Brooksville mayor to drop pursuit of state inquiry

BROOKSVILLE - Mayor David Pugh said today that he will abandon his pursuit of a state investigation into the filing process for City Council candidates, saying that he didn't want to "waste taxpayer dollars."

Pugh (left) said last week that he would file a complaint with the Florida Elections Commission because he was concerned about a number of errors in documents filed by other City Council candidates and the perception of bias in the process.

But Pugh later changed his mind, deciding to focus his efforts on a recent proposal from council member Lara Bradburn that would transfer the city's election duties to the Hernando County Supervisor of Elections office.

"I'm going to gather all the information that I can and present it to the council," Pugh said today, "just to reaffirm my position."

Bradburn said she came up with the proposal after a couple of recent problems, including one when the city staff sent out an e-mail announcing the candidacy of one candidate but failed to do the same for others.

- Joel Anderson, Times Staff Writer

[Maurice Rivenbark, Times files]