CITRUS CRUSADER

By John Labriola - Prospects this year for a library book display on slain Christian conservative icon Charlie Kirk went from dim to virtually nonexistent last week as the Citrus County Library Advisory Board (LAB) voted 8-1 to reject a motion to recommend a Kirk display during the week of his birthday on Oct. 14.  The vote came just two days after the Citrus County Commission unanimously approved a library display policy stating that "displays will not feature political, religious, or sexual content." It had been over eight months since commissioners voted to ask staff to finalize the policy, but the vote came during a lame duck meeting after two commissioners – Diana Finegan and Rebecca Bays – lost their reelection bids, and after the library system had already planned its displays for October, which are determined a few months in advance.  Before voting for the policy, Finegan said it would still allow book displays of both Martin Luther King and Charlie Kirk because t...

By John Labriola - A lot of people are asking what happened in Tuesday's election to make Citrus County Commissioners Rebecca Bays and Diana Finegan both lose their reelection bids. While some are attributing their losses to voters' weariness with overdevelopment, that explanation doesn't make sense given the fact that one of the candidates who lost was seen as pro-development and the other was seen as anti-development. The same is true for the winners, with one having the reputation of opposing developers and the other of supporting them.  So what was it then?  Since Bays lost by 9 points to educator Holli Herndon (36 to 45 percent), and Finegan barely lost to Stacey Worthington, it would probably be easiest to start with Bays. It's a maxim in politics that leaders should reflect the values of the people they represent if they wish to remain in power, but Bays repeatedly betrayed the conservative citizens who make up the vast majority of Citrus County voters.  In 20...

By John Labriola - The Citrus County Chronicle ran a "clarification" notice in its local section on Saturday about a front-page hit piece published a week earlier that falsely accused District 4 County Commission candidate Jennifer Grogan of lying about reporting a death threat to police on July 27. The tiny notice states that the Chronicle's Aug. 8 article "should have stated that after Jennifer Grogan reported a phone scam incident to a deputy, she told the deputy the caller made a threat at the end of the call." It then states that readers who are interested can read the "updated" article online. No apology from the newspaper, which mischaracterized the police video it had posted on its own website, in which Grogan clearly says she received a death threat from an unidentified phone number. No mention that the "threat at the end of the call" was actually a threat to kill her. No online correction of sleazy editor Jim Gouvellis' Aug. 12...

By John Labriola - The fallout from Citrus County Commission candidate Jennifer Grogan's report of a death threat to the sheriff's office last month spilled over into Tuesday's commission meeting, with commissioners saying they may ask Sheriff David Vincent to publicly address the issue after Grogan and other residents brought it up at the meeting. Grogan, who owns a small business and helps run a Christian ministry, received a call from an unidentifed number on July 27 from someone claiming to be the police. She was told she had to come to the sheriff's office to pay a $5,000 fine or go to jail, but when she arrived, the caller made a death threat. Grogan immediately asked to speak with a sheriff's deputy. She sat down with Deputy Daylon Rogers, who took her report. In the video of their interaction, which can be found HERE , Grogan tells the deputy that the caller told her "we just got you out of the house to kill you," to which Rogers responds, "T...

By John Labriola - You may have heard I will not be a candidate for Inverness City Council this November. I filed my paperwork last week when I learned that nobody else was running. Although I knew I would not have much time to devote to a campaign, I felt that one of the incumbents deserved a challenger. I gave the city a check for the qualifying fee but asked that it not be deposited until the Friday qualifying deadline when there would be enough money in my account. Instead, the check was immediately deposited without my knowledge, and it bounced. I was informed about this after the deadline and was told I was disqualified. For residents who were looking forward to a race, I'm sorry that there won't be one, but the truth is that even if I had won, I would not have been able to give the position the attention it deserves. My job takes me out of town several months out of the year, and I would have had to miss many meetings, which isn't fair to the public. Residents deser...

By John Labriola - How would you feel if you were running for county commission and someone threatened to kill you? What if, after you reported this incident to the police and announced it to the public at a county commission meeting, the local newspaper decided to ridicule you and even claim you lied about reporting it — all because you're a conservative? That's not a hypothetical situation. Our local newspaper, the Citrus County Chronicle, just did it to Jennifer Grogan, a candidate for the District 4 commission seat. It began on July 27, when Grogan, who owns a small business and helps run a Christian ministry, received a call from scammers from an unidentified number claiming to be the police. They knew her Social Security number, her maiden name, and her home address and told her she had to come to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office to pay a $5,000 fine or go to jail. When she arrived, they explained they just wanted to lure her out of the house to kill her. Clearly s...

By John Labriola - Thanks to a new state law requiring supermajorities to raise taxes, the Citrus County Commission for the first time in years last week adopted the rollback rate of 6.7382 mills for the 2026-27 general fund budget.  Commissioner Jeff Kinnard initially moved to adopt the 2025-26 tax rate of 6.9898 mills, the rate recommended by the county administration, which still would have raised taxes on most homeowners because of rising property values. The motion failed because Commissioners Rebecca Bays and Janet Barek voted no, denying it the supermajority it would have needed to pass. Bays then moved to adopt the rollback rate, which was approved 4-1, with liberal Commissioner Holly Davis voting no. The rollback rate is the property tax rate that would generate about the same amount of tax revenue as the previous year, leaving out revenue from new construction and other additions to the tax roll.  But because of all the new construction, the county will still co...