Brevard County reverses rule on lawsuits and rental assistance eligibility

The Brevard County Commission on Tuesday reversed it's controversial decision made months ago to deny financial assistance for people involved in litigation with the county.

Members voted unanimously during Tuesday’s commission meeting to strike language to “exclude from the rental assistance program those individuals who are actively engaged in litigation against Brevard County.” The exclusion requirement included those who sent a formal demand letter or notice of intent to file a suit.

Under the new wording, individuals will be excluded from the program who are under investigation by law enforcement for fraud or have pled or been found guilty of fraud regarding a federal program.

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The commission unanimously passed the original rule during a Sep. 21 budget meeting, at the urging of District 2 Commissioner Bryan Lober.

"I didn’t want to end up disbursing funds that, either directly or indirectly or otherwise, would be used to further litigation against the county,” he said. “The logic being even if we paid the landlord as opposed to the actual renter, that would free that amount of money that they would have otherwise paid toward rent to be used to fund the lawsuit against the county.”

His proposal stemmed from an incident dating back nearly two years to the beginning of the pandemic when Robert Burns, a well-known political operative, independent journalist and Lober critic, threatened to sue the county after he was removed from a county news conference by a Brevard County Sheriff's deputy, at Lober's request.

Lober said the event was only open to credentialed media organizations such as television news stations and newspapers, while Burns and other county officials maintain it was an event open to the public.

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“Lober had me physically removed from the press conference by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office,” Burns said. “That was a big deal. ... I basically sent them a letter the next month saying I was going to sue in violation of my civil rights.”

Burns said at the time he was unaware of the policy change that Lober proposed and commissioners approved during the September meeting. He had applied for rental assistance in July 2021.

“The way it was explained to me, and my landlord, is that you are approved for up to one year in three-month increments,” Burns said. “Every three months they are supposed to reevaluate your application to see if there were any changes.”

In October, he received an email from county staff saying they received his most recent application but, as it was a duplicate of his previous application it would need to be updated with new information. He told them nothing had changed.

Months went by with no word, he said — and no rent check.

“In December I got an email the county saying that I was no longer eligible for the rental assistance program,” Burns said. “They could no longer process my application because I fall under this new policy about the pending litigation,” Burns said. “I said, ‘What policy are you talking about?’”

That is when he reviewed video of the prior board meetings and learned of Lober’s proposed modification.

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In his defense of the restriction, Lober singled out one person who he believes committed fraud on the application for rental assistance, but didn't publicly identify the individual.

“It is essentially 100% clear that he lied on his application for rental assistance,” Lober said of the unnamed person. “Just no way what he wrote was accurate. It couldn’t have been accurate for a variety of reasons.”

Burns denies he falsified information on his rental application, saying the form asked how many people comprise the household. He has 50% custody of his two children, placing him under the income threshold to receive assistance.

"No one has called me,” Burns said. “I haven’t gotten a call from law enforcement, or even from the rental assistance people. No one questioned me about anything on the application.”

Ian Golden, the county's director of housing and human services, told FLORIDA TODAY in an email that he had explained the problems with the application directly to Burns.

From Lober’s perspective, he was not targeting anyone but simply protecting the funds from those who fraudulently applied for rental assistance by misstating the financial situation on the application.

“The fact that I think this guy is a beyond a jerk, I think he is a reprehensible person, it doesn’t mean I am doing anything different in how I am addressing it,” Lober said. “It just means that it is not lost on me that he is who he is but he not getting better, special or worse treatment.”

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Despite some reservations, Lober accepted the amendments to this proposal because other commissioners were willing to modify the language to his satisfaction.

“It was my objective to make this section as clear and concise as possible,” District 3 Commissioner John Tobia said. “In doing so I looked at federal assistance programs for guidance on the issues on eligibility and disqualification. These were food stamps and temporary cash assistance.”

Ralph Chapoco is the government and politics reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Reach Chapoco at rchapoco@floridatoday.com and follow him on Twitter @rchapoco.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Modification makes it seem less like they are targeting someone