Chaplain Web site still draws fire
SPRING HILL –
Fire commissioners are still awaiting the Florida Attorney General’s opinion on whether to allow the chaplain to link his Web site to the district’s page and they are delaying any final decision until then.
The board and members of the public discussed the controversy in more detail during Wednesday’s public meeting.
Resident Ken Fagan got the controversy brewing a few months ago after firing off several e-mails to the Spring Hill fire commissioners, Chief Mike Rampino and several state agencies.
At Wednesday’s meeting, he unfolded a poster-board display and placed it on a table directly in front of the commissioners. It included images posted on the chaplain’s Web page following last month’s fire district meeting.
Fagan said when the fire commissioners voted 4-1 in February to repost the chaplain’s link to remain on the Web site, they took “responsibility for everything put on there.”
The fire chief took down the link following the advice of the district’s attorney. The board, with its majority vote, ordered him to repost it.
It will remain on the site until a final vote, which could come as early as next month.
Chaplain Jack Martin published a thank you message on his page soon after the commissioners voted in February.
It included an image of Martin next to a television news desk anchor. It conveyed the “breaking news” that the fire board took his side in the separation-of-church-and-state argument.
Fagan pointed to the image and said the chaplain was publicly “declaring victory.”
Martin followed Fagan to the podium and called his presentation “a folly.”
He said more than 400 people visited his page since the link was put back on the Spring Hill Fire Rescue District’s page last month. He said his Web page is intended to help people, not to exclude anyone.
“This is a circus and he puts it on every month,” he said of Fagan.
Andrew Salzman, the attorney who represents the board, said there is no liability issue involving chaplain Web sites and there is “not much case law” that supports any argument for or against the inclusion of the page.
He again suggested fire commissioners should wait on a final decision until after an opinion is sent from the Attorney General’s office.
Earlier during the meeting, resident Harry Chamberlain said he clicked on the Florida Fire Inspectors Association link on the district’s Web site and it took him to a page written in Chinese.
He said the association’s Web page was “apparently hijacked.”
Chamberlain suggested fire commissioners add a disclaimer to the page that states the district “doesn’t endorse outside Web sites.”
“What if that had been a child pornography site?” he rhetorically asked the board.
Fagan, a Roman Catholic, said after the meeting that he would not be happy “until I get more than one religion on this site.”
Martin is a reverend with the Assembly of God.
Fagan said he would prefer a Web site that includes more churches and more representation from Catholics, Jews and other denominations.
In other Spring Hill Fire Rescue District news:
Newly appointed fire commissioner Ben Edwards stepped down as captain of the volunteer fire police.
The members of the district’s fire police unit redirect traffic and enforce perimeters at fire and rescue calls.
Edwards said he would remain a member.
Fire Commissioner Rob Giammarco also said the issue of whether the fire police should hold fundraisers also needs to be resolved by the board.
The unit is under the command of Chief Mike Rampino and its annual $70 licensing fee is paid for by the district’s taxpayers.
Vehicle maintenance, equipment and fuel reimbursements also are paid by the taxpayer, Giammarco said.
He doesn’t think any additional fundraising on the part of the fire police should be allowed. The matter will go before the board for a vote in April.
Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or [email protected].
