- January 28, 2026
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Manatee County staff has been given the go-ahead to re-engage with the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corp., four months after the county ended its contract with the agency.
Manatee County commissioners voted unanimously to authorize county staff to “speak with the EDC, engage with them in conversation about economic development partnerships and return that contract back to us,” Commission Chair Tal Siddique said at the Jan. 27 commission meeting.
At the end of September 2025, the EDC’s partnership with the county expired, after commissioners, in a 4-3 vote, opted not to renew the nonprofit's nearly $336,900 contract. Among the concerns lawmakers voiced at the time were return on investment and transparency.
Since then, the former head of the Bradenton Area EDC has retired; at the end of December, Sharon HIllstrom left her post as CEO, a title she held since 2011. Next, the EDC in mid-January appointed Lakewood Ranch-based Fawley Bryant Architecture partner and COO Amanda Parrish its interim CEO. The organization has also enlisted St. Pete-based executive search firm Winner Partners in its hunt for the next CEO.
The EDC is taking “steps,” including its hiring of Parrish, “to showcase to us that they’re willing to hear us, to make some changes to how they approach economic development and partnership with us,” Siddique said, explaining why he put the EDC discussion on the board’s Jan. 27 agenda.
After speaking with county staff, Siddique added, economic development is “not a function that government can and should own.”
The Bradenton Area EDC is designed to attract and retain high-wage jobs and connect businesses to resources they need for success.
Commissioner Bob McCann clarified that the commissioners were voting on “only a talk” and not on a contract with the organization.
“I would like to see some work come out of them first that actually did something for Manatee County, because I think it's a little premature,” McCann said. “We want to know what the ROI is.”
Siddique agreed that “there is some clarification needed” regarding the county’s return on investment and that “more depth” was needed in those conversations. Before the commissioners voted to allow it on Tuesday, county staff were “not authorized to talk to [the EDC] in pursuit of that,” Siddique said.
“We need to have a level understanding of what outcomes we want to achieve and make some changes,” Siddique said. “I do think they've made a lot of good faith effort to show me and others that they're willing to change some things. I had a problem with leadership. They've changed leadership. They're having good faith conversations with us…I think their board has finally woken up to needing to be more proactive in measuring successful outcomes of the organization.”
In September 2025, following the termination of the EDC's contract with the county, it was clear the two entities were not on the same page when it came to ROI. Manatee County officials pointed the Business Observer to a one-sheet, five-year review of the EDC showing the nonprofit presented eight projects to commissioners. Those projects — there were none in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the document shows — produced 32 jobs of a projected 288 jobs. On the other hand, EDC officials provided the Business Observer with a document showing its company expansion pipeline had 25 in progress with expansions projected to generate 920 jobs and a $103 million capital investment. The EDC’s company recruitment pipeline, meanwhile, had 36 projects in progress with a projected job creation of 13,325 and a potential projected capital investment of $4 billion.
At Tuesday's meeting, Commissioner Mike Rahn expressed his wholehearted support of the EDC and credited the organization with bringing Swiss jet manufacturer Pilatus Aircraft to Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. The company held a Jan. 23 groundbreaking at SRQ to kick off construction for its sales, manufacturing and service facilities, a project that may top $200 million.
“There's another jet manufacturer coming in as well,” Rahn said. “There'll be over 350 plus jobs in that area … that we didn't work on. The EDC went out and got those and brought them in.”
Commissioner George Kruse said he was voting to support the EDC for several reasons.
“They're not commercial real estate brokers. They don't make a commission,” Kruse said. “They're out doing work like a chamber of commerce to recruit and encourage businesses that pay high wages to come to Manatee County … They need the money to be able to do that, because they don't make money during the actual job itself.”
Funding is needed for staff, conferences, recruitment, marketing materials and data collection, Kruse said, noting less than half of the EDC’s budget came from Manatee County, with other local governments like the cities of Palmetto and Bradenton also contributing.
The EDC's budget was $1.13 million for the last fiscal year, including more than $600,000 from private investors, the Business Observer previously reported.
The majority of the funding “comes from private businesses like Michael Saunders, like SRQ,” Kruse said, “that do it for no return whatsoever, other than the fact that it's in their best interest for the overall workforce of Manatee County to be stronger in the long run.”
Manatee County should support the EDC, Kruse said, because it was responsive to commissioners' criticism and needed assistance positioning it for success in finding its next CEO.
“They listened to the concerns that this board had. They reacted to the pulling of the funds. They completely changed out the top leadership of their entire organization directly as a result of this board, and brought in a very strong interim CEO,” Kruse said. “The issue is, it's very difficult to try to go out and find a best-in-class CEO if you're bringing them into a situation where they believe they're going to be underfunded and set up to fail.”
Continued Kruse: “They need to be able to find someone and say, ‘We've got the backing of the community of the county, we've got the funding to allow you to succeed,’ to bring in the best person.”
Any future contract would not be in perpetuity, Kruse said, and could always be reviewed.
After county staff reignites discussions with the EDC, Siddique said he anticipates a contract coming before commissioners in the next couple of months.
At that time, McCann said he wanted to ensure the public would have a chance to comment on the proposal. One piece of feedback he offered, and a point on which Siddique agreed, was that the name "Bradenton Area Economic Development Corp." did not capture all of Manatee County, something that should be taken into consideration going forward. (The organization was previously called the Manatee Economic Development Corp. It changed its name to in 2012, officials said back then, to bring in Bradenton and take out Manatee because many prominent organizations, like the Pittsburgh Pirates, IMG Academy and Tropicana, identify with being from Bradenton, not Manatee County.)
Siddique said he expects the new contract to be presented in March.
“It gives everyone enough time,” Siddique said, “for this board to reach out to our staff, to talk to them, have back and forth, one-on-ones with our board and take it from there.”
