Sarasota Herald-Tribune Editorial Board
Really, how you feel about the Sarasota County commissioners’ call for the county to have control over recreational marijuana use within it boils down to one question: What do you believe is motivating the commissioners to seek county control in the first place?
If you believe the commissioners are genuinely motivated by good-government zeal, you can certainly embrace their suggestion that asking the Legislature to give Sarasota County flexibility in deciding on the legality of local recreational marijuana use – even if it’s legalized statewide – is simply about protecting the home-rule rights of communities across Florida.
In a recent email to various community stakeholders – including numerous Venice merchants who have been urging the city to dramatically loosen the restriction on large public events – Assistant City Manager Len Bramble noted that while some virus trends had improved since 2020 ended, there still wasn’t enough clear evidence to justify allowing huge open gatherings to resume. In summary,” Bramble wrote, “at the present time we do not believe that the COVID situation that existed (in December) has improved sufficiently to justify a relaxation in permitting special events larger than the limited small manageable ones that we are currently permitting. It is simply too soon.”
And that ultimately came down to one thing: longtime Police Chief Bernadette DiPino had to go.
It will be easy for some to solely attribute DiPino’s resignation – which will become official Friday evening and end an eight-year tenure that included many admirable accomplishments – to the escalating controversy sparked by the revelation that DiPino had joked about wanting to Taser a mentally ill homeless man who was heckling police personnel.
And true enough DiPino’s remark, which was reported to City Hall by an officer and led to an internal review and subsequent apology, had set the groundwork for police union members to consider taking a vote of “no confidence” in her – a step that would have represented an extraordinary and humiliating rebuke by the very people she was tasked to lead.