The Tail is Wagging the Dog at City Hall

Marty Hurwitz may be the most important person you've never heard of at City Hall

When Erik Arroyo and Kyle Battie were sworn in at City Hall, they wasted no time joining Hagen Brody in a clearly orchestrated move to fire Sarasota’s City Manager Tom Barwin. It marked the beginning of a culture change at City Hall. Late 2020 also marked the beginning of the employment of consultant Martin Hurwitz, who occupies an unprecedented “coaching” position at City Hall. As I like to say, everyone is a nice guy. Marty Hurwitz seems like a very nice guy. But the position he holds creates many ethical concerns, and an unacceptable power dynamic. The circumstances of his employment create the potential for sunshine law violations. The signed agreements with Mr, Hurwitz (when there are signed agreements) do not comport with best practices regarding municipal contracts. They are back of the envelope, good old boy agreements which position Mr. Hurwitz to “coach” City Commissioners and report on his progress to the City Manager. This turns City reporting relationships upside down. A City Manager has no business engaging a coach for Commissioners who then reports to the City Manager on their progress. The tail is wagging the dog at City Hall.

A contentious culture in City government, which disrespects constituents and colleagues, began the day Barwin was fired. At the same time, consultant Marty Hurwitz’s services were also secured. Since then, the City has paid Mr. Hurwitz over $333,000, Government experts I’ve checked in with collectively have over a century of experience. They are stunned by this arrangement and tell me they have never seen anything like it.

Tom Barwin was officially fired by the City Commission on December 8th, 2020. Martin Hurwitz’s first undated, unsigned initial $15,000 proposal for services (a one page document) indicates he can begin work to assist the City with strategic planning on December 14, 2020. With a City Manager on the way out, you’ve got to wonder who all was involved in hustling to put a consultant agreement in place with a hand-picked vendor (who ultimately became the City Commission’s “coach”). The City’s agreements with Mr. Hurwitz are definitely not the product of a Request for Proposal vendor process. The City Manager didn’t even bother to create any signed agreement with Mr. Hurwitz for 2021.

Hurwitz Proposals 2020 21

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A second undated, one page proposal for 2021 introduced a new “Phase 1-5” scope of services for strategic planning with a price tag of $45,000. There is no signature or stamp on the proposal, but there is text indicating the new appointed City Manager Marlon Brown approved the proposal on 2/21/21.
Brown’s new role as City Manager was formalized on 1/21/21.

A third one-page proposal in 2021 from Mr. Hurwitz indicates the objective of his work from August to October will be “to help the Commission function more effectively as a collegial body through individual coaching and workshops”. Hmmm. The scope of services includes a minimum of one hour coaching sessions with Commissioners once a week, and “report to City Manager, twice a month, with whom met, length of session and frequency. Reporting either in person or via email at the discretion of the City Manager.” The cost for these August 2021 - October 2021 sessions (plus facilitating any workshops) was $18,000. No workshops were held, so the $18,000 paid was for City Commissioner “coaching sessions”.

For the City Manager to be getting reports on coaching sessions for Commissioners is outrageous, and demonstrates how our former City Manager believes it was appropriate for him to have a supervisory role over the Commission.

For the Sarasota City Commission to be okay with this is ridiculous. Perhaps they prefer to be governed, rather than to govern. It certainly makes the job easier, doesn’t it?

My look into this arrangement between Marlon Brown and Martin Hurwitz has included asking local and state experts about the situation. Again, these experts have expressed amazement on the position itself, as well as the casual nature of the agreements with Mr. Hurwitz. Bottom line: the signed agreements fail to provide any of the usual safeguards which are customary in government agreements with vendors. There is no termination clause, for instance, and no measurable deliverables. If you’ve ever seen a government vendor contract, you would know that the casual, back of the envelope agreements that City Manager Marlon Brown wrote and signed with Mr. Hurwitz do not conform with best practices for City government.

The creation of this position is an outrageous abuse of the City Manager’s spending discretion which makes an unelected consultant quite powerful. That consultant has reported on his coaching sessions to the former City Manager Marlon Brown since 2021. And we’ve paid over $333,000 for this “service” to the City Manager.

These agreements were never discussed publicly in a City Commission meeting. Since 2020, City Commissioners have either acquiesced without knowing the terms of Mr. Hurwitz’s employment, or they have been selectively informed behind the scenes. Neither scenario is consistent with good government.

Recently City Commissioner Debbie Trice indicated in a stategic planning workshop that she did not want to set strategic goals until a City Manager was hired. She wanted to be sure the new City Manager agreed with her goals. Mr. Hurwitz, who facilitated the workshop, told Commissioner Trice (in a painfully roundabout manner) that she needs to set goals and then hire a City Manager who will implement her goals (not the other way around). Hurwitz was correct in clarifying that the Commission is supposed to be steering the ship, not the City Manager.

The irony is that Mr. Hurwitz’s role at City Hall - his position itself -communicates to the Commissioners all the time that the City Manager is in charge. It’s no wonder Commissioner Trice is confused about her responsibilities. No wonder we have a very troubling culture at City Hall.