Palm Beach County Vice Mayor Sara Baxter said this week that she does not want to be the next breaking news item on CNN, and that’s why she has taken the unusual step of traveling to most public events with Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office protection.
Baxter is in her first term representing District 6, which encompasses most of the county west of State Road 7, including The Acreage, where she resides.
“We’re not in the same place we were 10 or 20 years ago,” Baxter said Tuesday, referring to the nation’s political climate. “You see elected officials being shot and [Tesla] cars burned. People are more inclined to outbursts of political violence today.”
Baxter noted that she did not make the decision regarding the extra protection.
“I’m not in law enforcement. I’m not the one to determine what it is a credible threat,” she said. “I reported to Sheriff [Ric] Bradshaw what I considered threats against me and my family… The sheriff’s office made a determination that they were credible enough that protection was warranted. End of story.”
Bradshaw’s office did not respond to a Town-Crier request for comment.
“I’m a county commissioner, but I’m also a wife and a mother,” Baxter continued. “At the end of the day, all I want to do is make it home to my boys and my husband.”
So far, the cost of the protection at 30-plus events is more than $20,000, according to public records. Her security detail often includes three deputies at such events as meetings of the Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors, Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee meetings and even events at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s Florida home.
Baxter said how the cost of this PBSO detail will be paid is yet to be determined. Her critics, such as ITID President Elizabeth Accomando, are quick to point out that’s still taxpayer money.
Accomando recently filed to challenge Baxter in next year’s Republican primary.
“The latest media reports confirm what we’ve seen over the years and already know — Commissioner Baxter is fiscally irresponsible with taxpayer dollars,” Accomando said in a recent press release.
“I think it is wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars,” ITID Supervisor Betty Argue said Tuesday. “I don’t think it’s justified.”
Baxter said she is particularly galled by Accomando’s attack because she recently shared with her details of a specific threat, though she declined to share those details publicly.
Accomando said Tuesday she does not recall such a conversation.
“Mrs. Accomando said she was going to run a clean campaign,” Baxter added. “That’s not what this looks like to me. She’s using security issues as a political platform.”
Still, the practice is unusual, former Palm Beach County Administrator Verdenia Baker told The Palm Beach Post recently. To the best of her knowledge, there has not been ongoing security provided to a county commissioner in the last 20 years, she said.
Baxter said she is not the only recent commissioner who has been provided with PBSO security for certain events but did not offer details.
Accomando, however, is having none of it.
“We’re looking at an annual expenditure of over $40,000,” she said in her statement. “Members of Congress, even state legislators I know personally, have received death threats, and they have never received the type of taxpayer-funded security that Commissioner Baxter has requested.
Accomando said that “as an elected official myself, I take the threats against public officials very seriously,” but questioned whether it is “really necessary for taxpayers to foot the bill” to ensure Baxter’s safety at, for instance, the Republican Party of Florida Victory Dinner at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, or events hosted by the Trump-aligned Club 47.
And what about events at Mar-a-Lago, which is normally protected by both the PBSO and the Secret Service? Baxter would not get into specifics, but after consideration said, “The threats have come to me from both ends of the political spectrum.”
Accomando said that after an ITID board meeting, she and her husband were approached very aggressively by a man.
“I felt threatened,” she said, “and the next two meetings I had my own security people, paid for on my own dime.”
Argue called Baxter’s use of PBSO protection “an abuse of power.”
“I think the Board of County Commissioners should address it,” Argue said.
Baxter said considering the current volatile political atmosphere, she hopes the county commission will take up the issue of security for county officials, setting a policy that is respectful of taxpayer dollars while making sure everything possible is done to avoid a tragedy.
If Baxter actually shared this so-called threat with a public figure, why won’t she share it with her District and the press that’s been hounding her for the info? Why isnt there an investigation on this supposed threat? ITID meetings are always protected by PBSO and in recent months, security wanding residents before they walk into the building, and still, 2-3 deputies follow her in. At a more recent meeting, deputies showed up, walked in, and left within minutes after they realized she wasn’t there. She didnt even have the courtesy to cancel even though there is still a minimum of 4 hours per deputy. Shameful and a total abuse of our taxpayer dollars.