Manatee County CommissionerVanessa Baugh said she wouldresign from the board, possibly bythe end of this year, because she was fed up with how she’s been treated by her colleagues on the county’s governing board.
Baugh, elected to a third term in November 2020, vowed to quit her position early after being stripped of both her role as commission chair last month and as the county’s representative to a key regional transportation panel recently.
“I will tell you, that probably by the end of this year, I will be resigning because I’ve had about all of this board I want,” Baugh said. “I have bigger and better things to think about.”
Her statement followed an explosive discussion during a county meetingThursday afternoon overher removal from a county leadership position, and afindingof probable cause by the Florida Ethics Commission in December that she abused her office inhelpingcoordinate a vaccine clinic early last year.
Baugh was replaced as the County Commission’s chairthis year by CommissionerKevin Van Ostenbridge, following a vote at the Dec. 14 board meeting.But the moves did not stop there.Van Ostenbridge also removed Baugh as Manatee’s representative on a regional transportation planning board, the Sarasota Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Baugh was slated as the incoming chair of the MPO, a board that helps determine regional transportation spending priorities, and serves on the Florida Metropolitan Planning Organization Advisory Council’s executive committee– making her 2022 role one of the most influential positions a local commissioner could hold.
Speaking with the Herald-Tribune on Friday, she said her decision is not carved in stone, and that she intends to serve her community regardless of her role with the County Commission.
“Actually I said ‘possibly resigning’and that meant only the BOCC,” Baughsaid in an email.“I can assure you that I will not be done representing my constituents in my District.”
Heated infighting amongcommissioners has spilled into public county meetings, including the end of Thursday’s board meeting, with Baugh voicing what her political opponents have been itching to hear – that she planned to resign as commissioner.
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Carol Whitmore – the only commissioner on the panel who has served on the countyboard longer than Baugh's nine years – said she would not vote to reinstate Baugh to the MPO.
Whitmore citedthe probable cause finding by the Florida Ethics Commission over her involvement with last year's pop-up vaccination clinicin Manatee County,and added that any of the other board members could be successful in advocating for Manatee on the transportation issues.
"If this comes to a vote, I won't vote for Commissioner Baugh," Whitmore said. "She's found with probable cause with the Ethics Commission. I don't think somebody that is at this stage, because she still has to go through another process, should be in a leadership position."
That Ethics Commission decisionwas reached after aDec. 3 hearing overBaugh's involvement in the clinic that only benefitted residents who live in the two zip codes that encompass Lakewood Ranch, an area Baugh represents as a commissioner. The clinic came at a time the vaccines had limited availability and were in high demand.
Complaints also claimed that Baugh abused her office when she included her name ona short list of people – sent to the county’s public safety director –toreceive the vaccine in mid-February,along with the name ofLakewood Ranch developer Rex Jensen,his father and two of her neighbors.
Baugh has been under intense public scrutiny ever since the clinic, including being subject to protests outside of the Manatee County administration building last year.
Baugh has repeatedly said she did nothing improper, and last summer, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office concluded thatBaugh should not face criminal charges in the matter, with investigators saying she did not receive a “tangible benefit,” didn’t end up getting the vaccine through the clinic and that those who she put on the list did not give her “anything of value.”
Yet commissioners said they wereconcerned about the Ethics Commission action.
“You are in this position because of what you’ve done;I just want to be very clear about that,” Commissioner Misty Servia said Thursday. “I’m really concerned about the probable cause that was found in the ethics violation, and when you sit up here and cry, there were lots of people who were crying that they did not get vaccines because of the problem that landed you in this position.”
Baugh addressed the Ethics Commission decision publicly for the first time on Thursday afternoon, maintaining her innocence. She said she should not be stripped of her transportation policy leadership roles.
“I haven’t been found guilty of anything – nothing. Probablecause is not guilt,” Baugh said. “I should remain as chair (of the MPO) for this year because it can mean bringing money to Manatee County.”
Previously:Manatee County Chair Vanessa Baugh to remain on county's canvassing board
Editorial:Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh should step off canvassing board
Manatee losing influence
Commissioner George Kruse has ardently argued on her behalf at recent meetings. He saidthe county could be shooting itself in the foot if it sticks to the decision, because theinfluence aschairof that board would be greatly beneficial to Manatee.
He doubled down by adding that the decision violated state statute because members of the MPO serve a four-year termunless they voluntarily leave office, through a majority vote of the entire commission.
“Before we get to a situation where we lose the chair of the MPO, I want to make sure we are clear that this is in my opinion – albeit not an expert legal opinion – a violation of Florida statute,” Kruse said.
“The MPO is arguably the single most important board that we are on,” Kruse said. “It’s the one that steers the most money and most influence towards what we have all said is our number 1 priority, which is fixing infrastructure in Manatee County.”
Baugh was first appointed to the MPO in 2015 for a term that ran through 2018, and in 2019 she was reappointed, meaning her term would run through the 2022 calendar year, Kruse said.
Baugh said she will fight the Ethics Commission decision “in Tallahassee until it’s all said and done.”
“For me now, to be sitting back and have been chair of this board, until the end of my term, and by the way I had no intention of being chair again, but yet, I’m not good enough to be chair of the MPO where I can help bring millions of dollars to Manatee County this year,” she said.
“I think it’s very sad that we’ve come to this," Baugh said. “I’m done. You have badgered me all year, to the point that I’m done. And you should be ashamed of yourselves.”
