Brevard County Attorney Scott Knox, who has led the county legal staff since 1993, is retiring next month. His last day will be March 23.
“After almost 24 years, it’s time to wrap up this part of my career and see what else is out there,” Knox, 66, said last week.
County commissioners are expected Feb. 20 to discuss how to seek a new county attorney, whether to hire a headhunting firm to advertise nationwide or promote from within.
And if they take Knox’s advice, they’ll go the latter route and promote Deputy County Attorney Eden Bentley.
“She’s been here longer than I have. She has 30 years,” he said.
Choosing from within isn’t new to the commission. When former County Manager Stockton Whitten resigned in February 2017, to become an associate vice president at Eastern Florida State College, commissioners first paid $10,500 to the Mercer Group Inc. of Daytona Beach.
But that July, after Mercer had attracted almost 30 applicants and conducted initial interviews, commissioners weren’t impressed with the firm’s finalists. So they promoted then-interim County Manager Frank Abbate.
Knox started his career as an attorney in the late 1970s with the Pinellas County Attorney’s Office, but was in private practice by the early 1990s when he joined Brevard County.
“It’s been very interesting the entire time here,” he said.
But now, he said, he wants to start his retirement with a month off – at his wife’s request. He said he plans to get more active in his church and see more of his family. But he also plans to look around and see if there are any private practice opportunities for a seasoned attorney.
Knox, who leads a staff of six other attorneys and aides, currently makes $180,952 a year, county spokesman Don Walker said. Knox will retire with a lump sum of $310,294, through the state’s Deferred Retirement Option Program, and a monthly pension of $5,336, Walker added.
