He says he is running because the city is not doing enough to support arts organizations.
By Noah Bookstein
Original Air Date: July 24, 2026
Host: We are continuing our candidate profile series. Today, it’s Rob Rominiecki’s turn. He is one of five candidates running for two at-large seats on the Sarasota City Commission. The first round of voting is coming up August 18 with a runoff November 3. WSLR News reporter Noah Bookstein sat down with Rominiecki.
Noah Bookstein: Rob Rominiecki is originally from New York City, where he worked at the Guggenheim Museum.
Rob Rominiecki
Rob Rominiecki: My career started at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, where I was the director of security and safety. I was there for 15 years. Being in charge of security and safety, it was my responsibility to make a place where you have to protect something also accessible to the people. That part was challenging, but it’s exciting, and it was using all the codes that the city had with land use and building codes—fire safety codes more specifically, because that’s what would change more often, but also OSHA codes and ADA codes.
NB: Now Rominiecki is running for Sarasota City Commission because he says the city government is not supporting arts organizations enough.
RR: The reason I started running for city commission was because the arts and culture organizations in this town are top notch, and what I wanted to do is make sure that they’re encouraged, and we put up the time to make sure that they thrive. CNN just came out with a report where Sarasota was the number one travel destination for this country, and the main reason they gave was the arts and culture programs we have here and organizations. I feel that the city has not done well by the arts and culture organizations. We lost the orchestra from the city. Selby Gardens went through quite a battle.
NB: Rominiecki says he wants to end what he sees as a regressive culture at City Hall.
RR: It’s a culture that is pervasive throughout the entire commission. When anything comes before them, it seems to be, “Let’s not let anything move forward.” I think our city is falling backwards, and we need to move forwards. We need a vision for the future.
NB: While Rominiecki wants Sarasota to move forward, he doesn’t think Miami should be a model for the city’s growth.
RR: The city’s starting to look like Miami, and if I wanted to live in Miami, I would have moved to Miami. My family, moved here because we loved Sarasota. We loved the arts and culture. We love the beaches. A-rated schools. Great hospital. It’s truly a paradise, and if we don’t have a vision for the future of it, it’s just going to start waning.
NB: Rominiecki says the city is facing so many massive developments, such as the Obsidian, because builders feel they need to go larger in order to turn a profit.
RR: What we have to do is make sure we make it easier to build something more reasonably sized. You can only get that by making it easier, not harder. If you’re going to deny and you’re going to delay and you’re going to get citizens who come in and appeal rulings that are approved, you’re putting more money on that project, so the only way for that project to become economically feasible is to build it bigger. The Obsidian was—the organization that’s doing it is just saying, “Hey, let’s take every inch we can.” What we need to do is make it easier to build smaller.
NB: Rominiecki believes the city can be more decisive with its spending, and that would help mitigate funding strain from potential property tax rollbacks.
RR: It’s a blow, but we can move forward with that. What we have to do is stop spending money needlessly. We had projects like the Bobby Jones Clubhouse project, where $676,000 was already spent on that project for architectural drawings and everything, and the project got scrapped. The search for the city manager—the first time they did it, they spent anywhere between $50,000 to $80,000 and then scrapped that and went on and did it again. It took two years. It’s a cycle. We’re $2 million into the Performing Arts Center already—spent taxpayer money. If we could hammer down where we’re spending our money and why we’re spending our money and make sure that the money we put into a project actually goes to that project, I think we could mitigate some of what could happen if that homestead exemption change happens.
NB: If there are other avenues to make disaster recovery repairs without first getting FEMA money, Rominiecki says the city should look into them.
Rob Rominiecki and family
RR: Ken Thompson Park over there had the docks. My son and I would go fishing there. Let’s get a sponsorship for that. If private citizens and private organizations can get the work done and go through the permitting process and get approvals, I don’t know why we’re waiting.
NB: On the new Performing Arts Center, Rominiecki thinks it’s essential to get it done.
RR: If we’re gonna be the arts and culture hub of Florida, we need this performing arts center. The performing arts center coming up is a big project that the city should get behind. We have one of the greatest philanthropic communities in the country, so we need to make sure that the contract is signed where they can start because you can’t raise money if no one knows if it’s going to happen or not.
NB: Rominiecki has a close personal connection to Selby Gardens, where his wife Jennifer Rominiecki works as CEO, and he says he would recuse himself from votes involving the organization.
RR: Selby Gardens has gotten every approval they need for the significant foreseeable future. Obviously, if something happens to come up to the level of city commission and I am lucky enough to be elected, I would have to recuse myself.
NB: Overall, Rominiecki is glad that arts and culture has been a key issue this election cycle, and he is looking forward to its future in Sarasota.
RR: We can show the rest of the city—rest of the state, and the country—that, “Hey, we want to be the best at arts and culture.” We have most of it here already, and this will just take us into the future. That’s why I’m running.
NB: For WSLR News, Noah Bookstein.
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