![]() Today’s subject: People who believe rules don’t apply to them. You know these people. The ones always pushing the envelope constantly seeing what they can get away with. I appreciate that to an extent. I jokingly used to tell friends that the “authorized personnel only” signs on office doors in the Lecanto Government Building were just suggestions. Now the doors all have key-code locks on them. Dang. A few weeks ago I banned someone from the Just Wright Citrus Facebook page who I’ve known for 30 years. This is someone highly opinionated and knowledgeable of the community. I’ve always enjoyed her spunk.
But we have standards of decency here, and she kept wanting to move away from that. Finally, I told her specifically what not to do. The very next day, in a Facebook comment, she did it anyway, almost daring me to react. It took all of 5 seconds to delete the comment and block her. Library Guy is another who believes the rules don’t apply. You may have read that John “Library Guy” Labriola wants library policies changed to make them reflect the “community standards” that a closed-minded South Florida transplant believes we have in Citrus County. I’m not going to get into the policy debate today. What I am interested in is this: Labriola approached the Library Advisory Board with a demand to change the policies. The advisory board said, OK, it’s not on the agenda, but we’ll talk about it in August when we have a full board here and not off on summer vacation. Remember…whatever the advisory board decides, it goes to the County Commission for a final vote. It's called the public process for a reason. We’ll have plenty of time to hash it all out. Except the timing doesn’t work. Library Guy sent an email to commissioners asking them to essentially bypass their own advisory board and schedule a vote on this burning issue ASAP. Before August. Cuz, my gosh, the library carnage that could take place between now and then. Shudder. This is what he wrote: “In the interest of time, we're asking you to place it on the next County Commission agenda to make these important changes to our policy to reflect the values of our conservative community. Please let me know if it will be on the agenda.” At least one commissioner wants to push this along as Library Guy wants. You can guess who that commissioner might be. It’s fair to wonder why Library Guy would insist on a rush job. One possibility — he’s rumored to be running again for Inverness City Council against incumbent Jacquie Hepfer. Qualifying for City Council seats is in August. It would be quite the accomplishment (for lack of a better word) should Library Guy secure his place in Citrus County lore before qualifying. The powers-that-be should tell Library Guy to wait his turn like everyone else. We have plenty of time for public discussion on library displays and policies. When someone tries to prevent citizens from participating in an issue they’re passionate about, that really gets my boil. Immediately the message is lost in the motive. Recall these words about Labriola from Commissioner Holly Davis in September 2023: “This person has been a cancer on the soul of our county since June 2021, when two weeks after moving here, started whistling a gaslighting tune to entice his flock to follow him.” I occasionally write about Library Guy for the same reason I mention a lot of fringe issues. We need to know about it. We need to know there is a “cancer on the soul of our county” trying to manipulate the public. We need to know that his definition of community standards is to exclude the community from weighing in. Library Guy’s idea of conversation is to have it tightly controlled so only he can win. What a cynical look at life. And definitely not the Citrus County I know. This is a huge political year in our community, and already plenty of noise. It’s easy to get distracted from what’s important. Don’t give Library Guy a toe in the door. Have a spectacular Wednesday, friends. Join the discussion on our Facebook page. Enjoying the blog? Please consider supporting it at Venmo, PayPal, or Patreon. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMike Wright has written about Citrus County government and politics for 36 years. Archives
February 2025
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