Alachua County Communications Director Responds to Political Cartoon of Gainesville Mayor
Yesterday, Jake Fuller published a political cartoon as a way to criticize the Gainesville City Commission’s recent efforts to change the design of the city flag.
The cartoon depicts a caricature of Mayor Harvey Ward wearing a rainbow tie and doing a flamboyant jump in the air. The cartoon depicts Ward saying, “Hey, forget our city’s pressing needs. We need a new logo and flag that reflects the real Gainesville… I don’t want citizens to become joyless. I want them to be gay!”
The cartoon was posted by the Alachua Chronicle on Facebook. In the comments, Mark Sexton, the communications director for Alachua County (a separate government body), responded to the cartoon. Sexton said he believes Fuller “is obviously confused and struggling with his feelings and obsession with Harvey.” Sexton added, “I heard that this one is on the ceiling above his bed.”
This is not the first time Sexton has responded to Fuller’s cartoons.
Last month, Fuller published a caricature of County Commissioner Ken Cornell around graphics to criticize the county government's posture towards homeless individuals and infrastructure issues.
Sexton commented, “Yawn. Here’s a thought, how about coming up with an original idea instead of recycling the same one over and over.”
Retired Public Works employee Gerald Bailey responded to Sexton, stating, “Represent things the way they are rather than trying to justify current [Board of County Commissioners] and management. An example was your comment about FDOT turning roads over to the County without providing the funding. The correct statement is Alachua County acquired these roads 40 years ago and failed miserably at coming up with funds or really even [worrying] about the problem. I can site other statements that you have made and provide you with the correct version if you need me too!”
Sexton responded with a lengthy statement:
“Nice to see you on here. I hope you are enjoying your well deserved retirement from your many years of great service working for Alachua County Public Works. And thank you for your communications advice.
I'm happy to provide you with correct statements:
Alachua County’s road challenges go back decades. In 1977, the state ended its secondary road system and shifted maintenance responsibility for nearly 200 miles of roads in Alachua County to the County. Over time, the gas-tax revenues available for road maintenance failed to keep pace with inflation, construction costs and the growing expense of maintaining that much pavement. As the backlog grew, voters were asked three different times—in 2004, 2012 and 2014—to approve a dedicated transportation surtax. All three measures failed.
That finally changed in 2022, when voters approved a 10-year infrastructure surtax that included funding for roads. The current County Commission combined those revenues with gas taxes, property-tax dollars and state and federal grants to create a 10-year, $250 million Transportation Capital Improvement Program—the largest sustained transportation investment in Alachua County history. Dozens of projects have already been completed, with many more under construction or moving toward construction. There is still plenty of work to do and even more funding is needed, but for the first time in decades, the County has historic funding levels and the program needed to begin to systematically address the backlog."
Sexton added a link to the latest quarterly update.
“Voters rejected it because there was distrust with the use of the gas tax funds at the time and voters didn't want additional wasted tax revenue,” Bailey replied. “Make sure you know why things happen the way they did!”
