- April 2, 2026
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Karie Friling had it all planned out. After three-plus decades of public service in the Chicago area, she would retire and move to Florida.
The keys, to be precise.
The plan was no secret to her co-workers, even back to her stint as assistant village manager of Orland Park, Illinois, where she worked from 2006 to 2019. With four now-grown daughters, in a few years she and husband, Darrell, would perhaps settle on Islamorada, where she would take a morning shift waitressing job, serving breakfast and chatting with fisherman before they head out for their catch, then spend her afternoons as she pleased.
"That was my vision, so when I left Orland Park they got me an apron and they all signed their names on it,” she said of the staff. “I have it hanging in my office right now, and I'm bringing it down there when I come.”
At age 55, her intended retirement age of 58 is now postponed to well into the future as she comes to Florida earlier than expected, and in a capacity she never anticipated. Rather than fishermen, she will serve the residents of Sarasota as she begins her new job as city manager on May 29, almost exactly 32 years to the date of starting her career in local government as an intern in her home town of Peoria, Illinois.
“May 31 of 1994 was my first day of work at the city of Peoria in my home town, where I graduated high school, and I was able to stay there and work my way up to being their economic development director,” Friling said. “It was an honor to be able to serve my home town, and I will be officially leaving Illinois 32 years from that date.
“Things happen for a reason. I believe very strongly in that.”
What “happened” was a surprise contact from executive recruiter Warren Hutmacher of Sumter Local Government Consulting with an invitation to apply for the position. Content with her current role as executive director of Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, Illinois, her board had been aware of her retirement plans in three years.
“I thought ‘No way. Sarasota city manager?'” Friling said. “I really intended to be here three more years with my current board, and I had already announced that I would be retiring then. We had already started planning succession and what that would look like. And then, lo and behold, Sarasota came across my desk.”
Now there is no reason to retire to Florida so soon, she said, because she will already be here. And if she were still planning to retire in three years, “I would have never applied for the job.”
“This was always her dream to get to Florida,” said Jill Hodge, a close friend who worked with Friling in Orland Park. “That was thinking more toward retirement, but when this opportunity came along, she said, ‘You know, this is the perfect opportunity.’ So she just went for it. She's a go-getter. As really sad as I am, I’m going to be making plenty of visits to see her, and I know she's going to be great.”
Friling is no stranger to Florida or Sarasota. She has visited the city and Gulf Coast region many times as a tourist. Her parents once owned a home in Fort Myers. She has a brother who lives in Florida. One of her best friends moved to the Tampa area a decade ago. One of her twin daughters, Josie, 23, works for Disney World. Her twin sister, Rachel, is finishing her degree at Columbia University and might also work at Disney, Friling said.
Her oldest daughter, 32-year-old Abi, lives and works in the Chicago area, and 19-year-old Grace is a freshman at University of Michigan. As recently minted empty nesters, Karie and Darrell are positioned for a change of venue.
“I don't know if you call it fate or serendipity, but there's a reason I was sitting before the (City Commission) in February,” Friling said. “It wasn't because I was looking for a job. I love where I work now. I have had a very, very blessed career here.”
That career included working under former Orland Park Village Manager Paul Grimes, who is now the city manager of McKinney, Texas. Grimes, who has known Friling since 2008, said Sarasota is getting a “strong leader.”
“She has a dynamic personality. She’s very charismatic and she's very disarming,” said Grimes, who worked with Friling for eight years. “She has a lot of experience and knows development, knows how to deal with people. She knows how communities work, the hot buttons, and how to deal with the issues.”
At more than 58,000, Orland Park, where Friling was assistant village manager and development services director from 2006 to 2019, has a population similar to Sarasota. As Homer Glen village manager, she led a government serving about 24,500 people. As executive director of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, she leads a public agency of a county of 950,000 and a $150 million annual budget. It has more than 500 employees, 1,000 volunteers, seven community centers, three golf courses, and 26,500 acres of preserved land.
“That's a forest preserve district that's all about trying to preserve the quality of life in a community,” said Grimes. “Her experiences with the forest preserve will help the folks in Sarasota have some assurance that she knows a something about how to preserve those things that make communities unique.”
Friling leaves behind not only more than 30 years of service to communities in Illinois, but some lifelong relationships, including Hodge.
"They used to call her department the happy place because nobody left," Hodge said. "everybody stayed because she created such a warm environment. She has this ability to make you feel like you were her family. The employees felt supported. No matter who you were, you were heard. You could always walk in her office."
Between now and the end of May, Friling said she has one foot in Illinois and the other in Sarasota and is trying to stretch as far as she can. In between closing the books on one job and studying the issues for the next, shei is also busy making plans for daughter Rachel’s May 17 college graduation.
She will bring with her three decades of municipal government experience, but not the “how we do things up there” mindset.
“I don't come with any preconceived notions,” Friling said. “I come with a very open door and wanting to keep my mouth shut and listen. I'm not going to come into a community that I do not know and I've only seen in my previous life as a tourist, and tell you what you need. That's not my job as a city manager. My job is to help the board that’s been elected by the residents make well-informed, good decisions. When I can facilitate that and bring my expertise to the table to do those things, then I am doing what they hired me to do.”
In the interim, serving breakfast to fishermen in the Florida keys can wait. Somewhere in the city manager’s office is a wall waiting to be adorned by her autographed apron.
Although sad her friend is moving away, Hodge said she is excited for Friling’s next career phase.
“They're very lucky to have her,” she said of Sarasota.
For Friling, the opportunity here represents an optimal way to cap a career in what she calls the noble profession of public service.
“I feel like I've got one more big adventure in me.” she said.
