This week, Manatee County Commissioners sent an egregiously generous contract proposal to perpetually extend the employment of County Administrator Charlie Bishop back to the drawing board. While I’m glad a majority of commissioners were unwilling to sign off on such unwarranted largesse, I think the real conversation needs to be whether they should renew Bishop’s contract in the first place.
Let’s revisit the circumstances in which Bishop was elevated. When developers gained complete control of the board following the 2020 elections, their first order of business was to sack Cheri Coryea, the county’s highly qualified administrator, who was effectively punished for moving ahead with the purchase of the Musgrave property. Never mind that she was fulfilling her job requirement of enacting policy passed by the duly elected county commission.
This massive swath of land adjacent to the county’s Lena Road landfill would extend its life cycle by decades, while also being the future site of several county facilities necessitated by the rampant development of formerly rural parts of the county’s eastern corridor. Developers, who had long sought to purchase the land and build more houses on it, wanted the deal squashed, seemingly to prevent the landowners from profiting by selling it elsewhere.
The new 2020 board—which included current commissioner George Kruse—moved to fire Coryea during the very first meeting after it was seated. Kruse initially declined to provide the fourth vote, but was later manipulated into flipping and provided the swing vote to axe the county’s first female administrator, who had worked her way up from the ground level over three decades of employment with the county. Kruse later broke with the development bloc of the BOCC he had campaigned with and called his vote to terminate Coryea the worst mistake of his time in office.
Coryea was immensely popular with the rank and file, and her unceremonious dismissal tanked morale, to put it mildly. Soon after, pretty much everyone who had anything to do with the Musgrave acquisition was forced to resign or be fired, and many other top employees resigned on principle. To say the loss of institutional knowledge was staggering would be an enormous understatement. It is still felt within the ranks of several departments to this day.
Coryea was eventually replaced by Scott Hopes, a Manatee School Board member who was criminally unqualified for the job and was eventually canned for running the county in a manner that seems to have been literally criminal, resulting in multiple felony charges for which he is currently awaiting trial. The board then unsuccessfully attempted to install the head of a local developer lobbying group, only to wind up embarrassed enough to promise the public a national search to finally provide a qualified candidate with no ties to local developers.
The public paid handsomely for that search, but when it didn’t seem to yield a candidate the commissioners’ overlords found suitable, it was decided that the best they could possibly do was elevate Bishop, the former property management director whom Hopes had promoted to Deputy County Administrator. Bishop was pretty much the highest-ranking member of the administration to survive the Coryea administration bloodbath. In other words, one of the few that developers didn’t have a problem with, which should tell you everything you need to know.
The highlights of his resume at that point included unpermitted renovations to the county administration building when the new board decided the old digs weren’t up to their standards. Bishop oversaw the jobs and used Property Management staff to do much of the labor. This included equipping Hopes' office with remote blinds, noise-canceling speakers to prevent “leaks,” bulletproof glass at the 9th-floor entry, and other dubious upgrades. TBT then discovered that he had also overseen unpermitted renovations on the building’s second floor.
While Bishop was serving in a dual role as Deputy County Administrator and Director of Property Management, that department contracted with Bishop’s girlfriend’s drone company, despite having an established in-house drone program with trained staff and equipment designed to reduce outsourcing costs. That sounds a lot like a conflict of interest and perhaps the misuse of a public position. TBT was told at the time that the matter was “under investigation,” although it was never discussed when commissioners decided he was their best option for the top post.
In 2022, the county announced that the administration building’s parking garage had deteriorated to the point where the entire structure would need to be rebuilt. Then-commissioner Kevin Van Osternbridge told WFLA 8 that, “A maintenance plan was not put in place in the late 80s, and it wasn’t put in place in the 90s, and it wasn’t put in place in the 2000s, so the ball was sort of dropped by an awful lot of people over a very long time.” In August of 2023, Bishop, now the County Administrator, told commissioners that a structural engineer's report revealed the parking garage had “only two years remaining.” Well, Bishop was named Director of Property Management in 2015. So, apparently, he was one of the ball droppers while he headed the department for the next seven years. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement.
In 2024, commissioners approved the execution of a $1.8 million agreement with Sweet Sparkman for a pre-design criteria package for the total design and rebuild of the parking garage. The proposed project had an estimated cost of nearly $85 million. The BOCC consensus shifted toward directing staff to explore public-private partnership opportunities to offset rebuild costs. The next year, every penny budgeted toward the garage was shifted to the deeply sketchy acquisition of another county administration building in the far-flung southeast corner of the county.
No commission meetings or work sessions were held to inform the public that the county administration was seeking a new administration building or had even identified a need for one. TBT first learned of the plan when the meeting agenda was published on a Monday evening. Key specifics were missing from the agenda details—such as what would become of the parking garage. We requested additional information, but were told that nothing further would be made available before the scheduled meeting presentation and board vote on Tuesday.
In November 2024, Bishop marked the old Bradenton City Hall property, which the county owned, as surplus, despite also claiming the county needed it to park workers while the downtown parking garage was being repaired/rebuilt. Months earlier, the surplussing of the parcel was passed on a consent agenda, without discussion. The consent item also approved the publication of an ITN for its sale.
According to Manatee County Ordinance 14-26, the process to declare county-owned property as surplus begins with a recommendation from the county administrator. That recommendation must address several qualifying requirements of the subject property, including whether it has public use value and any conditions of a sale. In addition to the surplus being placed on the consent agenda by Bishop, the sale contract was also added to the consent agenda, only to be pulled by Commissioner Jason Bearden, who cried foul.
Commissioner George Kruse was skeptical of the contract terms, which he called “terrible,” saying, “We are basically giving someone the option, not an obligation, to purchase one of the premier development sites in downtown Bradenton for eight grand—we spent more than eight grand writing this contract.” The deal was ultimately approved, 4-2 (Commissioners Kruse and Bearden dissenting). Politically-connected developer Ron Allen was the purchaser.
The administration’s cabinet also expanded under Bishop. He retained a third deputy county administrator position created by Hopes and added a new Chief of Staff position, which was filled by one of the candidates from the national search. When that employee resigned, Bishop rebranded that slot as the Director of the newly created Department of Government Relations.
Stephanie Garrison was hired for the new position, despite her only prior government work being two months in Florida Senator Joe Gruters' office. During Garrison’s confirmation hearing before the board, then-Deputy County Administrator Courtney De Pol said that Garrison “honed her skills in policy development and stakeholder relations” as a senior legislative aide for Gruters. Garrison was hired by the county at a starting base salary of $160,000.
Bishop also continued to grow the Public Communications Division, even reallocating a Public Safety position to elevate an employee the county had hired as a videographer to the newly created Communications Manager role, which included a $40k pay bump that elevated his salary to six figures. The department seemed to serve more as in-house PR for the administration than as a public information outlet, and at times it appeared to benefit sitting commissioners seeking reelection.
On the public communication end, the missteps were many. Hurricane Debbie was marked by poor coordination and a lack of clarity in information being pushed to residents who received urgent IPAWS alerts instructing them to “leave NOW” due to a dam release. The county provided no supporting information on its website or social media at the time. In fact, communications were dark for hours except for the emergency texts. After finally posting about the dam release around 1:00 p.m., the county’s social media went completely silent for about five hours, with no additional updates during a critical period of the emergency.
Earlier that morning, the county had Commissioner Mike Rahn publicly address the storm from the EOC, rather than someone from Emergency Management. Rahn never mentioned any potential dam release, creating a disconnect between official messaging and emergency alerts. As a result, residents turned to social media and gossip chains, often encountering conflicting information and uncertainty about whether evacuation was necessary or even safe.
These failures contributed to public confusion, panic, and potentially unnecessary risk. Residents reported being unable to evacuate due to flooded roads, receiving inconsistent guidance from 3-1-1 operators, and even experiencing misdirected emergency responses. Despite livid residents who complained of receiving bad information or no information at all, county leadership later defended its response as effective, even as it declined to answer follow-up questions—further reinforcing concerns about transparency, accountability, and overall leadership during the crisis.
Under Bishop’s leadership, we also got the whole Lakewood Ranch roundabout debacle. And who could forget the way Developer Carlos Beruff was given preferential treatment regarding a private street and oversized additional ADU? Bishop’s greatest sin, however, was in overseeing the absolute sham of a process that has led to the complete evisceration of our county’s wetland protections.
The county had successfully defended its wetland protections against developer Carlos Beruff in court. When Bishop’s administration seemingly couldn’t find a member of its own staff to spew lies regarding the supposed “merits” of defaulting to the state's bare bones minimum on wetland protections, it actually hired the guy Beruff had unsuccessfully used as an “expert” in those hearings as an outside consultant to make the same arguments to commissioners that he had previously failed to make in the suit against the county. The board voted 5-1 to gut wetland protections, and state legislation supported by our developer-backed local legislators has prevented the new board from restoring them.
For all of this, Board Chair Tal Siddique, who was charged with negotiating Bishop’s new deal brought the board a contract that would give Bishop a base salary of more than quarter-million-dollars that is riddled with perks, including automatic annual raises tied to commissioner raises as set by state statute (as opposed to board-approved budgeted employee COLAs), additional vacation time and compensatory hours, and an unlimited number of unused vacation leave accruals.
The contract would eliminate the requirement for an annual performance review that has been in every previous administrator’s contract (including Bishop’s current one). It would have no expiration date, and if the board did want to get rid of him without cause, they would need a 5-2 supermajority to do so, at which point he would pop a golden parachute that includes five months’ pay. That is nothing less than patently absurd.
Bishop’s contract runs through August 8. There is no rush to renew it, especially considering that four seats on the board will be decided in this year’s elections. The board should extend his current contract through the end of the year. If that doesn’t work for Bishop, let him pound sand and see if Cheri Coryea is willing to come back and fix the mess they have made of the vastly superior organization she helped build, only for developer lackeys to dismantle.
TBT's Dawn Kitterman contributed research to this column.
Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch's next novel, Fish Kill, is scheduled for release on April 20. His other books can be found here. He can be reached at editor@thebradentontimes.com.
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mcems1986
Mitch, one thing to say on your commentary:
NAILED IT!
Saturday, April 11 Report this
Charlene
This is almost perfect. The only thing missing is the absolutely shambolic way that the MCAW animal shelter has been completely bungled up. A project that was supposed to be finished YEARS ago, that is STILL unsatisfactory and unsafe, resulting in invited volunteers being charged with trespassing.
Saturday, April 11 Report this
lib224
The board needs to hire someone else, and clean house. Coryea could do the job.
Saturday, April 11 Report this
GLEN GADFLY GIBELLINA
Clearly, one of the worst administrators in the state of Florida. The previous board that hired him should be held accountable as well…..Mike Rahn and Amanda Ballard who were part of that decision-making are up for reelection. Let your vote be heard in the primary.. put them in the one and done club
Saturday, April 11 Report this
RRICH69176
Shameful waste of taxpayer money...you could not make up this story..sad reality
Sunday, April 12 Report this
Debann
Let the voters decide...given the history of behind closed door deals i trust no one on this BOCC to do the right thing...WE had an awesome administrator with Cheri Corea, but that was not what the BOCC wanted, too bad for us....Then with Hopeless things progressively got worse..Wondering what happens if poor Charlie doesn't get what he wants will he leave???WISHFUL THINKING..THERE'S too many things wrong with this contract...Will the Commissioners do what's right or do they work for Charlie???Let US DECIDE
Sunday, April 12 Report this
Lktinsanfran
It's the "Peter Principle" on steroids. Bishop needs to go. The fact that Siddique wants to give Bishop a contract that pays him more than $750,000 is absolutely disgusting. How much of this salary is paid for by developers? I bet Coryea never made that. The corruption in this county is nauseating and I blame myself, and all the other residents, for letting it happen. WE have to do something to get these shiesters out of office.
Sunday, April 12 Report this
teamj1009
Absolutely appalling! Why is there no legal accountability regarding all of the goings on that apparently would not pass a litmus test. I have never seen anything like the running of Manatee County with zero consequences and it done right in front of our faces.
Then thank you for the reminder of the terrible job that was done during the Hurricane Debbie. They have one job and that is to serve the citizens of Manatee County. They can't even do that right. Oh don't forget we are running out of water now.
So can someone tell me what they have done to make the taxpayers lives better. It is a mindset of take, take, take. Give away property for nothing or less than what we paid for it. Waste money on needless items or issues and approve items for those that line their coffers.
Just saying it nicely PATHETIC.
Sunday, April 12 Report this
Graciela0107
Since Cheri Coreia’s unfair firing we had enough problems that have affected the environment, overdevelopment allowed by the commissioners who were in the developers’ pockets, the Hopes debacle, etc., etc.
If firing Bishop and bringing back Cheri becomes a reality we will finally get off the wheel that created all the chaos and waste.
Monday, April 13 Report this
Dianna
Residents should submit public comment for the next regular BOCC meeting. We have NEVER moved in the right direction with this administration because Bishop has ALWAYS been part of the problem.
Monday, April 13 Report this
AllForOne
What an eye opener!
Monday, April 13 Report this
rjckeuka4
As one who worked with the Kruse and Farrington campaigns to jettison KVO et. al., I attended a voters information session at Freedom Village prior to the '20 election. After the presentation, I privately asked Kruse if he was elected, would he get rid of Bishop, given his shaky history with Hopes, KVO, etc. and his loyalty to them. His response was that the move would create too much "turmoil" after all the turmoil getting rid of Hopes, as well as the turmoil on the Board. Now look where we are 2 years later. Shoulda listened George!
Monday, April 13 Report this
The Gadfly
Manatee County Commissioners,
I think it’s time you take the county out of the dark ages. Why? Bishop’s compensation matches best performing county administrators. He’s not. The terms reek of corruption. I think some of you at least pay lip service to virtues such as integrity and excellence. For starters, you might want to look up ICMA. It’s time to professionalize the highest paying job of the entire Manatee BOCC, don’t you think?
Hint: answer starts with Y.
Friday, April 24 Report this