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The city commissioner of a small beach town in Florida resigned this week after being censured amid complaints she allegedly licked her male co-workers' faces and groped them during meetings and events.
Nancy Oakley, who served as the Madeira Beach city commissioner from 2007 to 2013 and again from 2017 to 2019, submitted her letter of resignation Tuesday.
In the letter, obtained by NBC News, Oakley denied the allegations, writing: "I maintain my innocence and am pursuing the paths of appeals available."
She also said she was vacating her position to "still the controversy."
"It is time for us all to move on,” Oakley wrote.
In a February 2017 complaint filed with the Florida Commission on Ethics — and obtained by NBC News — former Madeira Beach City Manager Shane Crawford said Oakley made “unwanted sexual advances” toward him and Dave Marsicano, who was director of the city’s public works department and the city marina.
The incidents allegedly happened during a fishing tournament in 2012.
According to a report by the ethics commission in response to the complaint, Crawford said that Oakley, who he said appeared to be drunk, approached him and his executive assistant, Cherylanne McGrady, cursed at them and told him not to bring McGrady around anymore.
Crawford said Oakley “then grabbed his crotch, and slowly licked him from his Adam’s apple all the way up his face," according to the ethics commission's report.
When McGrady confronted Oakley about her behavior, Oakley allegedly tried to punch McGrady but missed, the report states. Crawford, who later married McGrady, said Oakley believed at the time of the incident that the two were having an affair — something the ethics commission report says Crawford denied. McGrady said that she thought Oakley was jealous of her, according to the report.
According to the report, Crawford said he never confronted Oakley because she was one of his bosses and he did not want to make an enemy while he was city manager. Crawford decided to file the complaint against Oakley when she was re-elected as city commissioner in 2017.
The report by the ethics commission also detailed an incident in which Oakley allegedly licked Marsicano's face. Marsicano said that during a meeting in 2012, Oakley “hung on his neck, grabbed his crotch, and licked his face," according to the report.
He said his wife at the time witnessed what happened and almost got into a fight with Oakley because of her actions. Marsicano alleged that on numerous occasions, Oakley would hug him and try to kiss him, according to the report.
“He said he would not have tolerated Ms. Oakley’s behavior had she not been a city commissioner, but he feared he would be terminated if he attempted to thwart her advances,” the ethics commission report states.
In a Jan. 25 meeting, the Florida Commission on Ethics found that Oakley violated the state’s ethics code by “misusing her position by exhibiting inappropriate behavior toward city staff, according to a press release.
A city official also recommended that Oakley be fined $5,000 and be publicly censured by the governor, the press release states.
Oakley did not immediately return NBC News' request for comment.
A spokesman for the city of Madeira Beach said the board of commissioners accepted her resignation Wednesday night. The seat will remain vacant until a March election, the spokesman said.