Lee County Manager shuts down media after Fox 4 investigation

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Lee County Manager Karen Hawes

Four In Your Corner gets shut down by Lee County Manager, Karen Hawes. All supervisors are now being told they can't talk to us about the county's department of transportation.

This comes after a Four In Your Corner investigation led to an audit of the department.
Since we began our investigation we've been flooded with calls from DOT workers. So far, FOX 4 has uncovered questionable hiring practices and DOT supervisors accused of harassing and intimidating employees. Workers accuse supervisors of hiring their friends instead of publicly posting the job position as is required by county policy.

D.O.T relative received tons of dirt

We even found supervisors delivering tons of free dirt to family members even though other county residents have to wait a year and a half if they want some. In one case, at least 130 truck loads of dirt was delivered to a supervisor's sister-in-law's private residence so she could build a slope around her pond, all on the taxpayers' dime. We found her home is in a federally restricted flood zone and since Fox 4 exposed this incident the county's code enforcement department is now investigating and will require the owner to pay to remove the dirt or hire an engineer to conform to the zoning requirements. Either way it will cost thousands of dollars.

There is much more to this story -- that's why we've been trying to speak with county officials but that apparently won't happen now. County Manager Karen Hawes says county staff will no longer comment on DOT issues until they complete their audit. Hawes says she may expand the scope of her audit to include other issues we exposed in our reports.
Here is a link to the Fox 4 report: http://www.fox4now.com/story/14986504/lee-co-manager-no-more-comments-from-dot?redirected=true