Sarasota city manager search firms make their pitch

Sarasota city government’s process for searching for a search firm to search for a new city manager has progressed to the point of receiving proposals from the three companies the City Commission selected to pursue.

City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs told commissioners at their Aug. 18 meeting that as of Friday, Aug. 15, her office is in possession of those proposals and, in order to keep the nearly year-long, start-and-stop process moving forward to find a permanent replacement for the retired Marlon Brown, the commission needs to hold a special meeting later this month.

A special meeting is preferred over a workshop, Griggs said, because it will give the commission latitude to take official action, if it so chooses. 

“Our goal would be to possibly bring this topic to you all in a special meeting instead of waiting until the September meeting to talk about this,” Griggs said.

Two dates had already been reserved on the commissioners’ calendars for candidate interviews — Tuesday Aug. 26, and Thursday, Aug. 28. 

“We're not going to have interviews ready then, because you guys have to select the firm,” Griggs said. “Our goal would possibly to use one of those days to have a special meeting so you talk about it, and if you want to make a decision you can make a decision at that meeting instead of waiting until the September meeting.”

Or, commissioners can talk about it and wait until September, which, given the history of this process, is a possibility.

Since Brown retired in October 2024, the city is on its second interim city manager in Dave Bullock as Doug Jeffcoat stepped back into his official role as public works director until his own official retirement date of Sept. 2 after serving the city for 30 years. Nik Patel, formerly the city engineer, took the reins of the department on Aug. 20 with Jeffcoat staying on for two weeks to ensure a smooth transition.

Dissatisfied with the city manager search process conducted by Colin Baenziger and Associates of Daytona Beach Shores, the city and the firm parted ways in May 2025 and restarted the process. 

At its July 7 meeting, the commission selected three firms to pursue — Slavin Management Consultants of Norcross Georgia, Sumter Local Government Consulting of Alpharetta, Georgia, and MGT Impact Solutions of Tampa. 

Griggs told commissioners she would inform them once the special meeting date is set.