Sarasota charter official evaluations begin this month

According to the Sarasota city charter, evaluations for the city’s charter officials must occur annually.

It just doesn’t say how.

And so, every year, city commissioners struggle with the format to rate the performance of their only three employees — the city manager, city attorney and city auditor and clerk — a process veteran members of the board say has never felt quite right.

The City Commission saw four format options at the Dec. 1 meeting, and they had to consider them for their 2025 assessments. The fourth option was a hybrid of past years' processes with the commission's addition: a self-evaluation by the officials themselves.

With no permanent city manager yet in place for 2025, the commission will have only the performances of City Attorney Joe Polzak and City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs to evaluate. The suggested timeline for this process will include one-on-one meetings with each, completion of the performance evaluation tool, and the return of this item on a future agenda — likely in January or February 2026.

“In the past, the commission has asked for this conversation on the document to be used for this process, so that is why we start this discussion today for an overall review of the process,” said Sarasota Human Resources Director Stacie Mason. “The second step is to provide the commission time to meet individually with both to complete the feedback process with them individually. Once that is accomplished, the third step is to return the agenda item to the commission, either in late January or the first meeting in February, for public review of the evaluations.”

Commissioners all agreed the self-evaluation via open narrative will provide a better understanding not only of all the charter officials’ functions but also how they view their own performances.

“Having done these evaluations for like 10 years now, usually it's just like, they demonstrate this. They demonstrate that. It really doesn't tell us what they're doing,” said Commissioner Liz Alpert. “I think that's a more realistic evaluation of what we think of their job performance.”

Added Mayor Debbie Trice, “These are our top city officials, and they know best where they're excelling and their shortcomings. If they're unable to be honest about that, maybe they shouldn't be in the job.”

Putting it more succinctly was Commissioner Kyle Battie. “I'm in agreement. Have them provide that this is who I am. Take it or leave it.”

Consensus reached, the “take it or leave it” process of self-evaluation and individual meetings with commissioners should take place through December.