City commissioners offer support for proposals
Strategic planning, economic development, public engagement and tweaking the formats of City Commission meetings were among the focuses of Sarasota City Manager Karie Friling’s presentation to the commissioners this week on her first 100 days in the job.
During her remarks and board discussion that were part of an Oct. 26 City Commission workshop, Friling emphasized the need for strategic planning.
“Obviously,” she told the board members, “100 days is not a long time for a city manager to be here.” Then Friling pointed out, “I came to Sarasota because I believed that this was an extraordinary community.” Such a community, she continued, “should not settle for ordinary outcomes,” stressing that she believes Sarasota “would never aim to be ordinary.”
After four months in the city, Friling told the commissioners, her feelings about how extraordinary Sarasota is have been reinforced. “We have dedicated employees. We have engaged residents. We have distinct neighborhoods. We have wonderful arts and culture and treasured parks and open space,” Friling emphasized. “We should count our blessings.”
Then she reminded them that, when they had asked her what her first priority would be if she were hired, Friling had told them, “Listening.” She added this week, “Before making any changes, it was very important for me to understand this organization, the community that it serves. And while 100 days is still not long enough to know anything,” she acknowledged, she has participated in more than 350 meetings, “both internally and externally.”
She has met regularly with directors of city departments and the commissioners, Friling continued, as well as residents “and our community partners.” She also gave the city staff members “the opportunity to come in and meet with [her] one-on-one … if they wanted to on Fridays.”
Deciding how resources are allocated
Turning to the issue of strategic planning, Friling pointed out that, while “Sarasota does not lack ideas … the challenge [is] how do we focus on … priorities. We can’t be everything to everyone,” she said. “I believe strongly that Sarasota’s new strategic plan must be led by the five of you,” Friling told the commissioners. “You are the ones who are elected by the residents, and you are the ones who ultimately have to decide how resources are allocated.”
Nonetheless, Friling pointed out, the plan must be “strongly informed by the broader community — our residents and our businesses, our neighbors — and implemented by professional staff once it’s adopted.”
Strategic plans are necessary, she emphasized, for any organization to be successful.
She called for crafting a vision for the future that proceeds in five-year implementation plans, “including manageable milestones and realistic resource allocations.” The plan “should serve as a road map” for the annual budget and Capital Improvement Program, as well, Friling said.
Mayor Debbie Trice told Friling that, when the board members were engaged in their search for a new city manager, “I think one of the things that stood out, at least for me, was that you were focused on the need for true strategic planning and how essential that was going to be.”
Economic development and other activities “will be outgrowths of the strategic plan,” Trice added.
Also addressing Friling, Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch said, “Yes, we absolutely need to … do a strategic plan. We had so many discussions — this actual body — about a strategic plan.”
When she first was elected as an at-large member of the board, in 2017, Ahearn-Koch noted, the City Commission did have what she characterized as an excellent strategic plan. “It had the big pictures. It had the objectives, and it had the steps to get there,” she continued; those steps could be checked off, she added, which she did.
“I would love to see something like that for this body,” Ahearn-Koch said.
In pursuit of economic development
In regard to economic development: Friling talked of participating in the recruitment and hiring of Deidra Greene-Larkins, the economic development and real estate manager. (Greene-Larkins formally joined the city staff on Aug. 5, Luke Mocherman, the city communications specialist, told The Sarasota News Leader via email on Oct. 27, in response to its inquiry about Green-Larkins’ start of employment.)
“I have a very strong background in economic development,” Friling noted during her Oct. 26 presentation, so she knew “how critically important this position was for the long-term future of the city.”
Greene-Larkins “is returning home,” Friling pointed out. She’s originally … from the Newtown neighborhood. After leaving here,” Friling continued, Greene-Larkins pursued an economic development career with other governmental agencies. “And now she’s back. She knows economic development, but, more important, she knows Sarasota.”
Commissioner Liz Alpert noted, “It’s been brought to my attention … that there are a lot of empty storefronts right now on Main Street.” Before Friling began work, Alpert continued, the commissioners had talked about the potential of hiring someone to recruit businesses. “So I’m assuming that’s what your plan is, in terms of this person?” Alpert asked Friling.
“It is,” Friling replied. “We already met with staff” about that, Friling added. She has launched communications between staff and companies that handle that type of work, she continued. “We’ve already engaged with them to get some proposals. … They will help us understand where the gaps are,” Friling explained. “We want to make sure we complement our businesses, right? And then they will actually go out and help us with the recruitment, as well, at a pretty affordable price …”
“Wonderful,” Alpert responded.
Commissioner Kyle Battie, who represents District 1 — including Newtown — expressed his appreciation for Friling’s inclusion in her report the fact that she hired Larkins-Green and acknowledged not only the work Larkins-Green already is doing in the city, “but what she has done, you know, where she has been, you know, and she’s going to bring those talents, you know, to Sarasota.”
Commissioner Ahearn-Koch offered her appreciation for Friling’s focus on economic development, as well. That used to be a city priority, she added, “and, for whatever reason, it has fallen [to the side].”
“It is so important that we get back to that [and] work with our businesses all over the entire city and in all of the [commission] districts … because the businesses attract the visitors, attract the people to live here,” Ahearn-Koch stressed.
The need for better communication and public engagement
Further, Friling talked of hearing much about “trust and communication.”
City project briefing sheets that she has asked staff to make available to the public “are one practical improvement we already implemented since I’ve been here,” she continued, “but I also envision accessible annual and quarterly reporting — clear, factual information when misinformation circulates among the community.”
Friling suggested, “We need to reach beyond the virtual screens and communicate face-to-face, even with old-fashioned mail and the post office,” she said with a laugh.
“A major theme in my 100-day report has been community engagement,” she continued. “Public participation is essential, but participation doesn’t always feel representative.”
Friling added, “We must hear from all [residents].”
Then, noting that Sarasota has “tremendous talent in our workforce and around Sarasota,” she proposed the creation of a Sarasota Advisory Group of Experts,” or SAGE. Her intent, Friling said, is for SAGE “to be a project-based and problem-focused group. Sarasota is home to extraordinary professional talent. I’m amazed at our residents … and what they can bring to the table.”
Moreover, she pointed out, “We have incredible colleges and universities … that can help bring expertise and fresh ideas to public problems and provide students with real-world opportunities in public service that they may not otherwise receive.”
As the commissioners discussed that part of Friling’s presentation, Commissioner Ahearn-Koch concurred with the importance of public engagement — and not just with the people who regularly attend the commission’s meetings, she stressed.
Then Ahearn-Koch noted the changes in the scheduling of the board’s regular meetings that have taken place over the past decade.
Early on during her tenure, she told Friling, the meetings began in the afternoon and went into the evening. “And folks said, ‘I can’t come down because I’m feeding my kids, doing the homework,’ ” while others said they could not get to City Hall at night, Ahearn-Koch continued, because they had had such a full day with other activities, or they were working night shifts.
“So we’ve had different iterations of how this commission conducts [its] business,” Ahearn-Koch pointed out. “No matter what we do, we’re going to exclude somebody …”
“One reason we chose this model,” she explained of the current schedule, with daytime meetings, “was because of our staff,” including its “ability to be fresh, to be responsive, to be able to engage with one another during the day …” The schedule also allows the city to avoid paying overtime, she pointed out.
When the board, during one period, had meetings on consecutive Monday and Tuesday nights, Ahearn-Koch noted, those nights were long, and it was expensive to have staff working after their normal hours.
Then Ahearn-Koch pointed out that City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs has made it possible for members of the public to arrange with Griggs to address the commissioners via Zoom during the meetings. Yet, Ahearn-Koch conceded, she is not certain that people are aware of their ability to do that. “You don’t have to be here in person. I just want to make sure we reiterate that over and over again for those folks who can’t leave work …”
Although city staff would like for people to register by 5 p.m. on the Friday before a commission meeting, if they want to offer remarks by Zoom, Griggs pointed out, “We’ve never told anybody, ‘No,’ if they email us [the] morning of the meeting.”
It is not possible, however, Griggs said, for someone to contact her staff in the middle of a meeting and arrange an opportunity to speak, because of the advance preparations that are necessary.
Griggs did point out that people have the ability to provide comments electronically — eComments — on specific issues in advance of meetings. Those remarks are provided to the board members.
“They can also email us,” Commissioner Alpert said. “We look at the emails.”
“But not during the meeting, please,” Mayor Trice interjected with a laugh.
“Not during the meeting,” Alpert stressed. “But prior to the meetings, [though] not the morning of …”
Further, Alpert pointed out, people can make appointments to meet with individual commissioners at City Hall.
‘With the exception of Pages 11 and 12’
Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich and Commissioner Ahearn-Koch did refer to suggestions that Friling had made in her written report in regard to changes in protocol in regard to board meetings.
In beginning her remarks on the report, Ahearn-Koch told Friling, “I think you did an excellent job, with the exception of Pages, I think, 11 and 12. … I guess that we can talk about those at another time.”
The following are the primary recommendations that Ahearn-Koch referenced:
Mayor Trice did note, “When we have long meetings,” given how the agendas are organized, “we do the easy things when we’re fresh in the morning and the hard things when we’re tired.” Therefore, she continued, “I’m going to suggest that you consider doing public hearings … in the morning, when people are fresh, rather than waiting until the end of they when we’re exhausted and just want to get out of here,” she added laughingly.
“I like that,” Commissioner Alpert said.
“What an idea,” Vice Mayor Ohlrich added.
“Genius,” Commissioner Battie said.