6 Manatee County commissioners face lawsuit

A lawsuit filed March 10 against six of seven Manatee County Commissioners will offer an interesting test case of a media outlet's right to endorse candidates in a political election.

Parrish's Adam Johnson, known as "the lectern guy" for infamously posing in the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 holding former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern, is the plaintiff in the case that alleges the six commissioners were corrupt in deciding not to pursue $250,000 in legal fees against Joe McClash.

McClash is the Bradenton Times owner who had sued Manatee County for its decision to do away with established wetland buffers.

Mike Rahn is the only commissioner not being sued because he was the lone nay vote when the board decided to forgive the county's legal fees in defending itself against McClash’s lawsuit that challenged the commission's decision to cut wetland buffers from the county minimum of 30 to 50 feet down to the state minimum of 15 to 25 feet. The other commissioners are George Kruse, Jason Bearden, Amanda Ballard, Carol Felts, Bob McCann, and Tal Siddique.

Johnson's lawsuit also claims McClash used his media outlet to promote candidates he favored in the primary who were likely to vote against the county pursuing legal fees against him.

The lawsuit is one of three filed since since Nov. 27 by House Representative Robert “Alex” Andrade, who represents District 2 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, that would appear to have connections to the previous Manatee County political machine.

Other than the lawsuit Andrade filed on behalf of Johnson, he also filed lawsuits for former Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge and another for Ostenbridge and political consultant Anthony Pedicini.

Pedicini has been a highly successful political consultant in Manatee County, helping to seat every member of the Manatee County Commission between the 2020 and 2022 election cycles.

However, Pedicini's winning streak was upended during the 2024 election cycle when seven out of his 10 clients in Manatee and Sarasota counties lost their races, including Van Ostenbridge, who lost his race to current Commission Chair George Kruse. 

McClash eventually withdrew his suit against the county, but the county went forward with attempts to collect approximately $250,000 as the “prevailing party” because Senate Bill 540, which went into effect July 2023, states that anyone to challenge a comprehensive plan must pay the prevailing party’s attorney fees. 

McClash said because he withdrew the case, there was no determination of a prevailing party, and since the case was closed with prejudice, it can't be reopened. 

The suit states that the general rule when a plaintiff voluntarily dismisses an action is that the defendant is the prevailing party. 

In lieu of monetary damages, Johnson is seeking an injunction to prevent the county and commissioners from waiving McClash’s fees. 

“The taxpayers deserve their court-authorized collection,” Johnson said by email. “Political corruption, especially direct political favors paid for by taxpayers, cannot stand and will not stand as long as there is breath in my lungs.” 

The suit alleges that McClash used The Bradenton Times to endorse candidates that he believed would “relieve him of the responsibility of paying back Manatee County.” 

 However, Ballard and Bearden are named in the suit even though they were not part of the 2024 election and are not up for reelection until 2026. 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

The board's main reason to waive the legal fees against McClash was that a private citizen shouldn't be penalized for challenging a motion that commissioners already had taken steps to reverse.

Rahn was not surprised a lawsuit was filed. He said a move like dismissing the fees against McClash was not going to go unnoticed and that someone was bound to fight back. 

While he never believed McClash would actually pay the county $250,000, Rahn wanted to allow the county attorney’s office to go through the standard process to come up with a settlement amount. 

“This opens a Pandora’s box for anybody else to come out and say, ‘Well, you waived his fees, waive my fees,’” Rahn said. “Waiving attorney fees for anyone that we (the county) are the prevailing party, it doesn’t serve a public purpose. It’s not fiscally responsible with taxpayer money.” 

McClash used the same term, Pandora’s box, to describe the county’s situation if it chose not to lower the fees it said were needed to defend itself against McClash's lawsuit. He said the county's legal fees were way overblown.

McClash said the commission's decision to waive its legal fees against him were not without precedent. He said the county has a "tremendous history of waiving liens” in code enforcement cases. On average, residents pay about 1%, which was the amount McClash offered the commission to settle his case.

The motion to waive all fees was made by Bearden Nov. 19, the same day Felts, McCann and Siddique were sworn into office. 

The prior board voted down the same motion 4-2 on Sept 10. Bearden and Kruse were the only commissioners in favor of dropping the fees at that time. 

The complaint quotes Kruse from Sept. 10 as saying, “I personally have no intention of collecting that money from former commissioner Joe McClash, and I think I will have the votes to not collect that money when the time comes.”

The exhibits attached to the lawsuit are endorsements of commissioners Kruse, Felts, McCann and Siddique from “The Bradenton Times.”

Van Ostenbridge is suing former Commissioner Betsy Benac and the political action group Take Back Manatee for defamation. It was filed Nov. 27. On Dec. 17, Van Ostenbridge and Pedicini sued Manatee County resident Hawke Cates, The Bradenton Times and “doe defendants” for “damages related to the unauthorized publication of their names and likenesses.”

The suit references “The Real KVO,” a cartoon featuring a blue puppet reminiscent of a Sesame Street character that sings songs and speaks in a high-pitched voice. The puppet calls himself Kevin-Kyle Kaczyski Von Oswald and mocks local officials on social media. The lawsuit reads, “The videos maintain a consistent theme, painting Mr. Van Ostenbridge and Mr. Pedicini as corrupt political figures and insinuating that they and others engage in obscene sexual acts.”

Andrade also filed a lawsuit Jan. 8, on behalf of Pedicini and his firm Simwins, alleging that Sarasota Phoenix Media made derogatory statements about Pedicini.

Andrade has made three attempts to pass bills through the legislature that target media outlets. 

The three bills he sponsored failed, but part of their aim was to loosen the definition of what a public figure is and lower the threshold of what constitutes malice. 

For a plaintiff to win a defamation lawsuit against a journalist, negligence isn’t enough. The plaintiff must prove the false statement was printed with malice or reckless disregard for the truth.

Andrade did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the county attorney's office advised commissioners not to comment on the case.