Rep. Brown-Waite Calls on Orange County Democrat Leaders to Reimburse Hernando County for Waisting Their Time and Limited Resources
Statement
Rep. Brown-Waite Calls on Orange County Democrat Leaders to Reimburse Hernando County for Waisting Their Time and Limited Resources
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."
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