Venice Elections: Farrell and Smith earn seats on the Venice City Council

Correction: The proposed Village at Jacaranda and Laurel shopping center is at the southwest corner of Laurel Road and Jacaranda Boulevard. An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect location.

VENICE – Joan Farrell and Ron Smith both claimed seats on the Venice City Council Tuesday, with Farrell ousting incumbent Mitzie Fiedler and Smith besting newcomer Dusty Feller, as both winners contended the outcome was a verdict on development decisions.

With all 12 precincts reporting, Farrell captured 52.3% of the vote to win Seat 1, according to unofficial totals from the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Office.

Smith had an even easier time in winning Seat 2 with 61.8% of the vote.

A total of 40.6% of the city’s 22,823 registered voters cast ballots, with a majority of those 9,254 votes coming in by mail; 3,487 were cast at the polls Tuesday and 633 via early voting.

The two new members of the Venice City Council will be sworn in at 8:30 a.m., Nov. 28.

Farrell, who learned about her apparent victory from a reporter, said “I’m just excited about all the voters and my volunteers have been fabulous – unbelievable dedication, I’m so impressed and thankful.

“I went to all the precincts twice today and really enjoyed meeting all the people that were just giving their all,” she added.

Throughout her campaign Farrell said the election outcome would determine whether “the voters have a seat at the table or the developers continue to control.”

“I think what’s happened is there’s been a sea change and I think the voters have woken up to the realization that development has proceeded too quickly,” she added. “I think they’re not against development but I think they’re alarmed at the speed and intensity of it and I think the vote reflected that.”

Smith agreed that the intensity of growth influenced voters.

“It’s no doubt unbridled growth was a key issue in the whole campaign,” Smith said. “They hate to see clear-cutting, it enrages people when they see that.”

Growth concerns sparked Farrell’s candidacy; Smith wins in second try

Farrell decided to run after the City Council’s decision to approve a land-use map change that would allow the southwest corner of Laurel Road and Jacaranda Boulevard site now earmarked as a preserve to become a shopping center.

Smith, who ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for Seat 5 against Rick Howard, raised his profile considerably by helping Venice Unites to negotiate changes to the city’s Land Development Regulations to forestall a potential legal battle related to Venice Unites’ petition drive to undo those regulations.

Most of the members of Venice Unites formed Venice Thrives, a group that both backed Smith and promoted a “clean campaign pledge,” that both Farrell and Smith agreed with but Fiedler and Feller did not.

The clean campaign pledge was one aspect of a particularly messy campaign – amplified by the fact that there were no other races on tonight’s ballot – that featured ads backed by the Republican Party of Sarasota County that were critical of both Smith and Farrell.

Smith said he was grateful for the large turnout in his favor then added, “I think people made a statement that they do want a nonpartisan election, I think they made a statement that they don’t want outside money influencing Venice elections – I do believe that.”

Smith pointed to the Clean Campaign Pledge – which he hopes the League of Women Voters of Sarasota County will sponsor in future elections – as an important factor in the race.

“It made it harder to do the attack literature,” he said. “And people wanted to punish the people that did that."

Jan Vertefeuille, a spokeswoman for Venice Thrives, released an email statement that read: "Venice Thrives" congratulates Joan Farrell and Ron Smith.

“We are delighted that the Clean Campaign Pledge resonated so strongly with voters and we thank Joan and Ron for committing to it immediately and enthusiastically.

“We look forward to working with City Council on the issues that Venice voters care about,” she added. “These include honoring the John Nolen Plan as the city grows, ensuring overdevelopment doesn't threaten residents' quality of life, and preserving the natural beauty and historic charm that make Venice special."

Sarasota County Democratic Party Chairman Daniel Kuether echoed that sentiment in a prepared statement released Wednesday morning.

"It's clear that the citizens of Venice are sick and tired of developers like Pat Neal buying these elections with an inordinate amount of money so that he can easily push his proposals through the council later in the year,” Kuehter wrote. “This was a significant victory for these candidates in Venice, where Republican voter registrations outnumber Democrats nearly 2:1.

“It just goes to show that good policies and candidates on the side of the people can win any day of the week.”

Voting trends

Farrell won her race with Fiedler on the strength of votes cast by mail. According to the unofficial totals on the Supervisor of Elections site – which will be certified Nov. 14 – 3,074 of the 4,760 votes cast for Farrell came by mail.

Fiedler received 1,984 mail in ballots but outpaced Farrell 360-268 on early in-person voting and 2,003-1,418 on election day.

Smith received 3,667 of the 5,683 votes cast for him via mail-in ballot. He also out-paced Feller 322-311 in early voting and 1,754-1,704 on election day.

On a precinct basis, Farrell earned 64.3% of the vote in Precinct 435, which includes the Northeast Venice developments of Venetian Golf & River Club, Willow Chase and Toscana Isles.

She also posted more than a 10 percentage point advantage in Precinct 301, where she received 55.3% of the vote. That precinct includes the Milano planned-unit development and Cielo – a subdivision of Milano where the Village at Jacaranda and Laurel shopping center would be located,

Fiedler won the vote in Precinct 511, on the island of Venice; Precinct 515, which includes Bay Indies; and Precinct 521, which includes Country Club Estates, with 52.4%, 54.6% and 53.6% of the of the vote respectively.

Smith did especially well in Precinct 435, which includes the Northeast Venice developments of Venetian Golf & River Club, Willow Chase and Toscana Isles, where he earned 72.8% of the vote; and precinct 513, which includes Bird Bay Village, where he earned 70.3% of the vote.

Fiedler and Feller captured 100% of the votes cast – a total of two votes each – in Precinct 437, which was only recently annexed into the city and used Waterford as a polling place and has 815 registered voters.

No votes were cast in Precinct 431, another precinct created by recent annexations, with 3,434 registered voters.

Final vote by mail ballots will be counted and a provisional certification of election was scheduled to be issued by the Supervisor of Elections office by 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The post-election certification audit is scheduled for Nov. 14.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Farrell and Smith roll to wins in Venice City Council elections