Who's Afraid of Flo Entler?

It’s difficult to satisfy the powers that be at Selby Gardens. Apparently discontent with getting pretty much everything they want, Selby boosters are attacking longtime resident advocate and City Commission candidate Flo Entler. The vehicle for their attack is the political committee “People for Arts & Culture”. The PAC recently sent an attack postcard which promises to be the first of multiple political mailers.

Current and former Selby Board members, along with development interests (including the “won’t take no for an answer” Obsidian developer) have piled up cash in a PAC and are using it to trash Entler, who has served the public both as a local and City-wide neighborhood leader. Entler served as president of her neighborhood association and as an officer of the City Coalition of Neighborhood Associations (CCNA). It’s clear Entler won’t be a puppet. And if the spouse of Selby’s CEO is putting his money where his loyalites are, it’s clear that Rob Rominiecki (who is running against Entler) will rubber stamp the Obsidian project and whatever else his fellow PAC donors want from him.

PACS are slush funds used to bypass campaign finance restrictions
Political Committees (aka PACs, an acronym for Political Action Committees) are a tool for donors to bypass campaign finance restrictions. PACs can serve as a means for PAC donors to attack a candidate anonymously, because most voters don’t have time to research who is funding a PAC. The research is tedious, and the records often aren’t easily accessed. You have to know where to look.

A Bad Look for Selby Botanical Gardens

Selby Gardens Board members are pooling their cash with a developer intent on getting approval for a wildly unpopular and consistently rejected downtown pencil tower, Obsidian. In addition, three of the City’s public officials (advisory board members) are funding this PAC.

Selby Gardens current and former board members who are donors include Teri Hansen, Nikki Seddaca, Ali Bahaj, Margaret Wise, Keith Monda, and Pauline Wamsler. William McComb is married to Selby Board member Marianne McComb. Rob Rominiecki is married to Selby CEO Jennifer Rominiecki.

Public Officials looking to be Kingmakers
Three public officials have collectively put $71,500 into “People for Arts & Culture”. Chris Voelker and Ronnie Shugar serve on the City’s Downtown Improvement District advisory board. Planning Board member Dan Clermont chairs the PAC and has given $4,500 in contributions.

The Obsidian pencil tower connection Donors include those with the usual development interests, like Pat Neil ($5,000).

But there’s a red flag waving among these PAC donors for City residents who have fought against a ridiculously out of scale pencil tower project (Obsidian). The Obsidian project design would erect a downtown condo building about 100 feet taller than any other downtown condominium project.

Obsidian developer Matt Kihnke and his project designers Gary Hoyt and Chris Gallagher are also contributors to the PAC attacking Entler. Anyone who knows her record knows Entler will not be on board with a building that makes a mockery of our City building code.

City code caps building height at 18 stories. The Obsidian developer, Matt Kihnke, would put 14 feet of “interstitial space” between 18 floors of luxury condos. Is the proposed building 18 stories? Technically, it may be, but practically speaking 14 feet of space between floors is ridiculous. That 14 feet of extra space between floors adds over 100 ft to a typical 18 story building. This extra height is what would provide a water view for residents on the top floors. But the ridiculous additional height and its impact on our City skyline would create disproportionate craziness. Approving Obsidian would open the door to similar projects. It’s a proposal that requires puppets at the Commission table to pass. So far the City Commission has turned it down.

Candidate Rominiecki wrote a check to the PAC attacking his opponent Selby CEO Jennifer Rominiecki’s husband, Rob Rominiecki, gave $1000 to “People for Arts & Culture”. Rob Rominiecki is running for an At-Large City Commission seat against Flo Entler.

There used to be rules against a candidate being involved with or coordinating with a PAC. Those rules have been tossed aside. Florida’s enforcement of remaining PAC rules is basically toothless. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a candidate donate to a political committee which is supporting their campaign. Candidates who chose to do this in the past - Martin Hyde and Carl Schofstall - have not been successful.

For those who watch City Commission activity, Mr. Rominiecki has basically been AWOL when it comes to citizen engagement. This isn’t necessarily disqualifying. But Rominiecki is the husband of the Selby Gardens CEO, someone who has a clear interest in populating City government with Commissioners who will rubber stamp her requests. Jennifer Rominiecki has not always been a gracious winner when it comes to the concessions Selby Gardens has gained from the City Commission, and she has reneged on promises made to get those concessions.

Selby Gardens was granted exemptions by the City to it’s grand tree ordinance (rules protecting the City’s old and grand oak trees from being cut down). Selby Gardens took that exemption and ran with it.

Phase One and Phase Two development of the Selby Garden master plan project has resulted in over 200 trees being cut down to accommodate new buildings and a large parking garage. The trees removed in Phase One included five grand oaks, and in Phase two seven healthy grand oaks were taken down. You’d expect a botanical garden to do everything in their power to expand their garden space and preserve trees. Selby Gardens, under Jennifer Rominiecki, did the opposite. More buildings, fewer trees. Precious downtown green space has been paved and yes, they literally put up a parking lot.

The scale of the new parking garage dwarfs the Selby mansion, which used to occupy a stately position on our bayfront.

In exchange for the tree ordinance exemption and other troubling changes, promises were made by Selby Gardens to residents:

Residents were promised that traffic leaving the Selby garage would be routed away from their neighborhood.

Residents were promised that there would be a MURT (Multi-Use Recreational Trail) open to the public in exchange for a public street being given to Selby Gardens (the end of Palm Avenue).

Residents were promised that the Selby garage would be open for public use to keep their cars safe during a hurricane.

What happened?
The promised traffic turn lane from the garage away from the neighborhood was never built. Instead of a MURT trail, there is a perpetually closed, presumably locked gate blocking the trail. When one of my family members went to park their car at Selby before Hurricane Helene, they were told the garage was only for Selby employees and their families.

Evaporating commitments like the ones Selby Gardens has reneged on are common in the City of Sarasota. We need Commissioners who will require developers who benefit from City assets to make good on their commitments. Given Selby CEO Jennifer Rominiecki’s failure to honor those commitments, and her Board’s use of a PAC to attack a rival to her husband’s campaign, it’s unlikely a Rominiecki at the City Commission is going to be resident friendly.

There oughtta be a law Most voters assume that public officials aren’t allowed to be involved in funding political committees. There ought to be a law against this, but there isn’t. For the most part it is the good judgement of public officials, both appointed and elected, that keep them from participating in political committee slush funds aimed at influencing election outcomes.

Unfortunately, DID advisory board members Ronnie Shugar and Chris Voelker don’t see any problem with pumping tens of thousands of dollars into a political committee focused on influencing the outcome of a City Commission race. Collectively, Voelker and Shugar have put $67,000 into the PAC “People for Arts & Culture”.

In order to collectively add more dough to their attack PAC, Chris and Kirk Voelker and Ronnie Shugar formed a non-profit called “Friends of Sarasota Arts and Culture”. Through their shared non-profit they added another $25,000 to their PAC. These folks REALLY want to be kingmakers in the City of Sarasota.

Why do Voelker and Shugar want to shape the City Commission?

Both have advocated for the Downtown Improvement District (DID) levying a tax on downtown residents. Currently the DID is funded by taxes levied only on downtown commercial property. DID coffers would get a significant boost if downtown residential properties were taxed as well. Listen to my conversation with John Simon if you’d like more details. Shugar and Voelker are on the record in DID meetings with their desire to levy DID taxes on downtown residential properties.

Has the DID been a good steward of the funds they already have? Critics say no, citing how the DID board majority has allowed the City to filch their funds for non-DID projects.

In order to levy a DID tax on downtown residential properties, Voelker and Shugar could use a City Commission that is on board with the proposed tax.

When you’ve got public officials funding PACs to shape City elections, voters beware! When those same public officials want to increase taxes on their downtown City neighbors, there’s more reason to question whether the candidates that Voelker and Shugar support are the candidates who will serve City residents. What are the chances that Rob Rominiecki will say no to fellow PAC donors Voelker and Shugar?

Problematic donors There are two donations to “People for Arts & Culture” that raised red flags in terms of their legality.

One is a donation from a 501(c)3 organization. Because “People for Arts & Culture” has put out an attack mailer against a specific candidate, the political committee cannot claim they are solely issue oriented. This PAC is out there trashing a particular candidate. A 501(c)3 puts their tax exempt status at risk by funding a PAC that attacks a candidate. I hope the Platkin Family Foundation asks for a refund immediately.

The other donation that is troubling was made by Manasota Accident & Injury Center on June 8, 2024. This entity is shown as inactive on Sunbiz and was dissolved on September 22, 2023. How can a dissolved, inactive entity be donating to a PAC?

Those with the gold want to make the rules In March 2025, the former “Sarasota Arts & Cultural Coalition” issued a press release rebranding themselves. The PAC name was changed to “People for Arts & Culture”. This group wants to be seen as patrons of the arts. The reality of PAC dynamics in local elections remains. Wealthy donors have created a political slush fund to support their favored candidates. I wonder if most of these donors really know what they signed up for.

I expect many of these donors contributed simply because a friend asked. They may not know about the desire of fellow PAC donors Voelker and Shugar to levy DID taxes on downtown residents. They may not appreciate how Selby Gardens has failed to follow through on promises made to residents. They may not see how it diminishes Selby Gardens to engage in this activity. They may not be aware of how a downtown pencil tower will change our City - not just with one building, but all that could follow.
Or, perhaps they know exactly what they are doing.

Voters owe it to themselves to be aware.

When an attack mailer hits your doorstep, when it’s clear that one candidate has the funding muscle to drown out the voices of others, that’s a red flag.

More often than not, the candidate who will truly serve you is the candidate that special interests are going to trash.