Herald-Tribune by Nicole Rodriguez
February 19, 2019
Hagen Brody released reviews of charter officials before sharing with colleagues
SARASOTA — Mayor Liz Alpert scolded City Commissioner Hagen Brody on Tuesday for releasing his annual evaluations of the city’s top officials to the media before making them available to fellow board members.
Brody’s performance evaluations of City Manager Tom Barwin and City Attorney Robert Fournier were not included in supplemental documents on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s commission meeting, but he provided them to the Herald-Tribune when asked about his ratings of the two charter officials. Alpert took issue with Brody’s decision.
“Your evaluations weren’t submitted on time, they weren’t submitted to this commission or to (human resources) or to the charter officials. They were submitted first to the newspaper, and I just think that was a disservice to the charter officials, to the commission and to the community,” Alpert said, later adding the move was “wrong.”
Vice Mayor Jen Ahearn-Koch, who was present on the telephone because of an illness, echoed Alpert’s sentiment.
“I didn’t disagree with the public meeting being the best place to discuss the performance of our charter officials, but I think the press is probably not the best place to discuss it as a first point of contact,” Ahearn-Koch said.
