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A New County Park Becomes Politicized

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BRADENTON — In what should have been a relatively benign and straightforward process led by the board, the naming of a new community park in Manatee County became more about hyper-partisan politics and the upcoming local elections than the community it will serve. 

The park, which is set to be completed in February of 2023, is in Commissioner Misty Servia’s District 4 across from Kinnan Elementary School. In early March, the county announced a survey to help in naming the park, requesting name suggestions from Manatee residents. The survey closed on March 31. 
 
Servia worked with county staff to produce a video explaining the initiative and the process the county would follow in renaming the park. Once the survey closed, all suggestions received would go before the Citizens Coalition on Growth, a citizen committee based in District 4. The citizen committee would then narrow the park name suggestions down to the top picks and would provide their shortlist to Servia to bring back to the board. The board would then choose the final name using the committee’s shortlist as a base of potential names. 
 
But that is not the process that was followed. 
 
Commissioner Vanessa Baugh decided that the process was taking too long and had grown impatient with the item not being brought before the board. Despite the park's opening being months away, Baugh decided to force the item by adding it to the commissioners' agenda in her name—an unusual step for a commissioner who had no role in the creation of the survey or process to name the park, and who was not the district commissioner where the park would be located. 
 
Baugh stated Tuesday, as she introduced the item for discussion, that she learned from the survey results that the suggestion that received the most entries was "Ron DeSantis Park"— or some version that would name the park after the governor.
 
Servia began her comments by revealing that she was aware that emails and fliers had been created and disseminated by her primary opponent, Mike Rahn, encouraging his supporters to submit the name Ron DeSantis. Rahn is vying to unseat Servia from the District 4 seat in 2022 and allegedly saw the park naming as ripe for political gamesmanship. 
 
Rahn likely saw an opportunity to put the incumbent commissioner in a position to either support naming the park after the governor or confirm the labeling her opponent has given her of RINO (Republican in name only) and as someone who does not support the governor. These are allegations Rahn has been making against Servia since the beginning of his campaign. 
 
"I feel that this process has been hi-jacked by Commissioner Baugh for purely political reasons," Servia said as she opened her comments on Tuesday about the park. 
 
Baugh and Rahn are close friends, with Baugh having referred to Rahn as her "brother" in at least one public post on Facebook. Baugh and her husband appear as donors to Rahn’s campaign on Supervisor of Election records, and Baugh has been vocal about her desire to see Rahn succeed at unseating her fellow Republican commissioner. Baugh and Rahn also share a connection to Tampa-based political operative Anthony Pedicini, who consulted for Baugh’s campaign in 2020, and who is Rahn’s campaign strategist in his bid for the District 4 commission seat. 
 
Servia also shared that it was her perception that Baugh may have more than one motive to insert herself into the naming of the park. Servia suggested that while she personally does not see the governor truly being honored by having a small local dog park named after him, Baugh may see it as an opportunity to provide a grand compliment to the governor before the upcoming ethics hearing Baugh faces in August. 
 
The ethics hearing was scheduled after the Florida Commission on Ethics found probable cause to believe Baugh may have abused her position for her part in setting up a state-run vaccine pop-up at Premier Sports Complex in her district. Baugh infamously directed county staff to manipulate the county-established random lottery system by instructing staff to extract only resident names who resided within two zip codes in the commissioner’s district. Baugh also created a list of five people, including herself, that she wanted to see prioritized for appointments without being entered into the lottery. 

Baugh has defended her actions despite an investigative report by the Manatee County Sheriff concluding, in part, that "evidence obtained during the course of this investigation clearly indicates Commissioner Baugh, a public servant, knowingly and intentionally attempted to obtain a benefit for herself and others“ and that, "one might surmise“ that Baugh was attempting to curry political favor with the Governor and others.

Should the hearing not go well for Baugh and the administrative law judge assigned to oversee the case decide the evidence and testimony proves Baugh violated ethics laws—and if the ethics commission recommends the most severe consequence of removal—it would be DeSantis who would receive that recommendation. In an ethics case that results in a recommendation for an elected official’s removal, it is the governor and his cabinet who are tasked with deciding whether to accept the recommendation.
 
Baugh denied that her upcoming ethics hearing played any role in her adding the item to the agenda. She also denied having any part in coordinating with her close friend Rahn, or that she added the item to the agenda for the purpose of assuring it came before the board prior to the August primaries in an effort to help create campaign material for her friend to use in the race against incumbent Servia. 
 
Servia came to Tuesday’s meeting prepared, with copies of emails sent out by her opponent and other documentation she felt would help confirm to the board the politicization that has taken over the process for naming the park. 
 
One such email sent by Rahn reads in part: 
 
"Dear Fellow Patriot,
My liberal opponent is having a contest, and I want conservatives like us to take it over… I think you need to let my opponent know we should name our next Manatee County Park after America’s Governor, Ron DeSantis…this will drive my liberal opponent crazy because she suggested that our Governor was racist when he tried to get the vaccine to Manatee County Seniors living in our community.”
 
Political operatives have been pushing that last point heavily, ever since the scandal over Baugh’s actions during the state vaccine pop-up scandal became public. FOX News infamously became involved when "Vaccinegate" went national, using statements Servia said in a BOCC meeting out of context, and twisting them to make it appear the statements were said of the governor instead of the actions directed by Baugh. 
 
The allegation stems from comments that Servia made in a since heavily reported commission meeting where it was first brought to light that Baugh had worked to organize the state-run vaccine pop-up center without the inclusion—or knowledge—of her colleagues.
 
At the time, Servia said to Baugh, "We ask why we think there is a racism problem perceived in Manatee County, this adds to that argument. You’re taking the whitest and richest demographic in Manatee County and putting them ahead of everyone else." 
 
Though Servia publicly pronounced her gratitude to the governor multiple times for his effort to bring more vaccines to Manatee—and although she never called anyone a "racist," not even Commissioner Baugh—some of her criticisms of Baugh’s actions were misrepresented as having been criticisms of Governor Desantis himself.

On February 16, when commissioners first learned of the pop-up, expanded details were not available to clarify whether the selection of zip codes was a direct order from the governor, or whether Baugh made the decision to restrict vaccine appointments to two zip codes. As more details became available in the days that followed, commissioners better understood that it was Baugh—not the governor—who directed staff to manipulate the random lottery pool. 

For anyone who watched the February 16 meeting, or the subsequent February 18 meeting, it is clear that Servia's statements are about Baugh’s single-handed decision to manipulate the random lottery vaccine pool established by the county and limit it only to the benefit of her constituents. 
 
Servia also stated at the time that she did not believe the governor had been made aware of the system put into place for a random lottery pool for vaccine appointments, and that doing so unfairly put DeSantis in the line of fire. As for the park, Servia said that while she was perfectly fine with naming it after DeSantis, she felt that the decision should be pushed until after the election to remove the political element. In fact, she asked whether a small community dog park was even an adequate venue to honor a governor with, and suggested that the commission could perhaps find a more meaningful landmark.
 
The political theatrics did not stop with Baugh and Servia's exchange. County Commission Chair Kevin Van Ostenbridge actually said of the debate, "I feel like I am in Georgia in 2016 and we're cheating Trump out of an election."
 
In the end, Servia acquiesced and the board voted 6-1 to name the park after DeSantis, with Democrat Reggie Bellamy casting the lone dissenting vote.

Click the video below to replay the portion of the commissioners' discussion on the naming of the park. 

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