Commissioner changes his mind. Manatee commission ends bid to fire county administrator
Cheri Coryea’s job as county administrator is safe, for now.
In a surprise move at the end of its meeting Tuesday, the county commission voted 7-0 to reverse a Nov. 19 vote that notified Coryea she might be fired during a special commission meeting on Jan. 6.
Coryea and her supporters can thank newly elected Commissioner George Kruse for the commission’s unexpected endorsement of her administration.
Kruse and fellow newcomers Kevin Van Ostenbridge and James Satcher, as well as the re-elected Vanessa Baugh, had voted last month to give Coryea notice of her possible dismissal. The four Republicans had indicated they were not happy with the general direction of county government, in particular Coryea’s recommendation that the previous commission, before the Nov. 3 election, spend $32.5 million on land off Lena Road in East Manatee for new public works and sheriff’s office facilities.
Van Ostenbridge and Satcher said the county had paid too much for the land.. Van Ostenbridge said Coryea’s recommendation was a “fireable” offense.
For his part, however, Kruse said at the meeting last month he had not reached a final judgment on Coryea, the county’s administrator since 2018.
“I promised everyone at that meeting that I would talk to everybody,” Kruse said Thursday.
By some accounts, including his own, Kruse did just that. He said he had met with numerous business leaders, associations, local mayors and county officials — including Coryea. He said he had concluded he did not want to possibly derail his conservative agenda for county government with the disruption that would come with replacing the administrator so early in his tenure.
“I did not promise to come in here as an agent of chaos, I promised to come here as an agent of change,” Kruse said.
Kruse said he felt he could still push for lower taxes, fewer government regulations and other conservative policies and keep Coryea as administrator.
“If I felt after all of my meetings these past three weeks that that would not be the case here, I would wholeheartedly push toward January 6 and terminate our county administrator. However, I can believe I can achieve the actual results I promised without this unnecessary disruption. And if 12 months from now the changes I promised and that you pushed for with your votes are not made, then I will personally be the next one to make the motion for termination.”
Kruse’s reversal stunned his colleagues, namely the three commissioners — Reggie Bellamy, Misty Servia and Carol Whitmore — who had voted against the move to fire Coryea. They were quick to thank him.
Whitmore said it was evident that Kruse had listened to the public. Servia said he had helped instill unity on the commission.
“I thank you so much for listening and representing the entire county,” Servia said. “You have helped to move this county forward in a positive direction. “
Van Ostenbridge, who last month made the original motion to notify Coryea of her possible firing, and Baugh were not as forgiving.
Van Ostenbridge said he was “disappointed” by Kruse’s move to reconsider the earlier vote, but he acknowledged that Kruse had done his due diligence. He said his move to fire Coryea was a “business decision,” and not an “emotional” one, for him.
“If you don’t have the votes, you don’t have the votes,” Van Ostenbridge said. “If the board is not as conservative as I thought it was, then that’s OK.”
Like Kruse, Van Ostenbridge said he would continue to advocate his conservative agenda for the county, but that he was willing to work with Coryea. Before the vote on Kruse’s motion, Van Ostenbridge said he had already reached out to Coryea, who was not at Thursday’s commission meeting, and set a time to meet with her on Friday.
Early Friday on Facebook, Van Ostenbridge wrote that he was “very disappointed that Commissioner Kruse decided not to hold anyone accountable for the Lena Rd land deal that wasted 10’s of millions of taxpayer dollars.”
He continued, “In yesterday’s meeting I realized my motion was defeated when Kruse announced his flip flop. At that point I chose to vote with the rest of the board in an effort to heal after a very tough few weeks. I saw no point in continuing to wage a battle that was already lost. ... Thank you to all the local conservatives who reached out to me in support of my attempt to hold the bureaucrats and the RINO’s accountable. We are not done pushing our conservative agenda. Smaller government and lower taxes can still be achieved.
Baugh, who on Nov. 3 was elected to her third term on the commission, said she remained unhappy about some of what was happening in the county and that she would continue to push for changes.
“Not everything in this county is run properly,” she said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 11:31 PM.
