bserver O SARASOTA
You. Your neighbors. Your neighborhood.
in this issue
NEIGHBORHOOD
N.Y. matchmaker visits Sarasota’s young singles. PAGES 16A-17A
OUR TOWN
Motorcyclists roll into downtown Sarasota for annual festival. PAGE 1B
under investigation
Nick Friedman
DIVERSIONS Flautist Jane Hoffman plays a familiar tune. INSIDE
By Kurt Schultheis | City Editor
Bartolotta has support to stay put Three out of five commissioners believe the city manager should not be fired or suspended.
Kurt and Mitchell Weiss
Thursday, JANUARY 12, 2012
Mayor Suzanne Atwell, Vice Mayor Terry Turner and Commissioner Willie Shaw have no intention of supporting either the firing or the suspension of City Manager Bob Bartolotta and
Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown in the wake of forensics investigation findings revealed last week, which allege potential criminal and civil wrongdoing at City Hall.
Those three commissioners said they would prefer to make a decision on both men’s fates after two law enforcement agencies complete investigations of the computer case. The investigation reports are expected within six to nine months. During a Jan. 6 special meeting at City Hall, John Jorgenson,
+ Weiss shares experiences from the Holocaust
president of the Sarasota-based The Sylint Group, reported on his firm’s examination of computer files handled by Bartolotta and Brown. Sylint was hired by City Auditor and Clerk Pamela Nadalini to investigate a complaint
SEE BARTOLOTTA / PAGE 2A
LADYLIKE LECTURE
Kurt Weiss, father of Temple Beth Sholom Executive Director Mitchell Weiss, visited Sarasota Monday, Jan. 9, to speak about his experiences as a child living in Austria during the Holocaust. As part of Temple Beth Sholom’s Interesting Lives series, Weiss recounted his family’s struggles to immigrate to America during Hitler’s reign. After avoiding the German Gestapo, finding a stranger to agree to a visa sponsorship, leaving their loved ones and losing all their money, Weiss and his parents eventually made it to the United States, where he learned English and studied chemical engineering. Today, Weiss is retired and has a wife, four children and eight granddaughters.
Loren Mayo
Former first lady Laura Bush answered questions before a packed house for Ringling College Library’s Town Hall Lecture Series Wednesday, Jan. 11, at Van Wezel. For the story and more photos, see page 10A.
project scope By Kurt Schultheis | City Editor + Sculptures start an up-roar Here’s what’s hanging around outside of Zwiwwel (formerly Aria), a restaurant that, as of Jan. 9, is officially open for business and serving modern German cuisine. In our rush to find a German native somewhere in The Observer building who could tell us the definition of “Zwiwwel” — we thought, perhaps, it could mean “lion,” given the three newly painted lion head sculptures just outside the restaurant — we resorted to a Google search. The word actually means “onion.”
Main Street proposal scaled back The Downtown Improvement District is awaiting the Sarasota City Commission’s response to a $4.6 million Main Street makeover.
The Downtown Improvement District Board of Directors bowed to merchants’ concerns Tuesday, approving a Main Street project recommendation that limits parallel parking and forgoes bricking the street or its sidewalks. Now comes the hard part: getting the city to pay for more than
three-quarters of a $4.6 million project. The City Commission is expected to review the project recommendation during one of its regular meetings in February. DID board member Dr. Mark Kauffmann made the motion Jan. 10, to approve a Main Street
streetscape project that calls for improvements along four segments of Main Street from Bayfront Drive to U.S. 301. Those improvements include enhanced landscaping, irrigation and bulbouts; new streetlights; and enhanced crosswalks with brick accents.
The only modification to Main Street the DID recommends is a change to parallel parking on the north side of that street, but just from Bayfront Drive to the Five Points roundabout. The move would permit wider sidewalks in an area where some restaurant owners support it. However, that proposal has drawn fire from store merchants
SEE MAIN STREET / PAGE 5A
INDEX Briefs....................4A Calendar............ 13A
Classifieds......... 10B Cops Corner....... 12A
Crossword............ 9B Real Estate.......... 6B
Opinion.................8A Weather............... 9B
Vol. 8, No. 10 | Three sections YourObserver.com