Lee County Supervisor of Elections Office responds to taxpayer dollar severance allegations

Reporter: Olivia Jean Writer: Bryanna Sterzenbach
Published: Updated:

Following multiple days of allegations and backlash after Lee County’s Supervisor of Elections Tommy Doyle was exposed for inappropriate conduct, his office has responded to allegations that taxpayer dollars paid for the employee’s severance pay.

On Friday, Doyle sent WINK News a statement confirming allegations of an extramarital affair with a female employee in 2019. An equal employment opportunity complaint was filed by the employee after the affair ended. The former employee received 20 weeks of severance pay.

On Tuesday the Supervisor of Elections Office responded to WINK News on whether or not the severance pay was taxpayer dollars.

The Supervisor of Elections Office said it was indeed taxpayer dollars and said all Supervisor of Elections payroll is pulled from taxes.

The catch is the office said there was no misappropriation of taxpayer dollars. They say the severance was given to an employee who hadn’t been able to work for the elections office for a long period of time due to a medical issue. The office said in the separation agreement, the employee said she was receiving the severance funds in lieu of being placed on unpaid administrative leave.

The statement also said the money was not a settlement of a sexual harassment complaint.
That complaint ended up being retracted. The Supervisor of Elections Office goes on to say the individual in a written retraction to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said she made up allegations.

The full statement is below:

There was no misappropriation of taxpayer dollars. The payroll funds were issued to an employee who had been unable to work for the SOE Office for a significant period of time due to a medical issue and who had not been medically cleared to return to work when her FMLA leave expired.

When the FMLA expired the employee chose the option of receiving the severance pay rather than remaining on unpaid administrative leave potentially indefinitely.  In the related separation agreement, the former employee specifically confirmed that she was receiving the severance funds in lieu of being placed on unpaid administrative leave.

This was not a settlement of a sexual harassment complaint.  The individual who filed the sexual harassment complaint retracted the sexual harassment allegations in a written document she filed with a federal agency, the EEOC. 

In that written retraction she admitted that the allegations she had made in her complaint were erroneous, that there was no unlawful conduct, that she was not entitled to any form of legal redress, and that she had no evidence that anyone at SOE took any adverse employment action against her.


We are still waiting to get a copy of the letter to verify this statement.

Stay tuned to WINKNews.com, WINK News App, streaming, and on-air for any new developments on this story. 

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