Neil Rainford has been appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill the Sarasota County Commission seat that became vacant after the passing of long-time community leader Commissioner Nancy C. Detert.
The District 3 seat covers Venice and parts of Nokomis and North Port.
Detert won re-election to her District 3 seat in 2020. Rainford will serve out the remainder of her term before the seat is up for reelection in 2024.
Rainford is scheduled to be sworn into office Tuesday. He'll then join the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners for a regularly scheduled commission meeting at 9 a.m. in the same chambers.
Rainford, 36, is a senior executive with Sarasota-based Mullet's Aluminum Products Inc.. He moved to the Sarasota area shortly after graduating from Florida State University in 2009.
“Assuming the seat of a legend like Nancy Detert won’t be easy, but I’m honored to be entrusted by Governor DeSantis with this appointment to the Sarasota County Commission,” Rainford said in a prepared statement. “We are consistently ranked as one of the top communities in the nation in which to live. So, we are already doing a lot right.”
But he said there are ongoing needs in Sarasota County, and his priorities will be infrastructure, business climate and workforce housing.
Rainford is a current member of the Sarasota County Planning Commission and was an elected member of the Charter Review Board. He has also been twice elected Secretary of the Republican Executive Committee. And he formerly served on the Board of Trustees of Tabernacle Church.
