Bartolotta thinks 'ulterior motives' at work

City Manager Bob Bartolotta and members of the Sarasota City Commission say they are frustrated that City Auditor and Clerk Pamela Nadalini has called a 2 p.m. special meeting Friday at City Hall to discuss a forensic investigation of three city computers.

Mayor Suzanne Atwell and Vice Mayor Terry Turner expressed concern at the commission’s regular meeting Tuesday that the meeting had been planned, even though the commission had received no report about the investigation.

“I’m uncomfortable about having a meeting scheduled when I didn’t know what it was even about until today (Jan. 3),” Atwell said.

Turner agreed.

“We have no information to review and that’s troublesome,” he said.

Nadalini told the commission Tuesday the written report was exempt from public records because of the ongoing investigation. She said the commissioners could determine Friday whether to release the report at the meeting.

More than three months ago, Nadalini took away the computers used by Bartolotta and Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown to investigate a complaint from Sarasota attorney and former state Sen. Bob Johnson. Johnson had accused Bartolotta and Brown of ordering their computers “scrubbed” of data before the Information Technology Department was officially transferred to Nadalini’s office Oct. 1.
In a Jan. 4 email he sent to Nadalini, Bartolotta expressed frustration of the handling of two outside investigations of the computers.

In his email, Bartolotta requested all information, records, emails and any other material related to the investigations, saying the investigation should not be exempt from public record laws because it was not part of an internal audit.

However, he wrote that if Nadalini deemed the investigation to be internal, city-auditing procedures mandated he get a chance to review copies of the investigation reports before they were released.

“I am concerned with the manner in which these two reviews are being conducted,” Bartolotta wrote. “Neither Marlon nor I have been interviewed by the consultants. It appears that there is some ulterior motive behind the way that these reviews are being conducted. We feel that we are not being treated in a fair manner.”

In September, the Sarasota City Commission approved the transfer of the city’s IT Department out of Bartolotta’s office.

On Sept. 19, Bartolotta told commissioners he took issue with the move, which was proposed by Commissioner Paul Caragiulo. Caragiulo believes the auspices of the IT department can be handled more efficiently through the clerk’s office, which is in charge of all city information requests.

Bartolotta and Brown have adamantly denied the allegations and questioned why the investigation was requested and performed by Nadalini’s office in the first place.

Newtown crime update
During its regular meeting Tuesday, the Sarasota City Commission asked staff to plan a trip to High Point, N.C., to meet with community leaders who had taken initiative to reduce the crime in that city over the past three years.

After recording eight murders within the Sarasota city limits in 2011, the Sarasota Police Department put extra resources into its North Sarasota patrols in late December. That resulted in 29 felony arrests, 40 arrests for misdemeanors and 86 citations issued over a nine-day stretch.

Although Sarasota Police Chief Mikel Hollaway applauded his department’s efforts in a report he presented to the commissioners Tuesday, he said he was aware Newtown residents must get more involved and help dictate what kind of policing efforts they feel will be most effective.

“It’s now time for the Newtown community to take the lead and help solve these issues,” said Hollaway, who warned criminals their actions won’t be tolerated any longer. “Those that continue to wreak havoc in our community will be in for a rude awakening if they haven’t gotten the message already.”