09-04-2025
Panama City Mayor: 'You caught me, you're right.'
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — The words 'To restore fiscal sanity and end political cronyism,' close out Panama City Mayor 'Doc' Rohan's most recent campaigning endeavor.
'Political cronyism means the good old boys. We have a good old boy network here in town and the good old boys have been running this place for a long time and they're running it for their benefit,' said Panama City Mayor Michael 'Doc' Rohan.
The letter lists several scenarios Rohan believes to be examples of financial Martin theatre, the marina, the Beach Drive referendum and the fire assessment fees are just a few topics Rohan covered.
'Panama City is real; we're not bankrupt, but we're pretty close. We're pretty close to running out of money. The reason we're not doing well is two reasons. We're spending too much money, as my letter would talk about Chestnut, where we spent over $1,000,000 for a piece of property that we didn't need. And we don't really have any economic development here in town. Since I've been the mayor for two years, we've had no economic development whatsoever,' said Rohan.
In addition to citing reckless spending, Rohan calls out his opponent Allan Branch with allegations of using public property for personal gain.
While the literature is packed with content, there seems to have been an oversight. One that appears to break Florida law.
The Florida Division of Elections mandates that any political advertisement that is paid for by a candidate must prominently state 'political advertisement paid for and approved by' the candidates name.
'I don't know for sure. If I didn't do it, I guess I didn't know. I think that is a probably generally an accepted good idea. So you caught me, you're right. Maybe it being a paid political advertisement that I put out. Yeah, I guess it should have that on there,' said Rohan.
Rohan says he paid for the letter to go out to around 5,000 Panama City residents.
His opponent Allan Branch says he plans to respond by Tuesday night.
'He's the one that has the misinformation and is slandering people. He didn't even put paid for by Doc Rohan on the letters. He's the one that's not following the rules. Anyone who's seeking the truth can look in the property appraiser website and see the purchase records of the properties I own,' said Panama City Mayoral Candidate Allan Branch.
The letter's return address is 'Doge 2.0' and lists a PO box with a Panama City zip code. Rohan admits he set-up 'Doge 2.0' to solicit information about possible wastes of taxpayer money.
The letter claims to have the endorsement of a local group called the Republican Liberty Caucus.
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