Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis is refusing to take down a giant American flag at Gander RV in Statesville, North Carolina after the city filed a lawsuit against the company for violating an ordinance.
“We have flown this flag for a long time,” he said to Fox Business yesterday. “As I told the city…it’s not coming down under any circumstance.”
Statesville filed its lawsuit against Gander RV and its parent company, Camping World, claiming the company only has a permit for a 1,000 square-foot flag–not the 3,200 square-foot flag currently flying over the business.
Lemonis says he has been retroactively fined $50 a day for the violation, totaling more than $10,000 to date.
Hey @cityofsvl we have received your lawsuit regarding our #usflag #AmericanFlag. It will not come down. pic.twitter.com/eiVV8tAtz2
— Marcus Lemonis (@marcuslemonis) May 18, 2019
“I don’t normally advocate for violating ordinances and things of that nature, but we have 14,000 employees and several millions customers and I have a fiduciary responsibility to follow their edict as well,” he said.
“I would never want to break the law or be in contempt of any court of any kind, but in this particular situation, I understand that if I don’t comply with that order that I could and would be arrested and out in jail until the flag came down.”
