When Sarasota city commissioners met last week to begin in earnest selecting a new city manager, the task was to choose five or so candidates from a list of eight finalists provided by professional search firm Daytona Beach Shores-based Colin Benzinger and Associates.
Instead, the meeting ended with the commission asking Rick Conner, who is spearheading the consulting effort, to just provide the dossiers of all 51 candidates — now minus one who has already accepted another post — and doing the whittling work themselves.
That was mostly driven by the few semifinalists commissioners found acceptable. Mayor Liz Alpert said she saw some positives among all eight of the firm’s recommendations. Vice Mayor Debbie Trice said she was enthusiastic over three, Jen Ahearn-Koch said she could take a closer look at six and Kyle Battie was baffled by the fact there were only 51 applications given Sarasota’s consistently high livability rankings and numerous accolades…