The report card

Dear Neighbor,

When you hire a businessman to watch the books, you're owed a report. Here is yours.

Per the District's audited FY2025 financial statements: an operating margin of 10.9 percent. 305 days of cash on hand. A net position of $2.37 billion. And the number I'm proudest of — your hospital's employees have a pension funded at 113 percent, while government pensions across this country run short. At Sarasota Memorial, we keep our promises the old-fashioned way: we fund them.

Both campuses hold straight-A patient safety grades — roughly one in seven American hospitals can say that. We were named among the nation's best maternity hospitals. And we built it all while staying what we've been for over a century: a public hospital, owned by you.

Strong books aren't an accounting exercise. They're armor. A financially strong public hospital gives privatizers nothing to exploit — no crisis, no bailout, no fire sale. Straight A's aren't an accident. Neither is independence.

I've served presidents, governors, and NASDAQ boardrooms, but the title I want most is the one only you can give: four more years keeping watch over Sarasota's hospital, unpaid and unbought.

Your ballot is out. The report card is in. I'd be honored to have your vote.