KVO disqualifies himself from re-election. The proof is on the video

Commissioner’s attacks on the public cross the line.

With his vile, red-baiting attack on many of his constituents — including children — concerned about Manatee County’s environment during Thursday’s meeting on wetlands protections, Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge disqualified himself from re-election next year.

Just watch the video:

Voters next year will get the final say on KVO, but his ugly remarks showed a contempt for the public not seen from the commission’s dais since Vanessa Baugh was a commissioner. At least Baugh, the meanest of the board’s former “mean girls,” never, unlike Van Ostenbridge did on Thursday, went after children to burnish her MAGA credentials and to serve her paymasters in the development industry.

Maybe there is a good case for shrinking the required buffer between development and wetlands to the smaller size required by the state. But no commissioners who voted in favor, made it. Instead, they resorted to mindless sloganeering and sacrilegious bible-thumping, to cover for the big victory they were delivering to developers. And then there was Van Ostenbridge, who, with his typical smugness, just called everyone there to speak on behalf of the environment, “communists,” aping a line of attack he read on the internet.

KVO, obviously, is not fit for office, even on the deplorable commission now at the top of county government, if he hates some of his constituents, including kids, as much as he does.

KVO, obviously, has got to go.

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Marc R. Masferrer was a first place winner for commentary writing in the Florida Press Club’s 2022 Excellence in Journalism Competition for work published in The Bradenton Journal. Previously, he was a newspaper editor in Bradenton for more than 16 years. You can reach him at Marc.R.Masferrer@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @mrmasferrer. You can also like The Bradenton Journal on Facebook.