The public record
Joe Neunder: The Record
Every number sourced. Open the minutes on any row to verify.
Across 6.5 years and two governments — the Venice City Council and the Sarasota County Commission — Joe Neunder's money votes are catalogued below, each linked to the government's own official record.
Sarasota County Commission record
Joe Neunder served on two governments. Each record below is catalogued independently — the Sarasota County Commission (2022–2026: 707 YES / 2 NO fiscal votes) and the City of Venice Council (2019–2022: 162 YES / 7 NO). No figure on this page combines the two governments, and every vote links to that government's own official record.
| Date | Item | His Vote | $ Impact | Impact Type | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-17 | Adopt Resolution, Budget Amendment B2026-070, amending the FY2026 Budget to appropriate funding for disaster related projects, in the amount of $91,790,354 (moved by Knight, seconded by Smith) | Yes | $91,790,354 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Approve expenditure authorization and purchase of 27 Foot Stepvan mobile medical unit from Farber Specialty Vehicles Inc. | Yes | $392,932 | New Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Approve Master Services Agreement SR 2684 with Aetna Life Insurance Company for Comprehensive Medical Plan Administration Services | Yes | $3,335,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Approve Master Services Agreement SR 2682 with Aetna Life Insurance Company for Comprehensive Pharmacy Plan Administration Services | Yes | $225,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Approve Master Services Agreement SR 2683 with Aetna Life Insurance Company for Comprehensive Dental Plan Administration Services | Yes | $705,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Approve expenditure authorization and purchase order to Ferguson Enterprises LLC for water meter parts | Yes | $1,222,608 | New Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Approve Work Assignment No. 260627 to County Contract No. 2021-223 with Brown and Caldwell for Reclaimed Water Master Plan update | Yes | $498,485 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Approve Work Assignment No. 4 to Contract No. SR 2687 with Hazen and Sawyer, P.C. for CMOM program enhancement | Yes | $2,091,060 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. B2026-052 to appropriate funding for Nash Avenue Property NPP Land Acquisition and Start-Up Project | Yes | $1,689,213 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. B2026-056 to appropriate funding for RRRIC South River Road Wetland Mitigation Credits | Yes | $1,257,743 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Approve agreement with Myakka Mitbank, LC for purchase of wetland mitigation bank credits for South River Road widening | Yes | $1,205,978 | New Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. B2026-031 to appropriate funding for Carlton Wellfield Production Wells Rehabilitation and Improvements | Yes | $6,112,495 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. BA 2026-057 to appropriate funding for Fruitville Commons Canal Crossing Project | Yes | $891,250 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Approve agreement with Fruitville LWR75, LLC for construction and funding of vehicular bridge with shared use path | Yes | $1,146,650 | New Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-06-02 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. B2026-055 to appropriate funding for SR 776 and Old Englewood Road/Boca Royale Boulevard Intersection Project | Yes | $180,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-19 | Approve and authorize County Administrator to execute construction contract with Cacique Utilities LLC for potable water looping | Yes | $1,197,488 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-19 | Approve resolution of employer/carrier owed attorney's fees and costs in Charles Harris workers' compensation case | Yes | $100,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-19 | Approve Auto Liability Lump Sum settlement in Shane Hale case | Yes | $35,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-19 | Approve Wastewater System Utility Agreement for MHC Lake Village II Development and authorize reimbursement for wastewater system improvements | Yes | $2,892,187 | New Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-19 | Approve and authorize execution of Work Assignment No. 260623 to County Contract with Carollo Engineers for Water Master Plan update services | Yes | $498,064 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-19 | Adopt resolution amending CIP, approve Federally funded Subaward and Grant Agreement for Carlton Water Treatment Plant Generator Project, and adopt Budget Amendment B2026-051 | Yes | $5,001,786 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-19 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. B2026-053 to appropriate funding for 17th Street Regional Park supplemental tree planting | Yes | $129,500 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-19 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. B2026-050 to incorporate various supplemental appropriations, grants, revenue adjustments, and transfers | Yes | $1,648,582 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-19 | Adopt resolution amending CIP to add SR 776 and Old English Road/Boca Royale Boulevard project and adopt Budget Amendment B2026-055 | under review | $180,000 | ⚠ Not Enacted | Minutes |
| 2026-05-19 | Adopt resolutions and approve State Funded Grant Agreement with FDOT for Phase 2 of Ibis Street Multi-Use Recreational Trail and adopt Budget Amendment B2026-040 | Yes | $3,800,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-19 | Adopt resolutions and approve State Funded Grant Agreement with FDOT for Lorraine Road Segment C Phase 1 and adopt Budget Amendment B2026-047 | Yes | $14,623,001 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-05 | Adopt resolution approving Local Agency Program Agreement with State of Florida Department of Transportation for Intelligent Transportation Systems Fiber and Signals installation | Yes | $1,000,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-05 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. B2026-046 to appropriate funding for South River Road ITS Fiber project | Yes | $1,235,208 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-05 | Approve and authorize execution of Amendment No. 2 to Contract with P.J. Hayes Inc. for Ed Smith Stadium HVAC Replacement Project | Yes | $6,572,886 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-05 | Adopt resolution approving Fiscal Year 2027 On-Cycle Waterway Development Program funding requests | Yes | $1,804,292 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-05 | Approve expenditure from Law Enforcement Forfeitures Fund for narcotic test kits | Yes | $4,966 | New Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-05 | Ratify and approve Warrants dated April 6-17, 2026 | Yes | $42,732,081 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-05 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. B2026-048 for supplemental appropriations and adjustments | Yes | $16,835,969 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-05 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. B2026-049 for 17th Street Park to NBP Multimodal Connector Trail project | Yes | $250,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-05 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. B2026-045 for Additional Pool at Selby Aquatic Center | Yes | $700,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-05-05 | Adopt resolution authorizing borrowing from Pooled Commercial Paper Loan Program for Stickney Point Road Property acquisition | Yes | $20,770,000 | New Debt | Minutes |
| 2026-04-21 | Approve and authorize County Administrator to execute agreement with AtkinsRealis USA Inc. for engineering services for Englewood Isles Parkway bridge replacements | Yes | $3,059,631 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-04-21 | Adopt resolution authorizing borrowing not exceeding $2,799,000.00 from Pooled Commercial Paper Loan Program to refinance West Dearborn Street Improvement project | Yes | $2,799,000 | Refinance | Minutes |
| 2026-04-21 | Adopt resolution authorizing borrowing not exceeding $1,190,000.00 from Pooled Commercial Paper Loan Program to refinance West Dearborn Street Low Impact Design project | Yes | $1,190,000 | Refinance | Minutes |
| 2026-04-21 | Adopt resolution authorizing borrowing not exceeding $582,000.00 from Pooled Commercial Paper Loan Program to refinance Fire Station #21 renovation and SCBA project | Yes | $582,000 | Refinance | Minutes |
| 2026-04-21 | Adopt resolution authorizing borrowing not exceeding $7,913,000.00 from Pooled Commercial Paper Loan Program to refinance Fire Station #23 project | Yes | $7,913,000 | Refinance | Minutes |
| 2026-04-21 | Adopt resolution authorizing borrowing not to exceed $20,770,000.00 from Pooled Commercial Paper Loan Program to finance Stickney Point Road Property NPP Land Acquisition and Start-Up project | under review | $20,770,000 | ⚠ Not Enacted | Minutes |
| 2026-04-21 | Add Hawkins Ranch site to Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program Protection Priority List and approve Work Plan; incorporate $282,875.00 in Fiscal Year 2027 Budget for Bay Conservatory Program | Yes | $282,875 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-04-21 | Adopt Budget Amendment No. B2026-043, amending Fiscal Year 2026 Budget to incorporate General Fund budget reductions in the amount of $5,460,000.00 | Yes | $5,460,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-04-07 | Approve Work Assignment No. 260606 to Contract No. 2022-115 with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., for Septic System Replacement Program Area N Force Main Improvements Design | Yes | $588,515 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-04-07 | Approve and authorize County Administrator to execute human services program contract for Emergency Shelter Homeless Outreach Team beds with The Salvation Army | Yes | $1,133,325 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-04-07 | Adopt Resolution Budget Amendment No. B2026-039 to appropriate $57,000.00 for Capital Improvement Program Project No. 93131 - Newtown Estates Park – Multipurpose Field | Yes | $57,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-04-07 | Adopt Resolution Budget Amendment No. B2026-041 to appropriate $223,000.00 for Capital Improvement Program Project No. 85021 – Playgrounds and Shade Structures Program 2 | Yes | $223,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-04-07 | Adopt Resolution Budget Amendment No. B2026-037 to appropriate $50,000.00 for Capital Improvement Project No. 93130 - Nokomis Riverview Dock Lots Acquisition Program | Yes | $50,000 | Existing Spending | Minutes |
| 2026-04-07 | Adopt Ordinance No. 2026-008 for referenda election relating to extension of Environmentally Sensitive Lands and Parkland Program 0.25 mill ad valorem tax for additional twenty-year period and bond referendum for issuance of bonds not-to-exceed $250,000,000.00A referendum question placed on the ballot — a voter authorization, not a bond the county has issued. | Yes | $250,000,000 | ⚠ Ballot Authorization | Minutes |
⚠ Ballot Authorization rows are voter referendum questions — a public authorization, never county borrowing. They are shown for completeness and are never summed into the debt figure.Red rows carry a recorded No. Blank amount = no dollar figure in the record (never estimated).
Follow the money
$198,800 in verified development-industry giving
Every figure below is a name-verified match between a development-industry entity and a contribution to Joe Neunder's county candidate committee or the allied Conservatives for a Brighter Future PAC — drawn from Florida DOE and Sarasota County SOE filings. Giving tied to the 2019 Venice election cycle is excluded from these totals. Only confirmed (EXACT / STRONG) matches appear; unconfirmed names carry no dollar figure.
| Development entity | Verified giving | In board record? |
|---|---|---|
| Culverhouse | $53,500 | No |
| Benderson Development | $41,000 | No |
| Neal (Pat Neal + family)Includes Neal family individuals (Pat Neal PAC gift + family). | $33,000 | Yes |
| Schroeder-Manatee Ranch | $26,000 | No |
| Hi Hat Ranch | $10,000 | No |
| Boone, Boone & Boone P.A.Firm-only headline; +$1,600 from Boone family individuals. | $8,500 | No |
| Halfacre Construction | $6,000 | No |
| Palmer Ranch | $6,000 | Yes |
| Ajax Paving | $5,000 | No |
| Stock Development | $5,000 | No |
| Lakewood Ranch≈ | $2,000 | Yes |
≈ = STRONG match (a clear family/variant of the named entity). “In board record?”= the entity appears as an applicant/party in the County Developer Record above. Boone's figure is firm-only; the Boone-family individuals are noted in the Developer-table badge. Individual FLAGGED matches (Casto, Snyder/SSD) are excluded — they carry no verified dollar.
How we built this
Every row is transcribed from the government's own record — Sarasota County BCC official minutes and City of Venice Council minutes — and the [Minutes] link opens that document. Nothing here is our characterization; it is the roll call.
Jurisdiction discipline. The two governments are catalogued as fully independent records. The county table shows 707 YES / 2 NO; the Venice table shows 162 YES / 7 NO. No total, dollar figure, or donor amount on this page mixes the two.
Number discipline. The headline dollar figures are locked, reproducible values from our verified fact base — $3.08 billion in county spending approved and $295.7 million in new county-obligor debt (which deliberately excludes conduit bonds the county never repays, refinancings, and voter-approved ballot ceilings). Ballot authorizations are flagged ⚠ and never counted as debt.
Motions that did not pass. Items the Board denied, or that failed for want of a supermajority, are labelled ⚠ Not Enacted. They stay in the table because the vote really happened, but no money was appropriated, so they are counted in neither the YES nor the NO column and contribute nothing to any dollar total. This matters in both directions: on 2024-04-09 Neunder moved to deny a $200,000 appropriation, and an earlier version of this page scored that as a yes vote to spend it. Treating a vote to kill spending as a vote for spending is the kind of error that would discredit everything else here, so it is fixed and disclosed rather than quietly dropped.
Where the record does not state a dollar amount, we show the vote with no number rather than estimate one. A blank in the $ Impact column means exactly that: the amount is not in the minutes. Venice minutes carry no structured amounts at all, so the Venice record shows votes only.
© Local Government Accountability. Sarasota County ≠ City of Sarasota. Sources: Sarasota County BCC minutes; City of Venice Council minutes (Granicus/Legistar); Florida DOE & Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections campaign-finance filings. Figures locked to the SCF canonical fact base.
The investigation
The $876 Million Man
Joe Neunder ran as a fiscal conservative with no ties to developers. We read every budget, every vote, and every campaign check. Here is what the public record actually says.
Read the full investigation →Fact-check · Satire
The 2026 Pinocchio Award
Four glossy Neunder mailers vs. the roll-call record. Eight claims, thirty-one Pinocchios — every rating linked to its source document.
See the mailers vs. the record →In the news
Neunder in the News
- The Public Record Belongs to the Citizens of SarasotaSarasota County Facts · Aug 15, 2026Statement
- The Developers' Favorite Son?Local Government Accountability · Aug 12, 2026INVESTIGATION
- Neunder and Smith Have Created Financial Ruin for Sarasota County's Working-Class Families and CitizensSarasota County Facts · Aug 10, 2026INVESTIGATION
- The Hypocrisy of Joe NeunderLocal Government Accountability · Aug 9, 2026THE RECORD
- We Got the Numbers Wrong. Sarasota, We Owe You an Apology.Local Government Accountability · Aug 7, 2026PRESS RELEASE
- The Maximum Allowed by Law: Joe Neunder's Check to Hillary ClintonLocal Government Accountability · Aug 7, 2026THE RECORD
- Sarasota County Commission candidates campaign as clock ticks downSarasota/Siesta Key Observer · Aug 7, 2026THE RECORD
- Why Joe Has Gotta Go: 16 Documented ReasonsSarasota County Facts · Aug 5, 2026EDITORIAL