NO ONE KNOWS MORE ABOUT THE SARASOTA/MANATEE POLITICAL SCENE THAN THE SARASOTA PHOENIX
GRUTERS AND BUCHANAN ARE PART OF A CONTINUING 13-YEAR RANDY BENDERSON SCAM
The Suncoast Watchdog media outlet has reported that Florida State Senator Joe Gruters and Florida State Representative James Buchanan have submitted a $10 million funding request for a Randy Benderson boathouse.
The Benderson boathousse
A boathouse that Benderson promised to build back in 2013 as part of the Sarasota County/Benderson public-private partnership.
Benderson, Gruters, and Buchanan sold the boathouse proposal by stating that it could be used as an emergency storm center. That claim is absurd. The proposed boathouse sits on an island with limited parking, is accessed by two small bridges, and has experienced flooding in the past.
Robinson/McFarland/Boyd
According to Benderson's mouthpiece, The Sarasota Observer, not only were Gruters and Buchanan involved in the $10 million kiss to Benderson, but State Senator Jim Boyd and State Representatives Will Robinson, Fiona McFarland, and Bill Conerly were also involved.
McFarland is the local flunky for "Pay to Play" developers, who sponsored HB 180, which was an amendment to SB 180. Her amendment allowed continued development on flood-prone land.
Conerly
The Benderson flunky Conerly sashayed into the Tallahassee swamp in 2024 with forty $1,000 contributions from the "Pay-to-Play" trio of developers: Pat Neal, Rex Jensen, and Carlos Beruff.
Benderson's mouthpiece lobbyist Ramba hanging out on Millionaires' Row before the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby.
BENDERSON'S "RAINMAKER" RAMBA THE RINO WHO CONTROLS THE RPOF
The bill submitted by Gruters and Buchanan was put together by Benderson's Tallahassee "Rainmaker" lobbyist Dave Ramba, who is one of the most powerful lobbyists operating out of the Tallahassee swamp.
Helmich/Ramba/Power
Ramba is a multi-millionaire lobbyist who, from the shadows of his Ramba Consulting Group office in Tallahassee, serves as the RINO (Republican In Name Only) titular head of Florida's Republican establishment, which has Evan Power as Chairman of RPOF and Bill Helmich as the Executive Director of the RPOF.
Ramba is also Benderson's lobbyist who slithered out of the Tallahassee swamp with a bill drafted by his firm to lobby local Sarasota and Manatee legislators to approve a proposed University Town Center Improvement District.
A district dubbed "Bendersonville" after it was approved by the Florida Legislature and signed by another Benderson flunky, Governor Ron DeSantis.
The bill would allow the district to acquire property by any means, including condemnation. Because Benderson already owns most of the land within the district, public property appears to be the most likely target, raising concerns for nearby neighborhoods, especially The Meadows. WILL THE MEADOWS BECOMES PART OF THE BENDERSONVILLE’S U...
THE CONTINUING 13-YEAR BENDERSON PARK FRAUD
This Benderson boathouse request submitted by Gruters, Buchanan, and other Benderson flunkies continues the 13-year fraud that Benderson has been perpetrating on the public through this latest $10 million kiss for a boathouse.
This ongoing 13-year scam at Benderson Rowing Park has been ripping off taxpayers since 2013, while Benderson stuffs local and state politicians like Gruters and Buchanan into his pocket.
This latest Benderson proposal, supported by Gruters, Buchanan, and other politicians already stuffed in his pockets, would once again have the public paying for another enhancement to the Benderson Rowing Park—with a price tag of up to $45 million for a sports facility and boathouse.
The $45 million publicly funded proposal is down from the original shocking figure Benderson submitted in July 2025, when he requested $70 million from the county for a boathouse along with pickleball, basketball, tennis, and volleyball courts.
Rissler
That $70 million figure surfaced on July 9, 2025, when Nicole Rissler, the county's director of Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources, told commissioners that Benderson had selected WJ Architects for the project, which would include:
8 basketball courts
16 volleyball courts
30 pickleball courts
24 wrestling mats
The building would also include a boathouse for rowing events, gym equipment for teams, an athlete lounge, VIP viewing areas, a restaurant and concessions, and multipurpose meeting and vendor space.
$70 million for a pickleball, basketball, tennis, and volleyball courts were not part of the original 2013 Sarasota County/Benderson public-private partnership that created the rowing park.
In the July 2025 proposal, Benderson Development stated it would contribute 20% of construction costs.
According to Suncoast Watchdog, the revised $45 million proposal lists funding sources as follows:
$20 million from Sarasota County
$10 million from a state appropriation
$15 million from unspecified "other" sources
Notably absent is any mention of Benderson's previously promised 20% contribution.
That $10 million appropriation sought by Gruters and Buchanan would no doubt, as in the past Benderson would to once again renege on his commitment to fund the boathouse and other million-dollar improvements he promised back in 2013.
Zoller and Rounds
As Pat Rounds and Bill Zoller, who have followed and reported on this issue for years, stated: "What's stunning is that Sarasota County residents have been waiting since 2013 for the Benderson Park Foundation/SANCA—now known as the Nathan Benderson Park Conservancy—to finally deliver its millions under this so-called Benderson/Sarasota County public-private partnership."
Controversy behind Sarasota Rowing Park.
This latest $45 million kiss, slowly creeping toward the $70 million Benderson initially desired, is yet another example of the public investing millions while Benderson's share remains near zero in comparison and getting nothing near they were promised.
Does this look like promised 2013 Benderson's rowing park in 2026?
This what the public was promised in 2013 for the over $60 million in public funds and getting nothing what they were promised.
Zoller sums it up this way, "They (Benderson) dug a hole and they keep wanting public money to bail them out."
It apears that all the local politicians in Benderson's pockets like Gruters, Buchanan, Boyd, Conery, McFarland will continue to appropriate public funds to bail him out.
This Benderson $10 million boathouse proposal follows what occurred in 2013 when Gruters, U.S. Congressman Vern Buchanan, and other "Pay-to-Play" politicians appropriated more than $30 million in state and local money for Benderson Rowing Park in preparation for the World Rowing Championships.
That $30 million package was part of the public-private partnership that included among others:
A $5 million finish tower
$5 million in grandstands
A state-of-the-art $10 million boathouse
Benderson did not pay for the grandstands or many other facilities he was expected to fund under the partnership, and now—with help from five Sarasota County commissioners and politicians like Gruters and Buchanan—he is once again reneging on his commitment to finance the boathouse.
Benderson's public-private fraud on the lake has not included a Benderson penny toward the millions spent building infrastructure and $millions expanding Cattlemen Road around the rowing park, all improvements that enhanced the value of UTC and Benderson's surrounding properties.
Benderson has made millions through UTC and the strip malls adjacent to the rowing park, benefiting directly from public investment.
While Sarasota County, Manatee County, and the State of Florida have poured untold millions into the public side of the project, Benderson has walked away from his promise to be an equal private partner.
Walking away from commitments appears to be part of Benderson's M.O. (modus operandi). Back in 2012, Benderson promised affordable housing adjacent to UTC, yet that promise has never materialized.
DOES ANYONE SEE AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN BENDERSONVILLE?
Abandoning commitments appears to be a typical move for this Buffalo transplant.
Benderson is the same individual now building a major residential and commercial project at Stickney Point Road and U.S. 41, a project that will create a traffic nightmare. He is also the same Buffalo carpetbagger who wants to build hotels on Siesta Key, turning it into another Miami Beach.
THE BOATHOUSE ANOTHER KISS FOR BENDERSON FRAUD
With the Sarasota County Commission and the Florida Legislature moving forward on a publicly funded boathouse as part of a $45 million project, don't expect Governor DeSantis to veto more millions going to Benderson.
DeSantis is the same governor who received campaign contributions from the Benderson/Pat Neal/Carlos Beruff/Rex Jensen crowd in Bradenton on 7/24/25. NEAL BUNDLES CHECKS TO DeSANTIS AT MANATEE PRESS CONFE...