Sarasota city commissioner faces legal action after falling for hoax social media post

Sarasota City Commissioner Kyle Battie faces an impending lawsuit after he accused a local activist of making a racist social media post, one that Battie angrily shared with the commission at a recent meeting. The post turned out to be a hoax.

City Attorney Robert Fournier plans to schedule a discussion of the city's options going forward at the commission's next meeting Feb. 5. If Battie must retain legal counsel to handle the lawsuit, the commission will need to determine whether he was acting in his official capacity as an elected official when he made the comments and if the city would reimburse him for his legal fees, according to city spokeswoman Jan Thornburg.

The activist Battie publicly accused of racism, Kelly Franklin, declined to comment to the Herald-Tribune. Her attorney, Richard Harrison, sent a letter to Fournier, Mayor Liz Alpert and City Manager Marlon Brown on Monday indicating an intent to sue.

"We will be instituting appropriate legal action on behalf of Ms. Franklin against Commissioner Battie in due course," said the letter.

The attorney said that while he does not anticipate bringing legal action against the city itself at this time, Battie is liable for acting irresponsibly and outside his role as an elected official in publicizing an unverified social media post.

Battie did not respond to requests for comment from the Herald-Tribune.

The letter stems from the Jan. 16 meeting when, about an hour after it began, Battie sat in front of his colleagues to raise an unexpected agenda item before the chamber called “Unfinished Business: Civility, Respect, and Rhetoric discussion.”

After an extended introduction with anecdotes from his personal life, Battie told the chamber that his responsibility was to marginalized constituents on the outskirts of the community − both those who look like Battie, who is Black, and those who do not.

The commissioner placed a piece of paper on the chamber’s overhead projector, a Facebook post attributed to “Kelly Franklin.”

The document showed a post with a photo that featured Battie and Tanya Borysciewicz, the co-owner of the King Corona Cigar Company who is half-Black, at the establishment’s September 2023 ribbon cutting with the caption, “Gorillas in the midst of being gorillas are on my mind.”

Battie vehemently called out the vile nature of the post and the indignity of being referred to as a primate.

“I don’t mind you disagreeing with me because you have a different perspective and opinion than I do, but I expected you to do so based on merit, not the color of my skin,” Battie said. “This is sick, abhorrent, and egregious.”

The commissioner then asked his colleagues to individually disavow racism. Each expressed shock and outrage and condemned the post’s racist nature. However, when Mayor Alpert and Vice Mayor Jen Ahearn-Koch raised the possibility that the post could somehow be fake, Battie bristled and said he spoke to “people in tech” about verifying social media posts.

Borysciewicz then joined Battie in front of the commission. Through tears, Borysciewicz said the document was sent to her business but did not say if she identified the person who sent it.

“It shouldn’t be accepted nor tolerated, not only by this commission or by the leadership of this city, but by the residents and the city as a whole or this country as a whole,” Battie said.

Battie’s problems began a few hours later when it became clear to the City Commission that the post he presented was fake. Franklin emailed commissioners during the meeting, saying the post was not real.

A review of Franklin’s Facebook profile shows a post from Dec 26, 2022, captioned “Gorillas in the midst of being gorillas are on my mind,” but accompanied by pictures of gorillas. The original post, Harrison said in a statement, was about a safari trip his client took, which was accompanied by “stunning photos of the gorillas she encountered there.”

Harrison told the Herald-Tribune he expects to file a lawsuit within two weeks. His eyes are set on what he said was Battie’s outrageous conduct as a public official.

“The most innocent explanation is (Battie) really, genuinely got duped by this horrible, amateur hoax of a document,” Harrison said. “The only innocent explanation is that he is really dumb.”

Battie’s evidence was convoluted: A printed-out screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation between unidentified individuals, with a message containing a photograph of a crumpled-up, printed-out screenshot of the alleged Facebook post with slightly blurry text. In his letter to city officials, Harrison called it “a clownishly bad hoax” that “should have been recognized as such immediately by any person of reasonable intelligence.”

Regardless of Battie’s motivations for presenting the document, Harrison said the crux of his case relies on the notion that a public official cannot regulate a private citizen’s social media posts. He added that in his 35 years of working among and observing local politics, he has never seen an elected official attack a resident like Battie did.

“In a cold and calculated manner, Commissioner Battie planned and plotted every step so as to ensure that his very public attack on Ms. Franklin would come as a complete surprise to the City Commission, the administration, the meeting audience, the public at large, and Ms. Franklin,” Harrison said.

Harrison added that Franklin wants the city to investigate the matter fully.

As mayor, Battie publicly supported the cigar bar and its co-owners, Jeff and Tanya Borysciewicz. He appeared at their ribbon-cutting event last September wearing his mayoral badge. The cigar bar’s Instagram account’s pinned photo features Battie and Tanya Borysciewicz.

On the other hand, Franklin is a well-known critic of the Corona Cigar Company and the author of a newsletter on local politics. She has spoken publicly and to the Herald-Tribune about her opposition to the cigar bar’s establishment downtown.

Her husband, Ronald Kashden, is running against Alpert for District Two’s commission seat. He was present, along with other public commenters, at the city commission meeting, where he admonished Battie’s lack of verification.

In the face of opposition, Battie remained defiant. He challenged Franklin’s supporters to prove the post was false and said he and Borysciewicz were due empathy instead of attacks.

“All I did was bring something to the attention of the commission, that’s it,” Battie said, adding that Franklin’s defenders might be okay with racist social media posts if they feel the need to attack him.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota City Commissioner Kyle Battie faces suit over racist hoax