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Representative Randy Fine has been on a rampage this legislative session, going after anyone who has challenged or criticized him.
Yesterday we reported his stripping the Brevard Zoo of $2 million after they stated they would consider not allowing political fundraisers in the future.
The citizens of Palm Bay were punished the same day. Fine withdrew funding to the citizens of Palm Bay to the tune of over $6 million.
Specifically, he withdrew funding for the widening of St. John Heritage Parkway ($2,300,000), new emergency radio equipment for the Fire Department ($479,831), gun range improvements for the Police Department ($1,250,000), and funding for residents to connect from septic to sewer in order to protect the Indian River Lagoon ($2,100,000).
Representative Fine took it a step further and waited until the City couldn’t make the request through another representative, ensuring that the residents had no other options to secure the already promised state funding.
Fine took this action in retaliation for being publicly criticized for refusing to call for the resignation of former Councilman Pete Filiberto following his felony arrest for drugs and DUI. He initially wanted Filiberto to hold out as long as possible in order to prevent the council from being able to appoint his replacement.
For days, Fine was criticized from the public on his Facebook page for not even acknowledging the arrest took place. Fine endorsed and supported Filiberto strongly. Citizens pointed out the hypocrisy of his constant posts of made up corruption and conspiracy of those he doesn’t like, but stays silent on those he supports.
He finally called for Filiberto’s resignation after being pressed by several media outlets just hours before the city council meeting where the council formally called for the Governor to remove him.
At the meeting, Councilman Kenny Johnson predicted that Fine would retaliate by threatening to take funding from the citizens of Palm Bay, just as he did with the citizens of West Melbourne. Now, that is exactly what he has done.
Fine is currently running for State Senator Debbie Mayfield’s seat who has termed out. He has been struggling to garner support from the citizens in Brevard County as we showed earlier that nearly 90% of his fundraising thus far has come from outside the County and even the State of Florida. It’s not clear how much his recent retaliations will hurt his campaign.
