As you may have heard, the City Commission of Sarasota is apparently giving serious consideration to Steve Stanton as a candidate for the City Manager position that was vacated earlier this year.
Steve, soon to become Susan Ashley Stanton, is familiar as the recently-terminated City Manager of Largo, Florida, who rose to international fame after it became clear that he intended to become a transgender individual. I’m doing my best to be sensitive to Steve, who I understand has requested to be referred to as male until the operation takes place.
Of more relevance to the question of whether he (soon to be she) should be hired as City Manager of Sarasota is this: how can we expect decent job performance out of this individual amidst the firestorm of controversy? A cursory glance at this person’s recent history reveals that he has become an activist for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) causes, not to mention making appearances in the media related to his gender transition and his employment situation with the City of Largo.
Sarasota has important business to attend to. We need someone who can focus on the job at hand and not have to deal with all of the distractions associated with this situation.
Furthermore, we need to strongly consider how advisable it is for this city to use taxpayer dollars to lend credibility to Steve/Susan’s platform. There are plenty of other places for Steve to work where the implications of his decision are not politicized. The nature of the City Manager job is one that — like it or not — puts an official local government stamp of approval on a person.
Were this an elected position, I believe that it is clear that he would not have the support of the citizens of our city for this job. As our elected representatives, the City Commissioners have a duty to do what’s in the best interests of the city in our stead.
Steve, you are welcome in the City of Sarasota. It is clear that you are searching for peace. I hope you find it and I wish you the best. However, this isn’t the job for you at this time.
May 30th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
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