State attorney investigates current and former Manatee County commissioners, administrator

Twelfth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Ed Brodsky is investigating Manatee County Commissioner Mike Rahn, former commissioner Vanessa Baugh, and former county administrator Scott Hopes in two separate cases of possible open government law violations.

Brodsky's office is investigating whether Rahn and Baugh violated Florida sunshine laws during a conversation at a downtown Bradenton restaurant earlier this year. Questions sprouted after former Manatee County interim administrator, Lee Washington, filed a whistleblower complaint against the pair, claiming they violated sunshine laws when introducing Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association CEO Jon Mast to him for potential hire.

Brodsky's office is also investigating whether Hopes violated open records laws during a separate situation in February when he turned in county-issued devices back to the IT department upon his resignation.

Both Rahn and Baugh declined to comment, and Brodsky's office did not return requests for comment. Hopes told the Herald-Tribune he believes the complaints are politically motivated.

ICYMI: Manatee Sheriff's Office recommends charges for former administrator Scott Hopes

Hopes responds to accusations

The cases against Rahn and Baugh — as well as the one against Hopes — stem from citizen complaints emailed by Florida Center for Government Accountability Director of Public Access Michael Barfield to investigators at the Manatee County Sheriff's Office after he obtained public records that raised questions about whether the county officials violated Florida's open government laws.

Barfield told the Herald-Tribune he emailed public records to an investigator and that he has been interviewed on multiple occasions during the investigation regarding his claims against Hopes.

"This whole thing started over Hopes' text messages, and his inability to produce them," Barfield said. "We later learned that all county-issued phones weren't being backed up by the county. At some point during that process... they also issued upper admin personnel a laptop, and the laptop was not connected to the county's network."

"You can't wipe devices, you just can't," Barfield said. "Particularly ones that weren't connected to the network."

Hopes told the Herald-Tribune that he believes Barfield's complaints are politically motivated. The two men have crossed paths on opposing sides of a civil lawsuit before, in August 2022, when Barfield filed claims against Manatee County during the time of Hopes' tenure over records requests for text messages that went unfulfilled.

"Make no mistake, it was politically oriented," Hopes said. "Manatee County is a very fickle political environment. All you have to do is look at these types of complaints, regardless of who it was about, there is a triad of individuals that are affiliated with Michael Barfield."

There were two people in the room when county devices assigned to Hopes were wiped clean, according to Hopes.

"The law requires that public information, public records, is preserved. It doesn't mean that you take a phone and a computer and lock it up in perpetuity to preserve it," Hopes said.

"Before I resigned, I called the (chief information officer) of the county, told him what I was doing, and to have a technician come up to my office to back up my devices so that I could turn them in," he said. "That's exactly what occurred. My devices were backed up before I turned them in. I did everything in front of the IT technician that came to my office, and my devices were regularly backed up on multiple platforms."

Deep ties to area developers

Commissioners are often criticized by the public over ties to developers, and both Rahn and Baugh share a significant amount of political connections to local building industry leaders.

But so does Brodski. He received political campaign donations from many of the same local developers, including at least $24,000 in campaign finance from individual contributions from local developers and PACs that have received funding from them during the 2020 election, records show.

More: Former Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes could face charges. Here is what we know.

Brodsky received $2,000 from Patrick Neal and an additional $1,000 each from two of his sons. He received $1,000 from Randall Benderson and $2,000 from the Benderson Development Co. LLC. He received $2,000 from LWR Communities, as well as $1,000 donations from each of the Lakewood Ranch Golf Co., Schroeder Manatee Ranch Inc., SMR Communities Joint Venture, and SMR Farms.

Brodsky also received $1,000 from B Squared Ranch LLC, which is registered to the wife of well-known developer Carlos Beruff and names Land Experts Inc. as an agent. Land Experts Inc. was also behind another $1,000 donation through the B Squared Ranch LLC and a $1,000 donation through the Braden River Basin Utilities LLC.

PACs that have received significant amounts of funding from local developers also donated to Brodsky, including the Building Your Dreams PAC and Florida Conservatives United, among others.

Also: Opinion: Manatee County is the land of Hopes and (bad) dreams

Brodsky investigates prior DUI

It is not the first time the case of a politically connected Manatee County Commissioner has been handled by Brodsky's office.

The office once investigated a driving under the influence charge against Commissioner George Kruse.

The case was voluntarily dismissed after Circuit Court Judge Erika Quartermaine ruled to not allow body camera recorded statements made by Kruse to an MCSO deputy at the time of the accident to be submitted as evidence in the trial because he was never read any Miranda warnings. The footage also showed the deputy tell Kruse's wife that he knew that Kruse was a county commissioner and that he suspected him of inebriation.

Former Florida Gov. Rick Scott appointed Quartermaine to the bench in 2013 following her nomination by the 12th Judicial Circuit Judicial Nominating Committee. Neal serves on that committee and was reappointed in July for another term.

Brodsky's office appealed that decision but voluntarily dismissed it in June after Attorney General Ashley Moody's office chose not to pursue the appeal further. Moody's office represents the state attorney's office on appeals.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Manatee's Mike Rahn, Vanessa Baugh, Scott Hopes under investigation