Debra Stivender, a former county building department employee and an elected commissioner for only four months, is leading a coup to oust Sue Whittle, the 56-year-old, $114,000-a-year county manager, an acknowledged slow-growth proponent during her six-year stint here.

Stivender maintains she has three of the four votes needed from the five-member county commission to terminate Whittle. The showdown vote is April 17 at a public hearing but the commissioners could resolve the battle at today's open session (April 10) if they choose to do so.

Whittle, a former county administrator in Palm Beach county, tells GlobeSt.com through representatives, her only sin in managing the county's affairs for six years is not giving preferential treatment to developers and builders who financed the campaigns of Stivender, freshman commissioner Jennifer Hill and longtime Realtor and commissioner Catherine Hanson.