As a Brooksville business owner, I find today's action by a handful of out-of-county, partisan protesters from Orlando an insult to me, as a taxpayer who pays city and county taxes. Our city and county leaders need to immediately send an invoice for cost of the safety personnel on hand for this partisan stunt by the chairman of the Orange County Democrat Executive Committee, Bill Robinson. The city of Brooksville and Hernando County government are struggling to cover our needs, with a limited budgets, in this repressed economy. As a taxpayer, I wholeheartedly agree with Congresswoman Brown-Waite's call for the reimbursement for theses cost but I will go one step farther by saying the local DEC should cover these incurred costs if our out of town guests fail to meet their obligations to our county. Below is Rep. Brown-Waite press release concerning reimbursement:
REP. BROWN-WAITE CALLS ON ORANGE COUNTY DEMOCRAT LEADERS TO REIMBURSE HERNANDO COUNTY FOR WASTING THEIR TIME AND LIMITED RESOURCES
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Representative Ginny Brown-Waite (FL-05) today called on Orange County Democrat Party leaders to reimburse Hernando County for the cost of mobilizing their police force, of cordoning off a significant downtown area, and disrupting County and City government business. Protest leaders originally notified the Fire Department that 1,000-plus people would attend. Yesterday they “confirmed” with the City that 417 protesters would be arriving in multiple coach style buses outside the County Courthouse. As of 12:45 pm today, approximately 35 people had arrived, joining 15 or so people who drove themselves, wasting the time and resources of County, City and State law enforcement. All told, Brooksville City Police, Florida Highway Patrol, Hernando County Sheriff’s Department and Fire Department put in countless wasted hours preparing for today’s disruptions.
“Just this morning our hometown newspaper ran a story about the County Commission laying off dozens of county workers, with the prospect of more layoffs in the future,” said Rep. Brown-Waite. “Given the anemic turnout at my office today, I can come to no other conclusion than Orange County Democrat leaders were misleading Hernando County law enforcement about the size of their “protest” in efforts to generate press coverage of what now appears to be nothing more than a Democrat political rally on government property today. Perhaps someone in the State legislature can look for ways to protect municipalities from similar partisan groups like this one from raiding county coffers in the future.
“I also read published reports that visitors from Melbourne and Orlando were charged $15 to ride the lone bus to my office. If they claim to have had 400-plus people pay the money, and then showed up with only one busload of about 30 people, they should have thousands of dollars lying around unused to reimburse the various police and fire departments for their time and energy. Otherwise this “protest” is nothing more than a long distance Party fundraiser for Orange County Democrats.
“If Bill Robinson and his fellow event organizers are at all concerned about the fiscal welfare of the County and local law enforcement, they will immediately contact the Hernando County Sheriff’s and Fire Department, the City Police and the Florida Highway Patrol to reimburse them for the cost of supplying extra officers at their protest today. If Mr. Robinson does not make the law enforcement officials whole again, I would urge Hernando County Democratic Party Chairman Jay Rowden to speak up and tell our out of district friends to stop wasting precious County resources.”
2 comments:
As a conservative and proponent of adhering to the US Constitution, I believe the First Amendment gives people, regardless of their political persuasion, the right to assemble, and free speech. I think the demand made by congresswoman GBW was self-serving and not well though out. She embarrassed the District with her comments and a simple apology for the shortsightedness would have likely avoided the whole debacle yesterday and giving the OCDEC an open door upon which to launch an attack. It is best to think before speaking.
I couldn't disagree with you more about GBW's original statement concerning giving tax rebates to citizens living in Puerto Rico. They have not paid into our US Treasury and this equates to welfare payments at our expense. She should be commended for her strong conservative stance for the 5th Congressional district. BTW, the IRS refers to the people in Puerto Rico as "foreign" as well.
Yes, the freedom to assemble is guaranteed under the Constitution, along with free speech. This assembly yesterday required a permit for "assembly", a parade permit to march down our streets and liability insurance, per city regulations. The group yesterday only had a permit for assembly. They did not have insurance or a parade permit. The cost of this stunt cost taxpayers plenty for extra police officers on hand from the city, county and the Highway Patrol. When it became apparent that the Orange County DEC did not have the 400-600 participants as previously reported to the Brooksville Police,as a courtesy, they should have called to say only 30+ people were on the bus.
I can only assume the reason why they did not contact city officials which of the true intent to have a partisan rally at taxpayer expense which is not guaranteed free under our Constitution.
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