The Madeira Beach City Council now faces having to fill a vacant seat following the abrupt resignation of Commissioner Elaine Poe late Tuesday.

  • Poe cited family reasons for departure
  • Poe recently filed ethics complaint against City Manager Shane Crawford
  • In March, vacant seat will return to the ballot

Poe cited family reasons for her departure. She had no other comment save that she stood by her decision to leave and that it had nothing to do with "drama in politics."

However, Poe was occasionally the center of drama during her tenure on the council. She walked out of a commission meeting last month, and Madeira City Manager Shane Crawford said he later learned Poe filed an ethics complaint against him for his relationship with his executive assistant, a relationship she'd earlier approved.

“I think she was probably given some information saying, "Hey you know this is, Crawford’s gonna pay for this if you file an ethics complaint against him," and after giving me approval she filed an ethics complaint about the issue,” he said.

Crawford said he got permission from city leaders to move forward with the relationship, but lost when he tried to appeal his ethics complaint with the International City/County Management Association.

Despite that loss, Crawford said city leaders didn’t show any signs of removing him from his job.

In the short term, however, they will have to find someone to take Poe’s job.

“We have to advertise, gather applications and have the board appoint somebody," Crawford said. “So at the January meeting, the board will appoint someone if somebody applies.”

Subsequently, in March the seat will be back on the ballot. Residents will then get to have their say.