Round-up, 01.13.09

A few items I wanted to highlight today:

Jamie Page:
“Cashing in on change, listening lessons, plenty of eyes on the park”

The PNJ‘s man on the local government beat rounds up a few important issues, including the City of Pensacola’s economic stimulus “wish list” (which Rick Outzen noted yesterday), and some CMPA issues, which is what I want to talk about.

Page recounts some comments at last Friday’s CMPA board meeting:

Residents complained that they want to comment on agenda items as they come up instead of only having the chance to speak during an open forum at the start of meetings.”You might as well get the police here to haul me out because I’m going to be making an effort to speak on issues on the agenda as they come up,” said Leroy Boyd, president of the activist group Movement for Change.

Board Chairman Lacey Collier, who has been reluctant to allow public comment, thinks he may wear the speakers out. “You can bring your pajamas, and we’ll stay all night if we have to,” he said. “Pretty soon they will get tired of coming and we can get back to some meaningful discussion.”

Dr. Jimmy Jones, a park board member, wanted to stick to the open forum format. “We are a volunteer board, and we do not have time for lengthy discussion,” Jones said. “It is unfortunate that some people who choose to speak are not very nice about it, and I do not think they should be able to speak to this board.”

Are you kidding me? The CMPA board, with its continual haphazard handling of issues, and its openly contemptuous behaviour toward members of the public, is an embarassment to those of us who wish to see the CMP succeed. Mr. Collier, especially, has made numerous comments over the course of his chairmanship of the board, the above included, which simply floor and disgust me.

The CMPA board is indeed comprised of volunteers but if those volunteers do not “have time” to hear public input before they make decisions on how to spend $40 million or more of public money and manage the resulting project, then they should simply not have volunteered. Dr. Jones is certainly replacable if he does not “have time”.

Reginald Dogan:
“Swearing-in a historic moment”

The PNJ columnist got that warm fuzzy feeling watching the new Pensacola City Council get sworn in yesterday:

For the first time in Pensacola’s long and storied history, four women, three blacks and one Asian would hold elected office on a council that not so long ago was an exclusive lily-white, all-male club.

Another piece of history emerged with the selection of deputy mayor. It came down to two blacks (John Jerralds and Jewel Cannada-Wynn) and an Asian (P.C. Wu), with Cannada-Wynn getting the nod.

Maren DeWeese:
“We need the Maritime Park…especially now!”

The freshman Councilwoman makes the case for the CMP, saying we need it more than ever:

While I am NOT happy as many with how long this project has taken and how little we are getting for the money, I believe we need this project to move forward. It does bring jobs. It will bring new business to downtown.

DeWeese seems to temper her position, indicating that she is open to looking at alternative or reprioritisation. She also clearly sets forth that the maritime museum is a bigger priority than is the baseball stadium:

The funding for [the museum] is a match between the State and private donors. From all I have heard the private portion is close to securing its half. I believe the State will continue to match investments of private donors, as it is a great leverage of taxpayer funds. If there is anything I am sure of in this project is that Nancy Fetterman will stand in the doorway of the John H. Fetterman Museum and cut the ribbon. The lady does not know how to fail.

She does though defend the stadium and its selling point as a “multi-use” facility:

The stadium is the draw to bring people downtown in large numbers. I’m encouraged even more that Dr. Bense and UWF are now considering football. The stadium will eliminate the need for the University to pay for a stadium and will accomodate football and seat at lease 8,000 people for it. The stadium will seat more than 3,500 for concerts when the field is considered.

The whole entry is based on Councilwoman DeWeese’s response to a citizen inquiry. She’s also done a great job of following up on comments left on the post. Hats off to Councilwoman DeWeese for being so responsive.