TALLAHASSEE – A new date has been agreed upon by both parties in the ethics case of Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh. The administrative law judge assigned to preside over the hearing has accepted the agreed-upon dates and filed an order rescheduling the final hearing for early November.
Last week, TBT reported that counsel for Baugh had requested a sixty-day continuance of the final hearing due to needing more time to conduct depositions of numerous witnesses.Administrative Law Judge Linzie F. Bogan granted Baugh's request for the continuance but directed both parties in the case to update the Division of Administrative Hearings with proposed rescheduling dates that were mutually agreeable, in writing, no later than July 22.
An administrative hearing was ordered after the Florida Commission on Ethics found probable cause to believe Baugh violated ethics laws for her role in organizing a state-run pop-up vaccine site in Lakewood Ranch in 2021. The scandal, which came to be known as "Vaccinegate," involved the District 5 Commissioner–the district where the pop-up was hosted–directing county staff to alter the countywide randomized lottery system for vaccine appointments by restricting availability to only constituents living in two zip codes within the district she represents.
In addition to deviating from the board's approval of a randomized lottery system to obtain vaccines, a commodity at that time in short supply, Commissioner Baugh also created a list of five individuals–including herself–which were to be guaranteed appointments at the pop-up. Two of the individuals on the "VIP" list were not even residents of the preferred zip codes the commissioner requested the revised vaccine pool be restricted to.
According to statements included in an investigative report completed by the Manatee County Sheriff, Baugh implied that she had sought and received approval to limit vaccine appointments to a restricted pool of only two zip codes from Courtney Coppola. Ms. Coppola served as Chief of Staff of the Florida Department of Health at the time. In her statements to MCS investigators, Coppola denied that she and Baugh ever discussed restricting the vaccine registrant pool to any specific zip codes.
Adrian Lukis, who served as DeSantis's Deputy Chief of Staff during the time the Lakewood Ranch pop-up was organized, also told MCS investigators it was the entirety of Manatee County that was being targeted with additional vaccines and not Lakewood Ranch. Emails allegedly provided to MCS investigators by Baugh to verify her claims that officials of DeSantis instructed her to restrict vaccination appointments to only two zip codes in Lakewood Ranch showed no mention of any such directive from the governor's staff.
The request for a continuance by Baugh's counsel was without objection by the advocate of the Florida Commission on Ethics, Elizabeth A. Miller. The ethics commission advocate is an assistant attorney general and will argue the case on behalf of the complainants.The date previously set for the ethics hearing was August 9-11.
On Tuesday, Judge Bogan filed an order accepting the rescheduling date agreed upon by both parties and re-scheduled the final hearing to after primary elections–November 1-3.
The evidentiary hearing (trial) will take place via Zoom Conference. Parties have been ordered to submit their proposed exhibits to the court at least seven days before the hearing, on or before October 25.
To view all public filings related to case NO.22-000925EC, RE: Vanessa Baugh on the DOAH website, visithere.
To read past reporting byTBTrelated to this update click here,here,andhere.
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