Sarasota prepares to line up new interim manager

What started Monday as a reset session on beginning again a process to fill Sarasota city manager’s office ended as an impromptu tribute to the longtime City Hall executive who has been filling the role since October.

Doug Jeffcoat, who’s been with the city for 30 years and assumed the interim city manager role when Marlon Brown retired last year, plans to himself retire in September — at the end of the municipal fiscal year.

With a new city manager search just now starting after a previous attempt earlier this year, city commissioners in a special meeting said they didn’t want to ask Jeffcoat, the public works director for more than 14 years, to stay on longer than he had planned. Even though he offered to remain, Jeffcoat said it would make more sense to bring someone else aboard sooner rather than later.

“He fits a lot of the criteria for what it is we’re looking for in a city manager,’’ said commissioner Kyle Battie. “The fact is, he did us a favor when he was asked to be in this position. Being the gracious individual that he is, he stepped up to the plate and said he would if it was in the best interests of the commission and the city.’’

Mayor Liz Alpert joined Battie in praising Jeffcoat’s contributions, as did all the commissioners. “I think we should be really happy we have someone like that,’’ Alpert said.

Jeffcoat said a new interim manager could be briefed on the thinking behind the fiscal 2025-26 budget over the summer in time for budget hearings and final votes in September. 

While an agreement would have to be made with any potential new interim manager, Battie and Vice Mayor Debbie Trice said they had spoken with former Longboat Key Town Manager Dave Bullock about the role — potentially even as a contract employee until the new manager could be situated. Discussion of that could take place as early as the commission’s next regular meeting on Monday, May 19.

How long any interim city manager would be on the job would likely depend on how commissioners build on the framework they began bolting together on Monday. Daytona Beach Shores-based Colin Baenziger and Associates in April informed city officials it was curtailing its involvement in running Sarasota's city manager search, relinquishing to the city its list of candidates and all data collected on them to date. City commissioners then voted 3-2 to cut all ties with the company and start over. The city will likely inform previous applicants of the restarted search and encourage them to reapply, but will not guarantee their consideration.

In relaunching the process, commissioners decided this time to first hire a consultant who would be tasked with suggesting three search firms with government expertise from which to choose. From there, with a new search firm engaged, a new batch of candidates could be under consideration. The previous firm received $34,000 for which the city ended up with a list of applicants. There is no established budget for a consultant or a new search firm.

“Please note we will probably have to schedule a lot more meetings,’’ City Clerk and Auditor Shayla Grigg said.

City officials hope to have a consultant hired in July, though the timeline from there might need to be dictated by future events. Next on the to-do list would be hiring the search firm, though there wasn't a sense of how long that might take whatever consultant is hired.

 “If they’re ready after two weeks, yahoo.’’ Commissioner Kathy Kelly Ohlrich said, who also said her research on the timeframe of a typical city manager search is 20 to 25 weeks, putting any potential hire into late 2025 or early 2026.

Moving ahead, Battie said, each step from here requires a level of precision to support the next step.

“It seems like everything is going to hinge on hiring the consultant and whatnot,’’ he said. “The last thing I want is to have happen is to make this more arduous than it needs to be.’’