County attorney ‘vindictive’ in DiSabatino suit

Manatee County attorney Mickey Palmer should resign after his personal vindictiveness in the Robin DiSabatino lawsuit — and wasting valuable taxpayer monies in the process.

A suit that was recently settled between the county and Robin DiSabatino should have ended last year. But this case lingered on far too long to anybody’s liking, except the outside attorney who managed to rack up $50K in legal fees paid by taxpayers.

Any time that a lawsuit can be mediated to save taxpayers money and come to a legitimate fair settlement, it should be an alternative. It was not. With chief counsel Palmer taking the lead on this case, they hired an outside attorney to both represent the county and fellow Chief Assistant Attorney Robert Eschenfelder. The law firm Trenam Law of Tampa had no conflict of interest in not only representing Robert Eschenfelder and the county as well? Any first-year law student would clearly see a conflict of interest.

The county attorney acted in bad faith, pursued a personal vendetta, and did not have the best interest of the citizens of Manatee County who had to foot the bill for this frivolous lawsuit.

Many of the board members idly sat by and let this injustice continue. Shame on the “gang of 5” as well. Palmer’s bad behavior sets an equally bad example to the rest of the employees in his office. Whenever his contract is up for a renewal, he should be denied any consideration for renewal, in fact he should consider resigning soon.

“When you don't respond to bad behavior, you get more of it.” - Carly Fiorina

This story was originally published April 11, 2017 at 2:21 PM with the headline "County attorney ‘vindictive’ in DiSabatino suit."