Commissioners Split on Options for County Administrator

BRADENTON – Manatee County Commissioners debated Tuesday as to the process of how they would move forward in their decision on a permanent replacement for former county administrator Ed Hunzeker, who retired earlier this year. Deputy Superintendent Cheri Coryea was installed in an interim capacity March 3. Commissioners were divided on whether to conduct a national search or pave the way for Coryea to ascend into the role permanently.

The first item debated was Coryea’s contract as acting administrator, which was made possible after the board voted to allow candidates to serve in the role for up to one year without the required bachelor’s degree in late January. Commissioner Carol Whitmore was strongly in favor of voting at Tuesday’s meeting. Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said she was pleased with Coryea’s performance but was ardently opposed to voting on an employment contract without having had the chance to read it. Baugh accused Whitmore of "bullying“ the other commissioners into voting that day.

"I feel like this is being rammed through," said Commissioner Vanessa Baugh. "You all have the four votes, you can ram it through if you want, but is that really fair?"

Commissioner Misty Servia shared Baugh’s reservations and said that while she also approved of Coryea’s performance, she too was uncomfortable voting on something so important without more time to absorb and deliberate. After lengthy debate, Servia said she would work with the majority and the contract passed as presented, 6-1 with Baugh dissenting.

The next item regarded the search for a full-time administrator. Commissioner Whitmore said she didn’t think it was a good idea to conduct a search with the county’s human resources director Rodney Barnes having given his resignation. Whitmore moved to table the search process until a new director was in place but did not get a second, so the motion died.

Immediately afterward, Commissioner Betsy Benac moved to instruct the county attorney’s office to draft a resolution that would allow for either a degree or a combination of education and relevant experience for the administrator position, making it possible to avoid a search altogether and hire Coryea full-time, citing her disappointment with the results of a nationwide search the county conducted in 2016, before ultimately deciding to extend Hunzeker once more when no suitable candidate was found.

"We’ve got a good thing going here,“ said Benac, citing the interest that she said other counties have shown in Coryea. "I don’t see why we’d want to change it.“

Commissioners Whitmore and Trace, who were on the board when the county conducted the previous search, agreed and said that they didn’t feel the county should waste time and resources repeating the process. Commissioner Reggie Bellamy said that he too felt Coryea was a proven commodity and said that in his experience, he’s known many people without college degrees who could "work circles“ around those with higher levels of education.

Commissioner Servia, again noting that she’s been very pleased with Coryea’s performance, gave a full-throated rebuttal, saying that the board owed it to the citizens of Manatee County to explore all of its options before putting someone in a position of such magnitude. Commissioner Baugh agreed, as did board chair Stephen Jonsson, who said he felt it would be setting up Coryea to fail by rushing the decision.

Noting that the board members seemed dug into their positions, Jonsson suggested they end discussion and vote. Benac's motion to have the county attorney’s office draft an ordinance that would give the county commission the ability to hire a county administrator with either a bachelor’s degree or a combination of education and experience deemed satisfactory by the board, passed 4-3, with Servia, Jonsson, and Baugh dissenting.