Scott Hopes out as Manatee County administrator

The embattled administrator, who was hired in May 2021, had reorganized the face of Manatee County’s government.

JAY HEATER MANAGING EDITOR

Manatee County Administrator

Scott Hopes said in November that he was done reorganizing the county’s government structure.

On Feb. 7, he was simply done.

During an emergency Manatee County Commission meeting, a separation agreement between Hopes and the county was approved by commissioners.

Hopes, who was earning $215,000 a year, walked out the door with 120 days of severance pay and an additional six months of health benefits.

It ended a rocky 22 months in the county’s top governmental role in which many of the county’s top administrators resigned under pressure.

In a December 2021 interview, District 5 Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said Hopes had done a great job after “stepping into a hornet’s nest.”

In May 2022, Baugh wrote a op-ed column in the East County Observer, defending Hopes. She wrote:

“While 593 employees left the county in the 14 months since Scott Hopes took over as administrator, only 243 of those resigned. A look at HR records from the previous 14 months shows 426 people parted ways with the county, with 141 resignations and 58 quitting, and giving less than two weeks’ notice.

“Also, since the new administration took over, 815 positions within Manatee County Government have been filled, including 473 new employees, five dozen re-hires and 166 promotions.”

Baugh wrote that Manatee Coun- ty had hired “a new administrator to help shepherd us through this important period of change.”

Hopes had replaced Cheri Coryea, who was fired in March 2021. Coryea was a veteran county employee who was well-liked. By May 2021, the commissioners took the “interim” wording off Hopes’ title and reneged on a promise to perform a national job search.

Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge, the Manatee County Commission chair, confirmed at approximately noon on Feb. 7 that Hopes and the county had chosen to part ways. An emergency meeting of county commissioners was called for 2 p.m. that day to name Lee Washington, the county’s director of community and veterans services, as the interim administrator and to approve Hopes’ separation agreement.

Hopes was present on the fifth floor of the Manatee County Administration building as commissioners took turns praising his tenure.

Baugh praised Hopes’ actions as administrator, especially calling attention to his response to the Piney Point disaster when he was an interim administrator.

“I remember working with you very closely on that, and you acted like you had already been here 10 or 15 years — you stepped right into it,” Baugh said. “I think that you have great potential in anything that you set your mind to do, and it’s been an honor working with you.”

But his tenure had its ups and downs.

Manatee County commissioners had voted 4-3 on May 24, 2022 to extend Hopes’ contract even though three of the commissioners — Misty Servia, Reggie Bellamy and Carol