Arroyo relieved to be relieved of City Commission seat

As Erik Arroyo surveyed the City Commission Meeting Chamber for one last time from his vantage point at the dais, he couldn’t have suppressed the smile on his face if he tried. 

While successful commission incumbents Liz Alpert and Kyle Battie raised their right hand and took their oath of office for the next four years alongside Kathy Kelley Ohlrich, who ousted the one-term incumbent in District 3 in the Nov. 5 election, Arroyo looked on mere moments before exiting the chamber, but not necessarily abandoning civic involvement.

“I may be stepping down, but I'm not stepping away,” Arroyo said during last Friday’s statutory meeting to swear in the next City Commission. “I am still part of this community, still committed to this city, and still ready to serve in whatever way I can. My heart is here, and no title or position will ever change that.”

The meeting agenda included remarks from all the commissioners and a state of the city address delivered by Alpert, who was also re-elected to serve a second straight year as mayor — a largely ceremonial position — by her colleagues. At-large Commissioner Debbie Trice was named vice-mayor for the coming year.

About the past 12 months, Alpert spoke of how well the city government responded to this year’s string of tropical weather systems, progress made toward incentivizing and developing more affordable and attainable housing, holding the line on property tax millage rates, the completion and opening of the Bobby Jones Golf Club and Nature Park, reduction in crime, the impending retirement of City Attorney Robert Fournier and the October retirement of City Manager Marlon Brown, to name a few.

Meanwhile, the largest civic project in the city’s history still looms before the commissioners, the proposed Sarasota Performing Arts Center.

“We're exploring a new performing arts center, and of course we want to do this in a resilient, sustainable way,” Alpert said. “That's why the concept shows that the buildings would be farther away from the water, elevated 20 feet and built from resilient materials that can withstand a hurricane,” she said.

She also shared her thoughts about Arroyo’s four years at the dais.

“I have really, really grown to love you and realize that you've gotten the vision and the understanding of what the city needed,” Alpert said. “I really, really appreciate all you did to help us move forward. A lot of these things wouldn't have happened had you not been on the commission.”

'Tough calls and sacrifices'

Arroyo’s sense of respite is in part the weight of city leadership lifted from his shoulders and in also what he described during his election night address to supporters as “constant attacks” on him for his policy positions. Those included holding the line on city government growth, opposing the expansion of the vacation rental ordinance to the mainland, his support of the affordable housing program incentives, his unsuccessful bid to require paid lobbyists to register with the city, many others.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

“I am relieved, honestly,” he said on the night of Nov. 5. ”Whatever the outcome was, I was going to be relieved because there were a lot of attacks coming my way. If I had won, there was already a chain of attacks that had already started. 

“In the last four years I was investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement," he continued. "People tried to get me arrested twice, then they tried to get my bar license removed so I couldn't be a lawyer because of some park vote. … So regardless of the outcome, right now I feel relieved.”

The FDLE investigation was an offshoot of his support for the first-generation plan for One Park in The Quay, relative to the dispersement of funds raised by a charity he co-founded — Sarasota City Foundation — during a Mayor’s Ball hosted by Arroyo in the fall of 2022. Among the contributors was Kim Githler, a partner in the One Park project. That investigation was dropped by the Office of the State Attorney due to lack of sufficient evidence.

During his final address, Arroyo said he and his wife, Victoria, were under contract to purchase their dream home in 2020, outside of the city, which they gave up for his opportunity to run for the District 3 seat. That was only the first of many difficult decisions he and the rest of the commission faced over the past four years.

“We made tough calls and hard sacrifices to create a Sarasota that every person, whether born here or drawn here, can be proud of,” Arroyo concluded. “But here's the truth about leadership. It’s not about holding on to a title. It's about ensuring that the work outlives us, that the commitment to Sarasota endures, and as I step aside I'm confident that this city is in good hands.”