Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/88739
Sarasota News Leader October 19, 2012 PALMING THE MANAGER CHOICE Lewis was asked to hold down the municipal fort following the forced resignation of former Sarasota City Manager Bob Bartolotta after thus far unfounded allegations that Bartolotta destroyed public records. It quickly became apparent Lewis was supervising a political nursery. Every city commissioner was in his or her first term, and three had less than one year of experience on the job. With such novices at the table, the deck was easy to stack. He worked closely with head- hunter Colin Baenzinger of Baenzinger's eponymous Wellington firm to winnow a na- tionwide search of applicants to the guy they wanted. Page 14 More than 100 applications arrived, and these were chopped to a list of eight, then the fi- nal five. Three of the people were from Flor- ida: Barbara Lipscomb of Casselberry, James Chisolm of Daytona Beach and Ed Mitchell of West Palm Beach. Rick Chaffin was from Texas, and Tom Barwin was from Illinois. In hindsight, these were somewhat unusual picks. Barwin was from a town one-fifth the size of Sarasota; Chafin's last two jobs were in cities much larger than Sarasota. Mitchell works under a strong mayor in West Palm, also a much larger city than Sarasota; he was later charged with "a history of corruption in his community" by Sarasota City Commission- (From left) Sarasota City Commissioner Willie Shaw, Police Chief Mikel Hollaway, incoming Chief Bernadette DiPino and City Manager Tom Barwin face the news media during the press confer- ence on Oct. 16. Look carefully. This is probably the only time you will see the new police chief in a dress. Skirts are not issued to city police officers. Photo by Stan Zimmerman