Florida politician says stop holding firefighters as heroes & tell them do do their jobs

In the video above, John Tobia makes his unhappiness with the firefighters of Brevard County, Florida very clear. Tobia, a Republican former state representative running for District 3 county commissioner, told a candidates forum that we should stop holding firefighters as heroes and let them know they aren’t “getting any more of our darn money.”

As you can imagine, John Tobia is not getting the support of the Brevard County Professional Firefighters. You can read IAFF Local 2969’s complaints about Tobia and details on the support of Democrat Randy Foster on the local’s Facebook page. Foster has some very nice things to say about firefighters during the event.

Tobia’s complaints, as heard in the video, seem centered around the union’s lawsuit against the County Commission to get rid of the cap on county property tax increases, 24-hour shifts and an August incident where Tobia discovered that on-duty firefighters used a firehouse to build campaign signs for his primary opponent.

Here’s a transcript of John Tobia’s remarks:

More than three-quarters of Brevard residents, Republicans, Democrats and independents said we had enough. And you know what? Our firefighters disagree. They don’t have enough.

They’re tired of these 24-hour shifts that they work that allow them to go out and get a second job. And they’re out — but they have enough time to go out there and build campaign signs and endorse candidates. It’s absolutely ridiculous. The fact that your public safety officers are out there taking you to court.

So the first thing we need to do is shut these folks down. We don’t need to hold them as heroes. We need to look at them and tell them, ‘No you’re not getting any more of our darn money because it’s coming out of our back pockets. Stop it. Do your job. And when I say do your job I mean do your first job, not your second, third or fourth.’ That’s what we need to do as a county.