Did your taxpayer dollars help cover up Supervisor of Elections affair?

Last week, Lee County Supervisor of Elections, Tommy Doyle, admitted to having an affair with one of his employees and visited her home many times during work hours back in 2019.

• RELATED: Lee County Supervisor of Elections apologizes for affair

“This has come out at an opportune time, because this happened before he ran for election last time, but nobody knew about it. So this time, the voters actually can weigh in on this behavior in this situation. And so that, in a sense, is a good thing, the fact that this is now out there, and voters can decide whether or not it’s disqualifying,” UCF Political Scientist, Aubrey Jewett said.

The former employee received 20 weeks’ severance pay.

Lee County voters are wondering if the severance pay was their taxpayer dollars which is why WINK News made phone calls and combed through documents Monday.

WINK News found that Lee County Commissioners pass a budget every year and that budget funds the Supervisor of Elections Office. Unless there is a revenue stream in the budget that WINK News does not know about, the severance pay was paid with taxpayer money.

It is unknown if there was a misappropriation of county taxpayer funds.

“It did involve workplace policies. It does involve taxpayer money, and so we don’t know what kind of pressure was put on this subordinate to quit, and we don’t know exactly all the legal ramifications of somebody using their position when they’re having an affair, and then using the office resources to sort of buy off this person. So I think, again, I think for a lot of voters, that might be the more troubling aspect of this, more so than just the affair itself,” Jewett said.

Since the news came out last week, social media has been buzzing. Many Lee County voters are upset, including Denise Nystrom, who spoke with WINK News Reporter Olivia Jean.

“What is clear is that there was this agreement, this the severance agreement. That also calls into question, who wrote that agreement? Were other people involved in that? Were attorneys involved in that? Because, you know, if there were people beyond Tommy Doyle that were involved in that, that’s coercion, you know, that’s a that’s more than one person working toward an end that would be well aware of what it is that’s occurring, and that’s why the office must be now the office really just has to be investigated at this point,” Nystrom said.

Tommy Doyle told WINK News on Monday that he stands by the statement he shared last Friday to WINK News and went on to say, “My focus continues to be on my responsibilities as supervisor of elections, which include ensuring an accurate, secure, and successful Primary Election tomorrow.”

The Supervisor of Elections Office told WINK News Monday that they will get back to us on if the severance pay was indeed taxpayer dollars.

In addition, we have reached out to the Florida Division of Elections and Lee County and all of the Lee County Commissioners. Commissioner Ruane and Commissioner Pendergrass responded back, saying they were unavailable. The rest of the Lee County Commissioners did not respond.

WINK News has requested all documents on Doyle from several agencies.

WINK News is staying on top of this developing story.