Senior city staff member may become interim city manager

By mid-October Sarasota will have an interim city manager, and by all indications it will be a senior member of the city staff. 

During Monday’s workshop, city commissioners heard options presented by Deputy City Manager Patrick Robinson and Human Resources Director Stacie Mason to fill the position on a temporary basis following the scheduled Oct. 15 retirement of Marlon Brown. 

Robinson removed himself from consideration shortly after Brown announced his retirement.

Although naming a “member in transition” of the Florida League of cities remains a possibility, Mason and Robinson said a senior member of the staff has stepped forward to fill the role as part of a two-step process first to name a temporary city manager and then embark on a national search, which could take from four to six months.

The staff member was not named — references to the individual were limited to “he” and "him" — and Robinson said meetings with individual commissioners can be scheduled to discuss the city government’s top temp job.

“Since we last talked, there's been some discussion and willingness for an internal director who would be willing to take an interim role for the city manager,” Mason said. “We do have a senior level director that would be willing to take an interim position. I have reached out to a number of (members in transition). Some have been placed in positions, and others are willing to engage in the process with us.”

Robinson said Vice Mayor Jen Ahearn-Koch asked him to add a discussion on the interim manager to the Oct. 7 commission meeting agenda, leaving time for individual meetings in the interim.

"I look at this as sort of an A-B conversation,” Robinson said. “We need to get that A decision made, and then we can move on to the B decision, which gives us some time, so we will be bringing back on (Oct. 7) the internal candidate as well as other options for you.”

Robinson said he has discussed with the candidate the need to schedule meetings with commissioners prior to the Oct. 7 meeting, and that he will be reaching out to them directly. Once the decision about the interim is made, Mason said she is working on a parallel track to present options for a search firm to start that process by the end of October or early November. How long the search takes will depend on parameters set by the commission, ideally no longer than six months.

Through the process, Robinson reminded commissioners they are in charge.

“You’ll give us the framework and then we will tell them what we want out of that process. You will be in the driver's seat from step one through the final selection process,” he said. “They’ll facilitate everything. I just want to make sure that you understand that there will be no directing the commission on how it goes. You will be in the driver's seat.”