Special session to be scheduled for board members to start winnowing list
A little more than seven months ago — on Sept. 9, 2024 — the Sarasota city commissioners formally talked with the city’s director of human resources, Stacie Mason, about contracting with an executive search firm to help them select the next city manager.
They were looking toward the formal retirement of City Manager Marlon Brown on Oct. 15, 2024.
Then, the anticipation was that the city would have Brown’s successor on board this spring — likely no later than the end of this month.
Yet, on April 11, following hours of discussion about the process during recent workshops and special meetings, the board members focused on backing up, so to speak, so they could provide far more transparency to the public about their actions.
Yet, after learning that if they backed up the process too far, they would lose the candidates that had been provided by the search firm that Mason brought on board — Colin Baenziger & Associates, which has its headquarters in Volusia County — they voted unanimously to continue with the full applicant pool from the firm. Moreover, they agreed to ensure that staff provides all of the backup materials in a link through the agenda for a future commission meeting, when they plan to begin winnowing the list.
(Colin Baenziger & Associates also was the firm that the city hired to find a new city manager in 2012. That search resulted in the employment of Tom Barwin, who resigned from the position at the end of 2020.)
City Attorney Joe Polzak offered the language for the motion about how best to proceed, on the basis of comments the board members had made during their approximately 90 minutes of discussion. Vice Mayor Debbie Trice formally made the motion, and Commissioner Kathy Kelley Ohlrich seconded it.
Following further discussion, Trice made a motion calling for the board members at that next meeting to create what she characterized as a “provisional semi-finalist list” on the basis of each commissioner announcing her or his list of people to include on that.
Then, they will ask that Colin Baenziger & Associates provide them as much information as possible about each of the people on the semi-finalists list.
“I think that reflects your commitment to transparency,” Polzak told Trice.
Baenziger, who was present for the April 11 special meeting, pointed out that the larger that pool of semi-finalists, the longer it would take to pull together the extra material. For six or seven people, he said, he likely could get the information within three weeks.
Ohlrich seconded Trice’s motion, as well, and it also passed unanimously.
Finally, since the board members take their annual break in June, Commissioner Kyle Battie proposed that he and his colleagues conduct that winnowing of candidates during a special meeting before May 22, as Mayor Liz Alpert has travel plans starting that date.
Based on the timeline for the next special meeting and the plans related to it, Human Resources Director Mason said it appeared that paring the names of the semi-finalists to a list of finalists likely would lead to the candidate interview process taking place in July.
Trice laughingly told interim City Manager Doug Jeffcoat, “You’ll be here for hurricane season,” which starts June 1.
Referring to Jeffcoat, Battie added, “He’s crying now,” prompting more laughter.
Jeffcoat already had committed to remaining in the interim position until a new city manager had been selected.
During a March 27 workshop with the commissioners, Mason explained that, from mid-September 2024 into November 2024, “Staff worked on the scope of work” for the process and gathered proposals from executive search firms. Ultimately, she said, the city engaged Colin Baenziger & Associates.
In response to a Sarasota News Leader inquiry this week, Jan Thornburg, general manager of the city’s Communications Department, confirmed in an April 16 email that the contract with Colin Baenziger & Associates did not have to be presented to the City Commission for approval. The News Leader did learn through a public records request that the city agreed to pay the firm $35,000.
In November and December 2024, Mason continued on March 27, work proceeded on drafting the recruitment brochure. She reminded the commissioners that Rick Conner — the firm’ primary representative to the city — met with each of them individually to discuss their “wants and needs” in regard to the next city manager. From that information, Mason added, the recruitment brochure was produced.
The actual recruitment period began on Jan. 9 and concluded on Feb. 7, she said. Afterward, Conner led the screening, reference checks and “credentialing verifications” to create a list of the top candidates. Those were presented to the commissioners on March 18, Mason added. However, one of them had withdrawn, she noted, as that person had accepted an offer to serve as city manager in another community.
The ‘T’ word
When Mayor Alpert called on City Attorney Polzak soon after the beginning of the April 11 special meeting, he pointed out, “As we all so highly value the transparency and the legitimacy of this process … I think what I would recommend [is that] you guys start fresh with all of the 51 applicants that we’ve received, on the table, and then move from there …”
He further suggested that they decide how to winnow the list.
When Alpert asked whether he wanted to explain his comments, Polzak replied, “I think to just avoid any issues, you know, of transparency or sunshine, that no legal issues are raised as part of this process. … You guys decide here, publicly today, in full transparency, how you want to winnow and who you want to winnow down from there.”
After he made those remarks, during the Citizens Input period, Christine Robinson, executive director of the Argus Foundation of Sarasota, offered her sympathy to the commissioners about having to go through the process of hiring a new city manager.
She noted that she participated in the selection of a new county manager when she was serving on the County Commission, adding that the person the board hired in 2012 ended up being fired two years later.
“I’m getting a little PTSD watching you all go through it and understanding how it feels,” Robinson continued. “The pressure is immense to pick somebody, to move forward,”
Then, referencing commissioners’ comments about flaws in their process, Robinson told them that her primary focus was “the transparency issue.” (They had renewed a discussion of their concerns about the process during a nearly three-hour-long workshop prior to the special meeting that day.)
“Transparency from beginning to end in this process leads to the integrity in the final decision,” Robinson said. The lack of resumes or reports on the candidates attached to the agenda for the special meeting, Robinson added, “cuts the public out of the process.”
She made it clear that she did not put the blame for that on City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs; instead, she offered praise for how Griggs handles her responsibilities.
(In a March 27 email, Human Resources Director Mason sent the list of the applicants to the commissioners, The Sarasota News Leader found by searching the city’s public email folder. However, the News Leader did not find a link to that list that enabled the publication to download it.)
Robinson stressed, as well, “Transparency should be just as important a part of the discussion as picking the candidate.”
From that day forward, she added, the city commissioners should “dictate how this transparency will work …”
The Argus Foundation, she said, recommended that they begin the process anew, “because of the way this is unfolding.”
Mayor Alpert concurred with Robinson about the need for transparency throughout the process, calling it “the critical thing.”
At one point, Alpert talked about getting “some suggestions from Ms. Robinson” on how to handle the process. Alpert had told her colleagues, “I feel like we’re floundering here, and it’s a terrible look.”
Commissioner Ohlrich stressed, “We need to let the public be assured that they have every opportunity to participate in this discussion with us.”
Early during the April 11 discussion, Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch expressed frustration over the fact that the special meeting agenda did not include any backup materials. She did not know why the information was not available, “as opposed to somebody trying to figure out how to navigate the city’s website and emails and all of that.”
When Mayor Alpert asked Mason of Human Resources why the agenda had no link to the materials, Mason put the blame on the board’s policy regarding timing for the release of agendas. Not all of the resumes were available by the deadline, she said.
Nonetheless, Mason continued, City Auditor and Clerk Griggs did have the full list of 51 people who had applied for the position of city manager.
However, Mason noted, some of those had withdrawn their names.
One of those, she added, was former Sarasota Mayor Kelly Kirshner, vice president and dean at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, the list said.
Deputy City Manager Patrick Robinson suggested that “the most simple thing and least controversial” at that point would be for Mason to identify the people who had withdrawn their names.
Mason and the consultant, Baenziger, did go through the list of 51 names that had been provided to the commissioners to identify those who no longer were interested in the position.
No support for Ahearn-Koch’s recommendation to start the search anew
As the board members continued to debate how to proceed, Commissioner Ahearn-Koch ultimately found no support for a motion she made that called for pausing the process and taking another look at search firms that could work with the city. She did call for retaining the current candidate list, even though it was produced by Colin Baenziger & Associates.
Ohlrich had seconded the motion.
After Ahearn-Koch began talking about her proposal, City Auditor and Clerk Griggs explained that if that if the commissioners wanted to start over, they would lose the candidates that the firm had provided them.
As discussion continued, interim Manager Jeffcoat sought clarification that what she was calling for was beginning “with an initial meeting [of the commissioners] to decide how you would like to move [the search] forward,” including the potential of hiring a new firm.
When Ahearn-Koch told him that she “very specifically” did not want to exclude the current firm [from reapplying to a request for proposals for the search], nor the candidates [referred by the firm],” Jeffcoat pointed out, “That will be up to the candidates to reapply to whatever firm [is hired].”
Those candidates will “have the right to apply again,” he added, “but it is going to be based on whatever information and criteria and publication that whatever firm it is puts out there and says, ‘Here is what we’re looking for.’ ”
“I am so thoroughly opposed to that motion,” Vice Mayor Trice said. “It sends us back at least six months in the process. I think the city has suffered.”
Trice added of Jeffcoat, “I mean no disrespect to the interim city manager, but he is an interim city manager, and I now he is eager to retire.”
Ahearn-Koch said that starting the process all over would follow allow the commissioners to have a discussion “about what kind of a process we wanted to have. We’re doing this piecemeal.”
While Ohlrich agreed “that our process was flawed,” she added, “I do not want to lose our entire list of candidates.” She indicated that she was unaware of that when she seconded the motion. “Knowing that we’d lose the whole pool of people and go back six or so months is not that appealing. If we can course-correct from this point forward … that might be in the better interest of our community.”
Commissioner Battie voiced concern that if the board members started the process anew, “I can almost see people saying, like, ‘Why would I want to apply to Sarasota?’ or whatever.”
Alpert expressed a similar concern about how the candidates would perceive the commissioners’ action.
“I think we correct what’s been wrong and we correct going forward,” Alpert told her colleagues. “We work with this list, and if there’s nobody on the list that we decide to hire, that’s another issue than just outright saying … we’re going to start all over and maybe ‘[the candidates provided to the board will] apply again.’ ”
Ahearn-Koch was the only person to vote “Yes” after Ohlrich called for the vote.
The search firm’s recommendations
At Vice Mayor Trice’s suggestion during the meeting, Mason of Human Resources used the overhead projector to show the names of 12 people whom the search firm had recommended for the board’s consideration.
Trice also noted that Baenziger & Associates had given the commissioners “more complete information” about seven of those candidates. They were as follows:
- Jason Brian Davis, deputy county administrator of St. Lucie County, in Fort Pierce.
- Jay David Fraser, interim county manager of Adams County, Colorado.
- Michael S. Graese, former city manager of Ashland, Kentucky.
- Scott Morris Moye, former county manager of Ware County, Georgia, in Waycross, Georgia.
- Daniel Thomas Porta, city manager of Cartersville, Georgia.
- Douglas Schulze, city manager of Banning, California.
- Mark Sohaney, a commanding officer in the U.S. Navy from 2019 through November 2024.
Others who had been added to that list were as follows, Mason continued:
- Kathleen A. Blonski, manager and CEO of the Town of Farmington, Connecticut.
- Brian M. Bulthuis, former city manager of Clermont, in Florida.
- Carl E. Geffken, former city administrator of Fort Smith, Arkansas.
- Bradley Gotshall, a contracted peer consultant with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
- James K. Harriott, director of engineering and transportation with NV5 Consultants. Harriott was employed by Sarasota County Government from March 2007 to October 2014, his resume points out. He was director of the Public Works Department and county engineer when he left county employment.