MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. — The Florida Commission on Ethics on Friday upheld a judge's ruling that calls for Madeira Beach City Commissioner Nancy Oakley to be publicly reprimanded and censured by the governor, along with having to pay a $5,000 fine for exhibiting inappropriate behavior: Licking the face of a city manager.
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"The administrative law judge found there was clear and convincing evidence," said Commission Advocate Melody Hadley. "That proved respondent misused her position by exhibiting inappropriate behavior towards city staff."
The Commission on Ethics unanimously voted to adopt the final stipulation against Oakley that will be formally entered on Wednesday. The ethics complaint was filed by Shane Crawford, who was the Madeira Beach City manager at the time.
According to the case records, a drunken Oakley grabbed Crawford's crotch in 2012, during an outdoor City Commission meeting that was held in conjunction with the King of the Beach fishing tournament and then slowly licked his face beginning at his Adam's apple.
"She had a … habit of licking men that either she was attracted to or thought that she had authority over," Crawford said. "She starts here and goes all the way up to the point where you can't stand it anymore and that's after consuming enough (alcohol) and smoking enough cigarettes."
Spectrum Bay News 9 caught up with Oakley at a city workshop on Tuesday and tried to ask the commissioner for a response to the violation she was found guilty of but she retreated to a restroom. Crawford said the fact that Oakley is still on the dais after the final ruling shows a lack of leadership in the city.
"The city has got egg on its face, legally, morally, ethically," he said. "Someone in a leadership role should say, 'You need to now just don't show up. Resign, you have two months left.'"
Crawford also takes issue with Oakley's role in voting to fire him and his wife, Cheryl, who was the city clerk in 2017.
"The night that I was terminated without cause, same night my wife was terminated without cause, Nancy Oakley was the deciding vote," he said. "If you have a sexual harassment allegation pointed against you and you know you're guilty, you need to recuse yourself. You need to abstain from that vote and she didn't."
Crawford said Oakley was always jealous of his wife and even took a swing at her during the face licking-incident. Oakley is also accused of licking the face of David Marsicano, the public works director at the time, and a third man.
"It was like she's had enough, stay clear, because she’s going to lick you kind of thing," said Crawford. "That was odd behavior."
Crawford has also faced his own ethics violation for accepting gifts from lobbyists in the form of reduced rent on a condo and has to pay a $2,000 fine.
"I didn't pay enough rent from my landlords," said Crawford. "If that rent wasn't high enough for year round on a condo that was for sale, I had to maintain and on and on and on, then that's on me."
Oakley's term expires in April and the current City Manager Jonathan Evans said she has not filed the required paperwork to run for re-election.