Manatee aims to make Charles Hines acting county administrator. They’re short on time
.jpeg "The Manatee County Commission hopes to come to an agreement that would make former Sarasota commissioner Charles Hines their acting county administrator by Feb. 23.")
The Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday to begin negotiating with Charles Hines to become interim county administrator, but the deal is far from finalized.
Hines, a former Sarasota County commissioner, has met with most of the Manatee County Commission to discuss his interest in the position. Contract negotiations have hardly started, however, and the deal could still fall apart if both parties don’t reach an agreement.
The board is looking to Hines to manage the county’s 1,900-employee workforce as it prepares to part ways with County Administrator Cheri Coryea, who came under fire from some of the commission’s more conservative members. Commissioners expect to come up with a severance package for Coryea, who has been with the county for more than 30 years, on Feb. 23.
In a Friday afternoon interview with the Bradenton Herald, Hines said he hopes he’s the right guy to keep Manatee moving in the right direction in the wake of Coryea’s inevitable exit.
“They all seem like really nice people looking for someone to get things back on track,” Hines said. “I hope I can help Manatee County and would like to do it.”
First elected in 2012, Hines was term-limited in 2020 after spending two terms on the Sarasota County Commission representing District 5 as a Republican. Citing the time constraint related to finding an interim administrator before Feb. 23, County Attorney Bill Clague pitched Hines as a candidate at Tuesday’s meeting.
“I am concerned that we’re on a tight time frame,” Clague said at the time. “I agree the government doesn’t fall apart if we don’t have somebody, but there are many decisions within the county that only a designated acting county administrator has the authority to make.”
Hines acknowledged that a contract with the county might not come to fruition, depending on his own requests and the board’s intent for the position. Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge raised his own concerns earlier this week, pointing out that Hines doesn’t live in the county.
“It’s a totally legitimate point, but it’s not like I live in Miami,” Hines said when asked if living in Nokomis would affect his performance, noting that Manatee and Sarasota are part of a regional body with partnerships in several areas, including Longboat Key, Lakewood Ranch and the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.
“There are residents in Manatee who have never met me or heard of me. I’m not a policymaker. From what I understand, it’s going to be a short period of time,” he added. “The face and decision-makers is the Board of County Commissioners, not the administrator, especially in the interim.”
If the deal does go through, Hines says he’ll tap into the experience acquired by participating in the hiring of two county administrators in Sarasota.
“You need to find an administrator that fits in with the personality and the direction that is set by the county commission and work with staff to implement those qualities,” said Hines. “I’ve been involved with three different administrators, so I know the different styles and I can share that with them and hopefully get them to a consensus to find one with a certain type of style or personality.”
Speaking with the Bradenton Herald on Friday afternoon, Commissioner Misty Servia said she looked forward to Hines’ guidance. On Tuesday, she said he was the “perfect person” to take the temporary job.
“I don’t know him well, but I like his calm demeanor and I’m looking for someone to steady the ship as a temporary bridge,” Servia said, who preferred to implement a national search — with an emphasis on Florida candidates — for the permanent spot.
Van Ostenbridge expressed a similar desire. He said he aimed to keep the search in Florida so that candidates have a full understanding of state law.
“I would like to see a one-year acting administrator who would steer the ship and stabilize the county while the board conducts a statewide search,” he said. “The only reason I shy away from a national search is because the law changes state by state and the learning curve will already be large.”
Servia also highlighted the urgency of finding a candidate ahead of Feb. 23. After the first attempt to fire Coryea, she urged her fellow board members to put together a succession plan to avoid any disruptions to county business.
“The biggest challenge is that time is short,” Servia explained. “I hope Charles Hines works out because we don’t have time.”
Hines plans to meet with commissioners and Clague several times over the course of the next week to hammer out a contract agreement. If it works out, the board is expected to vote on that agreement at a later date.
