Dave Berman

FLORIDA TODAY

Brevard County Commissioner Trudie Infantini said she took enough abuse from Commissioner Robin Fisher at Thursday's gas tax workshop.

So she walked out. Briefly.

More than four hours into the workshop, Fisher ticked off a list of things county commissioners had done in recent years to cut the county budget. Then he ticked off Infantini.

"You had to make hard decisions," Fisher said, in recounting a long list of items, like county staff cuts, unpaid furloughs and changes in employee health insurance coverage that county commissioners had to approve.

"She didn't make any of them, but I did," Fisher said, referring to Infantini's pattern of voting against the annual county budgets.

Fisher said, while he was doing the work on the budget, Infantini and her supporters were attending meetings of conservative political organizations and appearing on a conservative radio talk show hosted by Bill Mick.

Proposal to raise gas taxes to pay for road work rejected

Infantini shot back that "you're not going to start saying your false narratives. I'm not going to allow it. I'm not going to have it."

"The lack of professionalism on this board is absolutely appalling," Infantini said. "I'm sorry. I'm leaving this meeting. The lack of decorum by you as an elected official is appalling."

Infantini packed up her paperwork, put on her jacket, and left the room. For about five minutes.

She then returned in time to vote with Commission Vice Chair Curt Smith to kill the proposal to raise gas taxes by 6 cents a gallon to help pay for repairs of county roads.

But she also had more to say about Fisher and the other commissioners.

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Infantini said Fisher "has no manners whatsoever. He has no professional etiquette. And I don't understand how I have no redress. I have no support up here to have you not talk to people the way you talk to them when they come up to us. It's appalling, your behavior. I don't even understand it."

It was the second skirmish between Fisher and Infantini during the meeting. Earlier, they sparred over what Infantini felt was an unfair distribution of money in the past for road work to North Brevard districts, including Fisher's, at the expense of South Brevard districts, including Infantini's.

Fisher responded that, at the time, Infantini was more interested in money for new roads in her district, while he wanted to fix existing roads in his district.

The meeting was tense in general. Several times, County Commission Chairman Jim Barfield had to warn members of the audience who were shouting out remarks from their seats that they would have to leave the room if they didn't stop. Some did leave.

Additionally, Fisher and Infantini have a some history of strongly worded exchanges during commission meetings in recent years — including one time in 2012, when Infantini left a County Commission meeting early and didn't return. In that case, the final straw came when Fisher made a remark in which Infantini felt he was questioning her credentials as a certified public accountant.

After Thursday's workshop ended, Barfield said he attributed the latest conflict between Fisher and Infantini to the intensity of the issue and the length of the meeting.

Contact Berman at 321-242-3649 or dberman@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByDaveBerman and on Facebook at facebook.com/dave.berman.54