District 4 candidates answer questions

By John Labriola - The three candidates for the District 4 Citrus County Commission seat spent an hour discussing issues and answering questions at a candidate forum in Lecanto on Monday hosted by the Citrus County Republican Party. 

Commissioner Rebecca Bays, who is up for re-election, is facing challengers Holli Herndon, a local educator, and Jennifer Grogan, who pastors a church with her husband Paul Grogan, a two-time independent candidate for county commission.

Herndon, who spoke first, said she decided what positions to take in her campaign by asking residents whose opinions she values, but her answers made it clear that the people she values most are liberals.

Herndon was asked if she would support the libraries having a temporary display of assassinated icon Charlie Kirk's books and if she would vote to name a county road after him as Sumter, Marion, Hernando, Lake and many other Florida counties have done. She replied that most of the people she asked told her they don't want a Charlie Kirk book display because it would be "political" (although the libraries display numerous books about political figures of the left). One friend told her she was against naming a road after Charlie Kirk because she would first want roads named after every local figure who hasn't had a road named after them yet.

"If we're just doing it to jump on a bandwagon, that's not something we want to do," Herndon stated.

When another resident asked about her position on wokeism, Herndon replied that many of the children she works with in the school system "may end up in your woke category" because they "are finding themselves, and they're in situations where they don't have that guidance and they don't have those family values, and they're trying to navigate that." Her answer disturbed a number of people in the room because many public school teachers are encouraging children to experiment with different genders and identities instead of discouraging it, and she didn't indicate if as an educator she felt that was wrong.

"I don't know about you, but it takes a village to raise a child," Herndon concluded, parroting a favorite phrase of Hillary Clinton's that was widely criticized in the 1990s as an attack on parenthood that favors an overreliance on government.

Grogan, who spoke next, emphasized her conservative Christian values, which come from a life of experiencing incarceration and being saved while serving 63 days jail in 2012 for possession of methamphetamines. 

"On April 15, 2012, that lady died. I've been made new and I have a track record since then," she said to loud applause. 

Grogan, who counsels divorced women with children, also was applauded for taking issue with Herndon's position on Charlie Kirk. 

"I would be OK with naming a highway [for] Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk was standing for Christian values," she said. "Charlie Kirk was not just a local person. It's not just naming a street after everyone here. Yeah, that would be great if we could remember our family members and politicians, but Charlie Kirk was an icon and I believe his message. I think he was biblical, not political."

The final speaker was Commissioner Bays, who over the last four years has voted for higher taxes, opposed spending cuts, appointed LGBT activists to the Library Advisory Board, and approved controversial residential developments.

Bays defended collecting campaign contributions from local builders by saying she has not taken money from recognized national developers. 

"If you look at the contributions I have taken, I haven't taken any from any major developers. What you see are builders that have been in this county for generations. They've been the backbone of this county for many years," she said.

But it's the local builders that are responsible for the projects opposed by the public which have narrowly passed the commission with Bays' vote, including the 5,000-unit Tuscany Ranch in Beverly Hills and last week's decision to rescind the cancellation of the Betz Farm sale, where 1,500 homes will be built just outside Crystal River.  

Bays also once again disparaged Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia's March press conference, where he identified $39 million in excessive spending by Citrus County as  he promotes a constitutional amendment to eliminate homesteaded property taxes.

"I don't like paying property taxes. If we could get rid of them, I hwould love to do it, but I don't know how you continue to pay your sheriff, your fireman, your EMS, how you pave your roads, I don't know where the money comes from if you were to do that," she said.

A resident asked Bays why she has opposed even modestly cutting spending in areas that have nothing to do with emergency services or roads, such as the library system. 

Last year, Bays opposed a motion to adopt the rollback rate for the library budget, which would have resulted in a small rate cut while keeping spending the same by letting the increase in revenues from property values make up the difference.

Bays was asked why the county needs to spend over $300,000 a year on new books that include many LGBT titles. 

Instead of directly answering the question, Bays said previous commissions' adoption of the rollback rate in the years before she joined the board "cost" the county $65 million in revenue, implying the money rightfully belonged to the government and not the people. 

The election takes place on Aug. 18. Commissioners are elected countywide. Because all three candidates are registered Republicans, unless a Democrat or third-party candidate enters the race by June 12, the Republican primary election on Aug. 18 will not only be final but will also be open to Democrat voters.