A whistleblower complaint filed by former acting Manatee County Administrator Lee Washington alleges that sunshine, ethics, and malfeasance violations occurred when Manatee County Commissioners Vanessa Baugh and Mike Rahn conspired to influence Washington to hire their close friend and associate John Mast as a deputy county administrator.
In a document dated June 15, 2023, first obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, Washington alleged that on March 1, 2023, he was summoned to lunch with commissioners Baugh and Rahn, who had also invited Jon Mast, CEO of the Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association. Washington said both commissioners advocated for him to select Mr. Mast for the deputy administrator position that had been left vacant following the Teitelbaum debacle.
According to Washington, he was told the county could benefit from him "finding a way to bring (Mast) on board," as it moved forward with the rewrite of both the comprehensive land use plan and land development code. Washington alleged that Commissioner Baugh told him, "Courtney (De Pol) is cute and bright, but she's too young and needs a mentor." Two members of the board discussing what was sure to be a future agenda item outside of a public meeting is a clear violation of Florida’s extensive government in the sunshine laws.
According to Washington's account, he told the commissioners that he would not hire someone before having posted the position, which he did later that month. Shortly after the position was opened, however, Washington wrote that he began getting pressure from both commissioners to send him the resumes of everyone who had applied. According to Washington, he told Baugh and Rahn that it was an administrative function and that such a directive could only come from a majority vote of the board (commissioners have no individual authority over staff and are not permitted to individually direct county employees or policy in any manner).
In his letter, Washington wrote that he saw the writing on the wall and eventually sent the commissioners the applications in order to protect himself. However, in early April, he ultimately made the decision to close the position until such time that a permanent administrator had been hired. On April 11, according to Washington's complaint, Baugh asked him to meet with her prior to that day's commission meeting. Washington says the commissioner (who has since resigned) told him that "someone" would be making a motion for him to be relieved of duty and asked whether he would resign in order to avoid the need for a public vote, to which he declined.
The matter was not raised during that day's meeting. However, one week later, Commissioner Rahn made a motion for the board to begin negotiations with Mast to replace Washington as interim administrator and for Washington to return to his former position as Director of Community and Veterans Services. Although the board voted in favor of the motion, that effort failed narrowly when Commissioner Jason Bearden—who was tasked with negotiating with Mast after he and Commissioner James Satcher objected to the board chair doing so—was unable to reach a compensation agreement and Mast withdrew himself from consideration.
The Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association is a developer-lobbying organization. TBT has reported extensively on a white paper that had been submitted by Mast on behalf of the BIA through a land use attorney who frequently works with developer Carlos Beruff. The paper seems to have been a developer wish list that some county staff members say they were pressured to implement as “staff initiated” changes, providing cover for developer-sponsored commissioners while saving considerable sums of money that would have been owed to account for staff work time, had the proposals been handled as having been requested by industry.
Commissioner Rahn is listed on the BIA’s website as a Director for Life and is reportedly close enough to Mast that the two recently vacationed together. Baugh’s husband is listed as a member of the BIA’s Board of Directors and the former commissioner has referenced Mast as a close friend on multiple occasions. Until shortly after Commissioner Amanda Ballard’s husband David was arrested for two DUIs within just over a one-month span, he was employed by the BIA, serving as its Government Affairs and Membership Director. Commissioners Ballard, Rahn, Baugh, Satcher, and Bearden all voted in favor of bringing Mast on in April, while Commissioner George Kruse dissented.
Kruse pointed out that the board was already engaged in a national search for a permanent county administrator after getting rid of Scott Hopes in January and that onboarding a new administrator who would barely get up to speed before a decision was made would make no sense, especially since the entire board had been gushing as to what a great job Washington had been doing (right up until the moment he refused to bend a knee).
“Administrator Washington’s account of Sunshine Law violations is extraordinary,” said Michael Barfield, Director of Public Access Initiatives for the Florida Center for Government Accountability. “We are running out of adjectives to describe the nadir that Manatee County government has reached. The Sunshine Law is vital to a healthy democracy and protects against backroom deals such as the one Administrator Washington blew the whistle on.”
Washington ultimately decided to part ways with the county. In light of his separation, he withdrew his whistleblower complaint, although he stood by his statements in the letter. In a draft response to Washington also obtained by the FCGA, Manatee County Attorney Bill Clague opined that because the county's whistleblower ordinance is limited to alleged violations of law or acts of gross mismanagement “committed by an employee or agent of an agency or independent contractor,” county commissioners were not subject to it and he therefore had no authority to investigate the claims.
When Washington resigned, the board voted to install Deputy County Administrator Charlie Bishop as acting administrator. Despite failing to install Mast, the board recently voted by the same 6-1 margin to scrap its national search and hire Bishop as the full-time administrator. Bishop’s contract, which calls for a base salary of $220,000 plus significant perks, is on the agenda for Tuesday’s BOCC meeting. Both Washington's complaint and Clague's draft response can be seen below (click to enlarge).
