Sarasota County's politicians should stay in their lanes - and out of our private lives

Recently, the Sarasota Board of County Commissioners adopted resolutions that cut off funding to and employee payroll deductions for United Way Suncoast and the United Way of South Sarasota. In addition to their own programming, both organizations channel funding to other nonprofits that support everything from legal services and early childhood learning to rebuilding efforts post Hurricane Ian. 

Just what was behind this dramatic reversal after decades of support?  

The fact that the 211 helpline – which was supported in part by United Way and which the county also recently defunded – includes Planned Parenthood among the dozens of social service organizations to which it makes referrals. And Planned Parenthood, of course, includes among its wide range of health services, information about and access to abortion providers. (It’s relevant to note, however, that according to a United Way Suncoast spokesperson, the 211 hotline made exactly zero referrals to Planned Parenthood during the 2022-2023 fiscal year.)   

According to the resolution unanimously passed by the commission, “Abortion services are incompatible with the values of Sarasota County and the Board of County Commissioners of Sarasota County has determined it will not support any organization that makes referrals to Planned Parenthood or any other organization for abortion services.” 

There are those within Sarasota County who will cheer this decision – the same people who celebrated the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade two years ago and who welcomed this week the institution of a Florida ban on abortion after six weeks. No doubt they’re feeling satisfied and pleased by the confirmation of their values and beliefs bestowed by the commissioners’ actions. 

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But what about the rights and values of the Sarasota County citizens who feel differently?

For example, the approximately 40,000 (in the county; nearly a million statewide) who signed petitions last year putting a referendum (Amendment 4) on this November’s ballot that would enshrine abortion rights up to 24 weeks as part of the state Constitution? Or the many women (who, by the way, outnumber men in Sarasota County) who feel government – much less five men – has no business interfering in what’s best for their bodies, families and futures? 

The most recent Emerson College survey shows 42% of Florida voters support Amendment 4. No such survey has been conducted within Sarasota County alone, but it’s a sure bet there would be no uniform consensus. So why did the commissioners feel they had the right to proclaim that support of Planned Parenthood’s services is “incompatible with the values of Sarasota County”?  

Because they could. And because the values they cite and hubristically assign to the entire county, represent their personal beliefs, based on their own political and/or religious affiliations.  

County Commissioner Neil Rainford said the resolution was in line with the commission’s mandate to “protect people.” But apparently he meant only unborn people. Stripping support from Planned Parenthood, which also provides essential health services like STD testing, cancer detection and family planning will endanger as many lives as it preserves. And defunding the United Way and its many affiliated organizations, which assist with everything from fighting evictions to supporting financial stability, could easily cause a domino chain of destruction for others just as in need of “protection.” 

It’s not shocking, in today’s political climate, to see elected officials using the weight of their office to push their own moral agendas, but this is hardly an isolated case. In fact, the frequency with which it is occurring on the current county commission is alarming.  

Remember back in November 2022 when the commission (with two different members) threw out the recommendations for mental health funding made by their own appointed advisory board, after months of assessment and deliberation? Why? Not only did some of those recommendations not coincide with their own preferences, in at least one case – where funding was recommended to ALSO Youth, an organization which supports LGBTQ young people – a commissioner again cited the “incompatibility” argument. 

“This is an organization . . . that I don’t believe shares the values of this community,” said then-Sarasota County Commissioner Christian Ziegler. “I’m outraged to see them here.” 

And yet there are many in the community who deeply value the efforts of this organization, which supports a population deemed to be at the highest risk for mental health crises.  

What about this commission’s rushed passage last fall, in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, of a “medical freedom” resolution that challenges the rights of local health officials to set medical protocols, enforce quarantines or promote vaccinations? It passed without any input from hospitals or the county health department and without any analysis of the potential implications, simply because a specific constituency with specific values requested it –and those values coincided with the values of commissioner they requested it from. 

Others saw it as a dangerous precedent. But their “values” didn’t carry the same – or any, actually – weight.

How about this commission’s defunding of the county’s memberships in the American Library Association and Florida Library Association last November? Was the support these venerated organizations provide – which does not, by the way, include the selection of books purchased for our local library system – deemed “incompatible” with our library-loving population’s values? No, but a foolish unscripted remark by the ALA president, a lesbian feminist, apparently was. 

“We’re drifting into areas where these associations are acting like political action committees,” said Commission Mike Moran in advocating for defunding the library associations. “My fingerprints will not be on a penny that goes to them.” 

Yet in the aftermath of that decision I received dozens of offers from local readers asking if they could donate the funding that had been withdrawn in order to maintain the memberships. So who was acting like a political action committee – the library associations or the Sarasota County Commission? 

Trying to make the right decisions for a divided population that is diverse in its values, opinion and priorities is no easy task for the members of any local elected body. But wading into social issues and cultural battles where government should play no role – and choosing to legitimize one side and demonize the other – only invites further fissure and rancor. 

It’s one thing to serve as financial stewards determining, based on unbiased and necessary research, where allocation of county funding will do the most good. It’s quite another for Sarasota County's commissioners to become self-appointed morality police, asserting what standards represent the entire county based on their own political or religious values. 

Contact Carrie Seidman at carrie.seidman@gmail.com or 505-238-0392.