Kennedy Rips Hopes for "Illegal Dumping

BRADENTON – Manatee County School Board member Charlie Kennedy laid into his former board colleague and current Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes at Tuesday’s meeting when the board undertook a discussion on an agreement between the county and the district afterHopes directed the county's hurricane debris removal contractor to place green debris at a district-owned property in east county where a future school is to be built.

"The county administrator took it upon himself to give approval to one of his contractors to dump hurricane debris on one of our properties without anyone’s permission at the school district," said Kennedy.

Kennedy said that he’d witnessed a lot of "egregious" acts when Hopes was on the board but that this one "took the cake."

"We were told after the fact that, hey, the county is dumping all this debris on your property," said Kennedy, "so the superintendent and legal had to jump into action to protect the district É there’s trespassing, there’s illegal dumping, there’s the conspiracy of whoever was involved in this whole process, in which at least two statutes that have been violated here."

Kennedy asked what would happen if the county decided to take debris from other municipalities and charge more than they were paying the district. He suggested the agreement be amended to prohibit such actions.

"I would love to hear at the next county commission meeting, Dr. Hopes explain to the public how he thought it was okay to unilaterally, with no one’s permission, use a school board property because he thinks he runs the whole county," said Kennedy. "This is just a perfect example of the mindset and the attitude that we had to deal with on this board with Dr. Hopes, and when I was informed of this I was just in disbelief."

Kennedy then asked why, given the county’s limited options after having already placed an enormous amount of debris on the site, the board wasn’t asking for more money.

"I would suggest–because as Mr. Dye (school board counsel) said, this is gonna be paid with FEMA money anyway–why don’t we charge them $25,000 a month? And if they don’t, we’ve got them over a barrel."

The property is located west of Post Road and south of Rangeland Parkway in Lakewood Ranch. The proposed agreement (click here to view) calls for the county to pay the school district $120,000 no later than November 1 for 12 months of usage of the site, as well as a $2 million general liability insurance and limits usage to "solely for stockpiling and mulching and removal of vegetative organic debris caused by Hurricane Ian brought on to the site by County and authorized contractors and for no other use."

A vote by the board was not required, as school district superintendent Cynthia Saunders is the custodian of the land and was able to approve the agreement without board authorization. As the agreement is to begin on November 1 and there are no county commission meetings until November 3, it does not appear that the agreement will be presented to the BOCC.

Click the video below to replay the discussion about the facilities usage agreement during Tuesday's Manatee School Board meeting.

School Board Meeting October 25, 2022 from Manatee Schools on Vimeo.