Storm Season is Here

This letter to the Board was sent May 31st, 2025:


Dear Commissioners Neunder, Knight, Smith, Mast and Cutsinger,

As a former reporter for the Herald Tribune, I covered issues of development and planning that involve giving attention to the pulse of the public. I continue to do this as an independent journalist via social media, email, and attending public hearings.

I’m no stormwater engineer, but I can gauge where the public sits on the stormwater issue. The public is not sitting, it’s standing -- out of anxiety and outrage. Today is May 31. Storm season starts tomorrow and we do not appear to have an actual plan, or a clear-cut understanding of what went wrong last year, and of what needs to be done to ensure that disastrous county failures do not repeat during this storm season or in any future year.


Alarm bells went off during Debby. 


I live next to a park with canals. Prior to Debby, the canals were completely dry. An unnamed storm, or invest, filled the canals nearly overnight. I’d never seen the park go from empty to full in such a short period.


When Debby followed, the flooding across several neighborhoods swamped homes, cars, and threatened lives. What did we hear from the county? Nothing. No public service announcements. No sandbag provisions. No shelter openings, and no information on what to do, whom to call, or how to grapple with the threatening rising waters.


Let me be blunt: I have never encountered the degree of total abandonment by my local authorities that we all experienced during Debby. I listened to the radio for messages. The only storm-related public announcements came from the Sheriff’s office. These were not comprehensive, but at least showed an awareness of danger. It was as if everyone in charge of protecting the public from natural disasters was in Key West or somewhere else, far away.


Since then, I’ve waited for the county to provide honest answers. What would explain the lack of transparency and the years - decades - of inaction of staff whom we pay to inform, to maintain flood controls, and to protect us?

In the nine months since then, no explanation has been forthcoming despite three long workshops dominated by Spencer Anderson, who is by no stretch of the imagination a stormwater engineer. 


We are about to enter the 2025 storm season. Where are we? We have no accountability for the lapses of last year, no plan for the coming season, and no one in charge with the expertise to prepare and protect us. Mr. Anderson might be an excellent public works official, but during the last workshop, as I sat through three hours of his talk with no other perspectives in the room, it seemed that the Board was being deprived of key ideas and action plans that a competent stormwater engineer would provide. It appeared as if you and the public were being led through a defense of what is, rather than a plan of what needs to be done. Why Mr. Lewis chose this format this late in the day is a fair question.


We’re one day from storm season. As our Board, you will be held responsible for whatever takes place for good or ill this season. And to this member of the public, the measures necessary to prepare us for this season require no more commentary from Mr. Anderson. Mr. Lewis as Administrator has done a disservice by refusing to admit that the county was profoundly behind the 8-Ball last year. Drastic steps need to be underway - but are they?


The Board’s intentions appear to be what the public wants to see, but they are being stymied by the people who are supposed to carry them out.


Your time in the workshops has been rewarded neither with clarity of purpose nor with significant results.


Please get the best information and advice you can, and act now.


Respectfully,


Tom Matrullo

Sarasota Citizen Action Network




Laurel Meadows after Debby flooded due to a breach in a stormwater berm



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