Sarasota hires new city engineer

To replace himself as city engineer, Sarasota’s new Public Works Director Nikesh Patel had look only as far as the city of Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island. With three decades of public and private sector engineering experience, that’s where Sage Kamiya was serving as public works director.

Patel introduced Kamiya, a fourth-generation Floridian, to members of the Downtown Improvement District Board of Directors during a scheduled address at its Oct. 16 meeting.

Kamiya earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Florida State University and a master’s in business administration from the University of South Florida. He is a licensed professional engineer and a certified professional traffic operations engineer.

As city engineer, he is responsible for leading services that include engineering services and permitting, capital projects and capital improvement project management, transportation panning, street and highway maintenance, environmental engineering and city surveying.

Of his professional history, Kamiya said, “A lot of it has been public sector engineering work, but I've had some private engineering practice experience as well. It ranges within the civil engineering field and so most of that is horizontal-type engineering, but includes everything from stormwater to transportation.”

Kamiya and his wife, Sunda, a speech therapist, recently celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary. They have three daughters, two of whom are currently working to earn master’s degrees at Florida State University and one attending the State College of Florida Collegiate School in Bradenton.

He is a descendant of the founders of the first Florida Japanese settlement in 1905, near present-day Boca Raton.