{"id":64531,"date":"2026-04-07T19:45:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T23:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64531"},"modified":"2026-04-07T19:46:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T23:46:01","slug":"polk-county-manager-tells-commission-jan-15-is-his-retirement-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/07\/polk-county-manager-tells-commission-jan-15-is-his-retirement-date\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County Manager tells commission Jan. 15 is his retirement date"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

That is a significant milestone for Polk County\u2019s leadership. Bill Beasley<\/strong>, who has served as the County Manager since 2019, officially informed the Board of County Commissioners that he will retire on January 15, 2027<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Beasley has been a fixture in Polk County administration for nearly two decades, originally joining the county in 2006.<\/sup> His departure will mark the end of an era during which he oversaw massive infrastructure projects and a period of rapid population growth in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Details of the Transition<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Retirement Date:<\/strong> January 15, 2027.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Succession Planning:<\/strong> By giving the commission several months’ notice, the board has time to conduct a formal search or look toward internal candidates. John Bohde<\/strong>, currently the Deputy County Manager of Infrastructure, has been highlighted in recent years as a key member of the leadership team.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Legacy:<\/strong> Beasley is often credited with stabilizing the county’s biennial budget process and managing the expansion of the Polk Regional Water Cooperative<\/strong>, a critical initiative for the county’s long-term water supply.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    This announcement sets the stage for a busy 2026 as the commission looks for a successor who can manage the high-speed development currently reshaping the Lakeland and Winter Haven areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    That is a significant milestone for Polk County\u2019s leadership. Bill Beasley, who has served as the County Manager since 2019, officially informed the Board of County Commissioners that he will… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTUud2VicD9maXQ9MTg4JTJDMjY4JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiUG9sayBDb3VudHkgTWFuYWdlciB0ZWxscyBjb21taXNzaW9uIEphbi4gMTUgaXMgaGlzIHJldGlyZW1lbnQgZGF0ZSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.LOadwyi8DjVjbu8HpljYROOnN8t3z0w_MF56oJGlDGwMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA0XC9kb3dubG9hZC01LndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJQb2xrIENvdW50eSBNYW5hZ2VyIHRlbGxzIGNvbW1pc3Npb24gSmFuLiAxNSBpcyBoaXMgcmV0aXJlbWVudCBkYXRlIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.bBOu8i7QMM1VpU_ruu4enGuMMoo-ZP1Na-KRHLpTcIYMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[14317],"class_list":["post-64531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-polk-county-manager-tells-commission-jan-15-is-his-retirement-date"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64533,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64531\/revisions\/64533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}