Strickland barely hanging on

By John Labriola - Divisions on the Citrus County Library Advisory Board (LAB) continued to grow last week as a revote for chair resulted in a bare majority for embattled chairman Justin Strickland. 

The revote was necessary because Strickland had mishandled the vote for officers in February, when he improperly presided over the election and then immediately called for a vote after being nominated instead of asking if there were any other nominations. This time, Library Director Adam Chang conducted the election.

Strickland's unprofessional behavior during that meeting, when he attacked the Citrus Crusader for covering his opposition to a Charlie Kirk book display (which Strickland falsely tried to reframe as an attack on his church) apparently alienated some LAB members. Two members who previously supported Strickland as chairman – Edith Ramlow and James Pirotta – voted against him this time, resulting in a 5-4 vote, with four votes for Pirotta. Rhys Campbell and Lenora Nelson also supported Pirotta. Although Pirotta barely lost that vote, he was elected vice chairman after Ramlow said she was stepping down from the position because of her upcoming retirement from the LAB. 

Residents attending the meeting urged Strickland to apologize for his antics at the last meeting, which Ray Brown of Homosassa said were "way out of line."

"I think that you owe myself [and] the rest of the people that were here in the audience an apology for your rant," he said. "I too was offended by your outburst."

But Strickland refused to apologize and again repeated the lie that the Crusader was attacking his church, where he was appointed a pastor.

Ray Kalavsky of Inverness told Strickland his behavior at the previous meeting disqualified him from serving as chairman.

"You don't deserve to be in that chairman position at all for what you did last time," he said.

Kalavsky and others also urged the board to stop cowering to the left and vote to allow a book display for Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September by an angry leftist for his conservative beliefs. 

"The Charlie Kirk deal is not going be done until you people bring a recommendation to the board of county commissioners," Kalavsky said. "Be bold. Don't be afraid of these far-left lunatics. Don't sit in a cave like a bunch of mushrooms without seeing the light."

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