What a waste of money.

#Sigh ... #DeepBreath ... #MorganIsAnIdiot



Former Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan spent thousands of public tax dollars to order a life-size bronze statue of himself last year before the end of his final term in office.

Current Sheriff Chip Simmons called the 6-foot-4-inch statue, which arrived last week at the Sheriff's Office, a "brash narcissistic waste."

"You don't make a statue of yourself," Simmons said Wednesday. "And you don't use tax dollars to do it."
Former Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan had his likeness cast on bronze before leaving the office.

Morgan defended the decision, saying it was not that big of a deal.

"I was the sheriff at the time," Morgan told the News Journal. "I think people may be wanting to make more of this than it really is. It's just a statue of me saluting the men and women of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office and the first responders that died on active duty. It's that simple."

The statue of Morgan was one of two statues that the former sheriff paid for out of the ECSO’s general fund at a cost of $75,000 for both. He intended them to stand directly in front of the main entrance of the agency's headquarters as part of its monument to fallen officers.

"I have no words for this, but I have zero intention of placing this thing in front of our building," Simmons said.

The other statue is of former ECSO Lt. Jason Potts and a K-9. Potts led the ECSO's K-9 unit during Morgan's tenure as sheriff and has since retired.

Both statues were designed and crafted by the Randolph Rose Collection Design Studio, which specializes in bronze work and is based out of Yonkers, New York.