Observer
LONGBOAT
DIVERSIONS: POSH PAPERBOY
NEWS OFFIciaL COUNT
Longboat’s census numbers show 9.4% population drop. Page 3A.
INSIDE | PAGE 1B
Style guru Eric Cross proves print isn’t dead at upcoming fashion show.
NEWS 1C
Piano Man
After 19 years, Ted Rehl will give an encore performance.
You. Your neighbors. Your neighborhood.
OUR TOWN PEOPLE, PICS & PLACES
commission changes
Brown takes mayor’s chair By Kurt Schultheis | City Editor
Courtesy photo
Alexander and Sarah McCalden
+ VIP(enguins) will march toward Mote Mote Marine Aquarium will host some black-tie guests beginning in November: four blackfooted penguins as part of a limited-time exhibit that will be called “Penguin Island.” In anticipation of this blackand-white bunch, Mote has a new mascot who needs a name. Visit mote.org/penguinisland before April 15 to vote.
+ Friedberg signs off on her first novel Former Longboat Key resident Patricia Friedberg held a book signing and lecture Saturday, March 19, at Bookstore 1, in Sarasota, for her first novel, “21 Aldgate.” The novel is Friedberg set in London, France and Germany during the period between world wars. A feature film based on the novel is in development through Progress Pictures Ltd., in England. For information, go to http://21aldgate.blogspot.com.
See OUR TOWN / PAGE 2A
INDEX Black Tie................................11B Classifieds...............................12C Crossword..............................11C Deal Us In..............................10C Key Real Estate.......................2C Letters to the Editor................7A Opinion.....................................6A Weather.................................11C Vol. 33, No. 34 Three sections www.YourObserver.com
Thursday, MARCH 24, 2011
The tradition is broken. For five years in a row, the Longboat Key Town Commission has selected the most senior member of its seven-person group to become the town’s mayor. But at its Monday, March 21 statutory meeting, the commission voted 5-2 to select Jim Brown as the mayor of Longboat Key over Commissioner Robert Siekmann. Siekmann is in his third term and final year as a commissioner, while Brown is entering his second term as a commissioner. Once he was sworn in and after taking his new seat at the center of the dais, Brown expressed his gratitude. “I would like to thank my fellow commissioners for their support,” Brown said. “I will do my best and hopefully be as good as the mayor we just lost (outgoing Mayor George Spoll).” Commissioner Phillip Younger nominated Brown. Brown, Younger, Commissioner David Brenner, Commissioner Lynn Larson and newly sworn-in District 1 Commissioner Jack Duncan voted for Brown. Siekmann and Commissioner Hal Lenobel, who nominated Siekmann as mayor, voted for Siekmann. Lenobel made a brief speech during his nomination and urged the commission to honor Siekmann with the position, to no avail.
Commissioner Jim Brown becomes mayor for the first time. Commissioner David Brenner is elected as vice mayor.
Dora Walters
At the Longboat Key Town Commission’s statutory meeting Monday, newly appointed Mayor Jim Brown, left, presents outgoing Mayor George Spoll with a plaque that expresses the town’s gratitude for his years of service. Larson nominated Brenner as the town’s vice mayor, and Brenner was voted to the position by a 7-0 vote — on his birthday — after no one else was nominated. The town’s new mayor and vice mayor will serve one-year
terms. The mayoral vote irked Siekmann, who told the Longboat Observer after the meeting he was “clearly disappointed.” Siekmann, whose Land’s End house is for sale and will move to the Pacific Northwest with
his wife whenever it sells, isn’t disappointed, though, that he wasn’t voted mayor. “It would have been nice to be given the opportunity to decline
SEE MAYOR / PAGE 8A
BEACH REFERENDUM
Town ad error invalidates vote An advertising error for the town’s $16 million beach project means a county judge must now validate the beach-project bond referendum. By Kurt Schultheis | City Editor
The town of Longboat Key has no access to $16 million in funds that Key voters approved for a beach project last week, due to a Town Clerk’s Office advertising error. Town Clerk Trish Granger told the Longboat Observer Monday that her office only advertised the
beach bond referendum in daily newspaper publications in the fourth week prior to the election, which created the problem. State law mandates that a bond referendum must be advertised in the third and fifth weeks prior to the election. The referendum should have been published during the weeks of Feb. 7 and Feb. 21. Instead, it was only published dur-
ing the week of Feb. 14. For the town, the error means that the $16 million beach bond can’t be issued until the town either holds another election or gets the vote validated by a county judge. Granger discovered the error
SEE ELECTION / PAGE 8A
Dora Walters
Large pipes that will be used to funnel sand onto the eroded north end of the island were placed on Beer Can Island Friday, March 18.