City Considers Consolidating Agency Leadership

When Sherod Halliburton leaves the Central Community Redevelopment Agency later this month, a search will begin for his replacement. Or will it?

The question came up before. Should Bradenton have more than one redevelopment director? The city has three community redevelopment agencies. Two of them are run by Dave Gustafson, and the third by the departing Halliburton.

“I brought it up at a workshop,” said Bradenton City Councilman Bemis Smith. “And I brought it up when we established the Downtown Development Authority.”

Gustafson recently presented the City Council will a list of 35 projects he is heading for the downtown development agency, which include a large redevelopment project for Bradenton's downtown waterfront and the rehabilitation of a historic landmark in the center of downtown. The Central Community Redevlopment Agency is working to bring a grocery store to 14th Street, has receive large grants for training and workforce projects and has a mission toward the people living in that area and cleaning  up the neglect and blight in those neighborhoods.

Combining all of those missions and putting them under a single director could be challenging.

“There has been some discussion of combining [the leadership], but I’m not sure it has gone anywhere,” said Councilman Gene Gallo.

The issue could rise again as the redevelopment agency board meets Thursday. It will be Halliburton’s final meeting before he leaves to take his new job as the vice president of Manatee Community Federal Credit Union.

Chairman Stephen Thompson said it’s going to be difficult to replace Halliburton, and trying to find someone to run all three Bradenton community redevelopment agencies would be even harder.

“I don’t know if we could find one person to do all that,” Thompson said. “Sherod has us working on a lot of different initiatives. If you add downtown and 14^th Avenue, could one person do that? Finding them is not going to be easy.”

The idea behind consolidating the positions is to save money, but having one executive director over three redevelopment areas, doesn't necessarily mean a cost savings.

Community Redevelopment Agencies use tax-increment financing to pay for their operations. Since the real estate downturn, revenues across the state have dropped dramatically. The Central Community Redevelopment Agency in east Bradenton at the peak of the market had a $1.8 million budget; this year it’s close to $1 million.

“If it’s an issue of effectiveness and saving money, I’ll support that,” said Gallo. “But if it increases the salary and we have to hire a couple of staff members in addition, I’m not for it.”

Council members seem to recognize that the different missions and the different priorities will be challenging for a single director, but they are exploring every possibility.

“Last I heard there was no formal decision on which way to go,” said Smith. “Would there be any benefit to merge the leadership? If not, then what type of person do we need?”

Halliburton understands the tug-of-war.

“It’s natural to look at all the options,” he said. “But I hope they arrive at the conclusion these districts are unique, and require unique leadership.”