County to top boss: Don't leave

BRADENTON — Manatee County commissioners like the work County Administrator Ed Hunzeker has done so much that they asked him to postpone his retirement, initially scheduled for 2014.

Commissioners made their plea publicly to Hunzeker after he presented the county annual report at a Tuesday meeting. Hunzeker, scheduled to retire this summer, has been Manatee County Administrator since 2007. He previously held leadership posts with Hillsborough County, and with a hospital and a transportation authority in St. Louis.

“(Hunzeker) has accomplished many money-saving measures in his time here, and he's given us a peek of an ambitious agenda ahead,” Manatee County Commission Chairman Larry Bustle says. “Ed's leadership is vital. I think it's a bad time to let him go.”