OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Special City Commission Meeting - January 13, 2026: City Manager Recruitment Process and Candidate Selection

City Commission — Tuesday, January 13, 2026
BodySarasota, Florida
SessionCity Commission
DateTuesday, January 13, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 2:02:53

Transcript — Verbatim
0:15

I'd like to call this special January 13th, 2026 City Commission meeting to order.

0:23

And first we will have the invocation by the city auditor and clerk.

0:28

Please stand.

0:29

If you're yes, if you're able, that's a good one.

0:34

Heavenly Father, we we seek our strength in the heavenly father.

0:39

We affirm our strength indeed.

0:40

We seek your divine strength, wisdom and guidance, and deliberations that affect the lives of the citizens of this community.

0:46

In the name we pray, Amen.

0:49

And commit Vice Mayor, leave us in the pledge, please.

0:52

I will, thank you.

0:53

I'd like to go into the flag of the United States of America.

1:02

Underground individual with liberty and justice for all the thank you.

1:13

Are there any changes to the order of the day?

1:17

No, Mayor.

1:18

No mayor.

1:19

Okay, so may I have a motion to approve the agenda?

1:24

So move.

1:26

Second.

1:26

Move by the Vice Mayor, seconded by Commissioner Ahern Kotch to approve the minutes.

1:32

And you need to schedule the you said minutes to schedule.

1:36

This show the agenda.

1:38

Is there a consensus?

1:39

Yeah, we're good.

1:40

Great.

1:41

Thank you.

1:42

Okay.

1:42

Uh Ms.

1:43

Griggs, would you read the pledge of con public conduct?

1:46

Thank you, Mayor.

1:47

We may disagree, but we will be respectful to one another.

1:49

We will direct all comments to issues.

1:51

We will not engage in personal attacks.

1:54

And do we have any public comment this morning?

1:57

No, we do not.

1:58

Okay.

1:59

So that means we will move on to the uh agenda for the day, a J Main agenda item, which is uh discussion of the city manager search candidates.

2:15

And I'll call upon City Auditor and Clerk Griggs, City Attorney Polzak, and Warren Hutcher from Sumter Local Government to make the presentation.

2:25

Thank you.

2:26

All right.

2:26

Thank you.

2:27

Thank you, Mayor.

2:28

Um, myself and the city attorney will thank you all for this um being here today.

2:33

Our purpose is to provide, you know, a structured and transparent um process.

2:37

And so we're going to just go ahead and turn it over to Mr.

2:41

Um Warren to uh of Sumter to go ahead and go over the process and get it started.

2:49

All right, thank you very much.

2:51

And uh thank you all for having me here today.

2:54

Excited to be with y'all again and uh excited about the process that we've got uh into the middle of now.

3:00

And so what I want to do is kind of go over uh a little bit of the review of our process, kind of where we're at now and then where we're heading from here, and then get to the meat of what we need to do.

3:11

Um so from a review of process standpoint.

3:14

Uh we developed with y'all the ideal candidate profile and recruitment brochure.

3:19

We've gone through the advertising initial recruitment phases.

3:24

Uh we've provided uh to you the initial candidate review, and that is kind of where we are today.

3:29

And the goal for today is to selection of semifinalists.

3:34

Um and then from here forward, and you'll see in the um we've got a detailed uh report now with the process sort of laid out for y'all's consideration as to sort of where you know the details of where we go from here, but generally it's uh gonna be we we'll conduct the recorded interviews, which will be live interviews with the semifinalists, and then we'll provide you with a report that will have um three basically three things in it.

4:01

One is you'll have a link uh to the actual interview so you can watch the interview that we conducted with each of the candidates.

4:08

We'll have our notes, which is generally pretty uh free form as to you know here's things we liked about the candidate, here's the things that concern us about the candidate.

4:17

Uh and then we'll provide an initial um sort of media review of the candidates.

4:22

So we'll be doing our um next level Google search and um and sort of deeper dive so that we'll be identifying articles and other things that it'll be of interest.

4:32

And again, the um you know the the thought process with that is that there's those three sides to every story, and the news article usually has one side to that story.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Personnel Matters█████████████████████████████████████████████58%
Procedural████████████16%
Public Engagement██████████13%
Community Engagement█████7%
Procurement█████6%
Summary of Proceedings

Special City Commission Meeting: City Manager Recruitment Process and Candidate Selection

The Sarasota City Commission held a special meeting on January 13, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 12:03 PM to discuss the city manager recruitment process. The primary focus was selecting semifinalist candidates and establishing the next steps for interviews and finalist selection. No public comments were made.

Consent Calendar

  • No consent calendar items were presented.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • No members of the public signed up to speak.

Discussion Items

  • City Manager Recruitment Process Overview: Warren Hutmacher, Owner and Principal of Sumter Local Government Consulting (Sumter LGC), presented the recruitment process. He explained the scoring rubric used to evaluate candidates, which considered senior management experience, education, coastal and tourist community experience, and ICMA involvement. He recommended a list of 37 candidates to move forward as semifinalists, noting that a broader list at this stage reduces the risk of losing a potentially strong candidate.
  • Commissioner Questions and Input: Commissioners discussed the scoring methodology, the importance of soft skills, and the need for transparency regarding which candidates were sourced directly by Sumter LGC. Vice Mayor Ohlrich and Commissioner Ahearn-Koch raised questions about the scoring system and the firm's familiarity with certain candidates. Commissioner Ahearn-Koch shared her own evaluation and requested adding five candidates to the list.
  • Phase Details for Next Steps: The commission reviewed and refined the phases of the recruitment process:
    • Phase 2 (Semifinalist Interviews): Sumter LGC will conduct recorded video interviews with each semifinalist, provide interview notes and a media review, and send interviews to commissioners in batches as they are completed. The firm's professional recommendations regarding advancement (up to six finalists) will be provided by February 5, 2026, and included in the agenda for the February 10, 2026 special meeting.
    • Phase 4 (In-Person Finalist Interviews): The commission discussed the format for public engagement, including an opening statement from each candidate and a "speed dating" style meet-and-greet with the public. The City Auditor and Clerk, City Attorney, and Mr. Hutmacher will refine the details and present options at the February 10 meeting.
    • Phase 5 (Selection and Offer): A supermajority vote will be required to hire the preferred finalist. An open-source (tier one) background search will be conducted for all 37 semifinalists, while a full background check will be completed for the candidate(s) receiving an offer after the finalist interviews.
  • Other Matters: Commissioner Ahearn-Koch proposed scheduling a joint meeting with the School Board of Sarasota County to discuss mutual concerns. The commission agreed to have Interim City Manager Bullock meet with each commissioner, develop a proposed agenda, and then approach the school board. Interim City Manager Bullock also noted that staff is working with the county and Town of Longboat Key to schedule joint special meetings.

Key Outcomes

  • Approval of Recruitment Process: A motion by Commissioner Battie, seconded by Vice Mayor Ohlrich, to approve the City Manager Recruitment Process with the comments and suggestions discussed carried unanimously (5-0).
  • Approval of Semifinalist Candidate List: A motion by Commissioner Alpert, seconded by Commissioner Ahearn-Koch, to approve the proposed recommended candidates list provided by Sumter LGC and include five additional candidates (Tony Palermo, Demetra McBride, Tanja McCoy, Jarvis Sims, and Stephen Menard) carried unanimously (5-0).
  • Next Steps: Sumter LGC will begin scheduling and conducting video interviews immediately. Commissioners will receive interviews in batches. The next special meeting is scheduled for February 10, 2026, to select finalists and finalize the in-person interview format.

Meeting Transcript

I'd like to call this special January 13th, 2026 City Commission meeting to order. And first we will have the invocation by the city auditor and clerk. Please stand. If you're yes, if you're able, that's a good one. Heavenly Father, we we seek our strength in the heavenly father. We affirm our strength indeed. We seek your divine strength, wisdom and guidance, and deliberations that affect the lives of the citizens of this community. In the name we pray, Amen. And commit Vice Mayor, leave us in the pledge, please. I will, thank you. I'd like to go into the flag of the United States of America. Underground individual with liberty and justice for all the thank you. Are there any changes to the order of the day? No, Mayor. No mayor. Okay, so may I have a motion to approve the agenda? So move. Second. Move by the Vice Mayor, seconded by Commissioner Ahern Kotch to approve the minutes. And you need to schedule the you said minutes to schedule. This show the agenda. Is there a consensus? Yeah, we're good. Great. Thank you. Okay. Uh Ms. Griggs, would you read the pledge of con public conduct? Thank you, Mayor. We may disagree, but we will be respectful to one another. We will direct all comments to issues. We will not engage in personal attacks. And do we have any public comment this morning? No, we do not. Okay. So that means we will move on to the uh agenda for the day, a J Main agenda item, which is uh discussion of the city manager search candidates. And I'll call upon City Auditor and Clerk Griggs, City Attorney Polzak, and Warren Hutcher from Sumter Local Government to make the presentation. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Um, myself and the city attorney will thank you all for this um being here today. Our purpose is to provide, you know, a structured and transparent um process. And so we're going to just go ahead and turn it over to Mr. Um Warren to uh of Sumter to go ahead and go over the process and get it started. All right, thank you very much. And uh thank you all for having me here today. Excited to be with y'all again and uh excited about the process that we've got uh into the middle of now. And so what I want to do is kind of go over uh a little bit of the review of our process, kind of where we're at now and then where we're heading from here, and then get to the meat of what we need to do. Um so from a review of process standpoint.

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