Sheriff adds to his enemies list

This is what leadership looks like.

Leadership is a man in green uniform standing at the microphone, fumbling over the simplest of questions, and instead finding it easier to simply lash out.

Leadership is throwing even your most ardent supporters under the bus to make a point. And that point is: I’m right, you’re wrong. End of discussion.

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Leadership is arguing with county commissioners during a public meeting. Not simply arguing but interrupting like a petulant child.

That’s what Sheriff Mike Prendergast calls Leadership Is Action.

In the latest round of the sheriff’s re-election/self-destruction tour, Prendergast approached the County Commission on Tuesday about the COPS grant to bring in 46 additional deputies. It’s a five-year grant where the county is totally on the hook for years 4 and 5. Cheap, it’s not.

Commissioners Rebecca Bays, Ruthie Davis Schlabach and Chairman Holly Davis appear to have had it up to here with the sheriff’s antics. Commissioners Diana Finegan and Jeff Kinnard don’t seem to have the same angst, but they’re not displaying a lot of confidence in the sheriff’s budgetary and communication abilities.

Finegan started right off with a numbers question. An EASY numbers question. One the sheriff should have been able to answer in 3 seconds. Instead…he’ll get back to us. Yeah, we’ve heard that before.

It went downhill from there. At one point, Prendergast rattled off a batch of random population statistics with no point. We have more people here than 20 years ago. OK…and?

Prendergast seems to have no concept that his agency is not the only one taxpayers fund. He has zero empathy for commissioners who are balancing a ton of needs and wondering how to pay for it all.

Instead, he pours out the rhetoric.

His presentation on the COPS grant was bad enough, but what followed was much worse. And weirder.

During public comments, Prendergast read from a written statement regarding the county’s law enforcement MSTU. The County Commission, under constant pressure from the sheriff for more money, has decided to set up a separate tax for the sheriff’s office.

The idea is, if the sheriff wants more than the standard 3-5% budget bump that everyone gets, he has to sell it to the public. Seems reasonable. He already has the mechanism for it with his Facebook page.

But…Prendergast loathes having to take his case directly to citizens without a middleman to blame when things don’t go his way. A municipal services taxing unit removes county commissioners from the bullseye.

Even that doesn’t explain his bizarre and disturbing comments. Here’s the link to the County Commission meeting. The sheriff’s comments start at the 2:19:30 mark.

The worst was his suggestion that an MSTU is the County Commission’s attempt to “defund police.” Says the man with a $39 million budget and total control over how it’s spent.

That shows an incredible misunderstanding of what exactly an MSTU is. Bays has been consistent in calling for a diverse tax structure with more accountability to taxpayers. She was just telling me that Marion County funds its entire law enforcement in the unincorporated areas with an MSTU.

Kinnard, who wanted to find middle ground with the sheriff, wasn’t happy with being publicly called out.

“We have never defunded any law enforcement. In fact we’ve increased that budget substantially every year,” he said. “The grandstanding at the podium doesn’t do anything to move the needle forward.”

This MSTU conversation wouldn’t have such urgency if Citrus County had a sheriff who wanted to work with fellow elected leaders instead of trying to manipulate them.

Leadership? None that I recognize.

— The brass at Just Wright Citrus decided to spot me an extra day off this week for a breather, so no blog on Friday. Enjoy this beautiful Thursday, friends.

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