Commissioners mull how to replace city attorney

By all appearances, the more things that change in the Sarasota City Attorney’s Office, the more they will remain the same.

City commissioners held a workshop Monday morning to informally discuss the process of replacing City Attorney Robert Fournier, who has held that position as outside counsel for 20 years, and Deputy City Attorney Michael Connolly, both of whom have announced their retirement effective next spring. 

They’re not only leaving their posts as the faces of the five-partner firm in its representation of the city, but are retiring from practicing law altogether.

At the end of Monday’s discussion, commissioners reached a consensus that it would be preferable to retain the firm’s remaining three partners — Joe Polzak, Joe Mladinich and John Shamsey — along with their support staff. The question now is whether to bring the city attorney’s office in-house or retain the firm as outside counsel as it currently does. 

That decision will be determined by cost and whether that office functions best as an independent counsel to the city or under the city’s authority. The three remaining partners said either way is fine with them.

“We've obviously talked about this quite a bit internally, and I think the consensus is we love serving the city,” said Polzak. “We want to continue serving the city in whichever way that the city feels is most appropriate.”

No formal action was taken at the workshop, but commissioners directed management and staff to embark on a cost-benefit analysis, which will be part of their future deliberations. In question is whether bringing an entire legal team in-house — including support staff — with salary, benefits, pension, etc. versus an hourly rate paid to the firm. 

Although no firm numbers were available Monday, Director of Human Resources Stacie Mason, City Manager Marlon Brown and the firm partners agreed that the costs would be similar either way. That’s why, across the state, similar-sized cities are about equally divided in their approach.

The City Attorney’s Office budget request for fiscal year 2025 is just more than $1.78 million.

“I think it's advantageous if we do a little bit more research on that because we have neighboring communities that have gone from external to internal for their own reasoning,” Mason told commissioners. “It is a good point in time to review that and see what decisions we want to make.”

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The departure of Fournier and Connolly, though, leaves the firm shy of two of the five attorneys who worked on behalf of the city, meaning they will need to be replaced — and then some. Fournier said even five attorneys were not adequate, and should the firm be retained, it will need to hire additional help. 

As for hierarchy, the three attorneys have had internal discussions about who will replace Fournier and Connelly in meetings. Polzak would assume the city attorney title and both Mladinich and Shamsey would be deputy city attorneys.

“We would support Joe Polzak,” said Mladinich. “We’re basically equals as far as experience." 

Mladinich oversee litigation, records and business affairs and Shamsey over real estate and land use matters. They would seek to hire another land use attorney and a business affairs attorney as well. 

Whether in-house or not, as a charter official the city attorney has full authority over hiring within the legal department. With the apparent consensus in place, Polzak and company can now go about recruiting for the impending open positions. That’s an important step because viable candidates will require the promise of employment stability and bypass any transition period should the commission have decided to explore other options.

It also keeps the firm’s support staff on board.

“If we had some sort of vote of confidence, I think that would help secure the group and our employees to make sure we do stay together moving forward,” Mladinich said. “As we've all stated here publicly, we're comfortable internal or external, but before we get to the internal versus external, you’ve got to decide what's going to happen here on March 1.”

With two decades of experience in representing the city in all matters legal, Mayor Liz Alpert wrapped up the discussion by saying that retaining the institutional knowledge of the firm, rather than starting over, will provide for a smoother transition.

“I think the institutional knowledge is really important. I think that's huge,” Alpert said. "I think that's probably one of the biggest things, and all three of the attorneys who will still working either for the city or trying to find another city to go to work for, have been just excellent. 

"I would hate to lose that institutional knowledge.”