Trice makes clear that top priority for her term is hiring of new city manager
Debbie Trice is the new mayor of Sarasota, and Kathy Kelley Ohlrich is the new vice mayor, thanks to votes taken during the annual statutory meeting of the Sarasota City Commission, which was conducted on Nov. 7 this year.
Outgoing Mayor Liz Alpert nominated Trice. (Alpert, who won re-election in November 2024, had served two consecutive terms as mayor.)
It sounded to this reporter as though both Ohlrich and Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch seconded Trice’s nomination. Commissioner Kyle Battie prompted laughter when he added, “Third.”
When City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs called for the vote for Trice, it was unanimous. “Ayes have it,” Griggs said.
Then Ohlrich nominated Ahearn-Koch for vice mayor, as Ohlrich did during the board’s November 2024 statutory meeting.
However, Griggs reminded Ohlrich that the new mayor formally needed to announce that the process of electing the vice mayor was next on the agenda. After Alpert passed the gavel to Trice, Trice called for the selection of vice mayor, and Ohlrich repeated her nomination of Ahearn-Koch.
Yet, Battie told his colleagues that he had planned to nominate Ohlrich, since everyone else on the board already had served as vice mayor.
Ohlrich was elected in November 2024.
Trice added, “I was going to encourage Commissioner Ohlrich to step up as vice mayor this year, especially since I know that Commissioner Ahearn-Koch is going to be involved in a re-election campaign.”
Ahearn-Koch already has filed to try to keep her at-large seat for four more years, having first been elected to the commission in May 2017.
Trice also pointed out to her colleagues, “You all have taught me how much additional work this is” to serve as mayor or vice mayor.
“Exactly,” Battie responded
Once more, Battie talked of the fairness issue, saying Ohlrich should have the honor of being the new vice mayor.
When Trice asked whether a second was necessary for Battie’s nomination of Ohlrich, Griggs responded affirmatively.
Before anyone could offer a second on Ohlrich’s nomination of Ahearn-Koch, Ahearn-Koch announced that she would like to support the nomination of Ohlrich.
Then Ohlrich removed Ahearn-Koch’s name from consideration.
When Griggs called for the vote, everyone supported Ohlrich.
‘Our No. 1 task’
As remarks of the new mayor were the next item on the agenda, Trice told her colleagues, “Thank you all for your confidence in me, and I promise to do my very best to live up to your expectations.”
Trice has not filed to run for re-election. She won the other at-large seat during the 2022 General Election, but she had made it known that she did not plan to seek a second term.
In November 2022, Ahearn-Koch captured 40.84% of the votes for the two at-large seats; Trice ended up with 31.12%. The third candidate was attorney Dan Lobeck, who won 28.05% of the 28,724 votes cast for those seats, as shown in the records of the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Office.
During her remarks, Trice said, “Interim City Managers Doug Jeffcoat and Dave Bullock, and our dedicated staff, kept the city running smoothly over the past year,” even though — as she put it — “much of the city’s resources were consumed by storm recovery and building resiliency against future storms.”
The previous city manager, Marlon Brown, left the position in October 2024. Strikes on the county by Hurricanes Helene and Milton partly disrupted the process that the board members launched last year to hire a new city manager. However, by spring, they agreed that the efforts they had been pursuing had not been as transparent as they had wished. Thus — with the search firm that the Human Resources staff had hired already having announced it was stepped down from its work to replace Brown — the commissioners agreed to start all over again. They ultimately hired an Alpharetta, Georgia-based firm, Sumter Local Government Consulting. During a discussion that was part of their regular meeting on Nov. 3, Warren Hutmacher, owner and principal of the firm, indicated that he felt the commissioners would be able to hire a new manager by March 2026.
During her Nov. 7 remarks, Trice also pointed out, “The lack of a permanent city manager delayed the pursuit of visionary, future-oriented projects. So, in 2026, I anticipate that this City Commission will have the opportunity to consider plans to further increase our economic vitality, plus extend it to other areas of the city to build upon the progress we’ve made toward increasing our inventory of affordable housing by fine-tuning the programs that we have in place and filling in gaps with new programs.”
During her State of the City presentation prior to the elections of the new mayor and vice mayor, Alpert noted that 20 active development projects are using the density bonus the City Commission approved in 2022 in an effort to spur construction of more attainable dwelling units. Altogether, Alpert noted, more than 1,000 such units have been proposed.
“Looking at the year ahead,” Trice continued, with emphasis, “our No. 1 task is to hire a new city manager.”
Trice then laughed and pointed out that Bullock was applauding.
“But we need someone who has the skills and the vision to build upon Sarasota’s success thus far and lead us on our upward trajectory and continued status as America’s Best Place to Live,” she added.
Until the new manager is at work, Trice said, she looked forward to continuing to work with, “and learn from, Dave Bullock. He has brought a thorough knowledge of Sarasota and many years of experience in public administration to the job of interim city manager.”
Trice also noted that she would continue to rely on City Auditor and Clerk Griggs and City Attorney Joe Polzak. She did not want to leave out Deputy City Manager Patrick Robinson, either, she continued. “He has been our ‘can-do person,’ ” she said.
When someone has a problem, Trice noted, the person tells Robinson, whose response — she indicated — always is, “ ‘On it, ma’am.’ ”