In a sudden twist of events that raised eyebrows among several commissioners and had a couple questioning whether the move was politically motivated, Charlotte County Commissioner Robert Skidmore accused County Attorney Janette Knowlton of failing to do her job, and urged commissioners to consider that when doing her performance evaluation.

Although he stopped short of asking the commission to terminate her contract, Skidmore criticized Knowlton for her handling of the Rotonda sewer lawsuit, as well as failing
to properly notice a public meeting subject to Florida’s Sunshine Laws, and made it a point to let the board know that Knowlton’s contract is due to renew automatically on Oct. 1, and the commission had yet to receive evaluation forms that commissioners use to rate their employees. Among the department heads who directly report to the commission are County Administrator Ray Sandrock, Economic Development Director Tom Patton and Knowlton.