Questions over residency frustrate fire commissioner

Fire Commissioner Amy Brosnan has said emphatically she did not violate any residency requirement when she was elected to the fire board last year.

She said she was raised in the same Spring Hill house in which she resides today. Whether her name appeared on the deed three days after the election is moot, she said.

The accusations haven't stopped from some members of the public. Her explanation hasn't satisfied them.

Spring Hill residents Anthony Palmieri and Patrick Clements both mentioned it during Wednesday's meeting.

"I live in Spring Hill and I've always lived in Spring Hill," Brosnan said the day after being confronted with the issue again. "I went to high school in Spring Hill and I had my graduation party in that house. I've done everything in that house."

Brosnan lives with her sister in a one-story home near Elgin Boulevard - within the boundaries of the fire district.

Her parents own a house in the Lake-in-the-Woods subdivision off U.S. 19, which has a Weeki Wachee address.

Some have accused the fire commissioner of living there and using the Spring Hill house as a cover. None has reported his suspicions to Hernando County Supervisor of Elections Annie Williams.

"There's never been anything like that discussed in this office," Williams said. "She put down an address that was within the fire district. I had no reason to doubt her."

Her father, Paul Brosnan, said his daughters' names were added to the deed Nov. 8, 2008, because he wanted them to own the house in which they grew up. He also wished for them to take advantage of the homestead exemption.

Election Day was four days before the deed filing. Amy Brosnan earned 25,345 votes - by far the highest total among the candidates running for the Spring Hill Fire Board.

Palmieri referred to the deed issue during Wednesday's meeting, saying there was "an appearance of a violation."

He addressed Amy Brosnan directly.

"At the time of this nomination, you did not live in the district," he told her. "You had the name added to the deed of the house your mother and father owned. Your name happens to be the first name on the deed."

When Palmieri asked her if she would like a copy of the property appraiser paperwork he had with him at the meeting, she shot back, "No, I don't need that. I have my driver's license.

"I live at my house," she continued. "I'm sorry you don't like my answer. I don't know what I can do to prove it to you."

Chairman Leo Jacobs told her she didn't need to apologize to anyone.

"We're not getting the screams except from a few people," he said.

Brosnan said her tax bill is sent to her parents' home in Lake-in-the-Woods. She started doing that because she has had mail stolen from her mailbox. The rest of her mail, she said, is still sent to her Spring Hill home.

Brosnan also said she vacated the home in 2007 so that a church could occupy it. That lasted for about a year. Once it moved to another location, she returned to her house, she said.

Her driver's license, voter registration card and bank statements have her Spring Hill address listed, Brosnan said.

At one point during Wednesday's meeting, Clements told Brosnan "I'm not stalking you."

He said later that was in response to an accusation Brosnan made during a previous meeting.

"I looked at her like she was crazy," Clements said.

He arrives at the meetings early and has routinely seen her arrive and leave with her parents, he said. He still wonders why a grown woman with "her own house and her own job" carpools with her parents, but said he's willing to drop the issue.

Clements on Friday referred once more to her name appearing on the deed to her parents' Spring Hill house four days after last year's election.

"That just doesn't look good," he said.