By 4-1 vote, County Administrator MICHEL DAVID WANCHIK was given notice today by St. Johns County Commission.
The sexiest misogynist authoritarian retaliatory developer-coddling bigot will soon be gone.
Three cheers for our County Commissioners, who have all read the Roper report!
WANCHIK had no rebuttal to my presentation at the SJC BoCC, and made no affirmative case for retention of his "services," such as they are.
I was the only person who spoke out against WANCHIK's retention at the meeting.
More later.
From The St. Augustine Record:
County Commission does not renew Wanchick’s contract
By Stuart Korfhage
Posted May 21, 2019 at 6:03 PM
Updated May 21, 2019 at 6:31 PM
St. Johns County will have a new county administrator at least by 2021, but it could be a lot sooner.
The County Commission on Tuesday decided not to renew Michael Wanchick’s contract for the two-year period that it stipulates. However, instead of terminating the agreement at the end of the calendar year, the board offered an extension through 2020, to expire Jan. 1, 2021.
His current agreement automatically renews for another two-year term unless the Commission gives Wanchick 180 days prior written notice of its intent not to renew. The deadline to provide the notice is July 5, which is why the Commission took up the issue in May.
Wanchick was not asked to immediately answer whether he will accept the new term. He wanted the full extension of the current contract, which is set to expire Jan. 1, 2020. But three commissioners — Jeb Smith, Paul Waldron and Jimmy Johns — voted against that plan.
That meant the Commission could inform Wanchick that it will let his current contract end as scheduled without renewal, or it could offer a new term.
After talking to Wanchick about it during the meeting, he indicated that he would like to to have two more full years in the job and would accept an extension through Aug. 1, 2021. Instead, the Commission voted for a shorter term.
Now the decision rests with Wanchick, who has been the administrator since June 2007. He is expected to give an official answer as soon as the next scheduled Commission meeting, which is June 4.
During the discussion of his contract, Wanchick suggested he would not be amendable to the shorter extension.
“If we’re going to end my contract prematurely, I’d like to do it a year-and-a-half extension so I have at least two years (from now),” he said. “Otherwise, I’ll just pursue other interests. I’d rather do that while I can and am in good position to do that.
“If you’re asking my preference, it would be nothing less than a year and a half from the end of this particular contract I’m under.”
When deciding whether to renew Wanchick’s contract fully, Commissioner Henry Dean gave the biggest show of support. He said in his career with the St. Johns Water Management District, he’s met many county administrators and city managers and considers Wanchick among the best he’s ever worked with.
“I have found him to be ... he’s been open, he’s been honest, he’s been forthright,” Dean said. “I whole-heartedly endorse extending his contract.”
On the other side, Smith has been a critic of Wanchick during his tenure on the Commission. He said Wanchick was very professional and did some things well. While using a very lengthy football metaphor, Smith said it was time to give someone else a chance.
“At the end of this contract, he will have served 12 years, and I believe he will be close to 70 years old at the end of this,” Smith said. “I believe personally it’s time to move on. It’s my opinion that leadership can stay too long.”
Waldron voted against Wanchick’s last contract and remained opposed to retaining him, saying some of his previous concerns were never addressed. Johns was ambiguous in his evaluation of Wanchick but did say he wants the current board to have the chance to pick his successor.
If Wanchick elects not to go with the offer presented, he can resign at any time. But he must provide 90 days notice.
In other business
Although the exact details of the access to County Road 16A are still to be determined, a new high school site for SilverLeaf on C.R. 16A rather than inside the development was approved Tuesday.
After being first rejected and then a revision accepted by the St. Johns County School Board, the Commission gave the move its final approval.
SilverLeaf is a 10,700-home development that stretches from County Road 210 all the way to State Road 16. The developer is the Hutson Companies, which is run by David Hutson. His son, Travis, is a vice president in the company and a Republican state senator for the county who previously served in the Florida House of Representatives.
The school site issue was part of a larger change to the SilverLeaf Development of Regional Impact to make it a total of 8,384 acres. At the same time, the SilverLeaf Planned Unit Development (PUD) will incorporate and rezone approximately 358 acres of land, known as Trout Creek North, St. Thomas East, St. Thomas West and Signage Parcel to be into the existing SilverLeaf PUD.
The PUD will be approximately 6,450 acres in size. There is no change in the existing approved development entitlements; however, those approved entitlements will be extended onto the added properties.
But the only serious debate was surrounding the site of a future high school. When first approved, SilverLeaf had four total school sites within the main part of the development. But this change put the 103-acre high school site just outside the main development.
The controversial part of that change was the access to the school at C.R. 16A. Several members of the community opposed that, due to road safety concerns and increased traffic.
Some commissioners expressed interest in limiting access off of that two-lane road since SilverLeaf has already agreed to provide an access road to the school from within the development.
Yet the School District, represented Tuesday by Nicole Cubbedge, said it prefers two access roads for safety reasons. Most county schools do not have more than one access road even though they normally have at least two points of ingress and egress.
The Commission voted 5-0 to approve SilverLeaf’s plans, but the county and the School District agreed to continue to negotiate the issues with C.R. 16A.
There are no immediate plans to improve C.R. 16A, but there are also no immediate plans to build the SilverLeaf high school.
Cubbedge said it’s not on the current five-year plan. There is another school site being considered in the World Golf Village area right now. The School District’s most pressing concern is to build a school to relieve crowding at Nease and Bartram Trail, Cubbedge said.
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