Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/88739
Sarasota News Leader October 19, 2012 el in exasperation, saying he would leave the interim job in early August. Soon afterward, Chisolm and Chaffin with- draw their candidacies and leave tall, urbane Barwin and rotund, old-Florida Mitchell in the race. On July 14, the vote was unanimous for Tom Barwin. Could it have gone any other way, considering the menu Lewis presented to the commission? The West Palm and Daytona candidates were both serving city managers with baggage — and making more money than Sarasota was offering; the other three were unemployed. When two of those three withdrew, Barwin was the last man standing. Lewis then shamed the commission into mak- ing a decision, and the deal was done. Bar- win had police experience, was independent of any local affiliations with prior experience as a cop and was young enough for a full tour of duty before retiring. STACKING THE CHIEF'S DECK After the commission voted unanimously to pick Barwin, Lewis decided to stay aboard un- til the new man arrived. In the period between July 14 and Aug. 31, Lewis pared down the list of more than 100 men and women who want- ed to be Sarasota's next police chief. Local applicants were among the first cut from con- sideration. He spent a lot of time on the tele- phone, talking cop-to-cop with semi-finalists. When Tom Barwin took office Sept. 4, Lewis left a list of 15 names as prospects for police chief, including three women. Barwin quick- ly slashed that list to seven, then five names. Among those cut was Coleen Conygham, a 26- year veteran of the FBI. Barwin said he want- Page 16 ed people with experience on the beat. The other two women survived to make the short list. The three men and two women on paper looked equally qualified, some a little stronger in one area than others, but all solid profes- sionals. After a public meet-and-greet on Oct. 5, however, a number of citizens quietly said, "It's the two women; it's got to be," as the final finalists. The following day, the five were grilled by pan- els of bureaucrats, citizen leaders and cops. The whispers were the same. All three men, while professionals, were wooden and stiff. The meet-and-greet was a test of their human and political skills, and they could not compare to the African-Amer- ican female deputy chief of the Richmond, VA, Police Department or the female chief of the Ocean City, MD, Police Department. Only Lewis, who had interviewed them on the phone, could have detected this difference in demeanor. While the women were the youngest candi- dates, between them was a vast difference in one specific type of experience: Deputy Chief Tonya Vincent had no familiarity in collective bargaining with a police union. Chief Berna- dette DiPino had spent 12 years struggling with a union. The decision was City Manager Barwin's alone. He had been in office seven weeks. On Oct. 16, he announced at a press conference that DiPino was his choice. "I looked for an experienced chief to hit the ground running," said Barwin. The quote is telling because only two of the five candidates