3 Hillsborough County Commissioners didn’t sign annual MLK Day leadership breakfast proclamation

Each year, Hillsborough County Commissioners offer a proclamation recognizing the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs (TOBA) on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, including the group’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Leadership Breakfast.

The proclamation is usually, though not always, a formality, with all Commissioners signing off in support.

Not this year.

Three Commissioners — Donna Cameron Cepeda, Christine Miller and Joshua Wostal, all Republicans — did not sign the proclamation. The other four Commissioners — Chris Boles, Harry Cohen, Ken Hagan and Gwen Myers — are the only signatories listed. Boles and Hagan are also Republicans, while Cohen and Myers are Democrats.

Asked why he didn’t sign, Wostal blamed division.

“Two years ago at an MLK event sponsored by the property tax payers of Hillsborough County they brought out multiple speakers to imply Governor DeSantis was racist, even stooping so low to bring out a 9-year-old to give a similar implication. They were promoting division, not the unity MLK demanded, while being subsidized with our residents’ property taxes,” Wostal responded by text message.

He said he couldn’t recall whether he signed a similar proclamation last year. While local government supports the event, including Hillsborough County, it is also funded through sponsorship opportunities.

Cepeda and Miller did not respond to requests for comment by deadline, sent via email to their aides and text messages to their personal cellphones. This post will be updated if they respond.

Still, the proclamation language offers some clues as to why they might have declined to sign.

The document recognizes TOBA “for its long-standing dedication to promoting equality, equity, and inclusion in the Tampa Bay area.”

All three of the Commissioners whose names were not added to the proclamation are Republicans. The Republican Party, broadly, has been opposed in recent years to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. The Trump administration has opposed DEI programs and the administration removed MLK Day and Juneteenth, a day celebrated as the end of slavery in the U.S., from its free national park entry days, replacing the days instead with Flag Day on June 14, which is also President Donald Trump’s birthday.

In Florida, lawmakers passed, and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed, legislation (SB 266) banning public colleges and universities from spending money on such programs. More recently, DeSantis in his final State of the State speech touted his administration’s opposition to DEI.

Now, DeSantis is encouraging lawmakers to pass a bill that would eliminate DEI funding in local governments. Sen. Clay Yarborough and Rep. Dean Black, both Republicans, have filed legislation (SB 1134, HB 1001) that would do just that. Neither of the bills have yet been heard by lawmakers. If passed, the legislation would also make “certain ordinances, resolutions, rules, regulations, programs, and policies” related to DEI programs or concepts void.

TOBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Aileen Rodriguez, who is challenging Wostal’s re-election this year and attended the breakfast, said she was disappointed her opponent “did not see fit to respect this organization’s’ multiple decades of community service or to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.“

“I know that Hillsborough County is at its best when we come together to work together, not when we allow prejudice and racism to keep us apart,” Rodriguez added.

The proclamation recognizes TOBA’s work, and that of King.

“Since 1979, TOBA has been steadfast in its work to advance the opportunities and rights of people of color,” the proclamation says, adding that the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization is “dedicated to political education, economic development, and youth development, and has been at the forefront of building a better Tampa.”

“For 46 years, TOBA has thought of and stood up for the people in the community,” the proclamation reads after quoting King asking, “What are you doing for others?”