Land deal, conservative philosophy drive move to fire Manatee County administrator
Newly elected commissioners denied any knowledge of a behind-the-scenes effort to get rid of Cheri Coryea after the board voted 4-3 Thursday to notify the county administrator they were moving toward firing her.
But one of the new commissioners said they do have their reasons for wanting to remove Coryea, namely her handling of a recent multi-million-dollar land purchase by the county and their more conservative, business-friendly approach to county government.
Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge, who requested Thursday’s special meeting to discuss a different item, did not tell his fellow board members that he would raise the issue of Coryea’s employment, and it was not included on the agenda. Still, the topic didn’t necessarily come as a surprise to sitting commissioners, who believed Van Ostenbridge’s proposal was “premeditated,” and that real estate developers who backed the new commissioners in the recent election were seeking to oust Coryea.
Commissioners James Satcher, George Kruse, Vanessa Baugh and Van Ostenbridge voted in support of the motion. Commissioners Reggie Bellamy, Misty Servia and Carol Whitmore cast dissenting votes. The Board of County Commissioners will hold a special meeting on Jan. 6 to make a decision about Coryea’s employment.
Members of the public were not present for Thursday’s vote because it was not advertised as an agenda item. Van Ostenbridge dismissed concerns about whether the vote to proceed with the termination of Coryea lacked transparency.
“When I made the motion, I knew it was a motion to give notice of a meeting to terminate,” he said. “I knew that the public would have ample opportunity to weigh in.”
Reached for comment Friday afternoon, former commissioner Betsy Benac called the board’s action “absurd,” lambasting Van Ostenbridge’s decision to hold Coryea accountable for the board’s decision to buy land on Lena Road for new county facilities.
“Cheri was only doing her job in fulfilling the vote. I think it’s absurd to think you should fire a county administrator for doing their job,” Benac said.
Coryea has served Manatee County government for more than 30 years, with 28 of those years in management positions. She previously led the county’s Neighborhood Services Department for 10 years before working as deputy county administrator.
After former county administrator Ed Hunzeker’s 2019 retirement, the board chose Coryea to fill the position. As administrator, Coryea is tasked with overseeing the day-to-day operations of Manatee County government and its 1,900 employees.
Van Ostenbridge said Coryea’s handling of the county’s $32.5 million purchase of 161 acres of vacant land was a “fireable offense,” arguing that she had wasted tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. According to Van Ostenbridge, the land is only worth $6 million, but county staff and a certified appraiser had valued the land at anywhere between $18 and $22 million.
Sheriff Rick Wells was supportive of the land deal because the property is set to include a fleet facility for the sheriff’s office, something the office has been searching for since Sheriff Brad Steube’s term, he said.
“We have just been trying to get a new facility for a long time,” Wells said. “Obviously, there is an issue with the price now, but as far as the location, it fit our needs, so we were happy to be included on that piece of land.”
The property could also one day house a future sheriff’s office substation or district office.
“Our district 3 substation, we lease that building,” Wells said. “So we’re talking — maybe in the future, if we have the funding — get out of that lease and build a substation.”
In the end, the Manatee County Commission, not Coryea, had the final say on the matter, voting once to approve the contract and a second time to deny reconsideration of the deal, despite protests from Satcher, Van Ostenbridge and Kruse, who were not yet elected. On Nov. 13, ahead of Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony for the new commissioners, Coryea presented the contract to commissioner chairwoman Benac, who signed off on the final approval.
County staff spoke highly of the deal to purchase the land just north of the Lena Road Landfill. It paves the way for three county departments to house new facilities in a central location, including the sheriff’s office, the Utilities Department and the Public Works Department.
“Ultimately, I’m holding (Coryea) accountable for steering the board in the wrong direction. The board overpaid for this property by $25 million dollars, and I feel that kind of advice is a fireable offense,” Van Ostenbridge said in an interview with the Bradenton Herald. “I’ve lost trust in the administrator.”
Are Manatee’s commissioners working together to push Coryea out?
While the new commissioners pointed to that purchase as grounds for termination, Benac said she believed the group had been planning to oust Coryea for months.
“I guess it doesn’t come as a surprise, other than it happening so quickly. We saw them all meeting during the campaign,” Benac said. “They were meeting, assuming that they were going to get elected and coming up with strategies.”
“They were laser-focused on getting it done,” she added. “There are development interests that would very much like someone in the county administrator’s office who is anti-government and anti-regulation.”
Accused of similar allegations at Thursday’s meeting, Baugh categorically denied any advanced coordination with new commissioners or developers. She did not respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
“I don’t know anything about ‘premeditated.’ I don’t know anything about developers coming to anybody. None have come to me, but I can tell you this: the citizens do come to me, and they’re the ones that are important, and by the way, I guess developers are citizens, too, but that’s beside the point,” Baugh said Thursday.
In a tweet posted Thursday night, Baugh said she supported an effort to “drain the swamp.”
“Is ‘deep state’ strictly DC or local as well?! I say drain the swamp!” Baugh wrote.
Bellamy was also aware of the incoming commissioners’ intentions, even going as far as to question them about the subject before Election Day.
“I looked you all in the face and said, ‘Do you all plan to fire the county administrator?’” Bellamy said at Thursday’s meeting, pointing out that he asked Kruse and Van Ostenbridge on the campaign trail about the rumors. “You all said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’”
Commissioners deny accusations of ‘orchestrated’ vote
Each of the new commissioners received campaign contributions from influential developers, including Pat Neal, Carlos Beruff and Benderson Development Company. The newly sworn-in officials argued that those donations won’t influence their votes, even though they share the same “pro-business, small government” ideology as those builders.
“That’s ridiculous,” Van Ostenbridge said when asked if Beruff, who donated more than $10,000 to his campaign, was involved in his decision. “If I made a proclamation in favor of clean water and fresh air, people would say I only made that proclamation because Carlos Beruff needs that to build more houses.”
Whitmore, who was visibly upset at Thursday’s meeting, said she didn’t buy that excuse, and claimed Van Ostenbridge and the others were working together all along. She said another motion that the board approved on Thursday is proof of prior collusion.
Before discussion of Coryea’s employment, Baugh used the special meeting, which was only called to formally approve Van Ostenbridge’s request that County Attorney’s Office study the county’s local options under a possible federal lockdown, to bring up a draft resolution that amended the board’s rules and procedures.
“We need some flexibility, on occasion, to do what we need to do. It’s not with any ill-intent. There’s nothing dastardly,” Baugh said, explaining her resolution, which allows the board to waive certain procedures by majority vote.
According to Chief Assistant County Attorney Bill Clague, other Florida counties have similar guidelines, though Baugh did not share specific examples of how the resolution would be used to provide more flexibility. The resolution passed by the same 4-3 as Coryea’s termination notification.
“It was the most poorly orchestrated vote in Manatee County I’d ever seen,” Whitmore said. “When we’re talking about something and other commissioners just happen to have the procedures in their hand? A first-grader could figure that out.”
On Friday, Kruse denied any involvement in previous discussions to fire Coryea and said he voted in support of moving forward so that the board could have an open conversation on the topic.
“We all campaigned together as Republicans. We had fundraisers together. While we’re all talking, we focused on low taxes and efficiency,” he explained. “From that standpoint, there was campaign chatter, but there was nothing like, ‘Let’s sit down and go over an organizational chart about who we’re getting rid of.’”
Between now and the January meeting, he vowed to meet with as many people as possible to come to a “fully informed decision.”
“I want to walk in as educated as I can be, because at the end of the day, Cheri is the CEO of Manatee County. There is no more important topic than figuring this out,” Kruse said.
“I’ve only been on the board for two days and I don’t want to stifle conversation,” he continued. “This at least allows us to start a clock — albeit a short and premature one — to fully research this.”
Satcher, who was recently sworn-in to represent District 1, also said he was open to learning more about the Lena Road deal before deciding to terminate Coryea.
“I’m still open and listening,” he said.
New commissioners point to Hunzeker’s shadow
But when asked about whether developer interest played into his decision to vote in support of Thursday’s motion, Satcher appeared to have already made up his mind, noting that he ran on a platform of “shaking things up” and referencing Hunzeker’s 12-year tenure as county administrator.
“I’ve been a grown man making my own decisions for a while now, and I don’t make those decisions based on influence or money,” Satcher said. “I try to make those decisions based on wisdom, and it seems to me that it’s wise that if we want to see a change, we’re going to have to make some changes.”
Hunzeker found himself subject to a similar attempt at dismissal in December 2016 when the commission, led by Baugh, voted 4-3 against renewing his contract and opted to begin a national search to replace him. The effort ultimately failed and Hunzeker retired in 2019.
“I think we’re going to find that there hasn’t been a significant change in how the county has been run since Ed Hunzeker was in the position, and I think it’s very clear that the people of Manatee County rejected that direction,” Satcher continued, referring to Hunzeker’s loss to Kruse in the GOP primary in August.
“I ran my campaign as a small-government, low-tax conservative. I don’t believe I can deliver on that promise if the county is run by a bureaucrat who has spent the last 30-plus years growing our government,” Van Ostenbridge said, referring to Coryea’s experience under Hunzeker. “We have fundamental differences and philosophies.”
The reaction from former Commissioner Priscilla Whisenant Trace was that there’s nothing more to research about Coryea’s leadership. She called the administrator the “hardest-working person in the county” and echoed the rumors that the new board would make major changes.
“I was expecting it, but 50 hours in? I thought that was outrageous,” said Trace, who was defeated by Satcher in the Republican primary. “I couldn’t believe it. It was unbelievable.”
The previous board rarely had negative things to say about Coryea. In a Nov. 10 meeting to discuss her most recent performance evaluation, she passed with flying colors.
“Cheri is considered by the community as one of the best county administrators in the state. Her knowledge, personality and long-term service to the county is virtually irreplaceable,” Benac wrote in a Nov. 4 evaluation.
“The quality I admire most about Cheri is her sound judgment,” Servia wrote in an Oct. 27 performance review. “She asks the right questions and seeks expert advice when needed. Her decisions are always solid.”
Former Commissioner Stephen Jonsson was more critical of Coryea, writing in an Oct. 3 evaluation that the administrator needed improvement in every area. He wrote that her handling of the budget was “unacceptable” but did not provide additional comments about how she might improve. Jonsson, who did not run for re-election in the 2020 election and was succeeded on the commission by Van Ostenbridge, did not respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
Baugh, who has spoken highly of Coryea in the past, was the only commissioner who did not complete a performance evaluation, arguing at a Nov. 10 meeting that she didn’t believe a public forum was an appropriate venue.
“I did not because I think I would rather have a personal conversation with Cheri, individually, rather than publicly, to discuss my thoughts,” Baugh told her fellow commissioners. “Mine was not negative or positive because I didn’t do one.”
Moving forward, Van Ostenbridge said he’d like to see county government “mirror the private sector wherever possible.”
“Basically, I would love to find someone with very little government experience and strong business acumen to run the county,” Van Ostenbridge explained. “Cheri Coryea is a very nice person, and I admire her years of dedication to the county. I wish her well.”
Local leaders weigh in on Coryea decision
Sheriff Wells, like many, said he was caught off-guard by the events that transpired at Thursday’s commission meeting. Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston also told the Bradenton Herald he wasn’t expecting the development.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Cheri for about 14 years now, since when she was working in the community (with) Neighborhood Services. She was always a big part of making sure we were partnered up,” Wells said. “I have always had a lot of great respect for Cheri, and she has always done a great job of doing what she can for Manatee County.”
Thursday’s meeting also prompted a response in the form of official correspondence from Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth, who also wrote to the board earlier in the week, criticizing the board’s discussion of beach parking during a Tuesday work session.
“Now in witness of the very first meeting of many, I would like the record to show my sincere and deep concern for the future of this county,” Titsworth wrote in a scathing letter to the Manatee County Commission on Friday. “My only ask at this most critical period is for the board to pause and take the time to become familiar with the operations of the county government and its many facets, and the vast experiences of the department heads, employees and your many stakeholders.”
Wells said he will be “sitting back, waiting to see what the outcome is going to be.”
“I guess maybe we’ll get those answers on Jan. 6,” he said.
Herald staff writer Jessica De Leon contributed to this story.
This story was originally published November 21, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
