Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh had one question for fellow board members: How exactly did calling an investigation meant to exonerate Mitchell Teitelbaum from a sexual harassment claim wind up on Tuesday's meeting agenda.
Concerns over the county's human resources department have been mounting over the past week following news that Teitelbaum declined a position as Manatee County's fourth deputy administrator after a county employee filed a sexual harassment claim against him. Teitelbaum has served as general counsel for the School District of Manatee County since 2014.
On Tuesday, commissioners met to discuss a proposal by Chairman Kevin Van Ostenbridge to hire a third-party firm to investigate the situation on behalf of the board, and either exonerate Teitelbaum or find him definitively guilty of the claims. The proposal was ultimately denied.
Manatee County officials never publicly discussed the need for an independent investigation into those claims during a workshop meeting last week, where they openly criticized Hopes over the situation and other frustrations.
But Teitelbaum told various media outlets that he personally requested a third-party investigation to exonerate him from sexual harassment claims, and that request made its way to Tuesday's agenda.
Board members decided not to pursue an investigation and did not vote on the matter. In a 6 to 1 vote on Tuesday, they did agree to rescind a previous decision made in late...
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