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Gainesville Considers Removing Name Of Convicted Former Congresswoman Brown From Building

News4Jax/file photo
Former Congresswoman Corrine Brown is escorted from the Federal Courthouse in downtown Jacksonville during her trial.

The Gainesville City Commission is deciding what to do about a building named for former Northeast Florida Congresswoman Corrine Brown.

Brown helped secure federal funding for the 35-million dollar Regional Transit System building that now bears her name.

But the commission has been dithering about whether or not to remove it since last May when Brown was convicted on 18 counts of federal mail, wire and tax fraud.

Commissioner Harvey Budd said having a building named for a felon would be awkward.  He proposed taking Brown’s name off the front of the building and instead honoring her with a plaque.

Brown said the idea would be to basically say  “something to the effect that this building was dedicated on blank date by Congresswoman Corrine Brown and it would have something to do with the raising of the money for the building. Something nice and very appropriate for the interior of the building”

The plaque, Budd said, would be created by a special committee and paid for with private donations.

Commissioner Budd's comments begin at approximately 2:05:18 in this Gainesville City Commission video.

The City Commission voted Thursday to wait until Brown’s appeal plays out before making a final decision.

Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter @cydwjctnews.

Cyd Hoskinson began working at WJCT on Valentine’s Day 2011.