DeWeese letter to legislative delegation

Delegation,

The Pensacola City Council has voted to disapprove the current plan of Consolidation that was submitted January 15^th to the delegation.  The majority of Council clearly feel that the plan as submitted was rushed, is incomplete and  is a bad deal for the citizens of the City of Pensacola.

This makes all three elected bodies in Escambia County (Century, Pensacola and Escambia County) that have either rejected this plan or asked for it to be tabled until 2012.

Significant issues with the current plan from the three various bodies include:

• All of the constitutional officers have elected to remain outside of the consolidated government; maintaining their separate infrastructures and decreasing promised efficiencies.
• Regarding the constitutional officers in a January 6 email Judge Bell states:
  

  They have been left out of the consolidated government. They will not have to use centralized services. They will not even have the internal auditor evaluate whether or not their use of centralized services would save money. Two of these officers want not only to be left outside the consolidated government (which is anachronistic in itself). The Clerk wants the plan to mandate that the consolidated continue to use his office as the Comptroller, Secretary, Auditor, etc. The Sheriff wants a provision requiring that only he can provide law enforcement services. This would make that office way too powerful with not checks other than ‘the voters every four years.’ We were willing to consider these protections if they were under the consolidated government, but they refused.

• The current plan pushes almost $90 million in City of Pensacola pension debt off on the rate payers of the Consolidated Utilities Authority (80% of which are county not City residents)
• The current plan robs the City of Pensacola of all of its assets and still leaves the residents inside the City liable for enormous debts
• The Commissions own economist in his final report states “literature suggests that significant gains in efficiency are unlikely”
• The Commissions own economist also states in his final report “it is difficult to speculate based on the existing literature and its review of existing cases as to whether a proposed consolidation would be beneficial to a community”

Repeatedly, Consolidation Commission members have stated when questioned by the elected bodies that the document is “flawed”, not what they would like, needed more time, and was rushed.  This is their own document.

The voters of Escambia County are now aware of the lobbying efforts of Escambia All for One (the pro-consolidation political action committee) with each of you, thanks to a public records request by a local journalist and blogger.  As a matter of fact, those emails indicate that Rep. Evers and Senator Peaden are “under control.”  They are aware of the recent back room lunches at Irish Politicians Club with Rep Ford.

While I am not naïve and clearly understand the legislative and lobbying process, I feel that the feelings of the elected bodies should clearly outweigh the desires of the small group of downtown Pensacola business leaders that continue to push this bad document toward their desired objective.

Our elected officials have done their duty.  They have voted to send their delegation the clear message that they do not approve of the document as submitted.

The document has been submitted to you for your action.  You can stop this trainwreck before it occurs, or you can cater to the agenda of the wealthy and powerful that have lobbied you so hard to carry on their agenda over the voices of the people.

Respectfully,
Jeff DeWeese

Jeff DeWeese is a City resident and financial consultant.