Matt Wooddall is a candidate for Sarasota City Commission District 3

I recently took a strong stance against taxpayers footing the bill for one commissioner’s legal fees in the face of her Sunshine Law violation.

Let me clarify: this issue is NOT personal. This is NOT a personal attack on Susan Chapman. It is a question of good public policy, transparency and responsible use of taxpayer funds.

I subscribe fully to the notion that we the people should enjoy full transparency when it comes to seeing our policy-makers deliberate. I believe in Florida’s Sunshine Law, one of the strongest safeguards of transparency in the nation.

The open meetings law is relatively simple and followed by cities and counties all throughout Florida. It applies to meetings, formal and informal, attended by more than one policy-maker from the same deliberative board, at which reasonably foreseeable discussion will occur about an issue that may also appear on that board’s agenda. Those meetings must be publicly noticed, and minutes of that discussion should be taken. That’s all.

We all know the facts by now: in October 2013, two city commissioners met with downtown merchants to discuss the issue of homelessness. I applaud the downtown merchants for trying to be proactive and responsible partners with the community to address this issue. Still, the presence of two city commissioners and several high-level city staffers at this meeting means it is covered by the Sunshine Law.

One commissioner at this October 2013 meeting, Suzanne Atwell, moved quickly to bring closure to questions raised by her attendance: she settled and returned to governing. The other commissioner at the meeting, Susan Chapman, argues to this day and at taxpayer expense that she did nothing wrong. 

I believe the City Commission was correct when it decided back in March 2014 to stop putting good money after bad, and to stop funding Ms. Chapman’s defense. Ms. Chapman has had ample opportunity to settle this case as her colleague chose to. But I strongly disagree with the Commission’s more recent decision, led by my opponent Stan Zimmerman, to start paying those legal costs again. In fact, I question whether my opponent is engaging in some political “back-scratching” by making taxpayers foot the cost of Chapman’s legal fees in this case.

Stan Zimmerman needed Susan Chapman’s support to receive a temporary appointment to the commission. The voters don’t a get chance to decide for themselves who they wanted in District 3 until March 10. Yet, within days of his appointment in November, Stan Zimmerman immediately orchestrated the reauthorization of taxpayer funding for the Chapman legal defense.

This just doesn’t pass the smell test. In fact, it’s outrageous. The cost of these legal fees is already above $108,000, and Stan Zimmerman has indicated he would authorize public expenditures of up to $1 million with little discomfort for Ms. Chapman’s legal defense.

Not only is it so terribly wasteful of the city treasury, it is also an extreme distraction.  We need to be having substantive discussions on matters like economic improvements that include redevelopment, bringing more and better jobs to Sarasota and how to make our neighborhoods safer.  

Matt Wooddall is a candidate for Sarasota City Commission District 3