The politics of bad behavior

Happy Monday!

Recent events have brought to mind an incident from decades ago. The Crystal River City Council was considering improvements to the parks. The city manager made several recommendations, including the installation of drinking fountains that also catered to citizens in wheelchairs.

One councilman said that was a waste of money. His thinking: Folks in wheelchairs should carry sippy cups so they can reach up and get water from the fountain like the rest of us with working legs.

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As he spoke, the other council members cringed in horror, hoping someone or something would put a stop to it.

Well. His comments found their way into the local newspapers. And you-know-what hit the fan. A sea of wheelchairs, many occupied by wounded military veterans, greeted the councilman at the next meeting. He apologized profusely, blamed only a little of it on the media, and said he learned a valuable lesson about disabled citizens in his community.

And that brings us to Commissioner Janet Barek.

The commissioner was meeting with top staffers last week in a routine agenda briefing. For some reason, the tourism director attended this briefing. According to an email about this incident, during a discussion about minority-owned businesses and local contracts, Barek made a comment that the only reason Black Americans were admitted to college in the 1960s was because of the color of their skin. Quotas, not abilities. (Why she felt it necessary to bring that up in a staff briefing is a mystery.)

This offended the tourism director, who is African-American. From what I heard, Barek continued to push her viewpoint until someone finally told her to knock it off, or words to that effect.

The tourism director told his bosses (who were also in the room) afterward that Barek's remarks were "deeply hurtful." 

County Administrator Steve Howard suggested he write up the complaint in an email so that it’s on the record. Steve sent the email to Barek, copied the human resources director, with a note to Barek asking the commissioner to refrain from making comments that are offensive to others, as this one was.

Curtiss Bryant posted a copy of the email, the Chronicle and I both followed Curtiss. Citizens weighed in by the hundreds.

It didn’t help Janet’s position that, in interviews, she doubled down on it. One of those, “I’m sorry you were offended by what I said, but I’m not sorry for saying it” kind of thing.

I have some thoughts:

— We all knew we weren’t getting Mrs. Statesman when voters elected Janet Barek to the County Commission. She’s a 75-year-old great grandma with zero political skills. Janet had a name for barking at commissioners for several years. We forget it was a very close vote in a primary; Janet's team was more motivated than her opponent's.

— While popular with the Sound Off crowd, Janet was making no friends with her colleagues, even before this happened. Her constant criticism of others — I mean, it is CONSTANT — while puffing up her own stature gets a little old with someone who’s been in office for all of nine months.

— She has three ways to move on. One, totally ignore it. I just can’t see this. I’d expect citizens to show up at the next commission meeting Aug. 26, and they may offer up an opinion or two on this matter. Can’t imagine Janet staying quiet through all that.

— Two, she can continue to defend her initial statement. She’s right, we’re wrong. I’ll come back to this.

— Three, she humbly apologizes that her words offended anyone, and will sincerely desire to gain a better understanding of the challenges minority populations in our community face even today.
 
It’s the second option that provides the worst outcome. Notice I haven’t said a thing about Janet’s colleagues. Trust me when I say they, too, are watching her approach. They won’t react well if Janet continues aggressive offense and defense. 

On one hand, a commissioner is an individual who stands on his/her behavior. On the other hand, she’s part of a collegial body. 

Commissioners are loath to call out one another publicly unless it’s on a policy issue. This time, though, I won’t be surprised if commissioners say something. They gotta be careful, though. Other than censuring, a somewhat superficial and symbolic move, there’s little that commissioners can do. 

(Unrelated to the commissioner issue, Barek is also the Republican State Committeewoman. That's an elected position; Barek won in 2024. The county party chairman has condemned her remarks, so that's a potential dust-up in the making within the Citrus GOP.)

Our community seems fractured in so many odd ways, big and small. We just can’t seem to get on the same page. This doesn’t help. We'll see where it goes.

Let’s be kind to one another today, OK? Enjoy it, friends.

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