Manatee lawsuit seeking public records expands to include Baugh, Van Ostenbridge
A lawsuit seeking public records now includes two more Manatee County commissioners who have reportedly refused to hand over all of the requested documents.
Following an earlier decision to sue Commissioner James Satcher for ignoring his records request, Sarasota paralegal Michael Barfield recently added commissioners Vanessa Baugh and Kevin Van Ostenbridge to the suit, according to court documents. He says all three officials haven’t fully complied with his request for documents.
“Until I’m satisfied that I’ve received all the records, I’m not letting it go, that’s for sure,” Barfield said in an interview with the Bradenton Herald Monday morning. “They’re going to have to testify under oath about where these records are.”
Barfield first filed his public records request on Nov. 20, expressing concern at the commissioners’ sudden vote a day earlier to consider terminating County Administrator Cheri Coryea’s contract. He said he agreed with other commissioners who suspected that Baugh, Satcher and Van Ostenbridge had pre-planned the move while on the campaign trail.
Commissioner George Kruse, who also voted in support of that motion on Nov. 19, was left out of the lawsuit. Barfield said Kruse fully complied with his request in a reasonable amount of time. Kruse also held a key vote in the saga, reversing his decision to move forward with a conversation about Coryea’s contract at a Dec. 10 meeting.
The records request was meant to search for evidence of collusion, according to Barfield. He asked for records of call logs, text messages, emails and other documents that could point to a violation of the Sunshine Law that prevents elected officials from communicating with each other outside of public meetings.
Satcher’s records and call logs were sent to Barfield on Monday afternoon, with a note stipulating that “the few calls between commissioners in this log were of a personal nature.”
In an interview with the Bradenton Herald, Satcher said he believed Barfield was using the records requests as a distraction.
“The truth is he doesn’t like our agenda. He doesn’t want a smaller government. He doesn’t want things to be more efficient. He wants to keep us busy doing his paperwork for him. Whoever is behind him is just trying to give us busywork but the people of Manatee County voted for us for a reason,” Satcher said, referring to other newly elected commissioners. “So I’m not going to be deterred.”
“I think he’s just on a big fishing expedition, honestly,” Satcher added.
In his amended complaint, Barfield said Van Ostenbridge “has produced some, but not all, records in his possession.” Those records have already shed some light on the situation. Van Ostenbridge’s texts revealed conversations with homebuilder Carlos Beruff and others in the days leading up to the attempt to oust Coryea.
Baugh has also failed to provide all of the records Barfield requested, court documents say. Baugh did not respond to a request for comment Monday morning.
Some of their records were produced on Christmas Eve, Barfield explained, but the format varies and heavy redactions make it difficult to put together the timeline of who was contacting whom. A bigger issue, he said, may be the amount of time the commissioners spent on the phone with one another.
“Of equal concern is the number of calls between Baugh and other commissioners, including Van Ostenbridge, Satcher and Kruse. There’s hours and hours of calls between them,” Barfield said.
Reached for comment Monday morning, Van Ostenbridge downplayed any potential violation of Florida’s Sunshine Law, which prevents elected officials on the same board from discussing official business with one another outside of public meetings.
In November, he and Baugh spent at least 80 minutes on the phone over the course of 13 calls, according to his provided phone records.
“We’re friends,” Van Ostenbridge said when asked about the content of his conversations with Baugh. “It’s about anything and everything under the sun that involves our friendship.”
His call logs also show several calls with other board members, including commissioners Carol Whitmore, Misty Servia, Satcher and Kruse.
Barfield says the evidence in the call logs doesn’t support the claim that the calls were of a personal nature. He said his analysis has revealed that commissioners spoke to one another on the phone right before calling someone else at the county, such as an attorney or other administration official, which implies that the conversation pertained to county business.
“It’s a convenient excuse,” Barfield said. “It just defies logic to say they’re chatting about social or personal business. They were never friends before, but now they’re best friends. I don’t buy it, and there’s other information to suggest it’s untrue.”
Van Ostenbridge, who was added to the lawsuit on Dec. 18, also argued that he had fully complied with Barfield’s request as quickly as possible. The delay came from Van Ostenbridge’s cell phone provider, he explained.
“I would just say that Barfield is impatient,” said Van Ostenbridge. “I have turned over everything he requested. We stayed in communication the entire time. The phone logs took forever to get and what I got from Verizon was incomplete.”
Barfield says he expects a judge to schedule a hearing regarding the missing public records sometime in January.
This story was originally published December 28, 2020 at 4:27 PM.
