Joe Polzak needed a supermajority vote to become Sarasota’s next city attorney . He easily cleared that hurdle with unanimous agreement by the City Commission that he was the right man for the job.
Polzak will be Sarasota’s first new city attorney in more than 20 years. In March he is slated to officially replace Robert Fournier, who has held the top job since 2004 .
“Bob Fournier’s legal acumen and history with the city will be missed,” Mayor Liz Alpert said in a statement. “Promoting Joe Polzak from Assistant City Attorney to City Attorney, though, will provide additional stability and a wealth of knowledge about the varied legal issues the city is handling.”
John Shamsey and Joe Mladinich will stay on as deputy city attorneys.
Polzak attended the Stetson University College of Law. He was an assistant state attorney with Florida’s 12th Judicial Circuit for seven years and then joined the city attorney’s office in 2014. As a deputy city attorney, Polzak has served as the Sarasota Police Department’s only embedded legal counsel.