Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh has admitted to violating ethics rules and will have to pay $8,000 for her vaccine favoritism activities, according to a new disclosure of the settlement.
The terms of the settlement in an ethics case asking whether Baugh leveraged his position as a public servant to identify a vaccine distribution that only served Lakewood Ranch citizens have been made public.
In signing the settlement Thursday, Baugh agreed to pay an $8,000 fine and admitted to violating code of ethics legislation by attempting to use his position to deviate from Manatee County’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution policy.
The settlement acknowledges that Baugh’s moves violated statewide guidelines, which involved delivering vaccines to Florida citizens 65 and older.
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If approved, the ethics committee would reject allegations that he violated Florida policies by adding to a list of others to get a dose of the vaccine on the contextual vaccination site.
Baugh told the Herald Tribune he didn’t get his COVID-19 vaccine at the vaccination site, despite the list of names.
A lawyer accepted the terms of the agreement, still wanting the ethics committee to approve or officially reject it at its Jan. 27 meeting. It will also have to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.