Property appraiser will finish term in office, but drops reelection bid
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
Wakulla County Property Appraiser Ed Brimner announced in a press release on Friday morning that he was withdrawing his candidacy for re-election.
Brimner said in the press release that it was “personal reasons.” In a brief phone interview with the Sun on Friday, he acknowledged an incident with a county human resources employee in which he was “exceedingly rude” in front of his whole staff.
The HR employee was meeting with property appraiser staff to discuss changes to the county’s insurance plan. Brimner did not use profanity, but said he was very rude to the woman. (According to some county employees, the HR staffer became very upset, suffered an anxiety attack and was hospitalized.)
Brimner said he was upset with himself over the incident. “This is not who I am,” he said.
Asked if it was the result of stress from the election, he said the election also places stress on a candidate’s family. He said, after the incident Wednesday morning, he went to his daughter’s house in the afternoon and saw his two grandchildren and said he hadn’t taken them to Wakulla Springs to swim all summer.
He said he needed to take time to straighten out his priorities.
He vowed to support Donnie Sparkman, his opponent who had retired as property appraiser eight years ago and was running out of concern about how the office was being run by Brimner. (Sparkman’s son, Colby, was a candidate against Brimner four years ago and lost by three votes.)
“It’s embarrassing,” Brimner said of the situation. He added that he should have made the choice not to run six months ago and let somebody else run.
Brimner officially withdrew as a candidate with the Wakulla Supervisor of Elections Office on Friday.
Sparkman expressed relief that, for him, the election is over. “I appreciate the support of all the people in the county.”
Sparkman said that when he takes office he will produce a good tax roll and return good service to citizens.“We will have that office where people feel appreciated,” Sparkman said.
Among changes he intends to make is to bring back appraiser James Burke, who worked for the state Department of Revenue before joining the Wakulla County Property Appraiser’s Office under Ronnie Kilgore, who was facing administrative sanctions from the state for his tax rolls. Burke straightened out the roll. After Kilgore’s death, Anne Ahrendt was appointed to serve as property appraiser, and Burke worked for her, and for Sparkman when he was property appraiser. After Sparkman retired, Brad Harvey was elected and was subsequently removed from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis after Harvey’s arrest for embezzling more than $200,000 from the office, Burke served as interim appraiser. Burke retired after the first year of Brimner’s term.
