Plans in Motion for New County Administrator?

The Manatee County rumor mill has been a flutter with whisperings over who will be the next county administrator, and several well-placed sources now claim that Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association CEO Jon Mast is the odds-on favorite for the position, possibly coming on as a deputy county administrator in the immediate future.

The BIA came up in reporting in Sunday’s edition of TheBradenton Times, relating to a "white paper" the group submitted to the county, a 30-page document composed of edits to some sections of the county’s land development code that would make it even more friendly to development interests. As noted in the reporting, there are ties between the county commission and the BIA.

County Commissioner Mike Rahn, who was elected in 2022, is the former president of the organization and is listed on their website as a "Life Director." Don Baugh, a local jewelry store owner and husband of County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, is a current board member.

Until very recently, Commissioner Amanda Ballard’s husband David was on staff for the BIA as its "Government Affairs & Membership Director," and Ballard was said to be poised to move into the CEO spot upon Mast's pending departure. However, following reporting that Ballard was recently arrested on DUI charges twice in just over a month’s time, his name and photo have been removed from the staff page.

Chartered in 1962, the BIA is a professional trade organization "comprised of local builders and associated businesses working together to build and improve our community." It claims to be "the consolidated voice of the building, construction, development and associated industries for our region."

Given both its purpose and the positions it takes in the white paper, it is not surprising that the developers who control the BOCC would want someone from its ranks at the helm of county government, and a look at Mast’s bona fides further suggests that he would be an ideal candidate, at least from their perspective.

According to his LinkedIn page, "Jon has had a passion for government and political affairs" and "has been involved in the building industry for over 35 years. During that time, he has owned several companies in the construction industry doing business as a contractor, remodeler, land developer, architectural principle, designer, and real estate agent."

A native of Sarasota, Mast previously worked in the Sarasota County Government's Planning and Development Services Department, serving as its General Manager of Business Operations and the Manager of Land Development, directing many quasi-judicial and legislative land regulation actions before the Sarasota BOCC.

This would not be the first time the development industry has pushed a candidate for the county’s top position. When Ed Hunzeker departed as county administrator in early 2019, after finding himself on the outs with politically-powerful developer Carlos Beruff, developers pushed commissioners to hire Dom DiMaio, a banker who had recently been named the president and CEO of the Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance, another pro-development group.

At the time, the board was still stacked with developer-backed candidates who had reliably given Beruff and other developers almost everything they asked for, but several felt that the county administrator position, which oversees far more than the development-related departments important to the builders, was too critical of a post to be filled by anyone other than the best-suited candidate. A narrow majority successfully pushed forward with an effort to promote Deputy County Administrator Cheri Coryea, a 29-year veteran of Manatee County Government.

This didn’t seem to sit well with Beruff and other developers who set about radically transforming the board over the 2020 and 2022 elections, successfully installing a cadre of much less qualified candidates with no such qualms when it came to the administrator spot. Led by current chair Kevin Van Ostenbridge, who famously moved to fire Coryea in his very first meeting, the new majority successfully removed the county’s first female administrator in Feb. of 2021.

DiMaio was once again mentioned as a replacement at that point, however, Van Ostenbridge successfully lobbied to have Hopes hired, despite the latter having no relevant experience for such a position and the board having already promised the public it would conduct a national search for Coryea's replacement. The two-year Hopes administration was an unmitigated disaster, leading to his sudden departure in early February.

The board has since begun moving forward with engaging a firm to conduct a search, but commissioners have been hinting at an October timeline, suggesting that they do not want to make a hire during the budgeting process. Of course, that does not mean they could not then decide to either promote Mast from a deputy position or select him from the candidate pool in order to tick off the box for having conducted a search.

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County governmentsince 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University, where he earned a degree in Government. He later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Clickherefor his bio. His novella Sacred Hearts was recently reissued and is availablehere.