Karie Friling selected to be City Manager

The City Commission voted unanimously Friday to extend a conditional employment offer to Karie Friling to serve as the next City Manager.

Friling will be the first woman to serve as the Sarasota City Manager.

Friling is a seasoned public sector executive with over 30 years of leadership experience serving communities of varying sizes and complexity in Illinois. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, where she oversees 500 employees and a county organization with over 950,000 residents with a significant capital program focused on environmental resilience, public access and sustainability. Prior to DuPage County, Friling served as Village Manager for Homer Glen, IL. She is a credentialed manager in the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).

Friling was selected following a rigorous national search conducted by Sumter Local Government Consulting that yielded over 80 applications. Five finalists selected by the City Commission visited Sarasota on Monday and Tuesday. They toured the city, engaged with residents during an open house, talked with City Commissioners and staff leadership, and interviewed with the City Commission as a whole.

Friling’s application materials are available for review on the City of Sarasota website at www.Sarasotafl.gov as well as her interview with the City Commission as a whole.

The City Attorney will begin contract negotiations with Friling soon and will bring an employment agreement to the City Commission for consideration in the near future.

The City Commission also approved on Friday an employment agreement with Jennifer Jorgensen, the City’s Director of Governmental Affairs, to serve as the Interim City Manager effective Friday, March 6 at 5:01 p.m. when Interim City Manager Dave Bullock resumes retirement. Jorgensen was unanimously appointed by the City Commission earlier this month to serve as Interim City Manager during the limited time between Bullock’s departure and the arrival of the new City Manager.