BOCC to Vote on Bishop's Contract Tuesday

In a Manatee County Commission meeting scheduled for Tuesday, board members will vote on a proposed contract that would make newly hired Manatee County Administrator Charlie Bishop the highest-paid administrator in Manatee County history. 

The proposed contract calls for a base salary of $220,000 ($5,000 above the last raise approved by the BOCC for former administrator Scott Hopes), along with $22,500 in "deferred compensation," which remains untaxed until it is accessed, presumably when the earner is retired and benefiting from a lower tax bracket. The contract calls for the maximum amount in deferred compensation allowed by the IRS for any given year and would rise annually as that number is adjusted upward each annum.

Bishop would also get a county vehicle and all other benefits owed to a county employee. This would include getting any and all cost of living increases. Because COLA adjustments are authorized as a percentage of salary, Bishop, as the highest-paid county employee, would see much larger increases than rank-and-file personnel. In fact, the upcoming 3% COLA recently approved by the Manatee County Commission in its upcoming budget will see Bishop's base jump to approximately $226,600, less than a week after signing the contract.

A longtime employee of the county, Bishop was promoted to Manatee County Property Management Director in 2015 before being elevated to a deputy county administrator position by Hopes in August of 2021. 

In the fall of 2022, TBT uncovered evidence that while serving in these roles, Bishop oversaw significant and costly renovations to the county administration building’s ninth and second floors without applying for—or receiving—required building permits or inspections.

Following our reporting on the issue, the county did apply for and obtained what it referred to as an "after the fact" permit, allowing city and fire inspectors to retroactively inspect and approve the renovations.

An official with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation provided a statement to TBT that confirmed that the projects were not exempt from the permitting process, as some commissioners attempted to claim. Additionally, a spokesperson from the City of Bradenton’s Fire Department told TBT that its department had been unaware that the renovations had taken place, that fire officials had become “involved” after we reported the incidences and that they would be inspecting the completed work to ensure it was in accordance to statutes.

Later in 2022, TBT investigated allegations that—while director of property management—Bishop may have inappropriately hired a company owned by a former county employee and girlfriend of his. The company was hired to provide post-hurricane aerial drone services, despite what amounted to an expired procurement contract from before the county began funding its own in-house drone program.

At the time of our reporting, Manatee County’s PIO told TBT via email that the county administration was “investigating this issue” and that there was “no further comment as the investigation is ongoing." Our outstanding request on the outcome of that investigation remains unfulfilled.

Hopes was hired as administrator following an outright gutting of top Manatee County bureaucrats that began after the 2020 elections and included the dismissal of County Administrator Cheri Coryea, who was immensely popular with both staff and the public if not local developers. While administrator, Hopes made numerous missteps that culminated with the board parting ways with the former school board member and current CEO of a deeply troubled private jet club in January.

Hopes remains under investigation by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office for alleged sunshine law violations regarding his alleged wiping of devices that he had used for communicating county business, potentially resulting in the destruction of required public records that he had been in legal stewardship of.

At the time of Hopes' exodus, commissioners promised the public that the board would conduct a national search for an outside candidate who did not have potential conflicts of interest. Board members also promised voters that they would not hire from within, seemingly a nod to the pervasive corruption and cronyism that has long plagued Manatee County Government.

Despite those assurances and the fact that the public got stuck paying for an extensive national search, the board changed course in the eleventh hour and opted to make Bishop the permanent administrator. Neither Hopes nor Bishop could claim any sort of public administration experience remotely close to that of being a top executive overseeing thousands of employees while impacting far more than 400,000 citizens before being made the two most highly compensated employees in the county's history.

A recent poll asking whether TBT readers felt that hiring Bishop had been prudent resulted in six percent of participants agreeing with the BOCC's decision, while 94 percent of our readers disagreed.