Mayor Bill Shearon isn't a very powerful mayor, unable to fire department heads or to hire new ones without commission consent, but colleagues on the Bradenton Beach City Commission are upset at how he has used the little authority he holds, and now may get rid of him because of management disputes. For three weeks now, politics in the 1,100-person municipality has centered around Shearon's leadership, and a week from today, city commissioners will likely establish rules on how to force a city official to forfeit their office.

"I haven't been formally accused of anything," Shearon said. "Nobody has told me directly what I am doing wrong, besides just saying they don't like my management style, and that makes it all pretty difficult."

Problems began when Ward 1 Commissioner Jack Clarke on Sept. 16 drafted a list of concerns and raised the spectre of forfeiture. There is no procedure to do that in the city charter, other than a statement of forfeiture must be declared by a majority of remaining commissioners. At its Oct. 16 meeting, the City Commission is expected to take up the issue through a resolution and establish a procedure both for forcing out a mayor and, in the event the issue comes up, other commissioners. Details, though, are still being hashed out. 

Clarke wrote that his trust of the mayor "has eroded over the past 300 days as I have seen nothing but failures, disrespect, outbursts, and problems." He would not comment further for this article.

Shearon was elected in November, defeating incumbent John Shaughnessy. Shearon's term lasts just two years and he will face re-election in November 2015, assuming he isn't ousted. He hasn't decided yet if he will pursue re-election either way.

Regardless of the outcome of this tiff, officials acknowledge the affair has called into question the effectiveness of the city charter, which already is scheduled for an overhaul in December. "According to the League of Cities, we are one of the only remaining cities in Florida with this type of government, and it does not seem to be functioning well at this time," said City Clerk Gia Lancaster.

Bradenton Beach runs by a true commission form of government, meaning the mayor and four city commissioners all vote on policy matters but also all hold some executive powers as well. The mayor oversees city administration but cannot direct staff, only department heads. He cannot fire department heads on his own, only suspend them for three days, something he has never done. The city commission did fire a city clerk earlier this year, five months after her hire.

Most Manatee County cities have a strong mayor form of government, where the mayor is elected and serves as the city's chief executive; Bradenton has a hybrid form of mayor who also sometimes casts votes on policy. In Sarasota County, all municipalities have a commission-manager form of government, where a hired manager oversees day-to-day business at City Hall while the commission or council sets policy. 

Shearon said he would like to "just be mayor," meaning he would favor holding the administrative mayor title while a professional manager led the city, but he acknowledged a budget issue there. Bradenton Beach has a smaller budget than a city like Sarasota, where City Manager Tom Barwin was offered a $175,000 contract to move to Florida and run City Hall, for example. In Waldo, an Alachua County city with a similar population to Bradenton Beach, City Manager Kim Worley earns $52,000 a year.