJPTA’s Legislative Committee. I helped spearhead an effort in NJ that stopped the construction of a Big Box store in an environmentally sensitive area. Sarasota’s water resources face challenges from overdevelopment, phosphate mining, Big Sugar & climate change. I stand for home rule and greater community input to protect our Suncoast.

If elected these are several of my priorities:

Repeal Amendment 7.1A which makes any new Charter change virtually impossible & has difficult signature requirements.  It declares that any change must comply with Florida law and the current charter, a contradiction on the face of it.  How can you have a change to the charter without ”conflicting with”  the existing charter? How can you provide true home rule when you can't do anything that might conflict with the state?

I am opposed to any preemption laws by Tallahassee that weaken local protections for residents. In the US a state can provide more protection than the federal government, not less. The point of home rule is to provide more protection than the state, not less. Recent state preemption laws took away child labor protections, minimum wage protections, prevented any rent stabilization, hurt the homeless, dismantled local civilian police review boards, hurt green energy initiatives and even prevented requiring water breaks for workers in extreme heat. Not requiring water breaks in extreme heat is dangerous and cruel.

 Repeal Amendment 2.2A(1) which allows the County Commission to undermine the Comprehensive Plan by increasing “allowable land use or intensity” if 4 county commissioners approve it. Only changes that provide greater land use protections or a reduction in population density especially in environmentally sensitive areas should be permissible. 2.2A (1) permitted the recent Neal megadevelopment travesty. 

The County needs to abide by 3.10 “Preserve County-Owned Parks, Preserves, Beach and Water Access and Waterfront Vistas” and not sell off parts of its parkland to finance improvements on the remaining part.

To require 10% of registered voters to sign a petition to get something on the ballot is a high bar for a citizen initiative. Make ballot initiatives and questions more attainable and comprehensible by:

•  Reducing the percentage of registered voters needed for placing an amendment on the ballot to no more than 5% countywide and increasing the time to collect signatures. 

• Requiring an outside well-respected objective entity to write any proposed changes that would appear on the ballot and requiring a plain English interpretative statement to appear alongside any proposed legal changes to the charter. If a financial impact statement is needed that too should be researched and written by a respected objective institution without a political agenda.