BRADENTON BEACH – City Clerk Terri Sanclemente and City Attorney Erica Augello are handling the city’s response to a subpoena Sanclemente received as part of the civil lawsuit former Building Official Darin Cushing filed against his former employer, SAFEbuilt Florida LLC.
While serving as the city’s building official, Cushing was a contractual employee for SAFEbuilt Inspections. M.T. Causley is a subsidiary of SAFEbuilt and the city had a contractual agreement with M.T. Causley to provide building official services.
Bradenton Beach is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit Cushing’s attorney filed with the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Bradenton on May 7, 2025.
The subpoena sent to Sanclemente on Jan. 26 requested records pertaining to Cushing’s job description, performance reviews, disciplinary actions, complaints and all documents pertaining to the termination of his employment. Because Cushing was not a city employee, the subpoena does not seek employment applications and documents related to his hiring.
During the March 19 city commission meeting, Sanclemente said she had received the subpoena from Cushing’s attorneys.
“He is suing SAFEbuilt, so I have completed all of those documents and sent them over to Erica to review; and when she’s done, she does the submittal,” Sanclemente said.
The city temporarily suspended Cushing’s contractual services on Jan. 22, 2025. Following the suspension, Cushing’s employment with SAFEbuilt was later terminated.
Cushing’s suspension centered around his permitting approval for the Drift-In bar’s tiki hut structure, as well as for various social media posts he made. The city maintained the Drift-In permit should not have been issued and the project should have been classified as a “major development” due to the new tiki hut’s increased size. Cushing has maintained that the permit was issued properly.
Cushing has alleged that his employment status with the city was threatened for not complying with what he characterized as “illegal and unethical” requests to provide favorable treatment to a local developer. City officials denied those allegations.
Cushing’s lawsuit complaint alleges he was “unlawfully terminated because of his whistleblower actions in refusing to participate in illegal activities and reporting violations of laws, rules and regulations in violation of his rights under the Florida Private Whistleblower Act.”
A court date for Cushing’s requested jury trial has not been scheduled and the preliminary legal filings continue.
