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Sarasota commission debates wording of guiding principles; opts for 'strong' to capture resilience
Summary
Commissioners spent significant time at the Oct. 30 workshop debating terms in the guiding principles — especially how to express resiliency. They agreed to favor 'strong' (or similar synonyms) for wording describing a safe and resilient community, and to prefer technical phrasing ("integrate renewable technologies") over the colloquial 'green.'
Commissioners at a Oct. 30 strategic‑plan workshop scrutinized wording for the plan’s guiding principles, focusing on terms intended to cover public safety, climate adaptation, infrastructure, economic vitality and inclusion.
The group discussed whether the word resilient meant climate resilience, personal resilience or both. One commissioner noted that the plan uses resiliency in multiple places and recommended clearer usage; several commissioners proposed the alternative word strong (or robust) for the principle titled along the lines of 'safe, welcoming and resilient community.' "I would like to include strong," a commissioner said during the exchange, and other members agreed to test substitutes such as robust and adaptable.
Commissioners also questioned the use of the phrase 'green infrastructure.' Staff and commissioners suggested replacing the colloquial term with a more specific phrase. As the group discussed, a common edit proposed by staff was to "integrate renewable technologies" to describe infrastructure investments rather than use the broader term green.
Members also debated parallel construction and verb choice for the principles (for example, whether to use action verbs such as 'protect' and 'promote' in the subtext under each principle). They agreed it was acceptable to keep some redundancy for important concepts — for example, sustainability and resilience — because the final plan will pair principle language with specific milestones and projects.
Hurwitz said he will produce a formatted set of guiding principles and circulate alternative synonyms and punctuation choices to commissioners between now and the formal plan draft.
