Previous talks about a new county administrator have gotten ugly. Will the drama continue Tuesday?

Nearly three months after voting to not renew Manatee County Administrator Ed Hunzeker’s contract, county commissioners will begin the process next week to find his successor.

At 2 p.m. Tuesday, commissioners will discuss the national search to replace Hunzeker, whose contract expires Jan. 29, 2018. The discussion will take place in the first floor commission chambers in the Manatee County Administration Building, 1112 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.

Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, who initiated the conversation in December, placed the item — “Request for Proposal for a Firm to Begin a National Search for a County Administrator” — on Tuesday’s agenda.

During an all-day strategic planning session last month, commissioners gave Rodney Barnes, the county’s human resources director, the OK to begin preparing a request for proposals for an executive search firm to assist. But the meeting was filled with accusations, raised voices and finger-pointing.

“We, as directors, work in the interest of this, and I would conduct a search with the interest of that in mind,” Barnes said at the Feb. 9 work session. “I stand ready to provide that assistance in whatever way the commissioners want.”

Since the December 4-3 vote to proceed with a national search to replace Hunzeker rather than extend his contract, there has been tension among commissioners about the subject.

The commissioners voting in favor of a national search were Baugh, Robin DiSabatino, Steve Jonsson and Charles Smith. Voting against a search were commissioners Betsy Benac, Priscilla Whisenant Trace and Carol Whitmore.

“In order for us to move forward, we’ve got to be united, and we can’t be so fractured as we have been in the past,” DiSabatino said in February.

Barry Banther, who facilitated the strategic planning session, told commissioners that they have a “much bigger issue than anything that we put on this chart,” referencing the commission’s goals.

“There is still a lot of anger toward Ed, our current administrator, in this room,” Banther said in February. “You need to get that out. You need to vent it. Any very capable administrator will pick up disunity and won’t take the job.”

Tuesday’s conversation about the county administrator search will be the first public conversation on the subject since the February retreat when chairwoman Benac said the commission has to focus on the future.

“We have a job to do to move this community forward,” she said. “We aren’t going to make it political. We aren’t going to have it be a group of four against three.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 10:10 AM with the headline "Previous talks about a new county administrator have gotten ugly. Will the drama continue Tuesday?."