- February 19, 2026
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He frequently refers to himself as “an old washed-up bureaucrat.”
Around City Hall, some have referred to him as “the most dangerous man in Sarasota.”
Dangerous not in a menacing sense, but rather during his tenure as interim city manager, Dave Bullock — with no further career ambitions and only a pressing desire to return to his private life of travel and fishing — is free to solve problems unshackled from the constraints of political correctness.
“It's important to be able to say what you honestly think,” Bullock said. “I try not to be cavalier with that, but I do like to present the commission and the community with my honest assessment and a set of options that, to me, appear reasonable, fair and with hard work can be accomplished.”
Named interim city manager in May 2025 upon the impending retirement of the previous holder of city’s top temp job — former Public Works Director Doug Jeffcoat —Bullock inherited a number of pressing issues. They included:
In response, Bullock, in his frank, no-nonsense fashion, lectured the Sarasota County Commission on its obligations to St. Armands while helping to secure $13.5 million in funding to address resiliency; persuaded city commissioners to increase the property tax rate to replenish the fund balance; provided a fiscal reality check to rightsize the lofty Performing Arts Center ambitions to reinvigorate the process; and started the process to recruit expertise for the workforce housing project.
All that among all other challenges associated with running a 925-employee operation with a budget of $303 million.
“What was amazing was how quickly he did step in and figure out and get a handle on what needed to be done and what needed to be pushed forward,” said City Commissioner Liz Alpert. “We had several things that were kind of sitting like the Performing Arts Center and the project on First Street. Everything was kind of in limbo, so he really got a handle on things quickly and got things moving forward.”
“Coming in as interim city manager in mid-2025, Dave quickly identified where he should focus his attention,” said Mayor Debbie Trice. “At the top was educating the commissioners on how the 2024 storm season had affected the city’s finances and recommending budget options for our consideration. He also approached the planned First Street workforce housing project and the Sarasota Performing Arts Center from a financial perspective. Rather than acting like a stereotypical bean-counter, Dave uses his financial expertise to come up with ways to make the numbers work.”
Following a career that included Sarasota County assistant administrator (1997-2011), Longboat Key town manager (2011-2018) and finally CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County (2019-2021), Bullock and his wife, Rae Dowling, were happily enjoying travel, which included pursing her quest to visit all 63 national parks — having visited 58.
During the waning weeks of Jeffcoat’s temporary tenure, Bullock received a call “from someone who shall remain nameless” while attending Dowling’s daughter’s doctorate graduation at Florida State University.
“They called me and basically said they thought that the city needed some help, and would I do it, and of course, I said no because I wasn't doing any more of that,” Bullock said. “Then they called back and appealed to my sense of civic duty. My wife and I talked about it. She was familiar with local government having been the FPL area manager for so many years, and she knew all the commissioners. Then she said, 'You should do it.' I have taken female direction very well my entire life, and this was no opportunity to deviate from that.”
Grabbing the reins mid-budget cycle, he recognized the need to rebuild the general fund balance slashed nearly in half by hurricane recovery expenses, from $32 million to $16.8 million. To address that, he persuaded commissioners to increase the property tax rate by 0.273 mill as part of a three-year replenishment plan.
“Budgets are second nature to me. I've done them a long time,” Bullock said. “It was a series of storms that that wreaked havoc on our budget and the community. So how do you recover? What can you rely on and what can't you rely on? We don't have to fix it all in a year.”
While working with financial staff to address the budgetary challenge, he endeavored to revive the Sarasota Performing Arts Center project, which had become bogged down in location and fiscal issues — the latter a projected cost of $425 million — plus some community resistance including from heirs of the Van Wezel family.
“There's no unproductive fighting in local government. There's only collective problem solving, so anyone who had their nose out of joint, we just needed to get past that and get to the issue,” Bullock said. “When you start to analyze a problem with others, you find all of these common areas, and once you find the common areas, you can have a more productive and meaningful discussion and try to reach consensus. In my experience consensus, at worst, is the grudging willingness to go along. At best, everybody's happy.”
The Performing Arts Foundation recently revealed the Van Wezel heirs now support the replacement of its namesake as the city’s primary venue, a relocation of the project within The Bay park and a cost reduction to less than $300 million.
“When aspirations meet budget, that's when you get to work,” Bullock said. “And in this case, the aspirations far outstripped the realities of the budget.”
Concurrently, progress on the plan to build workforce housing on newly owned city property on First Street between Orange and Lemon avenues had stalled. Under Bullock’s leadership, the city is seeking real estate expertise through the public bid process to move the concept forward.
“When I came in, the notion was that the city would develop the First Street property with a modest amount of assistance from some of the foundations, and then the city would be the developer. I don't know of any city who's really a developer, and it's not in our portfolio of expertise,” he said. “So what do you do when you don't have the expertise? You seek it out.”
As Bullock’s temp job limped on into the 15th month since the retirement of former City Manager Marlon Brown, he applied a nudge to the City Commission to make real progress on filling his office chair and seat at the dais with a permanent replacement.
He gave commissioners a date of March 6. On March 7 he plans to return to private life and resume his world travels.
"I will have been here for 10 months, and by the way, 10 months is enough for an interim,” Bullock said. “At the end of 10 months, by golly, you ought to have a city manager.”
Trice said Bullock has set the standard for what commissioners should seek in his replacement.
“As I’ve gone through the resumes of the applicants for our city manager position, I’ve realized that different city managers have different strengths,” she said. “I’m sure that our experience with Dave Bullock as interim city manager will add to the qualities we’re looking for in a new city manager.”
Alpert said she laments the impending conclusion of Bullock’s tenure.
“It was obvious he knew what he was doing and he had a lot of experience,” Alpert said. “He knows the area, he knows the job, he knows the people. It's a shame he really wants to retire.”
And at age 75, this time he wants to retire for good.
The couple have their sights set on the remainder of the national parks, including American Samoa, along with some summertime fishing in Alaska. Their travels also include Rae Dowling’s membership on a competitive dragon boat racing team, which is based at Nathan Benderson Park.
Soon, Bullock said, the community will, as it should, have forgotten about his 10-month tenure.
“An interim, usually no one remembers their name in six months,” he said. “My time here was just trying to help the city through a period when I thought I could do some good, and enough people thought it was worthwhile. I believe in leaving no footprints. Do your work, move on and don't leave any trace. Just let the community enjoy what it has.”
