Mack on tree ordinance concessions
Pensacola City Councilwoman Diane Mack has made some comments on her website about this past Monday’s extended debate on the tree ordinance and the eventual concessions granted to Sacred Heart and Baptist hospitals:
The new City of Pensacola tree ordinance was approved yesterday by the Council Committee of the Whole, but not until the following changes were made to it at the eleventh hour:
The stance of Sacred Heart Hospital could be summed up thus: “It’s not that we can’t afford it, it’s that we don’t want to spend our money that way, and we’re powerful enough to get what we want.”
During yesterday’s long and heated debate Councilman Sam Hall described the Sacred Heart Hospital campus as the most beautifully developed parcel in the region. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; my eye beholds the hospital development quite differently.
This morning I received long phone calls from two constituents who were (a) irate about the exemptions for the hospitals, (b) appalled by the eleventh-hour campaign to amend the tree ordinance, and (c) despondent about the future of a Pensacola still mired in this type of politics. “If I could sell my house,” the gentleman said, “I would leave Pensacola, and I’ve lived here almost all my life.”
Councilwoman Mack sums up Sacred Heart’s stance well. Its parent company, Ascension Health, posted $16 billion in revenue in 2008. They can afford the increased mitigation costs. The idea that Sacred Heart would abandon its $200 million worth of construction projects over $500,000 in additional tree mitigation costs is ludicrous.
Sacred Heart and Baptist Hospital chose to bypass the public stakeholder process which other citizens and organisations followed and used to build compromise. In an obvious tactical move, the hospitals chose instead to come to Council as a bully, at the eleventh hour, making threats and demanding special consideration.
City Council and the residents of the City were effectively mugged.
We again commend Councilwoman Mack for her attempt to bring Council above this sort of backhanded politics. Those such as Council members Hall, DeWeese, and Pratt have disappointed those who have come to expect more from them, and have reinforced the idea that these tactics are acceptable.
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Citizens attended useless workshops for hours, discussed, wrote letters, and the conglomerate sends his attorney for private meetings at the final hour.
What worked in the negotiations? The attorney and backroom meetings with council members.
DeWeese and Pratt’s performance to jump in the cowtow line is disappointing.
No sign of change from these two.
They’ve quickly adopted the antics of their previous seat holders DeSorbo and Nobles.
You think this is bad? Wait till the powerful, big contributors to the strong mayor start pushing through their agenda. Council members will have less power than they do now & city staff won’t be hired for their education & expertise. They’ll be hired because they support the mayor. There would have been no reason for Appleyard to send his e-mail, the mayor would have fired Thaddeus Cohen after one call from Appleyard.
I sent the following email on Monday to all Council members and had only one response, from Mack of course! (In fact my Councilman, Wu, has NEVER replied to any email, or responded to a handwritten letter, nor returned any phone calls):
Unfortunately I will be unable to attend today’s City Council meeting during which the tree ordinance will be discussed. I hope that you will accept this brief email as my comment regarding the issue. I have been following this issue for the past 18 (or so) months and have been pleased with the City’s willingness to work with all stakeholders through the countless public meetings. However, I am disturbed to learn that modifications have been made to the “proposed changes” in order to accommodate for Sacred Heart expansion. It is a shame that Sacred Heart has waited until so late in the game to come to the table, yet, obviously, Council must hear from one of the City’s largest employers. However, allowing changes to be made which actually weakens regulation from the current ordinance, especially when the City is dedicated to strengthening it, is absurd. Most disturbingly, allowing these changes to be made without public involvement epitomizes the closed door, good-ole-boy, who-you-know politics that I was so proud to see the City moving away from. I strongly encourage Council, regardless of how sick and tired staff is with dealing with this issue, to reconsider weakening mitigation requirements from current standards; at the very least past standards should apply.
Wu is a member and gopher of the GOB’s. He calls them to see what THEY want him to do or just follows Wiggins lead. The PNJ laughingly reported that this career college professor was confused over the “grading system” during the Hawkshaw debacle. Why confusion, grading didn’t go the “right” way for the “right” candidate.
Watch those grade calcs UWF students!
He didn’t answer your letter or call? Seen a council member respond to citizens like you at a meeting? They wave them off like flies.
The site is slightly off in Chrome it seems. Just a slight issue though. Good post.
Villas: Can you be specific? I’ve tested the site in Chrome, it looks fine to me…