New search firm named for Sarasota city manager pursuit

Nearly five months and two interim city managers since parting ways with its first search firm, the Sarasota City Commission has selected a new firm to help recruit its next top executive.

Now 11 months since the retirement of Marlon Brown, the commission at a Sept. 9 special meeting chose the self-described “hungry” and "scrappy” upstart in Sumter Local Government Consulting of Alpharetta, Georgia, over the large and well-established MTG Impact Solutions of Northfield, Illinois. 

Commissioners voted 4-1 to hire Sumter, with Vice Mayor Debbie Trice opposed.

The selection quickly followed virtual interviews with both firms. A third firm that was under consideration, Slavin Management Consultants of Norcross, Georgia, voluntarily withdrew from consideration.

Founded by 15-year local government executive Warren Hutmacher, the 4-year-old Sumter pursued Sarasota as a resume-builder as it seeks to establish a greater foothold in Florida. Hutmacher told commissioners they would work with him and him alone throughout the process.

“I made it purposeful today to appear by myself without my team behind me to let you know that you'll be working with me,” Hutmacher said. “I'm the president of the firm and I can make any and all the decisions that are necessary for the best interest of the search. You'll only be working with me directly.”

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As a demonstration of Sumter’s hunger for the job, its bid of $18,000-plus with additional expenses restricted to pre-approved advertising costs and travel is less than half of MTG’s cost of $45,000 plus travel. Prior to withdrawing, Slavin proposed a highly specific not-to-exceed cost of $25,722.25. 

More than cost, the majority of commissioners were impressed with what they called Sumter’s “innovative” practices, not the least of which is a portal that will provide them with constant access to all correspondence, resumes and other materials via the portal. 

Also, semifinalists will be subject to 45-minute video interviews by Sumter, which will be shared with commissioners. Sumter will tour Sarasota and speak with community stakeholders to gain a better understanding of what the city seeks in a new administrator, produce a 15-page or more brochure about the community to use as a recruitment tool and tap into its database of 25,000 local government professionals. 

All that sat well with four commissioners except Trice, who felt a greater comfort level with the larger, more established MTG. 

“I just feel that with MTG, we would more likely to get the better candidate who would stay in place for a longer period of time, and it would be a crap shoot with Sumter,” Trice said. “I mean, that's why they reduced their price to buy our business.”

Trice motioned to hire MTG, but the motion died for lack of a second.

Mayor Liz Alpert said at first she wasn’t sure why Hutmacher, who was most likely watching the interview online, would even bother trying to follow the MTG presentation.

“I was truly blown away,” Alpert said of Sumter. “I think they would both do an excellent job. I just felt like there was an edge with Sumter, and I was just blown away by their presentation.”