Baugh To Pay $8K Fine, Admit Guilt In FL Ethics Case Settlement

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh must pay an $8,000 fine and admit guilt after being accused of misusing her position when setting up an exclusive COVID-19 vaccine event in Lakewood Ranch, according to the terms of a joint settlement agreement approved Friday by the Florida Commission on Ethics.

At the request of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, Baugh hosted a February 2021 pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Premier Sports Campus. She made the clinic available only to those living in the county’s wealthiest ZIP codes, which are in District 5, the area she represents.

At the time the clinic was held, it was difficult for many Floridians to find and receive the coronavirus vaccine. Baugh’s clinic bypassed the vaccine lottery system in place in Manatee County.

She also created an exclusive VIP list of five names, including her own, to receive the vaccine at the event, though she ultimately didn’t get the shot that day.

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After the clinic, 18 ethics complaints were filed against Baugh.

The joint stipulation was agreed upon by George Levesque, Baugh’s attorney, and Elizabeth A. Miller, an advocate for the FCE, before the commission approved the terms.

According to the stipulation, Baugh will admit to violating the state’s Code of Ethics. She’ll also be fined $8,000 and face a public censure and reprimand.

In addition to the terms agreed upon prior to Friday’s meeting, she also agreed that the fine and her legal fees wouldn’t be paid for or repaid using public funds from Manatee County.

If the FCE hadn’t approved the terms, her case would have gone to trial, where she would have faced a maximum penalty of $10,000 per violation and removal from office.

The commissioner “abused her office” when setting up the vaccine clinic, Miller told the FCE.

The VIP list was created “to ensure that they received the vaccine at that time when the vaccine was still a very limited resource,” she added, noting that it was “irrelevant” that Baugh didn’t get the shot. “She chose not to receive it after the public uproar.”

“This has been a major experience for me, one that I’ve learned a lot from. It’s been a tough experience for Manatee County. I always have tried to be a good commissioner, always,” Baugh told members of the FCE. “So, from that standpoint, I just hope that you will agree to this agreement. I will do my best possible everything that I can to be the best commissioner to make this commission proud in the future.”

The clinic happened at the height of the pandemic, the commissioner said. “In Manatee County, it was very, very tough. I had 7,200 (residents) that were 65 and older just in my district in Lakewood Ranch. It was a very hard time for all of us, all of the commissioners and citizens. We tried to get everybody covered that we possibly could as quickly as we could is what we were trying to do, essentially.”

When asked by FCE members if she thought it was fair that she was initially included on the list of those to receive the vaccine at the clinic, Baugh said, “I made a mistake … It shouldn’t have probably happened the way it did, but I was doing at the time what I thought was the right thing to do.”

“It is disconcerting to read the news reports from your area in which you sort of blithely dismiss the importance of this and don’t really say that you did anything wrong or that you begin to talk about all sorts of extraneous issues,” FCE member Don Gaetz told Baugh. “The fact is that you put your name on the list and the only reason you didn’t get the shot is because there was public outcry and that’s unacceptable in a public official. Leaders sleep on the ground. They don’t sleep in a feather bed when their constituents or their followers … have to sleep on the ground. You sleep on the ground, too, and you didn’t you tried to get a benefit for yourself, and you would have gotten it if not for the public outcry.”

FCE member Wengay Newton, who voted against the agreement, called the terms “a travesty.”

“It’s clear what went on here. It was not a mistake. It was not a Form 6 accident. It was deliberate and calculated and pointed and for $8,000, for the people back in Manatee County, I think it’s a travesty,” he said. “Ray Charles could see what went on here.”