Letter from the publisher

“Ocala Gazette” reporters have lifted curtains all year to show you how things get done behind the scenes. We’ve asked the big, hard questions so you have a fuller picture of what propels our community forward positively and what holds it back from being the best it can be.

We take joy in shining a light on the successes of so many bright beacons in our community, but ultimately, our most important job is to equip our readers with information so they can hold those they’ve elected accountable.

Here are just a few of the ways we impacted the community by providing factual information you didn’t get anywhere else:

• At the beginning of the year, we explained that the Paddock Mall shooter was one of the more than 7,000 outstanding arrest warrants on file with the Marion County Sheriff’s office. We explained how the MCSO stopped its warrant division and was hamstrung in providing a list of warrants for us to publish so we got the list from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and published the names. We are pleased to report today in follow up that the MCSO has restarted its warrants division. Unfortunately, they still cannot provide a list of names for active warrants like other counties can, so we’ve requested a new list from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
• When multiple law enforcement organizations claimed crime was down, we decided to check out the claims and report back to you on whether or not data supported the claims.
• By the spring, we started to dig deep into emergency communications to explain to readers how they work since the city de-consolidated fire/medical in-house in 2020. The city cannot claim the hasty deconsolidation a success—quite the opposite. As a result of our reporting, the city implemented an interface solution to the county’s CAD so the county’s fire department could see the city’s calls immediately rather than waiting for them to be shared one by one. There are still more issues to fix, and we will continue to point out the consequences of the city of Ocala bucking the state and national consensus to regionalize emergency communications until city residents get the best possible level of service.
• This summer, we published the account of behind the scene threats to school district staff and district members for a bid to build a high school, and get impact fees instituted. We dug through local history to give you a glimpse of how the same local player has been using these tactics for more than a decade to get their way with local governments. We reported the fiasco surrounding the one high school that cost the taxpayers at least 5 million in delayed construction costs.
• We also published this summer a piece explaining how the state attorney’s office policy, or lack of policy, in providing Brady disclosures was not always applied fairly when it came to law enforcement accused of being untruthful, as well as defendants who may not have it disclosed that the arresting officer had a history of untruthfulness.
• We searched for public records for insight into the controversial decision by the Ocala Metro Chamber & Economic Partnership, or CEP, and the Marion County Board of County Commissioners to increase rail traffic through the heart of the city to the dismay of city of Ocala officials and southeast and downtown residents. We alerted you to the conflicts of interest that surrounded the deal.
• We’ve tried to shine a light on the devasting heartbreak that comes from untreated mental illness and drug addiction.
• We fought in court for the video of the killing of Scott Whitley, who was an inmate in the local jail. We watched and told you the sheriff’s office was not being truthful. We found out how many have died in the custody of the MCSO jailers, and reported on it. We also reported concerns that jail conditions were not safe for those who are seriously ill, including the mentally ill.
• We reported concerns about the Phoenix House rehabilitation facility after a six month investigation where we learned that it did not have the resources necessary to treat those ordered to the facility. We have since learned that reporting has led to other agencies investigating the facility and finding the standard of care does not meet recommended standards.
• We scoured health department data to report that Marion County resident’s life expectancy is declining, and the county’s rate of unintentional death in 2022 was greater than that of every other county in the state except for Glade and Lafayette counties, whose populations combined make up less than 30,000 residents.
• When city officials claimed homelessness was down in Marion County, we set out to determine whether it was true.

We reported on issues that no other news outlet would touch so you could get the full picture of the challenges our community faces. We believe if we don’t acknowledge the existence of the challenges, the community cannot work to address them.

With your continued support, we can remain the “bravest little newspaper,” as coined by one of our readers.

We assure you that we are all in and up to the task of reporting in 2025. Can we count on you to continue local journalism in 2025?

Warmly,

Jennifer Hunt Murty

Publisher

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