TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — Employees at Treasure Island tell ABC Action News that harassment and bullying from citizens have gone too far, and enough is enough.
Thirty-eight Treasure Island employees left due to extreme citizen harassment.
WATCH NOW: Treasure Island city leaders push back on citizen harassment and bullying
City Commissioner Tammy Vasquez said she hopes a "Hail Mary" can save the city. She believes that if the people don't stop the intense vitriol and harassment at meetings and through text and social media, even more city workers will leave.
City officials tell ABC Action News that a total of 38 people have resigned since Hurricane Helene, and of those, six were department heads. Some notable positions on that list are the city's public works co-directors, finance director, and community development director. And a majority of the people being harassed are women.
"It takes certain things and a certain amount of people to run a municipality, and when you can't keep those people, or you can't find those people, then unfortunately, you can't govern yourself as a municipality, and then other steps have to be taken," Vice Mayor of Treasure Island Tammy Vasquez said.
Vasquez says she can't even walk to her car alone after meetings. With the recent violence against lawmakers in Minnesota, everyone is on edge.
"Commissioners are going and knocking on doors and yelling at staff. There are just horrible things being said, horrible things being said about myself," Vasquez said. "It's just it's out of control. I hope that we can reach a middle ground and that we don't have to agree on everything. However, we are in the positions we are as elected officials for a reason, and I do my best to represent the people in my community. It is, it's frustrating. It is infuriating, quite frankly, because, you know, we're just trying to get our city back, trying to get people in their homes, trying to get businesses back to doing business."
Vasquez said the storms took a lot, but the small group of citizens attacking every move leaders try to make could lead to more issues down the road.
"It seems like this is almost worse than the hurricane?" reporter Michael Paluska asked.
"You know it could be. It very well could be. I mean, I, like all my neighbors and friends out here, we all lost everything, and what we don't want to lose is our city. But unfortunately, that is what's happening," Vasquez said.
There is a city comission meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Vasquez plans to deliver a speech and hopes that cooler heads prevail, allowing everyone to start working together.
"We don't come home until they do."
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