MANATEE COUNTY – A group of Manatee County residents are still demanding Vanessa Baugh face consequences and be removed as commission chair.
Manatee County residents have not forgotten the vaccine VIP list controversy in Lakewood Ranch.
“It cannot get swept under the rug, it just can’t, I can tell you just this group that is here today they are willing to not let it be put under the rug, and it just can’t,” said Manatee County resident, Sara Charrett.
Residents are demanding accountability from the Manatee County government to remove Vanessa Baugh as Commission Chair after she helped set up a pop-up vaccination site for residents in two of Manatee County’s wealthiest areas.
“We really feel like they are just thinking that this is going to go away, other things are happening, you know we have this crisis at Piney Point, people’s attention gets divided, and we want to send the message that this is not the case, we are as devoted to demanding accountability from Baugh today as we were originally,” said Protest organizer, Robyne Richardson.
The group of demonstrators decorated their cars and drove past the retail jewelry store owned by Commissioner Baugh in Lakewood Ranch.
“This type of behavior is not acceptable, that she should at very least step down as chairperson of the board of county commissioners,” said Manatee County resident, Tina Shope.
Manatee County resident, Sara Charrett says we have to have trust in our commissioners.
“I think if she will just do the right thing, and right now we’re just asking for her to step down as chair and she cannot even admit that she did anything wrong, and we deserve to be able to sleep at night knowing that our county commissioners, who also voted for the lottery that their own fellow board members are following by their rules and what they say, if she can’t even do that there is no trust, and that’s all were asking for trust and transparency,” said Charrett.
