In light of the procurement scandal, top officials and staff have resigned, lost their jobs, or have been re-assigned. The Sheriff’s office conducted an investigation and found no wrong doing. Only one county employee (Rodney Jones) has been brought to trial.
10/14/2011 “County hires FDLE agent to look for fraud”
Steve Uebelacker, an agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, will be paid $96,000 a year in the new position and will become one of only a couple dozen other local government ethics and compliance officers in the country.
10/4/2011 “Dave Bullock hired as Longboat town manager” Bullock replaces Bruce St. Denis, who resigned last month after learning that he was likely to get a poor performance evaluation from the commission.
8/11/2011 “Mark Thiele named procurement director”
Interim County Administrator Terry Lewis on Thursday announced he had selected Mark Thiele, currently the purchasing manager for the city of Cape Coral.
Thiele will start Aug. 29 and will be responsible for overseeing a complete overhaul of how the county spends taxpayer dollars.
7/18/2011 “Sarasota County top finance officer resigns”
Chief Financial Planning Officer Jeff Seward, 45, was recently put in charge of implementing fixes to the way the county awards contracts. His responsibility over the county’s $1 billion annual budget included the purchasing department. Seward submitted his written resignation Monday morning.
7/14/2011 “Sarasota County CFPO, Jeff Seward placed on leave”
Sarasota County’s top financial official was placed on administrative leave Thursday, a day after two critical audits were released and yet more problems in how the county spends money were exposed.
6/23/2011 “County cuts worker who pushed contract to a friend”
Larry Arnold, who helped steer a $500,000 contract to oversee renovations at Ed Smith Stadium to a friend’s company in 2009, had his position eliminated Thursday, Interim Sarasota County Administrator Terry Lewis said.
6/8/2011 “Terry Lewis picked as interim Sarasota County Administrator”
Terry Lewis, 59, former North Port Police Chief and undersheriff at the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office, was tapped for the interim appointment with a unanimous vote. His only experience in local government is a six-month stint as interim city manager in North Port, but Lewis is well known in Sarasota.
5/24/2011 “Jim Ley offers to resign”
Ley’s looming resignation comes amid a still-unfolding scandal over the county’s purchasing practices. Ethical lapses and violations of policy have cost seven employees their jobs so far, and investigations by the sheriff’s office and clerk of the court are ongoing.
4/22/2011 “Another County worker suspended”
Don Downs is at least the third county employee to be disciplined in the past month for an ethical lapse. Four other county employees have resigned or been fired for violating policies regarding credit cards.
Downs’ case, however, is not related to recent upheaval in county government.
His bosses were alerted last May by an anonymous letter that said Downs had taken the bricks from a buddy at Absolute Aluminum.
4/20/2011 “Sarasota County workers lose jobs over credit card abuse”
Gerald Alder, a compliance and maintenance specialist in the utilities department, who the county says violated purchasing policies. Alder chose to retire.
Stanley Epperly, an operational manager in the utilities department, who the county says did not provide sufficient oversight. Epperly, who supervised Alder, resigned.
Frederick Sherrod, an operational manager in the utilities department, who the county says violated purchasing policies. He was served with a notice that the county intends to fire him. His supervisor was Verne Hall.
Verne Hall, the utilities operations manager, who the county says did not provide sufficient oversight. He resigned. Hall supervised Epperly and Sherrod. Hall’s supervisor was Theresa Connor, the executive director of environmental services.
3/31/2011 “County worker quits in bribery scandal”
A Sarasota County worker implicated but not criminally charged in a bribery scandal resigned Thursday amid an internal county investigation.
Lee Urbain, a warehouse manager in the county public works department, accepted trips and gifts from engineering contractor Chaz Equipment Co., according to Palm Beach County prosecutors.
3/3/2011 “Senior Sarasota County manager quits”
Nancy Fisher, one of the top three officials in the environmental services division, is the highest-ranking employee to lose her job so far amid the ongoing investigation.
