Clerk Details Challenges her Office Faced under Previous County Leadership to House Subcommittee

TALLAHASSEE — Manatee County’s Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller Angelina (Angel) Colonneso traveled to Tallahassee this week to speak with Florida House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee members about the county’s budget process and the challenging relationship between her office and BOCC in recent years.

Following her opening remarks, Colonneso answered questions posed by subcommittee members by detailing the efforts of her office to uphold its statutory duties and responsibilities while being met with opposition that sometimes resulted in retaliation in the form of budget request denials by the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners.

Colonneso was invited to participate in the panel discussion on county constitutional officer budgets and budget appeal processes by House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Florida Rep. Alex Rizo (R- Hialeah).

Colonneso was one of four county constitutional officers invited to participate in the panel discussion. Other panel guests included Alachua County Property Appraiser Ayesha Solomon, Columbia County Tax Collector Kyle Keen, Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons, and Deputy Executive Director of the Florida Association of Counties Davin Suggs.

In her opening remarks, Colonneso shared her decades of public service to Manatee County, including 21 years of service within the county clerk’s office. This year marks her tenth year as the elected Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller. Colonneso also formerly served as an Assistant State Attorney for eleven years.

Detailing the role of a county clerk, Colonneso described to subcommittee members how her office is organized before reading through the extensive list of a county clerk’s responsibilities and duties.

The Clerk’s Office is comprised of two main divisions, Colonneso told members: the courts division and the finance division.

“Our responsibilities are encompassed in the Florida Constitution, Article 8, Section 1, Article 5, Section 16, the Florida Statute 28.12, and Florida Statute 125.17,” Colonneso explained.

Speaking about the clerk’s responsibilities as the county’s comptroller—the financial side of the office—Colonneso told Subcommittee Members that her office oversees and is responsible for all county funds.

“The clerk must refuse to sign and deliver a county payment for any unlawful expenditure, or we can face personal civil and or criminal liability under Florida Statue 129.09,” Colonneso detailed.

To hear Clerk Colonneso’s opening remarks in full, click the video below.

The following video clip is shared with permission and courtesy of The Florida Channel.



After each of the panel guests provided opening remarks, Subcommittee Chair Rizo opened the forum for Subcommittee Member questions of the panelists.

Florida Rep. Michael "Mike" Caruso (R- Delray Beach), who was the first member recognized to offer questions, directed his questions to Colonneso.

Caruso asked Colonneso to go more in-depth about the standards and statutes that would hold a county clerk personally responsible for misspending county funds.

As part of her answer to Caruso, Colonneso said, “When we look at something, if it does not pass muster with a lawful public purpose, we cannot sign off on that warrant—and ‘warrant’ is the same as a check. It’s called a ‘warrant’ under the law.”

Colonneso further explained that should her office approve and pay such expenditures, she could be held personally liable, as the clerk, and criminally liable if it was knowingly done.

On follow-up, Caruso asked Colonneso if she had ever denied a payment request that came as a board policy approval. Colonneso confirmed that she could not recall any instances in her time serving as clerk of a denial for a board-approved payment or expenditure; however, she confirmed that certain inappropriate county credit card purchases resulted in a request from her office for reimbursement.

Subcommittee Vice Chair Rep. Philip Griffitts (R- Bay County) followed Caruso’s questioning by asking Colonneso whether her office serving as both the pre-auditor and inspector general put her office in a “flash point” position between commissioners and its audit responsibilities.

In response to Griffitts’ question, Colonneso offered specific examples. Before detailing those examples, the clerk first provided the background of her office’s relationship with Manatee County BOCC over the last four years.

“Historically, my office collaborated with our county very well, including my predecessor having the same relationship, in recent years—and this does not apply to the board as it sits today—but in the last four years, our county government lost nearly 1,000 employees in a 10-month timeframe out of about 1,900.”

She continued, “We’ve had four county administrators in as many years. They lost a lot of institutional knowledge from individuals who worked very well with our office, and we all collectively understood the mission of accountability for public funds.”

Colonneso said the losses resulted in the newer county employees not understanding the role and responsibilities of public officers, employees, and the clerk.   

She added, “We have hopefully turned a corner these last few months and have begun to repair these internal controls.”

During her comments, Colonneso described feeling compelled to author an “unprecedented” letter to commissioners in 2022, warning of “grave” fiscal concerns regarding instances by former county administrator Scott Hopes.

“I had to present our (the Clerk’s Office) budget the following month,” Colonneso recalled for the members. “The outcome was a denial in my budget that year of two much-needed Inspector General positions to keep up with the workload.”

Colonneso shared that a historically low number of complaints reported to the Office of the Inspector General of one to two a year ballooned during that time to over 100 per year. She also shared that subsequent budget request denials by the then-BOCC continued in the years that followed.

“In the following years, after that letter, ” Colonneso continued, “and until very recently, there were numerous attempts to antagonize and bully me—but we stayed the course, and we did our job because we have to follow the law.”

To hear all of the questions asked of Clerk Colonneso and her responses in full, click the video below.

The following video clip is shared with permission and courtesy of The Florida Channel.



The Feb. 5, 2025, panel meeting of the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee lasted just over an hour and twenty minutes.

To replay all of the Subcommittee panel guests' opening remarks and responses to questions posed by Subcommittee members, please visit The Florida Channel or access the meeting video direct link at: 
https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/2-5-25-house-intergovernmental-affairs-subcommittee/