ANNA MARIA – The Grande Affaire Saturday night was The Center's first attempt to celebrate paying off the mortgage and it was a success, according to Center Director Kristen Lessig.

Although the amount of money raised was unknown at press time, she said the revamped annual fund-raiser was the product of teamwork.

"It has been a great year with a new committee," she said. "It went extremely well."

Lessig said the online bidding was a success, allowing people to bid even if they weren't attending and those who were at the Grand Affaire to stay in their seats.

The Chiles Group provided the food and it included culinary parings with wine. The entrée was dry-aged rib eye steak paired with port and lobster with a beurre blanc.

Chiles Group owner Ed Chiles said the food was local, and he brought some international culinary students to help prepare it. He praised the new direction The Center has taken.

"With a new board, it was nothing short of an extraordinary effort," he said.

After the dinner, auctioneer Blake Kennedy opened the live auction. The more he chattered, the more the crowd gave. Items included a taste of authentic Florida at Mar Vista for eight, a fishing trip for two in Montana, a vacation in the British Virgin Islands and a one-week stay in Kauai, Hawaii.

Following the live auction, the dance floor was opened and Howl 2-Go, a band featuring two pianos, a drummer and a wide repertoire of music, got the crowd up and dancing.

Lessig said it was a special night to celebrate The Center's new direction thanks to the sponsors, donors and volunteers.

ANNA MARIA – According to Mayor Dan Murphy, it's going to be at least two years before the rehabilitation of the city pier begins.

During last week's City Commission meeting, Murphy said the city is looking at a two-year permitting process, followed by a one year rehabilitation process at an estimated cost of $1.7 million.

"I think it's going to be bigger. I would define the problem as a $2 million problem by the time you get through with it, and I think it's a three to four year period of time," he said.

Murphy said those who currently operate businesses and work on the pier should see no interruption to their employment or operations in the next two years.

In regard to funding the repairs Murphy referred to a recent meeting he had with pier tenant Mario Schoenfelder, who operates the restaurant and a bait shop at the pier's T-end.

"We had a good discussion. He also provided me with a letter that I have provided all of you. His feeling is he's not responsible, not only for the $1.7 million, but he's not responsible really for too much of any of it," Murphy said.

"My fact-finding and discussion with Mr. Schoenfelder remains an open issue that I need to continue to revisit until we come to some sort of conclusion," he added.

Dated March 21, Schoenfelder's letter to the mayor and city states that he feels no obligation to help fund the pier repairs. The letter says his lease with the city mentions non-structural interior improvements, but makes no mention of structural repairs to the pier itself.

Schoenfelder noted that his lease expires in four and a half years.

"The tenant cannot be responsible for a rehabilitation that would extend the life of the pier by 25 years," he wrote.

"The report does in no way indicate a lack of repair or maintenance as a source of structural deficiencies. Almost the opposite is true: the pier seems in some places to be over-repaired and/or repairs did not follow a comprehensive pattern," he added.

"All major repairs starting in 2000, and many minor repairs, have been initiated on the basis of reports the city had presented. The tenant is not responsible for the rehabilitation."

In regard to a potential nine to 12 month rehabilitation period, Schoenfelder wrote, "The landlord (the city) cannot close the pier at will. The city has to obey the regulations of the lease as much as the tenant. A closure during the remaining period of the lease can only be achieved by negotiating with the tenant."

His letter states a pier closure would result in more than 40 employees losing their jobs for a year or more; the tenant losing a year's worth of annual income; and the city losing $130,000 in pier-related revenues.

In reference to the engineers' opinion that the pier has a remaining life expectancy of five years, barring a major storm, Schoenfelder suggested he be allowed to operate uninterrupted until his lease expires, at which time he would turn the pier back over to the city if a new lease cannot be negotiated.

He feels this would give the city the time it needs to plan for the rehabilitation and the associated costs while seeking bids from new pier tenants if he and the city can't negotiate a new lease.

Murphy told the commissioners that County Administrator Ed Hunzeker was agreeable to recommending to Manatee County Commissioners the use of $1 million in county funds to help finance the pier rehabilitation. A similar arrangement helped fund the renovation of the Historic Bridge Street Pier in Bradenton Beach.

Murphy said the pier might qualify for a $500,000 grant from the state for the preservation of a historic site.

He also said the city might want to consider asking the county to forward-fund the project, with the city repaying any costs owed once the project is completed.

HOLMES BEACH – Commissioner Jean Peelen objected to the city's new policy regarding noise complaints.

"I object to the policy being changed with no input from the commission. "

Police Chief Bill Tokajer recently announced that a caller must give his/her name and information, meet with the officer, sign an affidavit on a founded violation and be willing to testify in court if required after the city lost a court case involving a noise citation.

He further said if the above does not occur, the officer would take no action other than to go by the location where a complaint was received and ask the occupants to lessen the noise.

Chair Judy Titsworth said she is concerned about people who fear retaliation, but "in order for them (a violator) to be fined there has to be a harmed party."

"My concern is that it used to be the policy of Holmes Beach that every complaint that was made had to be a notarized affidavit saying that you would appear in court," Peelen said. "The intention was to discourage complaints.

"I don't want that. This looks like exactly the same thing. I understand the need, but my concern is I think there's a better way to do it. I think it was the commission that changed the policy on what constitutes a complaint."

A policy decision

City Attorney Patricia Petruff explained, "It's a code enforcement policy decision. Most jurisdictions will take anonymous complaints, but it's hard in today's world to be anonymous. It's more of an educational issue.

"We've been to court twice, and the judge has been very clear that in order to move forward, we're going to need something more than the code enforcement officer or police chief."

She said they don't need to get the affidavit at the time of the incident, but should explain to the complainant that if the person receiving the violation appeals it, the complainant will be required to tell the judge under oath how he/she has been harmed.

Titsworth asked how policy is changed, and Petruff said the commission sets policy by the ordinances and resolutions it approves. She added that the mayor also "could interpret the actions of this commission and delegate his department heads to take appropriate action."

Mayor Bob Johnson said he would meet with Tokajer and return to the commission with clarification on the policy.

BRADENTON BEACH – The city received a clean audit for the 2014-2015 fiscal year, and the auditors declared the city's finances to be in sound shape.

The annual audit was conducted by the Sarasota-based CS&L accounting firm. On Tuesday, April 12, auditors Randy Dillingham and Jeff Gerhard presented the audit report to the mayor, city commissioners and department heads.

"No material weaknesses, sufficient deficiencies or compliance findings are reported. At year-end, the city was in a good financial position," Dillingham said.

Acknowledging the efforts of City Clerk Terri Sanclemente, City Treasurer Shayne Thompson and Deputy Clerk Marie Montoya, Dillingham said, "There was some turnover this year, so the names and the faces where a little bit different, but we had no problems. The records we requested were produced. It was an open and transparent process. We had no issues, and we certainly appreciated the efforts that Terri, Shayne, Marie and the rest of the team gave to us during the audit."

The turnover Dillingham mentioned pertained to City Treasurer Sheila Dalton's resignation in August, preceded by Deputy Clerk Audra Lanzaro's resignation in June.

"We had no disagreements on accounting principles, standards or anything like that," Dillingham said.

The auditors did say they would like to see fewer year-end accounting adjustments. During the recent audit, 16 adjustments were required, compared to 24 the previous year.

"That's not uncommon. Part of the reason we had those was we had a treasurer leave just prior to year-end, so there was a lot of clean-up required. We don't anticipate to have this comment in next year's statement," Gerhard said.
Thompson asked Gerhard to clarify the difference between an adjustment and a deficiency.

"If we have to post certain adjustments, those are audit adjustments, as they relate to the financial statements.

"If we come in and find things that we would say to be a material weakness in your internal control, significant wrong-doing, or something wrong with your controls, then that would be more of a deficiency. Adjustments can be related to deficiencies, but in this case we're reporting no material weaknesses or deficiencies," Gerhard said.

The auditors also shared some observations on the city financial practices.

"In the past, the treasurer had the ability to be a check signer. Usually, when you're a check signer and you're also in control of the general ledger you have a segregation of duties issue. That has been resolved as the treasurer is no longer a check signer, so this issue will go away," Gerhard said.

"Previously, once a check was given to the mayor or commissioner to sign, it was returned back to the person who did the recognition in the general ledger, which violates that segregation of duties. Instead of that, we are now handing that to someone independent of the process to take those checks and get them ready to mail out," Gerhard explained.

After the meeting, Vosburgh said, "I was pleased with the audit report, and I am pleased with the financial health of our city. We are in good shape and the taxpayers and residents of Bradenton Beach should be pleased that our town is in good hands."

Former Mayor Jack Clarke was in office when Dalton resigned. He said he was pleased to learn the city received a deficient-free audit; and he credits this to the hard work put in by the city clerk, the treasurer and the administrative staff.

BRADENTON BEACH – The audit report presented to the City Commission last week provided a snap-shot of the city's finances at the end of the 2014-15 fiscal year.

The fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2014 and ended Sept. 30, 2015.

At year-end, the city had a total net worth of $9.46 million, including land, buildings and other assets.

In 2014-15, the city received $2,729,044 in general fund revenues, $915,130 in Community Redevelopment Agency revenues and $2,403 in library revenues, for a total of $3,646,577.

City expenditures included $2,546,229 from the general fund, $1,031,360 from the CRA fund and $26,620 from the library fund.

General fund revenues increased by $182,815, and after taking into account the budgeted transfer of $71,067 from the general fund to the CRA fund, the general fund balance experienced a net increase of $111,748.

The CRA fund experienced a net decrease of $45,163 and the library fund experienced a net decrease of $24,217.

The Tingley Memorial Library is primarily funded by a large donation made to the city many years ago for the sole purpose of operating and maintaining a city library.

At fiscal year-end, the general fund listed $2.45 million in total assets against $369,760 in total liabilities, leaving the city with a $2.03 million fund balance headed into the current fiscal year.

"Not all of that is just sitting there in cash that you can spend," auditor Randy Dillingham said.

Some funds are restricted for specific uses, including storm water projects, the library and the $330,000 cell tower payment the city received in 2014 that cannot be spent without commission consent.

This left $988,184 in unassigned, unrestricted funds at year-end, which Dillingham said equated to 38 percent of the city's annual general fund expenditures. He said 25 percent is a generally accepted as a reasonable amount to keep in reserves, but being a coastal city subject to storm damage and flooding the city may want a larger reserve fund.

"I think we should keep as much reserves as we can because of where we live," Commissioner Jan Vosburgh said.

In regard to the cell tower money, she said, "We voted that we would not use that money. I just want to make sure the new commissioners realize this was a commitment we made and we don't touch that money."

Mayor Bill Shearon said, "A lot of the Island cities figure we should have in reserves six months of expenses. When you have an incident, the employees are going to want to get paid."

Sharing concerns about past, present and future budgets, Shearon mentioned the $210,797 BP oil spill settlement the city received last summer.

"We're not in a bad financial picture, but this year we budgeted $250,000 to be taken out of reserves. We were fortunate to get the BP money. If we keep taking out of reserves we're going to get ourselves in trouble. We won't have any reserves."

Stressing the need for future financial prudence, Shearon said the city can't rely on similar financial windfalls to help balance the budget.

"We don't have the cell tower and BP coming in, so we have to really focus on our budget process. You can't keep spending more than you're taking in and that's what we've been doing," the mayor said.

"Did we actually go into the reserves last year?" Police Chief Sam Speciale asked.

"You actually did not, in the general fund," Dillingham said, noting the city would have dipped into its reserves had it not received the BP money.

Vice Mayor Ed Straight said, "On the other hand, you can't take in more money than you're budgeting for. You can't collect money just to put in the general fund."

Dillingham said, "You can build reserves, but you're not trying to get too much in reserves to carry forward."

Building Official Steve Gilbert said, "The general concept is if you're collecting more money in ad-valorem fees year after year, then you're supposed to looking at your trim notices and millage rate to adjust that."

ANNA MARIA – Food and Wine on Pine, the Island's premier culinary and cultural event, is set for May 7, with a rain date of May 8, on picturesque Pine Avenue in Anna Maria, where guests will experience the area's finest food, wine, art and music.

The event will include unique offerings from more than 20 area restaurants, 30 upscale wines, craft and domestic beers, 32 juried artists, more than 30 musical acts, actors portraying Anna Maria's historical characters and for the kids an art tent and an activity area.

Admission is $5 and includes a wine glass and food tray. Food and beverage tickets are $1 each, and ATM access is available. Wine and beer are available as a tasting for one ticket or by the glass with a 6-ounce glass of wine for five tickets and a 12-ounce glass of beer for three to five tickets.

Free parking is offered at The Center of Anna Maria Island, two blocks away at 407 Magnolia Ave. Free parking and a free trolley are available at CrossPointe Fellowship at the entrance to the city at 8605 Gulf Drive.

Actors portray historical characters

Watch Anna Maria's historical characters come to life as they stroll down Pine Avenue and engage visitors in conversation, telling of their contribution to Island history.

Actor chair Diane Phinney said she has recruited 17 people to play the following characters: Elizabeth Moss, Lena Phelps, Annie Silver, Annie Cobb, Mary Hall, John Roser, Carolyne Norwood and Jim Kissick.

"We have scripts for each character, and they will get help with their costumes," Phinney explained. "We still need actors, especially men and we will write scripts for them."

Phinney said some of the Island characters she still needs to cast are Ernie Cagnina, Charles Roser, Harry and Mrs. Ditmas, Jack Holmes, Mitch Davis, Snooks Adams, Frances Wartig, Chris Torgeson and baseball players such as Warren Spahn, Earl Torgeson, Fred Hutchinson and Birdie Tebbetts.

There will be two shifts of actors, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Actors will receive an event T-shirt and 10 food and drink tickets. Contact Phinney at 941- 405-4759 or dianephinney@hotmail.com to volunteer to portray a character.

"It's a pretty fun thing to do," Phinney said.

Artists line street

Art chair Joyce Karp said there would be 32 artists lining Pine Avenue and showing their work. Some also will be demonstrating their art.

"We had a great response this year," she said. "The registration grows with time. People want to participate and we had to turn people away. It's a nice variety of artists, and all are very local."

Artists' work is in the following categories: clay, fiber and leather, glass, jewelry, mixed media, oil/acrylic painting, photography, watercolor painting and wood. Participating artists' work and their statements are available on foodandwineonpine.com.

In addition, there will be chalk artists from the Florida Chalk Artists Association including Kumpa Tawornprom, Bridget Lyons, Cass Womack and Tim Ritter. They will work throughout the day creating works of art in three spaces on Pine Avenue.

To view their work go to www.fantasystudio.us and https://www.facebook.com/kumpa.tawornprom.

Kids activity and creativity areas

Kids will have fun in the kids' activity area run by Rev. Ed Moss and the CrossPointe Fellowship volunteers. Kids can cover Moss in green slime, one of the highlights of the day; participate in old-fashioned games, like eating donuts off a stick with no hands, and having their faces painted. They also can help paint the Tom Sawyer fence.

The Young at Art tent organized by art teacher Patricia Knowlton will feature art from kids in grades K through 12 from participating Manatee County Schools. Members of the Manatee Art Education Association will assist kids in painting sand dollars.

Participating schools include Southeast High, Harlee Middle, Moody Elementary, Mills Elementary, Oneco Elementary, Freedom Elementary, Tara Elementary and Williams Elementary.

Kentucky Derby tent

A returning highlight of the day is the Kentucky Derby tent, Pine Avenue Downs, where guests can order Derby style drinks and view the race event on two 60-inch television screens.

There will be a Kentucky Derby hat contest with a fabulous prize, raffles for gift baskets and chance betting. Come early and have a photo taken to enter the hat contest. Voting will be held throughout the day with the prize awarded at 5:45 p.m. All proceeds from the raffles and betting benefit the American Cancer Society.

ANNA MARIA – City Commissioners have compiled a priority agenda list containing numerous items they wish to address. Some items have already been addressed, some are being addressed and some have yet to be discussed.

Commissioner Dale Woodland recently proposed the priority list and asked the other commissioners to submit ideas to supplement his.

Right of way parking, protecting beach accesses and addressing parking along beach access streets made the list and were discussed at the Thursday, April 14, meeting.

R.O.W. Parking

Commission Chair Doug Copeland referred to an e-mail Woodland asked the clerk to distribute to the other commissioners.

The e-mail said, "Increased parking in the right of way of residential streets has become burdensome to neighbors, and in some cases, has created a safety issue for pedestrians and bikers."

He listed North Shore Drive from Willow Avenue to Cypress Avenue as an example.

Woodland suggested expanding existing parking restrictions that apply to the 100 block streets, where right of way parking alternates annually from one side of the street to the other.

Copeland asked Woodland if his concerns extended beyond this area.

Woodland said, "Yeah, I was talking about all the right of ways in the city."

Commissioner Chuck Webb agreed the 100 blocks were an issue, but said he was not seeing similar parking issues on the other blocks, except with vacation rentals, which he said was a separate issue.

"Why are they parking in the 200 block? Because they can only park on half the street in the 100 block," Copeland said.

"If they can only park on half of the streets in the 200 block, they'll go to the 300 block. They're not going to stop coming to the beach because they have to walk two blocks, and neighborhoods that aren't affected by beach parking will be in the future. Rather than solving the problem, we're pushing the problem on other people."

Webb said, "Where are all these cars coming from? The only conclusion I can come to is the vacation rentals."

Webb feels too many vacation rental guests are bringing their own cars. He feels that should be limited or alternatives should be encouraged.

Commissioner Carol Carter asked if rentals are subject to additional parking restrictions. City Attorney Becky Vose said the parking regulations once contained in the vacation rental ordinance were removed.

During public input, resident Alex Wagenaar said, "Our right of ways are our precious public land. If we give that 50-foot right of way all to cars, cars are going to line the side of the roadways, exactly like Commissioner Woodland says happens on North Shore. He's raising a very important point."

The commission supported Webb's motion to schedule a workshop for further discussion on this matter.

Beach access

In regard to protecting beach access points and beach access parking, Copeland provided commissioners with several photographs. He said he was primarily concerned the about bayside beach access points from Bean Point to the last access on South Bay Boulevard.

Woodland said it's easy for the beach accesses to become blocked, especially during construction when all the available parking spaces are taken. He suggested using four- by-fours or split-rail fencing to delineate where parking is allowed and to prevent parking where it is not.

"That's an enforcement issue," Copeland said of the construction parking.

Mayor Dan Murphy said code enforcement is aware of these concerns and is writing citations.

Woodland expressed concerns about property owners preventing right of way parking near beach access points.

"That's just not right. If we're going to have the beach access it needs to be accessible," he said.

Copeland said property owners near 831 and 833, and 905 and 907, North Shore Drive sometimes park their vehicles in a manner that limits public access. He suggested split rail fencing or rope bollards as a solution.

Webb and Woodland said they prefer delineation devices to more no parking signs. Murphy said signs require an accompanying ordinance and that is something he wants to address in a larger action at a later time, rather than taking a piece-meal approach.

Webb said he and his wife were walking on the beach recently and encountered four-by-fours 30 feet out onto the beach. He asked that these be moved landward and Murphy said he would get it taken care of.

HOLMES BEACH – City commissioners instructed City Planner Bill Brisson to begin drafting an ordinance to give relief to some corner lot owners.

The issue came to the city's attention in March when a couple's attempt to build a house on their lot with three front yards in the Palm Harbor subdivision highlighted problems with two ordinances approved last year. One was Ordinance 15-19, which required a front yard along each street upon which a lot or parcel fronts; and the other was Ordinance 15-20, which banned front yard pools.

At last week's meeting, Peggy Jude, of One Palm Harbor Drive, proposed the concept of designating a primary front yard tied to the address and a secondary front yard with a 3- to 4-foot encroachment to allow for pool equipment. She also asked about fence height for a secondary front yard.

Another property owner affected by the ordinances, Kelly Heazlit, of 7214 Holmes Blvd., also addressed the commission. She said when she and her husband purchased half of the duplex lot, they would have been permitted to build a pool, but now cannot.

She asked commissioners to consider grandfathering property owners who purchased homes between 2010 and 2016, instead of when they were built or permitted, to give them the benefit of the regulations at the time of purchase.

Planner's presentation

Brisson presented revised language for the code that stated:

• No more than two front yards shall be required on any lot or parcel of record.

• On a lot or parcel facing on three streets, the owner may choose which street shall be the designated front yard. The yard opposite the designated front yard shall be the rear yard for setback purposes.

• For lots fronting on four or more streets, the owner may choose which street shall be the designated front yard. The yard opposite the designated front yard shall be the rear yard. One of the remaining yards shall be a side yard for seback purposes and one shall be a front yard for setback purposes.

Brisson said he also added definitions of corner lot, through lot and designated front yard and revised the definition of front yard.

He also added provisions for grandfathering legally platted lots where a structure was constructed when only one street yard was required.

Commissioner Jean Peelen asked why put dates in the grandfathering section.

City Attorney Patricia Petruff said in order to be able to track them an added, "We didn't want to ding people who built something that was legal at the time but is not legal now."

Providing exceptions

Regarding the Heazlit property, Brisson said, "I do not think we can help them. The structure is already built on a strange shaped lot. I could not figure out how to do a special exception. I think a variance is the best way to handle it.

"We're trying to provide so many exceptions to so many things that it's getting harder and harder."

Petruff agreed and said, "Look at the other owner (of the duplex lot adjacent to Heazlit). All he has is a front yard. The question is how far do you want to go to address these situations?"

Mayor Bob Johnson pointed out, "Pretty soon we'll be writing something for every lot in the city. Is it worth looking at two front yards again?"

Peelen said she is not willing to revisit that issue or the issue of front yard pools.

Commissioner Carol Soustek said she could agree with helping those who were "putting in plans or caught in the actual construction phase.

"We want to make everybody happy, but we can't do that. It's getting too complicated."

Commissioners Pat Morton and Marvin Grossman agreed with Soustek.

Brisson introduced an addendum regarding pools on lots that front three or four streets, but Peelen said they would discuss it at a future meeting.

City Attorney Becky Vose said she would conduct additional research on the restrictive covenant before the commission met again.

Commissioner Dale Woodland has been in favor of repealing the moratorium for some time now.

He feels the vacation rental ordinance and the other ordinances adopted provide the city with sufficient protections.

Commissioner Doug Copeland has expressed similar views.

Due to Commissioner Nancy Yetter's absence, and the importance of this issue, the commission agreed to continue the discussion until this week so she could provide input on this decision.