Politics can be a divisive practice, but Debbie Trice said that’s not a necessary function of good government.

“My main message is we are all in this together,” the Sarasota City Commission candidate said. “I want Sarasota to be a city that works for everyone, someplace where everyone has a voice and a place.”

Trice, a 25-year resident of Sarasota County, is one of six candidates seeking two at-large seats in the commission. A prior manager at IBM, she has already held leadership positions including as president of the Rosemary District Neighborhood Association. After spending two years as part of the Sarasota County Charter Review Board, she hopes to bring her vision for governing to City Hall.

She feels the city would benefit from having more public input on growth and development, not less. She’s concerned about proposals to expand use of administration review to allow more construction moving forward without public hearings if plans include affordable housing. The inclusion of that element doesn’t eliminate the insight neighbors can provide to make a development better.

She uses an issue like growth on the North Trail, which could potentially result in people having a harder time getting in and out of their own driveways. Consulting with existing homeowners often can result in a solution that doesn’t hurt a proposed development but protects the quality of life and even safety of residents.

Her greatest issue with a proposed change to the comprehensive plan, though, remains its massive scope. Pushing through a 270-page change in the city’s master planning document without more community workshops involving both the Planning Board and City Commission is a mistake, she said.

“I don’t fault commissioners themselves for that,” she said. “The problem was the requested change grew too big to consider without an education.”

As to the issue of affordability itself, Trice has some concerns that much of the work at the city aims at specific segments of the population. Sarasota needs to handle challenges and needs impacting low and moderate income citizens alike, she said.

Closer to home, she’s worked on an extremely slow process of establishing a public park serving the Rosemary. Creating more amenities will make the area a more inviting home for working families, something that ultimately will also benefit employers in the city. This is one more sign, she said, that the city needs to have processes aimed at finding solutions. 

Trice appears on the ballot Tuesday along with five other candidates: Jennifer Ahearn-Koch, Dan Lobeck, Sheldon Rich, Terrill Salem and Carl Shoffstall. The top three candidates will advance to a runoff in November. There, the top two candidates will win at-large seats on the Sarasota City Commission.

All voters in the city of Sarasota can vote in the Tuesday election.