Commission on Ethics dismisses complaint against City Manager

Commission on Ethics dismisses complaint against City Manager

Published on March 13, 2026

NORTH PORT - A complaint filed against City Manager Jerome Fletcher was dismissed by the Florida Commission on Ethics for lack of legal sufficiency this week.

The ruling was made during a March 6 closed-session meeting of the Florida Commission on Ethics in Tallahassee.

The complaint stemmed from an incident involving a picture of Commissioner David Duval, as discussed publicly during the Dec. 9 City Commission meeting.

A review by the Commission determined that the contents of the complaint filed by Stephanie Gibson are not adequate to allege a violation of the Code of Ethics or other laws within the Commission's jurisdiction. It determined that even if everything alleged were true, it still wouldn't qualify as an ethics violation under state law. It found no evidence or claim that the City Manager used his position for personal gain or acted corruptly.

"As part of my credentials with the International City/County Management Association, I pledged to uphold the 12 Tenets of the ICMA Code of Ethics, which focuses on integrity, political neutrality, transparency, and public service, and I've continually done so," Fletcher said. "I'm pleased to see another unfounded complaint has been dismissed, but we haven't let it distract our team from our work to address the city's challenges and serve the residents of North Port."

View the Florida Commission on Ethics public report and order dismissing the complaint here.(PDF, 140KB)

Read the coverage in the Daily Sun here.

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