TREASURE ISLAND - City Manager Chuck Coward unexpectedly announced his resignation Tuesday night to the Treasure Island city commission.
"The bottom line is I don't think I'm their guy," said Coward, 61, who plans to take a six-month sabbatical before looking for a new job, perhaps in a new field. His resignation is effective June 2.
"Every commission deserves to have their own person," said Coward, adding that he made a "thoughtful decision, not a knee-jerk reaction."
"I wanted to go out on my terms and not let it get to some crisis," he said.
Mayor Mary Maloof said she was stunned after Coward read his resignation letter to commissioners at the end of their evening meeting.
"I'm just devastated," she said.
In the past two years, four of the five commission members have been replaced by a team critical of Coward's management style.
Shortly after the two newest commissioners took office in March, they voted to give him a 3 percent salary increase during his annual evaluation. At the beginning of April, his salary became $97,335.
Since he was hired in 1997, Coward's evaluations have been nearly perfect and his annual salary increases have been as high as 10 percent.
Coward's resignation comes at a time when the city is facing one of the biggest city-sponsored public works projects on the west coast of Florida - replacing its 1939 bridge.
Under Coward's leadership, the city has begun construction of a $65-million bridge being financed mostly by a federal grant.
Coward and his wife, Carol, live on Paradise Island and own a condominium in Colorado, where he managed a number of Denver area cities before accepting the Treasure Island position.
