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VOL 18 No. 32
May 23, 2018
Press conference sheds light on Sunshine lawsuit The lawsuit is an attempt to determine whether six former city board members violated the Sunshine Law. BY JOE HENDRICKS SUN CORRESPONDENT | jhendricks@amisun.com
JOE HENDRICKS | SUN
Vehicular traffic passes through the roundabout at Bridge Street in Bradenton Beach going north on Gulf Drive. Longboat Key Mayor George Spoll hopes Bradenton Beach city leaders will reconsider the roundabout.
LBK mayor wants Bradenton Beach roundabout gone Longboat Key Mayor George Spoll wants the roundabout at Bridge Street eliminated to potentially increase traffic flow north on Gulf Drive, reducing traffic jams for motorists traveling north across Longboat Key. BY KRISTIN SWAIN SUN STAFF WRITER | kswain@amisun.com
HOLMES BEACH – The Coalition of Barrier Islands Elected Officials meeting is a time for the mayors of the four neighboring Island cities to get together to discuss common issues. Sometimes those discussions don’t go quite the way they planned. While discussing the options Longboat Key city leaders are
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considering to help improve vehicular traffic and keep pedestrians safe from drivers, Mayor George Spoll said he’d like Bradenton Beach city leaders to remove the roundabout at Bridge Street, which he believes causes traffic jams for drivers traveling north through his city. “It’s an abomination,” Spoll said of the roundabout. Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie said the roundabout needs to stay in place to help keep pedestrians and motorists safe in his city. He said the roundabout, with its yield signs and four crosswalks, helps to separate pedestrians from motorists, preventing accidents. “We matter, too, in Bradenton Beach and on Anna Maria Island,” Chappie said. “It’s not just about Longboat Key.”
Chappie added that, as far as he’s concerned, Bradenton Beach city leaders wouldn’t entertain restructuring the intersection with Gulf Drive solely in an attempt to alleviate traffic on Longboat Key. Spoll said he’d like to push to have the intersection restructured. Chappie added that he wants his city to be a good neighbor to the one to the south, however, there is more to consider concerning safety at the congested intersection before potential traffic slowdowns are addressed. “I don’t want to start a conversation by throwing down the gauntlet,” Chappie said. He took a summary of the conversation with Spoll at the BIEO meeting to a Bradenton Beach commission meeting. Commissioners thanked Chappie for the information, but did not discuss the matter further.
BRADENTON BEACH – Paralegal Michael Barfield says Sunshine Law violations allegedly committed by former city board members were not innocent mistakes made by uninformed volunteers. He also accused the now-defunct Concerned Neighbors of Bradenton Beach (CNOBB) group of operating as a “shadow government.” Accompanied by Mayor John Chappie and City Attorney Ricinda Perry, Barfield held a press conference at city hall before the City Commission’s Thursday, May 17, meeting. Barfield, a Sunshine law expert from Sarasota, is assisting attorneys Robert Watrous and Perry in the case. “Anything less than government in the sunshine is just not acceptable, and that’s why we’re here today,” Chappie said. “We don’t view these violations as an accident or technical. They were serious, substantive violations,” Barfield said, later noting that past Sunshine violations cost Venice taxpayers $1.6 million and recent violations cost Martin County taxpayers more than $12 million. Enacted in 1995, the Florida Sunshine Law requires local governments and advisory boards to conduct business in properly noticed public meetings, with all related documents and correspondence made available to the public. SEE SUNSHINE, PAGE 11
JOE HENDRICKS | SUN
Paralegal Michael Barfield addresses the media, with Mayor John Chappie and City Attorney Ricinda Perry looking on.
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