Manatee County commissioners set vote to forgo administrator search

It was about two months ago when Manatee County commissioners were telling the public that a search would be completed to find a long-term administrator.

That was just before Scott Hopes was selected as the interim administrator April 1.

On May 25, the commissioners have set up a vote to appoint Hopes as the permanent administrator while canceling the search that was promised.

Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, who was among six of the seven commissioners who said a search should be conducted, said it’s impossible not to be concerned about losing public trust in a situation like this. Baugh said she expects some citizens will voice displeasure when the commission votes May 25 on whether Hopes should be elevated to the permanent position.

“However, I think sometimes you have to make the decision that you feel is best for the constituents and the county as a whole,” Baugh said.

Commissioners Baugh, Carol Whitmore, Kevin Van Ostenbridge and James Satcher voted May 11 to consider whether Hopes should be appointed as the long-term administrator at the May 25 commission meeting. The three commissioners said circumstances change and, for a variety of reasons, it makes more sense now to elevate Hopes to the permanent role than it does to follow through with a search.

Baugh and Whitmore, usually opponents on the board, both said an administrator search could prove to be a waste of money, given how impressed they are with Hopes’ performance thus far. Baugh estimated a search would cost the county about $50,000.

Whitmore said she considered whether some commissioners had orchestrated Hopes’ hiring. Therefore, she originally had reservations about whether Hopes would be a good fit for the county. She said those concerns have been assuaged after six weeks.

Whitmore said she will use the two weeks between the May 11 meeting and the May 25 vote to evaluate feedback from the public, but thus far, the vast majority of comments she has received regarding Hopes have been positive.

“I just want the citizens to feel comfortable that if he does not perform like he has been these last six weeks, if we find or I find that he isn’t the fit for us, or that it’s not going to work, I will be the first one to ask the board to reconsider with termination,” Whitmore said.

Baugh and Whitmore cited the county’s most recent attempt at an administrator search was a waste of time and money. In 2017, the commission conducted a search to find a replacement for then-Administrator Ed Hunzeker, who was set to retire in January 2018. After whittling the search down to six candidates, Baugh and Whitmore said commissioners decided that they didn’t like any of them.

“It was a joke,” Whitmore said. “What am I going to learn about somebody on a Zoom when I’ve got somebody right next to me that is performing A-plus and understands Manatee County, understands budgeting and understands private sector?”

Instead, they persuaded Hunzeker to renew his contract for one more year before choosing Deputy Administrator Cheri Coryea to take his place.

Van Ostenbridge said he doesn’t think the county will miss out on any long-term savings by cutting the cost of an administrator search. He said the danger of hosting a search is losing Hopes if the county doesn’t elevate him to the permanent position.

“I can throw hypotheticals at you all day long,” Van Ostenbridge said. “Why are we going to go out there for a search and waste money for something that may or may not exist when we know we have a good thing? Why upset the apple cart? Things are stable, and we have a guy who meets all of the criteria that we said we were looking for.”

Commissioner George Kruse said the reason to hold a search is honesty.

The administrators had assured the public during a rushed interim administrator search process that a thorough search would be conducted with opportunities for public input.

“We promised something,” Kruse said. “I tell people all the time, ‘You don’t have to agree with what I say, but you at least have to believe what I say.’”

He also said there is no value in hiring Hopes for the permanent role now, considering he still has more than 10 months to go on his interim term.

Kruse proposed waiting until Oct. 1 to consider starting the search, at which point commissioners would have likely heard more feedback from the public about Hopes’ performance. He said that by then, if the commissioners still want to forgo the search and appoint Hopes to the permanent position for the purpose of saving taxpayer money, at least they would have waited six months into his interim term instead of six weeks.

Van Ostenbridge and Baugh said they weren’t worried hiring Hopes now could give citizens the impression a deal had been agreed upon previously. Baugh said she didn’t even support Hopes until after she met with him, while Van Ostenbridge said any constituents who follow their meetings closely should know better.

“If anyone watches our meetings and sees how our board interacts, it’s pretty obvious that there’s no coordination going on,” Van Ostenbridge said. “I think our meetings are anything but orchestrated.”

However, every commissioner except Satcher advocated for either a statewide or nationwide search to find the county’s next long-term administrator.

Whitmore and Van Ostenbridge said they trust Hopes can handle anything thrown his way because of his vast experience in both the public and private sectors.

For example, Hopes has served in former Gov. Jeb Bush’s cabinet as director of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Office of Health Policy, which included a $15 billion budget. Among many private sector positions, he once worked as the senior vice president of DaVita Kidney Care East Coast Operations.

Van Ostenbridge said he felt Hopes was the right person for the job all along. Although the commissioner once supported a statewide search, he said he did so only to compromise with other commissioners, most of whom also said they wanted to do a search for the permanent administrator.

Baugh said that given his performance, Hopes deserves more leeway than the interim administrator title allows him. His current contract places limitations on his ability to hire and fire staff, for example. Baugh, who is responsible for negotiating the contract that commissioners will consider May 25, said she would likely aim for a one- or two-year contract that requires commissioners to vote before renewing it. She said some previous administrator contracts renewed automatically.

Baugh and Whitmore agreed the commission has become far more stable since Hopes became administrator, which Whitmore attributed to Hopes’ prior connections with some commissioners and firm management of seven strong-minded personalities.

They were also impressed by how much county staff has enjoyed working with him. Whitmore said county stability is especially important now because of the large number of work sessions soon to be scheduled and the number of projects, especially those dealing with infrastructure, the commission is attempting to fast-track.