Relentless – with Heart

Pat Neal was chair of the Natural Resources and the Senate Appropriations committees in the 1980s when he was “bouncing around” Tallahassee with a young Charlie Hunsicker.

Hunsicker at the time was deputy director of planning for the Manatee County Utilities Department. Hired by the county in 1977, Hunsicker already had a reputation for getting things done when it came to building legislative support for one of his environmental projects or securing state or federal dollars.

Years later, Neal can still remember following Hunsicker from one office to another.

“He already was known as a very popular, active person,” says Neal, who left politics to become one of Florida’s premier residential builders. “All of a sudden, he was working these miracles. He knew everyone, and we would bounce from office to office before ending up at the governor’s office. People would say no, but pretty soon, they would say yes. He was relentless. He was Blue-Eyed Charlie.”

Now after 40 years with Manatee County, Blue-Eyed Charlie might have transformed into Silver-Haired Charlie, but he still is relentless, much in the same manner as he was when he was hired as a planner by the county in 1977. His current title, his seventh with Manatee County, is director of the Parks and Natural Resources Department, but no matter what his job, he has tried to find ways to preserve environmentally significant land.

Besides securing that land, Hunsicker has seen his responsibilities increase over the years, including the duty of overseeing the parks department beginning in 2014. That’s important to those living in Lakewood Ranch as the county tries to increase the availability of parks for an ever-growing population.

"My philosophy remains that it is going to take us longer to get there, but we are no less determined to arrive."

— Charlie Hunsicker

At 67, Country Club’s Hunsicker is spending more time working in the Lakewood Ranch area where he lives. The rapid growth of the area has left a gap in parks services.

To that end, Manatee County spent $5.2 million to purchase the 127-acre Premier Sports Campus in 2017 and then in 2018 bought another 75 acres just north of Premier for $4.6 million. The idea is to build a park to rival G.T. Bray, the crown jewel of Manatee County’s parks program in West Bradenton that includes athletic fields, administration offices, an amphitheater, basketball courts, a dog park, fitness center, racket courts, playgrounds, picnic areas and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Although the new Premier regional park is still in the planning stages, Hunsicker says it could include all those things and more. The park, which is expected to be completed over 10 years for approximately $25 million, will be a community focal point. Besides day-to-day recreational opportunities, Hunsicker says the park will offer championship-level facilities that can host tournaments and stimulate sports tourism.

An avid golfer and kayaker, Hunsicker knows firsthand that building parks in Lakewood Ranch, which he calls “the new frontier,” takes serious thought. If it seems the county has been slow to react to East County’s growth in terms of parks, Hunsicker says people should understand the builders have been providing recreational opportunities for residents.

“Developing parks in Lakewood Ranch brings challenges,” he says. “Developers build better golf courses, pools, fitness centers to get the customers they want. It’s a full-out competition between them, an arms race. It certainly affects our approach to what we need to serve those areas. We don’t need to build a pool next to a pool. Look at Greenbrook [Adventure] Park, which is far superior to ours. Look at Heritage Harbour and what they are doing.”

Neal agrees.

“The Ranch and individual developers created their own amenities,” Neal says. “We wanted them right now. It’s not easy to provide additional facilities.”

Still, the Premier site will give the area an identity and presents an opportunity to provide recreation opportunities available to everyone.

“It’s a bubble diagram right now,” Hunsicker says of the park’s planning stage. “We’ve got 450 projects in the county going on, and we are on a moving escalator. We have a $123 million capital budget over the next 10 years. We are spending $25 million in that one specific area. I am proud and excited about what we are doing.

“But I am careful not to unbalance expenditures for any community. East County is getting its share.” 

The Power of Charlie

When it comes to finding a steward of East County parks and preserves, Neal says the area is in good hands with Hunsicker. “He is smart, and he knows the rules,” Neal says. “He is in contact with everyone. He is well liked in environmental circles. He has a lot of institutional memory you can’t replace.”

But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Spending money on environmental projects — or proposing the public purchase of environmentally sensitive land — isn’t always a simple sell to a county commission that has one lone democrat. It requires knowledge, negotiation and the power to persuade.

Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh insists she is a member of the Charlie Hunsicker fan club, even if they don’t always see eye-to-eye on how the county should spend its money.

“Charlie is the longest [tenured] employee in Manatee County, and he could have retired, but he loves what he does,” she says. “He loves the environment.”

Hunsicker’s environmental projects aren’t always well received because of cost, but both Neal and Baugh say he accomplishes the lion’s share of what he seeks, especially when it comes to securing funds for projects. 

“It’s just his years of experience,” Baugh says. “He has it down pat. He knows the people in Tallahassee and Washington. I have seen it time and time again. I’ve been to Tallahassee and to D.C. on projects with Charlie. He is relentless. If he sees a conflict, he smooths it. He maneuvers until he gets it done. He never runs out of energy, and he never lets an argument stand in his way. He will back away and say, ‘Let’s talk about this again.’ He will eat crow if necessary. [He’ll say]: ‘I was wrong … How can we get this done?’”

The relentless part can cause some problems. Baugh says Hunsicker called her at 1 a.m. last year to talk about trying to get rid of contaminated water at Piney Point. She didn’t answer.

“He’s got a wonderful wife, Susan, and two great daughters (31-year-old Kate and 27-year-old Krista), but his work is a big part of his life,” Baugh says. “His mind always is going.”

Hunsicker insists he never has called Baugh at 1 a.m., but he also admits that “like anyone else, I have unfinished business, and I think of things at weird times. I do try to make sure I’m home each day to see ‘Jeopardy!’”

That tenacity is nothing new; it’s the passion behind the long list of career successes. He smiles when he recalls one of his proudest wins: In 1982, he fought — and won — a federal court case that forced the Environmental Protection Agency to move the dumping of toxic dredge spoils from a site 9.5 miles off Anna Maria Island to a site 27 miles from shore.

A former Boy Scout growing up in Merrill, Wisc., Hunsicker admits he can push those around him to their limits, even when he is trying to be nice “all the time.”

Manatee County Administrator Cheri Coryea, who has worked for the county for 31 years, says when she officially took over her position in March 2019, Hunsicker had booked an appointment on her first Monday, to make sure his projects were her first items of concern.

“He had me out at Robinson Preserve,” she says. “I tried to tell him: ‘We only have so much money. You have to be realistic.’ Then he says his favorite line: ‘I can save you a lot of money.’”

A year and a half later, she says they are working hard on prioritizing his projects. She says he has done a good job of understanding.

Hunsicker doesn’t just work to get items checked off his list, though. Instead, he inspires everyone in his department to come up with the best solutions, not just the ones that are planned.

Last year, Manatee County had decided to upgrade all the basketball courts at Lakewood Ranch Park. Matt Porter, the Recreation division manager for Manatee County, noticed that fewer than half of the courts were being used on a regular basis.

Hunsicker says the plan was to upgrade the basketball courts to make them “the best ever,” but after listening to Porter’s feedback and checking out the site for himself, the county decided on another plan: eliminating three of the basketball courts and replacing them with a five-court pickleball complex.

“It is a joy working with Charlie,” Porter says. “He doesn’t restrain your creativity. That’s good because I am a way-outside-the-box kind of guy.”

Porter says it’s hard not to catch Hunsicker’s enthusiasm. In July, Porter and Hunsicker went to lunch, and Hunsicker suggested they go check out the tree canopy the county is building for kids at Robinson Preserve.

“We ended up climbing all over it,” Porter says.

Still Working

In the future, Hunsicker hopes county residents become more invested in their parks. Manatee County’s investment in the area has been “less than robust” compared to counties of similar size in the state, Hunsicker says. He would like to see that change.

“Our recreation always had been in the reactive, catch-up mode,” he says. “But our elected officials have moved from reactive to proactive. That’s symbolized in Premier.”

He says Sarasota County’s penny sales tax for parks makes a huge difference. “They spent $67 million for one little stretch of trail,” he says. “Can you imagine what we could do with $67 million?

Hunsicker’s department has an $11 million operating budget per year. Its capital investments budget is $125 million over the next 10 years.

“My philosophy remains that it is going to take us longer to get there, but we are no less determined to arrive.”

Meanwhile, his parks department continues to grow. He has 91 employees and averages about one new position a year. That’s not enough, though, if the county builds 20 new pickleball courts. He says it takes four to five people to maintain them.

Asked how he finds the energy to deal with everything at age 67, Hunsicker turns on his car radio, and classic rock comes blasting out.

“Led Zeppelin just seems to energize me,” he says with a laugh.

Meanwhile, he is starting to get asked how long he plans to stick around.

“I look in the mirror, and I guess I can see why people ask how much longer I will keep working,” Hunsicker says. “But living in Lakewood Ranch, I always say you never grow old here.”