98 SARASOTA SCENE | JANUARY 2018
on the town
me to allow me
to have a seat at
the table where
possible. I didn’t
know what to expect, so it’s been a
learning experience.
What has been your biggest
challenge and your greatest sense of
accomplishment thus far?
The biggest challenge has been balancing
traffic and development in our growing
community, which is a compliment, but
also a challenge. Biggest accomplishment
I would say is that I’m really happy we
were able to provide relief to our retired
firefighters. It’s been a struggle to provide
some assistance to the rising costs from
insurance premiums from the city to our
retirees. It’s been a struggle for the last
several commissions. We actually moved
the needle with this term, so I’m really
proud to have been a part of that.
What is the one thing that you hope to
accomplish during your term?
Affordable workforce housing in our
community.
Are we getting closer?
We’re getting closer, but we still have a
long way to go. But we’re just a piece of
the puzzle. It takes the county; it takes
developers; it takes nonprofits; it takes
community. We’re all working together.
It looks as if there is some momentum,
and I’m happy about that.
Are some of these high-rise buildings
that we are seeing downtown solving
part of the equation?
No. They’re not affordable at all. And
that’s why we still have work to do.
So we’re going to look at other parts
of the community where there is land
where we can build. We’re going
into the revision of our zoning code,
the form-based code,
and we’re going to be
looking at zoning and
some ways to make it
easier for developers
to be able to afford to
build workforce housing.
There has to be, in my
opinion, a commitment
and a want to do it by all
of the stakeholders. We’re
slowly getting there.
One of your other passions is helping
women in crisis, and in particular with
the Women’s Resource Center, where
you offer some legal services. Tell us
about that.
Both Women’s Resource Center and
More Too Life are nonprofits that work
with women in the community and
they have an “Ask the Lawyer” segment.
I go to each organization once a
month and just have consultations with
women. It could be someone homeless
who needs help with housing. It could
be someone newly divorced who
needs to go back into the workplace.
It could be a woman who, because
of criminal consequences, had some
rights terminated and wants to fix
that process. At More Too Life, it is
women and young girls who have been
victims of sexual and human trafficking
who are beginning to rebuild their
lives legally and socially. Legally the
state and the federal government are
beginning to change and write laws that
allow women to have their previous
records sealed or expunged that were
created out of their victimization. A
What did you want to be when you were
a child?
I wanted to be a lawyer.
Did you wear the other hat and run for
class president?
In high school and college, I was
involved in student government. I always
had one foot in that world.
What was the greatest lesson your mom
and dad taught you?
They introduced me to Christ.
Is being mayor of Sarasota what you
expected it would be?
(Smiles) Well, I had never done it before.
I had no real frame of reference. As you
know, by nature the city commission
position is a part-time job, which it’s not;
it’s way full-time. And the mayor is the
ceremonial appointment. I didn’t know
how involved it would be regarding
staff and with meeting leaders of the
community. I knew that there would be
meetings and events and those types of
things. For me, I wanted to be involved
in policy decisions and really get into the
weeds on some of our issues. Thankfully,
they have been accommodating in
allowing me to do that. Each mayor has a
different personality and they work with
who is there, and they’ve worked with