As the week began, Brian Barefoot’s status as a School Board member was still in limbo.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” Barefoot said, referring to the Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failure to acknowledge his resignation from the board last month or his next-day letter rescinding that action. Barefoot said he planned to send DeSantis a second email early this week and follow up with a certified letter, requesting a receipt to verify the delivery was made.
He said both correspondences would inform DeSantis that, barring a response from the Governor’s Office this week, he would reclaim his seat on the dais next Monday, when the board is scheduled to conduct its next workshop and business meeting.
“I’ll try again to reach him, but I don’t know why it’s taking so long for him to respond,” Barefoot said. “I made an honest mistake while trying to do the right thing and, once I realized it was a mistake, I immediately tried to correct it.
“This ought to be a no-brainer.”
Barefoot, the 80-year-old former Indian River Shores mayor, submitted his resignation from the School Board on Feb. 28, believing he was required to do so because he had sold his John’s Island home and moved to Oak Harbor on the mainland.
The move, he thought, took him out of District 5, which he was elected to represent in 2020.
He was wrong: The County Commission, as it does every 10 years after receiving the results of the U.S. Census, re-drew the district lines during its redistricting process in 2021.
As a result, the Oak Harbor community on Indian River Boulevard moved from District 2 to District 5, meaning that Barefoot didn’t need to resign.
On Feb. 29 – less than 24 hours after sending his resignation letter to DeSantis via U.S. Mail – Barefoot learned his new residence was still in District 5 and immediately took steps to restore his place on the board.
In addition to sending faxes and emails to the offices of the governor and secretary of state, he followed up with overnight letters that were to arrive in Tallahassee by 10:30 a.m. on March 1.
Barefoot, who has eight months left on his four-year term, said he’s sure his letter rescinding his resignation arrived in the Governor’s Office before his resignation letter.
He said the Florida Supreme Court has previously ruled that resignations could be rescinded, “so there’s precedent.”
In fact, Barefoot said he’s prepared to “take whatever measures are necessary” to get reinstated if DeSantis doesn’t allow him to rescind his resignation.
“I was overwhelmingly elected by the community to represent my district,” Barefoot said.
“There’s no reason to let this drag on. It’s not fair to the other board members, or the district. I need to get back to work.”
Barefoot said his biggest concern about returning to duty without the governor’s approval is the possibility that board votes in which he participates could later be voided. He did not attend last month’s meeting.
Last winter, DeSantis publicly released an enemies list – created with significant input from the hard-right Moms For Liberty – that contained the names of 14 school board incumbents around the state that he wants to see defeated in this year’s elections.
