SARASOTA – The State Street Garage, already something of an albatross around Sarasota’s neck, just got a whole lot more expensive.
City commissioners voted unanimously to modify a proposed system for City Manager Tom Barwin’s upcoming performance review. Because of a special clause in Barwin’s contract, the city must use a third-party “facilitator” in the review process.
The city will hire a Lakeland business professor to help prepare evaluation materials, but will decline his services in moderating their individual meetings with the city manager and will not ask him to prepare a final report.
The cost of the downtown parking garage has ballooned from an estimated $7 million to about $11 million, according to city planners. City commissioners faced with the new budget estimate Monday said they were shocked, and some wanted to reconsider building the project in the first place.