After a week of interviews, trolley tour, and meet-and-greet, the commissioners will make their pick on Friday.
By Ramon Lopez
Host: City of Sarasota Commissioners are busy this week picking their next city manager. WSLR’s Ramon Lopez listened closely to the candidate interviews and talked to some of them.
Ramon Lopez: It was a busy Monday and Tuesday this week for the five Sarasota City Commissioners and city staffers. They met face-to-face with the five finalists vying to become Sarasota’s next city manager. And the public got to ask the candidates why they want the job in a public open house Monday night at the Robert L Taylor Community Complex.
Current Interim City Manager Dave Bullock, the third since Marlon Brown retired in October 2024, steps away from city hall on March 6.
Black. Photo: Lopez
The city commissioners had narrowed the candidate list via ranked-choice voting. Topping the list was Harry Black, former city manager of Stockton, Cal. Also scoring high marks were: Christopher Rodriguez, currently the
Assistant City Administrator for Washington D.C., and Kemarr Brown, current Deputy City Manager of Homestead, Florida. Rounding out the list are Troy Anderson, assistant city manager for Wichita, Kansas, and Karie Friling, executive director of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, Illinois, a countywide agency.
At the Monday ‘meet and greet’, Harry Black said he will work with neighborhood
associations.
Harry Black: I’m a big supporter of community-based organizations, period. I do whatever I can to provide funding. I do whatever I can to support them or get working with the city to be supportive of their activities.
RL: At the Tuesday public hearing he was asked ‘Why Sarasota?’ a smaller town than he is used to.
HB: I’d answer that question starting out by saying, why not Sarasota? Sarasota is a unique city. It’s a small city, but really is it a small city based on how it, how it operates based on what it is, its transformation is happening. It’s gonna be accelerating. Key is to be ready for it, to be able to manage it. And as I said, I believe I can help with that.
RL: At city hall, Kemarr Brown touted her strong experience with governing in the Sunshine State.
Kemarr Brown
Kemarr Brown: I think your next city manager … the state of Florida and specifically coastal communities, they’re vulnerable and there’s a vulnerability that exists. I think your next city manager should have the requisite knowledge base and understanding of what is happening statewide and throughout, specifically with municipal entities, to be able to add value and add to the conversation on Day One. I have that requisite experience. I think your next city manager has to have coastal experience – this is a coastal city – that is positioned and prepared for, has the experience for hurricanes.
RL: Chris Rodriguez said staff needs must be considered.
Chris Rodriguez: It’s not always mission, mission, mission. It’s also like, ‘Hey, I can see you’re having a bad day.’ Like, ‘Is everything okay? Do you need anything?’ It’s not about subverting your feelings in order to capture or kill the bad guys. It’s really about dealing with people, and I’ve learned that over time. I have to admit – like I’m sure we all have in our careers – I’ve made some mistakes, right? I’ve sort of, maybe been too mission-focused sometimes, and less people focused. But as I’ve moved up in my career and as a leader of a city now, not really focused on a specific department or agency, but on our 39,000 employees and the budget, the $22 billion budget, our 79 departments and agencies, as an executive, you have to make sure that you’re caring about your people. And sometimes, people need a day off. Sometimes they need to leave early, sometimes they need to shut off their phones. You know, that’s okay. And I think I’ve learned how to appreciate that more over time.
RL: In researching his record in the nation’s capital, there appeared a personal issue that gained the attention of Washington’s media outlets. In November 2023, Rodriguez was arrested and charged with domestic assault on his wife. A week later, that charge was dropped after both parties said no one was harmed, and his arrest was never intended.
Rodriguez
But in April 2024, his now ex-wife reported that he illegally entered her home, harassed her and refused to leave until she called the police. The matter did not come up in the ‘meet and greet’ or Tuesday’s public hearing.
The city commissioners are expected to extend an employment offer to one of the five hopefuls this Friday, Feb. 27.
This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
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