Welcome to Manatee County, Mr. Hopes

At Tuesday’s meeting, Manatee School Board members attempted yet another coup against board chair Scott Hopes. While the effort failed, it demonstrated that the board is still mired in dysfunction.

When Governor Rick Scott appointed Hopes–a healthcare executive with prior experience as a classroom teacher–to fill Karen Carpenter’s school board seat after she retired last year, it provided the board and district administration with an opportunity. Facing long odds in securing much-needed revenues via another additional tax referendum, Hopes brought the board a serious corporate resume, including vast experience in budgeting–from someone without local political entanglements.

Hopes immediately criticized the district for failing to show the public that it required so much additional funding, while not being up front in promising how it would spend that money if voters approved increasing school property taxes. Hopes said he couldn’t support such a referendum unless oversight was improved, suggesting that they create a citizen body similar to the audit committee (which reviews how money has been spent) to review revenues and make budgetary suggestions before funds are utilized.

As public criticism of the proposed 1 mill increase escalated, the board made the surprise move of electing Hopes as chair during its reorganization meeting last November. By putting the guy with the most credibility in ensuring that any new money would be spent wisely out in front of the campaign, chances of it passing improved dramatically, even if it remained a long shot.

Hopes did his job of selling the tax and promising accountability. The referendum eked by 51-49 percent in a special March election that cost taxpayers $300,000. That was apparently all the use the board and administration had for Mr. Hopes. On March 23, during a densely-scheduled board work session, board member Charlie Kennedy made the surprise move of asking whether the board could vote on voiding the previous chair vote and voting anew at the next meeting.

An intense two-hour debate broke out, with the board eventually voting 3-2 in favor of putting the item on the next meeting’s agenda. Members Dave Miner, Gina Messenger and Kennedy supported the motion while Hopes and John Colon, his lone ally on the board and someone who has also questioned both the tax referendum and the district’s financial stewardship. Then the members did a board training session, where hands were apparently shook and apologies issued. No one sang Kumbaya, but Hopes definitely left with the impression that the matter had been dropped, which is what he told me when I spoke to him the following Wednesday.

Hopes told me that he didn’t think it was going to come up again and would rather not comment on the matter in the interest of maintaining the board’s newfound equanimity. He also noted that he’d since learned that the board’s bylaws prevented it from removing the chair in such a manner, saying that they were required to show cause. "Hopefully someone has read the bylaws by now, and they understand it can’t be done, but I think it’s a moot issue anyway," said Hopes.

Apparently no one had read the bylaws, and supposedly miffed by Hopes’ failure to put the item on the agenda, Kennedy raised the issue at Tuesday’s meeting, where he seemed to again have the support of Miner and Messenger. However, Hopes simply refused as chair to accept a motion that conflicted with the bylaws. Board attorney Jim Dye opined that the motion did not violate state law, but Hopes remained firm that it would not be heard.

Kennedy said that a quote from a police report in which Hopes told an officer that Miner was lucky he didn’t have his gun when Miner accelerated his car toward Hopes after an altercation in the parking lot following a meeting–missing the chair’s knees by mere inches at a high rate of speed–was the reason he was moved to call for a new vote. However, it seems a little odd to show so much concern over someone’s reaction to nearly being run over by a car, yet none over another board member nearly striking him with a sedan.

Instead, it seems much more likely that both the old guard of the board and the superintendent it so loyally supports simply have little use for the outsider who wants to reign in spending and implement closer financial scrutiny. An updated projection of the revenue from that extra mill, which was given at a workshop Tuesday, shows that it may bring $4 million more than anticipated, bringing the haul to $37 million in its first year. That’s on top of the roughly $34 million additional annual dollars the district scored when the half-cent sales tax extension was passed in 2016.Now that the tax dollar spigot has been further loosened, I can't imagine they're crazy about Hopes looking over their shoulder with the gavel in his hand, while they decide how to spend money.

For his part, Hopes, who will run for reelection this November, seems perplexed as to why so many people in a district that has struggled so mightily to manage its finances, are so miffed that someone with the proper skill set would want to help them do just that. But as so many of his critics point out, Hopes isn’t from Manatee County.

Perhaps he doesn’t know the cautionary tales of reform-minded outsiders like former superintendents Gene Denisar and Rick Mills. Maybe he didn’t read Bradenton City Councilman Gene Gallo’s colorful Facebook screed in 2013, in which he explained (referring to Mills) that Manatee County has long been run by a group of good old boys, of which he proudly counted himself, and that they don’t like "outsiders" coming in and telling them how things should be done. The popular, longtime councilman spoke for many in this community who share that sentiment, and I don't believe that much has changed since.

Welcome to Manatee County, Mr. Hopes, where all is not always what it seems ...

Dennis Maley is a featured columnist and editor for The Bradenton Times. He is also the author of several works of fiction. His new novella, Sacred Hearts, is currently available in the Amazon Kindle store (clickhere). His other books can be foundhere.