Voicing concern about potential involvement in a lawsuit between Sarasota County’s school district and its tax collector over $2 million in fees, county commissioners on Tuesday got the ball rolling on re-assuming the financial responsibility for paying what commissioners believed to be a $589,000 annual tab.
While not final, because the discussion sprung up organically without agenda notice, the reversal of an August 2025 decision would essentially return the county to a role it’s held for more than 20 years.
“In my background, I’ve made decisions that I regret, and I feel like I regret a decision I made in the past and so I wanted to get the rest of the board’s thoughts on this,’’ said Commissioner Tom Knight near the end of a seven-hour meeting in Venice, kicking off the discussion…