Pool narrows for city manager search firms

With the Sarasota City Commission having narrowed the list of executive search firms for a new city manager down to three, they will get two weeks to respond to a list of questions posed as the marathon process to replace the retired Marlon Brown enters its 10th month.

During its July 7 meeting, commissioners selected three finalists to take the lead in its recruitment restart. They are Slavin Management Consultants of Norcross Georgia, Sumter Local Government Consulting of Alpharetta, Georgia, and MGT Impact Solutions of Tampa.

As promised by City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs at the commission’s previous meeting that a city manager search update would be on each meeting agenda, Griggs and City Attorney Joe Polzak — who together are tasked with leading the search firm search — sought some final guidance for questions to pose as the vetting continues.

They include:

• What is the cost? 
• Do you have a warranty or other guarantee? 
• What is your retention rate? 
• Who would be on your search team? 
• How many pending searches are ongoing simultaneously? 
• How many searches can your company conduct at one time? 
• What is your experience in conducting Florida city manager searches? 
• How many Florida city managers have you successfully placed and what size were the cities? 
• Do you direct-source city manager candidates? 
• Would you source city manager candidates nationally and in Florida?

Commissioners word-minced to combine some questions into one, particularly those related to simultaneous search capacity and statewide versus nationwide sourcing for candidates.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

Having parted ways with the first firm retained for the search, Colin Baenziger & Associates of Daytona Beach Shores, commissioners appear ready to move forward more quickly as Interim City Manager Dave Bullock settles into his third month in the role, endorsing via consensus a two-week deadline to respond to the questions.

“We felt like there's been a lot of communication already with the firms, including them already producing a lot of materials,” Polzak said. “We were debating between two weeks and 30 days for them to respond.”

“We kind of feel that 30 days is probably way too long,” added Griggs. “They shouldn't take 30 days to respond. We are looking at probably giving them 14 days to give us an adequate response.”