Richard Dorfman: Candidate for City Commission

Candidate: Richard Dorfman

Neighborhood: Downtown Sarasota

Moved To Sarasota: Born In New Jersey

Employment: Retired International Sports Agent

Treasurer: John Dowd

Campaign Info: ElectDorfman.com

Social Media: http://www.facebook.com/ElectDorfman and https://twitter.com/electdorfman

Richard Dorfman has been campaigning for the City Commission for more than two years since he lost his bid for City Commission in the last city election.

The New Jersey native, who has traveled all over the world and lived in London for 23 years, chose Sarasota as his home nearly a decade ago. His goal is to make Sarasota more metropolitan by making it more business friendly and more attractive to people living and visiting downtown.

"I have a passion for the city," Dorfman said. "I love it. It’s my adopted home. It saved my life after 30 year career."

Dorfman began visiting Sarasota in 1977 and bought his home here eight years ago.

After 25 years in sports and entertainment, he decided to use the skills he learned as he made a bid for the City Commission.

His career taught him negotiating skills.

"I can take disparate parties and have them meet in the middle," he said. 

His negotiating skills and experience in business will help move the city forward, he said.

"My fiscal responsibility, budgetary experience and ability to deliver value and deliver what I promise, separates me from other candidates."

"We have serious business and social issues going forward," Dorfman said.

Dorfman, who believes in a strong mayor form of government, as long as commissioners have veto power, said he has a four-point plan for moving the city forward.

"We have our own fiscal cliff that needs focusing on, he said.

Dorfman said it won't be hard to spur economic development in Sarasota and to thereby bring jobs. Investors are interested in Sarasota, the city just needs to have a more business-friendly attitude. He said getting there will take some "legislative tweaks" to the comp plan, which includes zoning and code issues that need to be fixed.

"I know of quite a few people ready to invest," he said. "There’s such a culture of saying "no" on the planning board that people are afraid to invest for fear of being arbitrarily denied."

Dorfman said he wants the city commission to help "create an environment that will let small business prosper."

We need to straighten out zoning text amendments and create an environment that says 'how can we help you accomplish your goals," he said. "Manatee has been successful in doing that."

Dorfman said those that have fought business and development are a very vocal minority who don't want things to change. He believes the majority of people are families who want amenities and job creation so that their children and grandchildren can get jobs and live here.

Dorfman also wants to see help for families who have fallen on hard economic times. He said homelessness is a problem in Sarasota and that he wants to be part of the solution for those families who have become homeless through circumstances beyond their control.

"My heart bleeds for the homeless," he said. "I hate to see that. We need a concerted effort to attack the homeless issues. City, state and federal government have to come together with non-profits to find solutions."

He said the city alone doesn’t have the wherewithal, skills and background to provide the solutions to the homeless problem.

Other issues are much easier to solve, he said. The city's "parking issues" are non-existent.

"I've personally never had a problem finding a place to park," Dorfman said. "You may have to walk a couple of blocks but there's always a parking space. For me, parking is not an issue and it never was. If you want to find a parking place you will find one. You just have to get out and walk."

He said when the city ripped out the parking meters from downtown, it should have moved those meters to Lido Beach.

"People who come out to Lido Beach are visiting the area," he said. "They aren't paying taxes. This is a way to get them to pay the city for our services. We could use the parking money to improve the beach and Lido pool."

Quick Hits with Richard Dorfman

• We have to get our budget back in order and decide how to fund the budget.  We have to decide how do we bring more economic development and job creation to Sarasota. There are a variety of ways to do that, starting with a "How can I help you attitude."
• Ensure the safety of the community. We have a vagrancy problem and we need to allow the police to do their jobs and protect citizens. 
• I am in favor of a strong and vibrant downtown. I want more people downtown. I'd like to see more housing and more affordable housing. It keeps people out of their cars and is good for the environment.
• We have to protect our neighborhoods. We have gorgeous neighborhoods around the city. We don’t want huge buildings next to one- and two-story houses. We have to figure out a way to do things.