Investigation finds evidence of favoritism in Manatee County’s building department
An ongoing investigation has unearthed a history of favoritism in Manatee County’s building and code enforcement departments, according to County Administrator Scott Hopes.
Now, six staffers who may have been involved in code enforcement violations have been placed on paid leave.
Earlier this year, county officials began looking into allegations related to an unapproved construction project in Myakka City. A code enforcement officer said her bosses told her to ignore the development, which appeared to violate county regulations.
The Bradenton Herald first reported on Tanya Shaw’s complaints regarding the property, which sits 15 miles east of Interstate 75. The location had been teased as the new home for the Medieval Fair. Public records show the property is linked to Kathy Croteau, a former Sarasota County building official.
The Manatee County Division of Inspector General opened an investigation following Shaw’s accusation and now, months later, Hopes said the Inspector General has found those allegations to have merit.
The Division of Inspector General, overseen by the Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, is charged with measuring and evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of Manatee County government operations as well as investigating allegations of fraud, waste, abuse and employee misconduct.
“In my review of the information obtained from the Inspector General’s investigation at the midpoint, it appears that all applicants at the building department for permits are not treated equally,” Hopes said.
Those preliminary findings of the Inspector General’s ongoing investigation have led Hopes to place six staffers on paid administrative leave. Hopes did not name the employees who had been put on leave, but he noted that they appear to have been involved in code enforcement violations in Myakka.
“The investigations are related to allegations of favoritism shown by our Code Enforcement Division and possible construction code violations on agriculturally zoned property in Myakka City,” the county confirmed in an official statement to the Herald.
But concerns that employees were being pressured against complying with investigators also played into Hopes’ decision to place staffers on leave.
“There may have been suppression of willingness to fully cooperate because (employees) may have been threatened or bullied into not being forthcoming with information, which they are obligated to provide,” said Hopes, who noted that it’s against the law to tamper with an inspector general’s investigation.
“In order to do a thorough investigation, it was important for the individuals implicated in the complaints to not be in the department because there appeared to be interference with the investigation and that’s something I won’t tolerate,” he added.
The investigation intensified last week when a handful of employees were escorted out of the county’s Administrative Center in downtown Bradenton. Among them were Code Enforcement Chief Jeff Bowman and John Barnott, director of the county’s Building and Development Services Department that oversees Code Enforcement, sources confirmed to the Herald.
On Tuesday, Inspector General Lori Stephens confirmed that the investigation remains ongoing. An outside law firm has also been hired to investigate any violation of the county’s personnel policies, rules or procedures.
Stephens could not predict when her investigation would be complete, but Hopes said he’s working to get both completed as soon as possible.
Root of the investigation
Construction on 50 acres of land at 29847 State Road 70 sparked the investigation. After neighbors complained that the development activity caused flooding and noise problems, Shaw learned that the site improvements haven’t been approved by the county.
The property, which sits 15 miles east of Interstate-75, had been advertised as the new home for the Medieval Fair. Shaw said her supervisors told her to disregard the issues at the site once they learned that the property had ties to Croteau.
Croteau has resigned her position with Sarasota County since these allegations became public.
Meanwhile, emails show that Shaw refused to let the issue go. The property owners had claimed an agricultural exemption, which is only valid if there are plans for farming or other agricultural uses. By turning the site into an entertainment venue, the owners needed to apply for a permit, Shaw said.
Despite Shaw’s report, her supervisors removed her from the case and assigned it to another officer, Chet Brown, who closed it with no violations. Within days of closing the file, Brown was promoted to supervisor.
Reached for comment earlier this year, Barnott said he planned to investigate the matter himself. The allegations against code enforcement officers were “concerning,” he said.
“There’s no special treatment given to anyone in this situation. We can’t do that,” said Barnott.
“This is a full-blown investigation,” he continued. “I want to know why a stop order wasn’t issued. I want to know what happened and who did it.”
According to Hopes, the ongoing investigation has already proven that there were problems with how code enforcement supervisors handled the complaints in Myakka City.
“Code enforcement did step in, but for some reason, barriers were created to the actions that should have been taken,” Hopes said. “You had a code enforcement officer that, it appears, did, in fact, open up a case for code violations and it appears that another individual was brought in and that open case was closed.”
Even after Shaw was removed from the case and reassigned to a different code enforcement zone, she continued to receive complaints from neighbors. They said noise and flooding problems were still happening as a result of the construction.
Shaw shared those concerns with fellow officers and supervisors. Emails from her supervisors show that she was told to disregard any of the complaints because she was no longer on the case.
“There is no need for you to do anything else regarding this case,” Tom Wooten, a code enforcement supervisor, wrote in an email to Shaw.
While Code Enforcement leaders paid Shaw’s reports little attention, she found validation from state officials who reviewed the complaints and agreed with her findings.
The Florida Department of Transportation conducted its own investigation into the property. The state agency said Croteau, whose name was on the permit, did not disclose that the property would be used to host a popular festival that attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year.
As a result, FDOT reversed the permit approval and ordered the property owners to submit a new permit application that reflects the actual proposed use of the site.
Staff members at the Southwest Florida Water Management District also took issue with the construction on the site, which would have been subject to review from the agency.
“I’m in 100% agreement with you,” Mark Luchte, an agricultural regulation program manager with SWFMD, wrote in an email to Shaw. “In my opinion, this is not preparation for future production agriculture and gives true agriculturists a bad reputation.”
Hopes said the county will announce the conclusion of the investigations to the Manatee Board of County Commissioners at a later date, but did not give a timetable.
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 3:18 PM.
