Archive for the ‘Pensacola City Council’ Category
A proposed moratorium on new permits for industrial uses within the CRA district was delayed again by the City Council today. Mayor Mike Wiggins successfully moved to again cancel planned public hearings on the issue and schedule a meeting between City staff and concerned property owners within the next 30 days.
Staff originally wished to schedule public hearings to discuss the concept of such a moratorium two weeks ago, but Council delayed that at the behest of Mayor Mike Wiggins…
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A few items we wanted to highlight today:
Murzin on consolidation. This weekend NorthEscambia.com published a viewpoint from State Rep. Dave Murzin on the recent consolidation effort. Rep. Murzin implies that the consolidation scheme was an effort to shift the City’s tax burden and pension obligations to the full population of Escambia County, and says, “It is time to fess up and be honest about what is trying to be accomplished.”
Police picketing Council member offices…
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An addition to today’s Pensacola City Council Committee of the Whole agenda could result in the City declaring the Community Maritime Park Associates an “instrumentality” of the City and assuming control of all appointments to the board.
To date, the City Council has only appointed one-third of the twelve-member board, which oversees the Community Maritime Park development. According to City staff, the designation of the CMPA as an instrumentality of the City and the City’s assumption…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page. Included in the full agendas are copies of any contracts, agreements, ordinances, or resolutions.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, March 8. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. The Economic & Community Development Committee and the…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page. Included in the full agendas are copies of any contracts, agreements, ordinances, or resolutions.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, February 8. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. The Enterprise Operations Committee and the Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet.
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The Pensacola City Council and the Escambia County Commission will meet tomorrow afternoon in a joint session. The two bodies meet periodically in such sessions to address common issues.
The meeting will start at 3:30 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, Pensacola City Hall.
The agenda is included below…
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A few items we wanted to highlight today:
Council sets mayor salary at $100K. It appears that the Pensacola City Council has finally settled the issue of the salary for the executive mayor under the City’s new mayor-council government. The number that came out of the Committee of the Whole meeting was $100,000, but certain elements in the community were pushing for a higher number, closer to the Charter Review Commission’s recommendation of $145K. Councilman Larry Johnson made a substitute motion…
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The Pensacola City Council yesterday continued its debate over setting the salary for the executive mayor under the new Mayor-Council government. The Council had previously settled on $100,000 but opted to reconsider after certain elements in the community expressed their dissatisfaction with that number.
However, despite the additional debate, the Council ended up in the same place. After a motion to set the salary at $115,000 failed by a 3-6 vote, a motion to set it at $100,000 passed 5-4…
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The decision by City Council last year to commission the Mercer Group’s study of City employees’ compensation and pension benefits was ill-advised. City employees already knew they were underpaid — now they have it in black and white, from a professional consultant.
Yesterday’s workshop on the Mercer Study, which was widely attended by City employees, illustrated the bad position in which the City Council has now been placed. Upset employees, who have not had raises in several years, have now…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page. Included in the full agendas are copies of any contracts, agreements, ordinances, or resolutions.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, February 8. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall.
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The Pensacola City Council has a special meeting and two workshop sessions scheduled for this week.
The busy week starts tomorrow (Tuesday) with a budget workshop on outside agency funding for FY2011. Council will discuss applications for funding submitted by external agencies. In total, sixteen agencies submitted applications and together are requesting funding in the amount of $739,600. Obviously, the City doesn’t have an extra $739K lying around, so Council must decide which organisations to fund at what amounts.
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An attempt to bring the proposed consolidation plan back up for discussion at tonight’s meeting of the Pensacola City Council failed. The Council’s Committee of the Whole previously voted not to endorse the proposed consolidation plan developed by the Escambia County Consolidation Study Commission.
Mayor Mike Wiggins, who favours sending the proposed consolidation plan to a referendum vote, encouraged a motion to reconsider the issue, a move that would require seven affirmative votes to pass. Councilwoman Jewel Cannada-Wynn…
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The Pensacola City Council this evening voted to deny Hancock Bank’s request to rezone its parcel at 4980 North 12th Avenue from ATZ-1 to ATZ-2. The City Planning Board had previously recommended denial of the request.
The rezoning, if allowed, would have allowed retail and service commercial uses on the parcel, which is adjacent to residential zoning. Two neighbourhood associations in the area opposed the request.
The Council vote was 9-1 to deny the request, with Councilman Jerralds voting in the minority.
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Progressive Pensacola thanks the Pensacola City Council members who had the courage yesterday to stand against the powerful, wealthy pro-consolidation lobby. Unfortunately, four members of the City Council voted to support the ill-advised plan. Five Council members chose instead to stand with the City residents whose interests they were elected to protect. As a result, the Pensacola City Council did not endorse the proposed consolidation plan. A final vote will take place Thursday night.
If you’d like to thank them too…
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The Pensacola City Council this afternoon, meeting as its Committee of the Whole, voted no on the proposed consolidation plan. The vote was 5-4. Council members Mack, DeWeese, Townsend, Hall, and Johnson voted not to approve the plan; Mayor Wiggins and Council members Jerralds, Cannada-Wynn, and Pratt voted in the minority to support it.
Our thanks to Councilwomen Diane Mack and Maren DeWeese for identifying some of the serious concerns in the proposed consolidation plan, and for refusing to endorse the document…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page. Included in the full agendas are copies of any contracts, agreements, ordinances, or resolutions.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, January 25. The meeting begins at 2:00 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. Note the earlier-than-normal start time…
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The Pensacola City Council this afternoon declined to follow the lead of the Escambia County Commission in asking for a delay on a vote on City-County consolidation.
Councilwoman Diane Mack’s motion to do so was defeated by a substitute motion, offered by Mayor Wiggins, to delay discussion until the Council’s January 25 committee meetings, ten days after the final consolidation charter document is to be submitted to the Legislature. That motion passed 7-3, with Council members Mack…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page. Included in the full agendas are copies of any contracts, agreements, ordinances, or resolutions.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, January 11. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. The Finance Committee and the Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet.
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In the coming weeks and months, the Pensacola City Council will make several important decisions that will shape our City government under our new Charter — among those, the salary of the executive mayor and Council members, and what if any independent staff the Council will have.
Put simply, if our new mayor-council government and its checks and balances are to work properly, it is of utmost importance that we have a strong City Council to balance the “strong” executive mayor. This requires City Council members…
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Yesterday’s Council committee meetings featured an expansive presentation on a new vision for the Port of Pensacola, courtesy of CRA Director Thaddeus Cohen and Port staffers Clyde Mathis and Amy Miller.
The presentation painted the Port of Pensacola as a “boutique” or “specialty” port, which rather than being “all things to all people” intends to concentrate on serving niche markets like energy and offshore operations. The presentation also included concepts for converting…
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The Pensacola City Council was set yesterday to vote on a lease of the 16 South Palafox building to the UWF Small Business Development Center (SBDC), but that lease has apparently fallen apart.
CRA Director Thaddeus Cohen told Council members that the SBDC’s director called yesterday morning and told Mr. Cohen he had been told to “pull the plug” on the deal. SBDC has some financial concerns, apparently, on which Mr. Cohen said he will attempt to work with UWF and the SBDC. The lease would have rented the second story…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page. Included in the full agendas are copies of any contracts, agreements, ordinances, or resolutions.
As the first set of committee meetings since City voters approved a new charter last month, Monday’s committee meetings are expected to be lengthy. In addition to a large agenda otherwise, the Committee of the Whole meeting will likely…
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It’s been awhile since we highlighted our City Council attendance tracker, so here’s the latest:
Council members Wu and Townsend, who both advocated against the new charter, were absent for the special November 25 meeting to certify the referendum results.
There are no longer any Council members with perfect attendance. Mayor Mike Wiggins, the last holdout, was absent for the November 12 special CRA meeting and now stands in a tie…
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Today’s News Journal featured an editorial cartoon by Andy Marlette depicting the “No Boss Mayor” type as an elderly man telling exaggerated horror stories. It’s not the first time we’ve heard someone bring up age in the debate on the City’s proposed new charter. Is the charter referendum a battle of young versus old? It’s hard to say, but there is certainly evidence pointing us in that direction.
Let’s take, for example, how the members of the Pensacola City Council come down…
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A few items we wanted to highlight today:
Committee meeting cancelled due to St. Louis trip. Five City Council members and two City staffers will travel to St. Louis next Monday to meet with a housing development company. The seven will be part of a 15-member delegation that will meet with McCormack Baron Salazar, which has extensive experience in large mixed-income housing developments.The Downtown Improvement Board has been courting the firm…
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A few items we wanted to highlight today:
Charter debate now online. The charter debate which aired earlier this week is now available online at the Within Reason website. Also, see the commentary on the debate from the News Journal’s Mark O’Brien.
New Market Tax Credit recap. The News Journal’s Jamie Page recaps last night’s special Council/CRA meeting. The Council, acting as the CRA…
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A few items we wanted to highlight today:
DeWeese weighs in on charter vote. Pensacola City Councilwoman Maren DeWeese has weighed in on the charter referendum via a lengthy blog post in which she lays out her case in favour of the proposed charter. Councilwoman DeWeese argues that the mayor-council government will create an executive who is accountable to the voters, as compared to the current city manager, who is not accountable to voters…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, November 2. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. The Economic & Community Development Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet.
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At yesterday’s Pensacola City Council committee meetings, Mr. John Merting was reappointed to the Community Maritime Park Associates (CMPA) board. Progressive Pensacola had unsuccessfully encouraged Council members to appoint businessman Joe Buehler, who, unlike Mr. Merting, is a City resident.
Mr. Merting was reappointed by an 8-2 vote; Council members Diane Mack and Sam Hall voted for Mr. Buehler, while the remainder voted…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, October 19. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. The Finance Committee will not meet.
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Last night, the Pensacola City Council passed on second reading Ordinance #35-09, which provides for a referendum on the new charter proposed by the Charter Review Commission. The vote means that the referendum is now finalised. City voters should begin receiving mail ballots on November 14, with the results to be tallied after 7:00 PM on November 24.
The City Council also voted on whether or not to spend $20,000 or more on a…
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Yesterday, a large group of citizens concerned about the recent death of teenager Victor Steen demonstrated near Pensacola Police Department headquarters at Cervantes and Hayne Streets, then marched to City Hall and packed Council Chambers to voice their concerns at last night’s Pensacola City Council meeting.
Mr. Steen was killed last weekend by Pensacola Police officer Jerald Ard. The incident is presently under investigation by the Florida Department…
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John Merting’s term on the Community Maritime Park Associates Board of Trustees is coming to a close. He is asking to be reappointed, but it’s not automatic, and the Pensacola City Council is currently accepting the applications of interested parties.
Mr. Merting, an admiralty and maritime attorney, lives and works in Gulf Breeze. We appreciate Mr. Merting’s willingness to serve, but Progressive Pensacola encourages the City Council to appoint…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, October 5. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall…
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At its meeting last night, the Pensacola City Council approved proposed ordinance #32-09 on the first reading, which provides for a referendum on the proposed new charter and for enactment if approved. The vote was 8-1, with Councilman Jerralds dissenting, and Councilman Wu absent.
The Council also reversed its prior decision and opted to pay return postage on ballots in the mail-in referendum, a move certain to increase turnout.
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Tonight, the Pensacola City Council will consider on its first reading the ordinance providing for a mail-in referendum on the proposed new charter. If approved, the ordinance would still require approval on the second reading at Council’s October 8 meeting before proceeding to referendum, which is tentatively scheduled for November 24.
At its committee meetings on Monday, Council revised the language which would appear on the ballot. It currently reads…
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Here’s a brief recap of yesterday’s Pensacola City Council committee meetings:
Absences: None.
Appointments: Council reappointed C. Ray Jones and Daniel Lindemann to the Architectural Review Board, reappointed Danny Grundhoefer and Daniel Keck to the Code Enforcement Board, and appointed Ashton Hayward as the Planning Board representative on the Architectural Review…
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We’ve been meaning to put this up for a while, but have gotten sidetracked. It’s a highlight from last month’s debate about the City’s tree ordinance.
In it, Judy Gund of accounting firm Saltmarsh, Cleaveland & Gund comes before the City Council to stand up for big business and big development, and to call out Council members Diane Mack and Larry B. Johnson for putting forth the crazy idea that big business and big development should follow the same rules as everyone else…
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At its committee meetings yesterday, the Pensacola City Council made several changes to the ballot language for the referendum on the proposed new charter. The Council also decided to conduct a mail-in referendum with ballots due back by November 24.
For more information on the proposed new charter, including a side-by-side comparison of the existing and proposed charters, see http://progressivepensacola.com/charter…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, September 24. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall.
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The City Attorney’s office has prepared the ordinance on implementing the Charter Review Commission’s proposed charter, and the language for the referendum ballot, and both have been placed on next week’s Committee of the Whole agenda for City Council’s consideration.
If approved by Council, the ordinance would be read on the first reading on September 24 and then on the second reading on October 8. If adopted, a mail-in referendum would be conducted…
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Last week, the Pensacola City Council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), received a report detailing the expenses that the CRA (City) has made on behalf of the Community Maritime Park Associates (CMPA). These expenses included fees for professional drafting services, legal fees, and lobbying costs. The Council/CRA asked City staff to forward the report to the CMPA to discuss reimbursement to the City.
Friday, CMPA Chair Lacey Collier released…
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Progressive Pensacola is pleased that the Pensacola City Council opted last week to not adopt a formal communications policy. Several Council members had suggested that the Council adopt a policy similar to the one recently adopted by the Escambia County Commission, which we feel is overly restrictive.
Instead, Council members agreed on an informal “gentleman’s agreement” to keep communications devices “out of sight” during meetings…
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A few items I wanted to highlight today:
Local 9/11 events. Hard to believe it’s been eight years. It really doesn’t feel that long ago that I watched on TV as a plane flew into the second tower. Every time I’m in Manhattan I go to the World Trade Centre site, and it’s like this horrible, heartbreaking open wound. I wish we could rebuild faster.
Charter passed. The Pensacola City Council…
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At its meeting tonight, the Pensacola City Council will officially vote on the Charter Review Commission’s proposed charter. Council previously approved the charter in a special Committee of the Whole session held September 2, making slight changes and voting to forward the document to a public referendum.
If approved tonight, the City Attorney will begin drafting ballot language. That language would have to be approved via ordinance…
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Last week, we published an article called “The $350K logo,” which dealt with a contract held by E. W. Bullock Associates for marketing services for the Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport.
At City Council committee meetings earlier this week, there was substantive discussion of the contract, including the media buy commission rate and Mr. Bullock’s overall performance. The contract overages and year two amount were approved, but they weren’t rubberstamped…
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Members of the arts community and human services organisations were out in full force last night to protest planned cuts in the City’s FY2010 budget. Mayor Wiggins said the crowd was the largest he had seen at any budget hearing during his tenure on the City Council.
Council had planned to significantly reduce funding to groups such as the Northwest Florida Arts Council, United Way, and First Call for Help in order to balance the budget…
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Here’s a brief recap of yesterday’s City Council committee meetings:
Absences: Councilman Wu. Councilman Jerralds left around 7:45 PM, and Councilwoman DeWeese left at 8:23 PM. The meeting ended just after 9:00.
Parades: City Council has agreed to absorb the City’s parade costs for FY2010, which were unbudgeted. Going forward, the City will work with…
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The Pensacola City Council will hold its committee meetings today due to the Labour Day holiday yesterday. The meetings will begin at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall.
The meetings will also be streamed live over the internet on the City’s web site.
For a rundown of what’s on the agenda, see “The coming week in City government.”
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Last night, the Pensacola City Council, in a special Committee of the Whole session, passed the Charter Review Commission’s proposed charter document with minor revisions. The document will now proceed to a vote at Council’s regular meeting on September 10; if passed there, the ordinance creating a referendum on the charter would be read and voted on at the September 24 and October 8 meetings, after which it would proceed to public referendum.
The changes Council made last night…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 8 due to the Labour Day holiday. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall.
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The Pensacola City Council will hold a special Committee of the Whole meeting to consider the proposed City Charter document as revised by the Charter Review Commission.
The special meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 2. The meeting will begin at 4:00 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. Council will consider the document and then vote on whether or not to forward the proposed charter to a public referendum.
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As a footnote to the whole tree ordinance debate, we are disappointed that several members of the Pensacola City Council failed to, at a minimum, disclose ties with Sacred Heart Health System. Whether or not these ties present conflicts of interest, we certainly feel that it is information which merits disclosure, if only for appearance’s sake. However, no Council member took it upon him or herself to do so.
Without making any judgements, we have published below a list…
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At last night’s City Council meeting, the revised tree ordinance, with the special exemptions for Sacred Heart and Baptist, was passed on the first reading.
This is something we would have expected and accepted without question from the previous Council. So many of us, though, have come to expect that the days of “business as usual” were behind us. So many of us have come to expect better from the new members of Council. To say we are disappointed wouldn’t begin to sum it up.
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A few items I wanted to highlight today:
Page on Hancock Bank zoning. PNJ reporter Jamie Page covers the Hancock Bank zoning request on his blog. Hancock Bank is requesting a zoning change from ATZ-1 to ATZ-2 to allow for retail and service commercial uses on the remainder of its property at 4980 North 12th Avenue (12th and Summit Boulevard). The Planning Board (on which Progressive Pensacola publisher Derek Cosson serves) denied the request by a 4-2 vote earlier this month…
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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.
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…
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A few items I wanted to highlight today:
On attracting Southwest Airlines. PNJ business reporter Carlton Proctor says “the game is on” regarding the Airport’s campaign to attract Southwest Airlines. As we’ve said, Southwest would be a colossal win for Pensacola and the Airport, and would likely secure the Airport’s place as the dominant regional airport for some time to come.
O’Brien covers Council’s caving on tree ordinance. PNJ columnist Mark O’Brien lets Council members…
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The Pensacola City Council has scheduled a special Committee of the Whole meeting to consider the proposed City Charter document as revised by the Charter Review Commission.
The special meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 2. The meeting will begin at 4:00 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. Council will consider the document and then vote on whether or not to forward the proposed charter to a public referendum…
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Yesterday’s City Council committee meetings went about seven hours long, beginning at 3:15 PM and adjourning just after 10:00 PM. The bulk of the meeting was spent on two issues: the tree ordinance and Councilwoman Mack’s proposal to sell the Port of Pensacola.
The tree ordinance was passed with significant last-minute concessions to special interests; more about that here.
Councilwoman Mack opened the Port item…
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At yesterday’s City Council committee meetings, the tree ordinance moved forward for final approval, albeit with several last-minute concessions to special interests.
The proposed changes to the tree ordinance were designed to promote the preservation of more trees in the City by providing an increased financial disincentive for cutting down large “heritage” trees.
The largest concession was to Sacred Heart and Baptist Hospitals, who will now be exempt…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, August 24. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. The Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet.
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A few items I wanted to highlight today:
US Airways expanding service at Airport. US Airways has announced that beginning in 2010, it will add- nonstop service between PNS (Pensacola) and DCA (Washington—Reagan National).
De Luna monument dedicated. The Spanish conquistador monument was unveiled and dedicated at a ceremony held last night in Plaza de Luna. With the dedication of the monument, the Plaza de Luna project is essentially complete…
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There is a lot going on at City Hall this week:
Monday: City Council committee meetings, 9:00 AM, Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor. See our agenda breakdown.
Tuesday: City Council workshop to discuss the Charter Review Commission’s proposed charter revisions. 9:00 AM, Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor. See our charter coverage.
Wednesday: City Council workshop…
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Last week, the Mayor asked City Manager Al Coby to solicit input on the charter from a wide variety of individuals and organisations. City staff has compiled the responses and inserted them, without identifying who said what, as notations to a copy of the charter.
That document is included in the agenda material for next Tuesday’s special Council workshop on the proposed charter. A copy of the agenda material is included below.
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The City Attorney’s office has distributed to the Mayor and City Council its analysis and comments on the Charter Review Commission’s proposed charter revisions.
Many of the City Attorney’s comments highlight technical or linguistic qualms, but he does raise several important issues. Namely, he finds potential conflicts between the Mayor and City Council based on their unusual division of powers. The Pensacola Bay Area League of Women Voters and others have raised similar concerns…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, August 10. The meeting begins at 9:00 AM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. The Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet.
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As a result of the City Council’s action last night to restrict use of Plaza Ferdinand VII, City Manager Al Coby stated at last night’s meeting that he would move the New Year’s Eve Pelican Drop, which took place last year at Palafox and Government Streets, adjacent to the Plaza.
Progressive Pensacola spoke to Mr. Coby this morning, and he elaborated on his remarks. “It will still be a street party,” Coby said. “It will probably still take place on Palafox. However, it will be located so that Plaza Ferdinand is not…”
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Last night, the Pensacola City Council voted to bring back an ordinance proposed at Council’s previous meeting, which would heavily restrict group and event use of Plaza Ferdinand VII. The ordinance was approved by a 7-2 vote, with Council members Cannada-Wynn and Pratt dissenting. The ordinance must still be read and approved a second time before taking effect, which should happen at the Council’s August 13 meeting.
If approved, the ordinance would allow groups of people 29 or fewer to use Plaza Ferdinand VII…
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A few items I wanted to highlight today:
Mark O’Brien says charter has “serious flaws.” In a post on his PNJ blog, Mark O’Brien says that in his opinion, the Charter Review Commission’s proposed charter has “serious flaws,” taking issue with the strong mayor structure, the elimination of at-large Council seats, and the potential for more expensive election campaigns.
Mr. O’Brien raises some valid concerns. Look for our comprehensive commentary later this week…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, July 20. The meeting begins at 9:00 AM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall.
All committees will meet.
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By far the most contentious debate at last night’s meeting of the Pensacola City Council was concerning an ordinance regulating use of Plaza Ferdinand VII. The ordinance would have barred the Winterfest organisation from continuing many of its activities in the Plaza, so they came in force to plead their case, going so far as to bring a costumed Santa Claus whose “helper” attempted to distribute lumps of coal to Council members.
The proposed ordinance was developed in response to pending federal litigation against the City. That suit was filed by a church group who was barred…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, July 6. The meeting begins at 9:00 AM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. The Finance Committee, the Economic and Community Development Committee, and the Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet.
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Out of the Pensacola City Council’s “goal setting session” today came seven goals, or “strategy statements.” Without further ado:
1. Maintain a fiscally sound and sustainable city government that earns the trust and respect of the citizens.
2. Provide proficient public safety services in terms of police, fire, disaster preparedness, and storm water management through collaboration among agencies, utilization of technology, and proven innovations.
3. Prepare a responsible annexation plan…
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A few items I wanted to highlight today:
Mason-Dixon: Crist 51, Rubio 23
Pensacola News Journal: “PJC to cut 25 jobs”
Jamie Page’s Notebook:
“Council lists political goals”
NorthEscambia.com:
“UWF digging for the past in Molino”
Pensacola News Journal: “Meetings this week”
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We haven’t talked about City Council attendance in a while, but we’ve continued to update our attendance tracker. Here’s the skinny:
When we last posted on attendance, Councilman Ron Townsend had only 64% attendance. He’s managed to improve upon that number, posting 80% attendance as of today. However, he’s still absent from time to time (such as last night) and still leads the pack in worst attendance.
Councilman Jerralds remains close behind, with 82% attendance….
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A few items I wanted to highlight today:
Rick’s Blog:
“IN celebrates 10th Anniversary”
Happy birthday, IN!
Pensapedia: “Henry C. Mustin”
Maren DeWeese: “Goals”
Independent News: “The Buzz”
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The Pensacola City Council will meet tonight at 7:00 PM, in Council Chambers, first floor, City Hall. You can also view the meeting on Cox Cable channel 4 or streaming on the City’s web site.
The agenda is included below, or can be accessed at the City web site.
For Progressive Pensacola’s breakdown of the issues Council considered at its committee meetings earlier this week, see “The coming week in City government.”
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A few items I wanted to highlight today:
Maren DeWeese:
“Proposed Interlocal kills Pensacola Promise”
Pensacola News Journal:
“Pollution fears loom for downtown school site”
Pensacola News Journal:
“City recycling sees success in its first week”
Pensacola News Journal:
“City’s parades in peril”
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A few items I wanted to highlight today:
Pensacola News Journal:
“Escambia fuel tax fails”
The Escambia County Commission declined to pass a proposed three-cent increase to the gas tax…
Rick’s Blog: “Crist visits Pensacola”
Sam Hall:
“To tree or not to tree” and “Certainty”
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, June 22. The meeting begins at 9:00 AM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall.
All committees, including the Community Redevelopment Agency, will meet…
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The Pensacola City Council will meet on Monday to discuss changes to the City’s tree ordinance. The workshop starts at 9:00 AM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall.
The proposed changes to the ordinance would “improve adminstrative processes and better encourage the preservation of existing trees.”
The preservation of our trees should be paramount in our minds as we develop and redevelop the City, and we should save trees whenever possible, not whenever convenient.
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Pensacola City Councilman Larry B. Johnson has two interesting posts up on his blog concerning Council member compensation.
In the first, he expressed his disappointment at comments critical of Council members’ compensation made at last Thursday’s City Council meeting, and countered the notion that City Council is a “part-time” job:
“Pensacola City Council members receive a salary of $13,998/year for what is for me a full-time job…”
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At last Tuesday’s City Council committee meetings, Judge Lacey Collier sarcastically suggested the abolition of the Community Maritime Park Associates (CMPA), which he chairs. Judge Collier was upset that the City Council was involving itself in what he considered the minutiae of the project. Even though the suggestion was made in jest, we think it’s one worth considering.
After the Community Maritime Park project was approved in a September 2006 referendum, the Pensacola City Council devolved the day-to-day decisionmaking concerning the project…
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Overturning their decision at Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, the Pensacola City Council voted last night to spend $37,000 to commission a study of City pensions and other compensation. The vote was 8-2, with Council members Wu and DeWeese voting against the study.
The move came after extensive discussion regarding Councilwoman Megan Pratt’s proposed changes to pension benefits. Councilwoman Pratt tried to broker a compromise, stating that she would be willing to support the study if Council would approve her changes…
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Rick Outzen, publisher of the Independent News and Rick’s Blog, has filed a public records request with the City of Pensacola seeking the text messages sent or received by Pensacola City Council members during recent meetings.
The City does not issue or pay for Council members’ cellphones, so the text messages Mr. Outzen is requesting were exchanged on Council members’ personal phones. It’s unclear whether such messages are subject to Florida’s public records laws, and even if they are, whether it’s logistically possible to retain…
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A few other things I wanted to highlight from yesterday’s Council committee meetings:
The Committee of the Whole meeting, where most of the contentious items were discussed, lasted about four hours and 50 minutes, ending at 8:09 PM. Most of the time was spent on three issues: the Community Maritime Park, the pension study, and the airport hotel lease. Regarding the airport hotel lease, Councilwoman Diane Mack’s much-publicised proposal that City Council break the contract with Julian MacQueen died for lack of a second…
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At its committee meetings yesterday, the Pensacola City Council made its two appointments to the Escambia All For One consolidation study commission. Council chose financial advisor Clarry Ellis and retired Marine Corps colonel (and past Progressive Pensacola contributor) C. J. Lewis from a pool of six nominees.
Progressive Pensacola congratulates both men on their appointments, and trusts that Messrs. Ellis and Lewis will for the duration of their service safeguard the interests of the City of Pensacola and its residents…
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Pensacola City Councilwoman Diane Mack’s unfortunate charge for a costly pension study was stopped cold yesterday, as the measure failed on a 4-6 vote. Council members Mack, Jerralds, Cannada-Wynn, and Townsend were those who voted in favour of the $37,000 study.
Unfortunately, Councilwoman Megan Pratt’s suggestions for immediate action on the pension issues also failed on a 5-5 vote.
Inconsistency has been the story of Diane Mack’s tenure thus far on City Council…
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The City Council-commissioned audit of the airport hotel deal is in. You can read it for yourself on the City’s website.
The audit puts on paper what everybody already knew. The process was imperfect, and an open, competitive RFP process would have preferred. We have again paid tens of thousands of dollars for a “report” which serves little purpose other than to formalise the obvious and allow Council members to say they “investigated.”
Were there problems with the process? Yes…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Tuesday, May 26 rather than on Monday, due to the Memorial Day holiday. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. The Economic and Community Development Committee will not meet.
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The presentation yesterday of Escambia County Commissioner Gene Valentino’s long-awaited economic development plan appeared to fall flat, with few elected officials or audience members voicing enthusiasm for Commissioner Valentino’s proposed “Pensacola Economic Development Authority.”
The presentation, made before a joint meeting of the Escambia County Commission and the Pensacola City Council, outlined Commissioner Valentino’s proposed structure for such an authority, as well as a proposed increase in utility franchise fees…
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At last night’s meeting of the Pensacola City Council, Councilwoman Diane Mack again tried unsuccessfully to block the expansion of the Dense Business Area to accommodate the relocation of a Pensacola bar.
The Dense Business Area, which loosens distance and parking requirements on bars, presently only includes the south side of Heinberg Street. The Roundup, a longtime bar previously located at 706 East Gregory Street, desires to relocate to an unused warehouse on the north side of Heinberg Street but could not due to requirements that bars…
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City staff has made a last-minute addition to Monday’s Committee of the Whole agenda, inserting an item concerning the award of a contract for a “compensation and benefits study.”
In the agenda item, City Manager Al Coby explains that in response to discussions at last month’s pension workshop, City staff contacted the Mercer Group, which advised the City that “their current workload would allow them to provide the study desired by the City at a significantly reduced fee [of $25,000].” Mr. Coby goes on to assert, “Given the possibility of a one-time opportunity…”
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Committee of the Whole
Neighbourhood Services
Enterprise Operations
Economic and Community Development
Note: The Finance Committee and the Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet.
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There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the City’s pension issues among members of the public, as well as some members of the Pensacola City Council. We attribute that to sensationalist reporting by the Pensacola News Journal, which has focused on the most extravagant pensions enjoyed by senior City employees. However, while those extravagances are very real, they are the exception rather than the standard. The fact of the matter is that the City’s rank-and-file employees do not enjoy a “cadillac pension.” In fact, due to the City’s apparent inability to find a good deal on group health insurance, many City pensioners pay $14,000 per year out of their pensions…
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The Pensacola City Council will meet this afternoon in an informal workshop to discuss the City’s mounting pension expenses. See the agenda as well as Progressive Pensacola’s coverage of pension issues.
The workshop begins at 4:00 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall, 222 West Main Street. The workshop will also be streamed live over the internet. See the City web site for the stream.
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There are a bunch of important local government meetings this week:
Monday
Pensacola City Council committee meetings. 3:15 PM, Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall, 222 West Main Street. See Progressive Pensacola’s “The coming week in City government” for details.
Tuesday
CMPA Board special meeting. 1:00 PM, Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall, 222 West Main Street. The board of trustees…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: The Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet.
Committee of the Whole
Neighbourhood Services
Enterprise Operations
Economic and Community Development
Finance Committee
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The Pensacola City Council will host a workshop tomorrow, Monday, April 13, to discuss the preliminary general fund budget for FY 2010. The workshop begins at 1:30 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall.
Below is a copy of the agenda plus the background materials provided to Council, such as:
* Budget recommendations, itemised and separated by department
* A breakdown of non-departmental expenses, such as funding for external agencies
* A list of changes to budgeted positions
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With yet another absence last night, Pensacola City Councilman Ronald Townsend has widened his lead in the race to become the Council member with the worst attendance record. Mr. Townsend, with 64% attendance, now holds a commanding eleven-point lead over his closest challenger, Councilman John Jerralds.
Mayor Wiggins said last night that Mr. Townsend had decided to participate in an event at his church rather than attend the Council meeting. Progressive Pensacola notes that numerous other Council members are active in their respective churches yet find the time to attend to their duties…
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Is the Pensacola City Council getting a little better on meeting length? The committee meetings on Monday only lasted about six hours instead of the seven or eight that has become the norm recently.
Jabberin’ Jerralds
After the last committee meetings, Councilwoman Diane Mack took it upon herself to have a volunteer review video of the meeting to determine which member of Council racked up the most talk time. Jamie Page of the Pensacola News Journal recounts the results for those of us who couldn’t make it down to City Hall…
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City Manager Al Coby reports that the Community Maritime Park development agreement between the CMPA/City and Maritime Park Development Partners (MPDP) is not finalised and will not be ready in time for the Pensacola City Council to take action at today’s committee meetings.
However, Mr. Coby believes that “significant progress has been made and there is little doubt that an Agreement will be reached.”
City staff plans to give Council a full briefing on the negotiations this afternoon. Attached below is Mr. Coby’s memorandum to Council…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Committee of the Whole
Neighbourhood Services
Enterprise Operations
Economic and Community Development
Finance Committee
Note: The Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet.
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The Pensacola City Council’s pension workshop, previously scheduled for this Thursday, has been postponed to accommodate the funeral of Pensacola police officer Travis Pitts. City staff is working with Council to pin down a new date and time.
As we all know, the City’s unfunded pension liability has skyrocketed due to mismanagement and market conditions. It’s a serious problem that has to be addressed. Progressive Pensacola doesn’t have the answer. Rick Outzen of the Independent News has suggested that the City pensions funds invest in Pensacola by buying the bonds for the Community Maritime Park…
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The Pensacola City Council’s committee meetings this past Monday went almost eight hours long (here’s the video if you have some free time). Why, you ask? Oh, there are all sorts of conspiracy theories. One such theory proposes that City staff is trying to wear City Council out by stretching out meetings as long as possible. These theorists conveniently assume that City staff is made up of evil people who would happily sacrifice going home to their families at night in order to stay at work until 11 at night playing games with City Council. We’re sorry to disappoint — but there simply isn’t some unspoken war of attrition going on between Council and staff…
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Pensacola City Manager Al Coby says that he does not anticipate bringing Automatic Aid back to City Council “prior to the end of April at the earliest” — and that the pilot program which had been scheduled to begin March 2 will remain suspended until Council takes further action.
Meanwhile, word on the street is that a particular Council member is working with several County Commissioners to restructure the Automatic Aid Agreement to be more favourable to the City; among the possibilities being discussed are the placement of County firefighters in City fire stations…
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The City of Pensacola’s Charter Review Commission spent basically its entire session yesterday discussing the composition of the City Council under a new charter. After vigorous debate, the Commission adopted by a 7-3 vote a Council comprised of seven members, each elected by district.
In doing so, the CRC will decrease the size of Council from ten to seven members, and eliminate the at-large seats, or those seats elected by the City as a whole.
Four members of the public spoke…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Committee of the Whole
Neighbourhood Services
Enterprise Operations
Economic and Community Development
Finance Committee
The Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet.
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Pensacola City Councilwoman Diane Mack pushed hard for the Automatic Aid Agreement at yesterday’s joint City/County meeting, attempting several times to dismiss and marginalise the opinions of dissenting citizens. No action was taken at the meeting, however, and the issue will be carried over to a Council Committee of the Whole meeting.
Councilwoman Mack, speaking in favour of moving forward with the agreement, emphasised that this was only a pilot program. Councilwoman Megan Pratt agreed, noting that the “scientist in her” wanted to do an experiment to gather the data…
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At City Council last night, Mayor Wiggins laid out a timeframe for Council’s consideration of the Community Maritime Park development agreement — provided, of course, that the CMPA adopts it at its meeting today.
Council would first discuss it at its March 23 Committee of the Whole meeting, at which time the City’s consultant, Barry Abramson, would appear to address any concerns. Two weeks later, the agreement would be an agenda item for approval at Council’s April 6 Committee of the Whole meeting. If advanced out of committee, Council would make its final vote on the agreement at its April 9 meeting…
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Here’s are a few items I want to highlight today:
Report from TPO meeting
“Pensacola City Councilwoman Diane Mack has kindly updated her website with some of the goings-on at yesterday’s meeting of the TPO…”
Independent News: “Invest in Pensacola”
“Rick Outzen encourages the City of Pensacola to invest pension funds in local projects…”
Miami Herald:
“Democrat named to Florida Supreme Court”
“Right wingers aren’t very happy with Florida Governor Charlie Crist…”
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Last week, the Pensacola City Council held a special workshop to discuss economic development. Dr. Rick Harper of UWF’s Haas Center gave Council members a bucket full of statistics, and representatives from the Pensacola Bay Area showed up with a shiny PowerPoint presentation which was little more than a big pat on the back. The Chamber has its place, and they’ve done some good work — but they, like many of our elected officials, both in the City and the County, aren’t looking at the bigger picture.
The key to economic development is creating a vibrant community…
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Here’s the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week:
Committee of the Whole
Appointments: Council will make appointments…
Rules changes: Council will also vote to codify changes to its Rules and Procedures…
Neighbourhood Services
*Council will approve the name for the new community center in the Sanders Beach neighbourhood…
*Staff will inform Council of the decision to retain Quina Grundhoefer Architects for design services…
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Megan Pratt: “CRA Plan update”
Councilwoman Pratt recaps the launch of the CRA comprehensive master plan update.
Pensacola News Journal:
“Pension costs pinching City of Pensacola”
Jamie Page has a great article up about the City’s pension issue. Glad someone is paying attention.
Council attendance update
Seven members of Council have maintained perfect attendance; Councilmen Wu and Jerralds have 81% attendance, while Councilman Townsend is making a strong run for the worst attendance trophy with 63%.
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Northwest Florida Daily News: “Sheriff Charlie Morris arrested, suspended by Governor Crist”
Charlie Morris, the Sheriff of Okaloosa County, has been suspended from office by the governor. Mr. Morris was arrested by federal agents this morning in Las Vegas…
Pensacola News Journal: “Talks with park team may end March 13″
Jamie Page reports on the March 13 deadline for negotiations between the CMPA and Maritime Park Development Partners, as well as Council’s vote last night on whether or not to endorse it…
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A few notable happenings at yesterday’s City Council committee meetings:
* Staff had recommended that Council award a $454,454 contract to Roads, Inc. for the Baars Street and 9th Avenue Stormwater Management Project; this failed 2-2 in the Neighbourhood Services committee, with Council members Hall and Mack dissenting, and Councilman Townsend absent. Council members Hall and Mack expressed concerns about minority/small business enterprise participation in the contract; Roads, Inc. has indicated that it can provide further documentationof its inclusion of M/SBEs…
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Here’s the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week:
*Committee of the Whole
*Neighbourhood Services
*Enterprise Operations
*Finance Committee
Note: The Economic and Community Development Committee and the Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet on Monday; however, the CRA will hold a special meeting on Thursday night, before Council, from 5:30-6:30 PM.
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Yesterday afternoon, the Pensacola City Council held a special workshop to discuss a $50,000 report which Council commissioned on the lack of parity between minority-owned and non-minority-owned businesses in competing for City contracts.
I certainly don’t think we needed a $50,000 study to tell us that we were shafting the African-American business community, but at least now we have it on paper; something tangiable to which we can point if anyone doesn’t believe it.
Minorities were awarded approximately 1 percent of the total dollars expended by the City during the study period, about $2.9 million…
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Busy week in the City of Pensacola:
Tuesday, February 17
City Council workshop: The Pensacola City Council will hold a special workshop to discuss the review of the City’s Small Business Enterprise (SBE) program, as conducted by MGT America, Inc. MGT’s full report available here.
The meeting will be held in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, Second Floor, City Hall.
Palafox two-way transition: The transition of South Palafox Street from Garden south…
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Lots of good stuff today:
Council meeting roundups
Both the Pensacola News Journal and Rick’s Blog round up last night’s Pensacola City Council meeting:
Sam Hall: “Coffee with the mayor”
Mayor Wiggins is planning a monthly session called “Coffee with the mayor”…
Rick’s Blog: Legislative delegation update
The Buzz: “Zapata files cigarette tax hike”
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Last week, I ran through the nominations for the various boards and commissions to which the Pensacola City Council appoints its members. Here are the final appointments:
* Arts Council of NWF: Megan B. Pratt
* Bay Area Resource Council: Larry B. Johnson
* Celebrate Pensacola: Ronald P. Townsend
* Community Action Program Committee: John Jerralds
* Community Drug & Alcohol Commission: Jewel Cannada-Wynn
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The amount paid by local governments to contractors only reflects one part of the economic equation. I’ve found no evidence in city documents I’ve seen supporting recommendations to the Council that the staff conducts economic impact analyses.
Some cases might be close calls but here’s one glaring example. In October the Council gave the 2008 Sidewalk Project to Starfish, Inc. of Brewton. I have no knowledge if or how they might have bid all or part of the project out to local sub-contractors. That information was not part of the decisional package sent to the Council…
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Megan Pratt: “Natural Playgrounds”
The Pensacola City Councilwoman proposes rather than buying some boring plastic playground equipment, we turn Bryan Park at the new Tryon Library into a “natural playground”:
Sam Hall:
“Staff/council communication”
Fellow Council member Sam Hall does just that, attempting to set up a meeting between City staff and the Broadview Farms Neighbourhood Association to discuss Pratt’s park idea.
President Obama visits Fort Myers
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A few items I want to highlight tonight:
Pensacola News Journal:
“Committees tackle fees and speed limit”
The PNJ’s Jamie Page rounds up some of the things that went down at Monday’s Pensacola City Council committee meetings…
Pensacola News Journal:
“Peacocks found dead, sand sifter saves, City Council changes”
Jamie Page:
“Survey: Citizen satisfaction down slightly”
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Yesterday afternoon the Pensacola City Council held a very productive, very inspiring workshop to discuss changes to its rules and procedures. Councilman Townsend was absent, and we’ve updated our Council attendance tracker accordingly.
Among the topics discussed:
*Public input at meetings. Going forward, speakers will get four minutes regardless…
*The Finance Committee will now be a committee of the whole…
*City staff will look into what needs to be done to televise the Monday committee meetings…
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Now what’s going on with the other committees of the Pensacola City Council this coming Monday:
Keep in mind the City Council’s committee meetings are open to the public. Meetings start at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, Second Floor, City Hall.
Economic and Community Development
Neigbourhood Services
Enterprise Operations
Finance
Community Redevelopment Agency
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Due to the size of the Committee of the Whole agenda, I will handle Committee of the Whole separately from the other committees this week.
The Committee of the Whole will be spending a lot of time voting on board appointments, both of its own members to community boards and of citizens to City boards.
There are presentations from the Naval Flight Academy and United Way.
Charter Review Commission Chairwoman Crystal Spencer will appear to update Council members on the progress of the Commission.
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C. C. Elebash, vigilant analyst of the Community Maritime Park project, and critic of the plan’s inclusion of a ballpark, has submitted the following comments to Mayor and Council:
“The City of Pensacola will be exposed to a big risk if you adopt the proposed Maritime Park financing plan. Although there is strong pressure to build the stadium now, you must bear in mind that the suggested borrowing plan could spell trouble for years to come.
The Finance Director proposes to initially finance the Park project with short-term variable rate loans…”
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I wanted to highlight a few new additions to Progressive Pensacola:
Council attendance
Progressive Pensacola has begun to track the attendance of Pensacola City Council members to scheduled meetings. We feel that this will help promote transparency and accountability.
Calendar of events
The Progressive Pensacola calendar will list as many City and County government meetings as possible, as well as various community events…
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The Florida Retirement System (FRS) is a state-operated pension pool for state and municipal employees. Some time ago, the City Council voted to close the City-operated pension pool. All new City employees would only have the option to enroll in FRS, while existing City employees could remain in the City pension plan or transfer to FRS (the vast majority have remained in the more lucrative City plan). At the same time, Council voted to enroll themselves in FRS.
As a result, the City pays $3,857.62 annually into FRS on behalf of the mayor, and $2,314.00 annually on behalf of regular Council members…
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A few things I wanted to highlight today:
Pensacola News Journal:
“Sansom to speak at prayer event”
St. Petersburg Times:
“For it’s one, two, three Sansom scandals”
Miami Herald:
“Money flows in when you hire right lawmaker”
Megan Pratt:
“Outcome of our first full meeting”
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This past week, the Pensacola City Council had to decide which zoning to apply to a parcel whose owner wanted to lease to a bingo parlor. While this was just a zoning issue, and the Council was not voting on the merits of bingo parlors themselves, the discussion did veer that way at some point, probably because this would be the first standalone bingo parlor in the City, and the City’s Land Development Code does not address them specifically.
Councilman Sam Hall motioned to refer the issue back to committee to give Council time to decide whether or not they wanted bingo parlors in the first place…
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I wanted to recap some things from Council committee meetings Tuesday and the Charter Review Commission today.
Committee meetings
Councilwoman Megan Pratt was appointed by unanimous vote to the CMPA board after Mayor Wiggins withdrew his name from consideration. Wiggins says he wants to be able to lobby CMPA members. I’m not sure that’s legal either way.
On a motion by Mayor Wiggins, the Committee of the Whole voted to direct the City manager to find the $1 million needed for recycling cans citywide…
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On the agenda for Monday’s meetings of the various committees of the Pensacola City Council:
Committee of the Whole
Neighbourhood Services
Finance
Enterprise Operations
Economic and Community Development
Community Redevelopment Agency
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I haven’t gotten to this, but at the City Council meeting a week ago, there was a spirited (and amusing) debate about the placement of an ice production and vending machine in the East Pensacola Heights neighbourhood.
PNJ columnist Mark O’Brien and City Planning Board member Clay Roesch have done a good job of rounding it up, though.
Mr. Roesch outlines the situation:
“At last week’s Pensacola City Council meeting, Jack Nobles moved to put an action agenda item at the end of the meeting during open forum as requested by the final speaker…”
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A few items I wanted to highlight today:
Jamie Page:
“Cashing in on change, listening lessons, plenty of eyes on the park”
Reginald Dogan:
“Swearing-in a historic moment”
Maren DeWeese:
“We need the Maritime Park…especially now!”
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Here’s the rundown on the committee assignments for the new Pensacola City Council:
Enterprise Operations
* Chair: P. C. Wu
* Vice-Chair: Larry B. Johnson
* Other members: Sam Hall, Diane Mack, Ronald Townsend
Finance Committee
* Chair: Deputy Mayor Jewel Cannada-Wynn
* Vice-Chair: Mayor Mike Wiggins
* Other members: Sam Hall, John Jerralds, Ronald Townsend, P. C. Wu…
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As of noon the new Pensacola City Council has taken office. Jack Nobles, Mike DeSorbo, John Fogg, and Marty Donovan are dethroned! Glory!
This is like having another Christmas. Heck, this is better than Christmas.
While I’m sure some of these individuals, particularly Mr. Nobles, will still exert some influence, the mere fact that I won’t have to see or hear them at Council meetings is glory glory glorious!
Deputy mayor and committee assignments will be reported forthwith…
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Here’s the cliffnotes from yesterday’s City Council committee meetings. Remember that items approved by committees then proceed to the regular Thursday night Council meeting to be approved or disapproved by the full Council.
Committee of the Whole
*Dr. Coy Irvin appeared to thank the City for its help with the Celebrate Pensacola 450th anniversary festivities. Everyone patted one another on the back.
*Staff provided to Council the “initial evaluation” of the CMPA development agreement by Abramson and Associates.
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On the agenda for Monday’s meetings of the various committees of the Pensacola City Council (the last committee meetings of the current Council!):
Committee of the Whole
Dr. Coy Irvin will give a presentation on the Celebrate Pensacola 450th anniversary festivities.
Staff will provide to Council the “initial evaluation” of the CMPA development agreement by Abramson and Associates.
Community [...]
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What a year.
Politically, I’ve never had so much fun. Although my candidate didn’t win every race, I think more of them went my way than didn’t. We have four new faces on the Pensacola City Council. Three women. Younger faces. Councilmen with 15 and 20 year tenures were toppled. A corrupt, disgraceful, bigot of a [...]
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The PNJ ran a nice feel-good piece today about how the two mothers of young children elected to the Pensacola City Council (those two being Maren DeWeese and Megan Benson Pratt) bright “new insight” to the Council. I hope they’re right. I hope that being the mother of young children would spur one to think [...]
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Mark O’Brien has two noteworthy pieces in today’s PNJ. The first is a puff piece about all the good things that outgoing Citu Council members have done; in the second, he offers his thoughts on a variety of local government issues in his traditional “O’pinions” style.
He makes a comment in the second piece that I [...]
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The Independent News ran a viewpoint of mine about City staff and agenda-setting and whatnot in today’s issue.
Links
IN: “City Staff Steers Council”
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Here’s an initiative from City staff we can all applaud. Each member of the Pensacola City Council will soon get a personal laptop, complete with computer training from the city’s MIS department. This will both improve processes and save the City some money.
In particular, the City will make sure each Council member knows how to [...]
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Sean Boone of the Independent News has an interview with lame duck Councilman Jack Nobles up on Rick’s Blog.
Councilman Nobles has tempered his rhetoric. After the meeting last Thursday, I overheard Nobles describing Councilman Hall’s early exit as “just about the lowest thing” he’d seen in his political career.
Now he’s calling it “unfortunate,” although he [...]
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A few area posts I want to highlight today:
Troy Moon: “Thou shalt sin no more, say Holy 3″
The PNJ’s Troy Moon offers up some cute news commentary on the recent decision by the Escambia County Commission to not allow poker at the greyhound track:
A Moral Majority of elders from The First Church of the Hardened [...]
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Update: O’Brien has rewritten his piece with Councilman Hall’s side of the story; he’s now calling it “Tale of two smells.”
PNJ columnist Mark O’Brien roasted Pensacola City Councilman Sam Hall in a piece today in response to Hall’s early exit from last Thursday night’s Council meeting. The story is peppered with quality quotes from Mike Pate [...]
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Pensacola City Councilmembers-elect will take place in an all day “orientation session” tomorrow for 8:00 AM-5:00 PM, in the second floor conference room at Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport.
As Councilmembers-elect are subject to Florida Sunshine laws, their collected presence requires the session to be open to the public. They’ll even stamp your parking.
Attachments
121308OrientationSession.pdf
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Tonight’s City Council was not the marathon of excitement the last one was, but it had its moments.
Absent were Mayor John Fogg, Councilman Mike DeSorbo, and for most of the meeting, Councilman Sam Hall. Mayor Fogg had a death in the family, and Councilman DeSorbo is recovering from surgery. Councilman Hall was present at the [...]
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The City’s Charter Review Commission will meet today at 4:00 PM, in the Hagler/Mason Room on the second floor of Pensacola City Hall.
They will discuss some really, really important things, like the authority, terms of office, and compensation of the mayor and members of Council.
Yours truly will speak about Council compensation, which I have written [...]
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On the agenda for today’s meeting of the Pensacola City Council’s Enterprise Operations Committee:
9th Avenue sidewalk project
The City will be installing sidewalks on 9th Avenue from Fairfield Drive north to Berkley Drive. Anyone that spends any time in that area knows how overdue this is, and City staff is to be commended for getting this [...]
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The new City Council will have a “goal-setting workshop” in February.
Why is Council going to churn out a new list of goals when the old list of goals remains uncompleted?
Take a look at Council’s “2007 Goals and Priority Ideas”, adopted by the current Council in March 2007.
How many of those are completed?
Here’s my favourite “goal”:
Develop [...]
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On the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Pensacola City Council’s Enterprise Operations Committee:
The Pate Cold Storage lease amendment
It’s here. Rick Outzen’s done a good job of laying out the downsides for the City of the proposed lease amendment. As he says, the proposed amendment if passed would “extend the lease through 2022 and take [...]
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On November 5, the day after the general election, Richard A. Chism, the Director of Development for Julian MacQueen’s Innisfree Hotels, wrote an “political appraisal” in order to help determine the timing of bringing the Airport project before Council.
Mr. MacQueen then forwarded this email to Airport director Frank Miller, at which point it became a [...]
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If you’ve been too busy eating turkey, listening to that annoying relative babble on, or stampeding Wal-Mart workers on Black Friday, you may have missed this week’s Independent News, in which Rick Outzen comes down hard on City staff, recounting the recent airport land lease ordeal:
The leaders, City Manager Al Coby and Airport Director Frank [...]
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Today’s PNJ editorial page features a weird piece which recaps City voters’ desire for change, as evidenced in recent elections, and then abruptly ends on the open-ended question, “Now what?”, without offering any kind of advice or metric.
What does the PNJ want? As the new Council doesn’t take office until January 12, how does the PNJ question of [...]
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Larry B. Johnson has handily defeated 7-year Councilman Marty Donovan to take the District 4 seat on the Pensacola City Council.
With all precincts reporting, Johnson holds 61% of the vote to Donovan’s 39%, a margin of more than 450 votes.
In the other race of the evening, three-term councilman Ronald Townsend prevailed over challenger Jacci Shumaker, [...]
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To those of you in City districts four and seven, go the polls today and choose who gets to represent you on the Pensacola City Council.
We recommend Larry B. Johnson in District 4 and Jacci Shumaker in District 7 — most of all because they’re not on Council right now, although they both have solid [...]
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Jim Cronley spoke against the MacQueen airport deal at Council last Thursday, and threw in a little showmanship:
A transcript:
I’ve got a short statement about the lease, but before that I’ve got a confession to make. Last Tuesday, I got a phone call from somebody that I knew, that said there is more than one lease [...]
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Frank Miller’s prepared statement to the City Council, apologising for the airport appraisal mishap:
A transcript:
Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council,
The airport undertakes appraisals for the leasing, purchase, or disposal of property with a varying range of guidelines. For airside appraisals, we commission one appraiser with the expertise in airside regulations and restrictions; for [...]
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Following up on the previous post, here’s the video of Pensacola City Councilman Sam Hall questioning Frank Miller about the misplaced appraisals at last Thursday’s Council meeting:
Transcript of the good part (starts around 1:10 into the video):
Hall: Regardless of what staff thought they understood about rental car agreements, hotel agreements, if an appraisal comes in, [...]
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Update: I want to clarify that while the below post offers my thoughts on Frank Miller and the comments Councilman Hall has made, it should be noted that Councilman Hall did not single out Miller, and indeed advocates the dismissal of any member of City staff, whether Miller, his subordinates, or superiors, whom was grossly [...]
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Business writer Carlton Proctor has a worthwhile column in this morning’s Pensacola News Journal in which he encourages the City Council to seriously look at annexation. While admitting that it’s a “tough sell”, he recognises that it has been done before, citing the 1988 referendum which brought Cordova Mall and surrounding areas into the City.
Progressive [...]
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Mark O’Brien has a post up lambasting Pensacola City Councilman Sam Hall, both for his call for resignations or firings Wednesday of those responsible for the Airport appraisal error and for Hall’s rebuke of Airport Director Miller last night at Council.
The appraisal error, according to Mr. Miller, was due to the fact that the latter [...]
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As we said in our last post, the airport hotel deal was the biggest issue of the meeting, but the meeting was pretty busy even without it. Here’s a rundown of some of the other business conducted:
Council amends Old East Hill LDC
Council approved veterinarian Dr. Laura Hill’s request to amend the Land Development Code to [...]
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Late in a four-hour marathon meeting of the Pensacola City Council, the proposed lease of airport land to with Julian MacQueen’s Sandspur, LLC was approved by a vote of 7-3, with Councilmen Hall, Wiggins, and Townsend dissenting.
The proposed lease agreement, under which Mr. MacQueen intends to develop a hotel and other retail opportunities, was by [...]
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The City has published the revised version of the proposed lease agreement for the contentious airport hotel project.
View the lease (pdf)
Preceding the lease is a five-page memo from Staff detailing the changes, including the rent changes, and added architectural and landscaping guidelines.
They’ve also posted an artist’s rendering of the hotel, courtesy architect Spencer Maxwell Bullock.
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Update: Looks like Rick Outzen is also wondering how this “oversight” occured. See his post, “Staff has not come clean on airport appraisals”.
In today’s Pensacola News Journal, Airport Director Frank Miller says that he “overlooked the fact that there was a second appraisal and review”.
Overlooked?
According to the PNJ, Miller “discovered” the two new appraisals on [...]
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As it was revealed today, developer Jim Cronley and cohorts were right about the airport property being under-appraised. I’m not sure how or why this was kept under wraps, but City staff had two other appraisals valuing the airport property at $7 million and $7.1 million, substantially higher than the $6.4 million appraisal discussed at committee [...]
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We have spoken about this deal several times over the past few days. Today, Mark O’Brien has his thoughts up over at the PNJ. After digesting the issue — particularly the comments at the City Council’s Enterprise Operations Committee on Monday — Progressive Pensacola supports this deal and urges the full Council to support it on [...]
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Jamie Page has a decent article over at the PNJ regarding the City plan to lease airport property to hotelier Julian MacQueen. While the City Council’s Enterprise Operations Committee did vote 4-0 Monday in favour of leasing the property to MacQueen, there were some who raised concerns — most notably, developer prince Jim Cronley of Cronley [...]
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City Council’s Enterprise Operations Committee voted Monday 3-1 to extend the Halcorp lease at the Port of Pensacola. Full Council vote is Thursday.
The City’s Charter Review Commission will meet today at 4:00 PM in the Hagler/Mason Room, second floor, Pensacola City Hall.
Today is Escambia Superintendent of Schools Jim Paul’s final day on the job. Recently [...]
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On the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Pensacola City Council’s Neighbourhood Services Committee:
Spending some taxpayer cash
Council will be making some purchases, including some new vehicles, a new street sweeper, new playground equipment for Bayview and Baycliff parks, and a precast concrete bathroom building for the City-owned Osceola Golf Course.
Renovating PPD Headquarters
Council will also spend [...]
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On the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Pensacola City Council’s Enterprise Operations Committee:
More on that Airport hotel
We mentioned in the last post that Julian MacQueen wants to build a hotel on airport property. Well, as Economic and Community Development votes to allow hotels and other development in the airport restricted zone, Enterprise Operations will [...]
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On the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Pensacola City Council’s Economic and Community Development Committee:
Hotel on Airport property?
According to City staff’s memo, the financial strategy of the City-owned Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport is “to identify ways to diversify the airport’s non-airline revenue. In addition to awarding contracts for massage chairs in the airport, [...]
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As of now, the only thing on the agenda for Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting is a presentation by the pro-unified government group Escambia All for One. They plan to ask the City Council to pass a resolution endorsing their plan for unified government.
Progressive Pensacola opposes such a resolution. We feel that the City should [...]
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Councilwoman-elect Maren DeWeese apparently feels strongly that the lease at the Port of Pensacola of Halcorp, a liquid asphalt distributor, should not be renewed.
I tend to agree, although I don’t take the hard line that she does. I am certainly critical of the Port of Pensacola, foremost for the fact that it is an unprofitable [...]
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As the City’s Charter Review Commission revamps the structure of City government, it will soon be considering whether or not to adjust the size of the Pensacola City Council. There are those that have suggested that ten Council members is simply too many for a city of Pensacola’s size.
Progressive Pensacola opposes reducing the number of [...]
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District 2 City Councilman Sam Hall has an interesting post on the over-reliance of Council on City staff, and the power which that gives to said staff.
Currently, we have ten part-time Council members who often show up to meetings with minimal or no familiarity with issues. They rely on City staff to vet and analyse [...]
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Today’s Pensacola News Journal asks, “Do voters want change? City races offer plenty.” Then, the PNJ proceeds to endorse a slate of incumbents.
The Pensacola News Journal is afraid to buck the establishment and support progressive voices for change in our City. Luckily, I don’t think the voters will have as hard a time doing so.
PNJ [...]
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I wrote last week about a lucrative sidewalks contract that City Council was awarding to the firm Starfish, Inc. out of Brewton, Alabama. Well, as it turns out (and Progressive Pensacola thanks Pensacola City Councilman Sam Hall for raising the issue), Starfish’s bid was just $999 less than the second-place, Pensacola-based bidder, Pensacola Concrete.
So, [...]
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I wrote last week about local plumbers and their plight to get City of Pensacola-owned ESP to stop competing with them for gas and plumbing installations. ESP started the practice after Hurricane Ivan, when they claimed private plumbers couldn’t meet the demand. As a government-owned utility, ESP would often offer their installations at subsidised prices, [...]
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The Zoo Northwest Florida is hitting City Council up for money. I don’t blame them; they’re broke.
That said, the City of Pensacola is broke too. In fact, we’re not only broke, we have a giant unfunded pension liability to worry about.
So, please, Council members, don’t give the Zoo any City money. It’s nice to have [...]
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Anyone who hasn’t should read Pensacola City Councilman Sam Hall’s latest blog post:
During my campaign interview with the Pensacola News Journal, my opponent for re-election said he had been told by some City Council members that they voted against my measures because they don’t like me.
What? ????
If true, and I believe it is, how [...]
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I’m on a bit of a roll here. I just so happen to be in a bad mood.
More and more City contracts, principally for road and construction projects, is being awarded to firms from elsewhere in Florida or from Alabama. In addition to the example I cited in an earlier post, there is an agenda [...]
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City staff is recommending that Council approve the conversion of the remaining one-way portions of South Palafox and South Baylen Streets to two-way traffic. This item is on the CRA agenda for Monday’s committee meetings.
FDOT has approved the concept. Northbound traffic on Palafox will be limited to right-hand turns at Garden Street.
Staff also thinks [...]
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For those of you who may not know, the City of Pensacola owns an operates a natural gas utility, Energy Services of Pensacola (ESP). In 2006, ESP began offering gas and plumbing installations “because demand after Hurricane Ivan became more than private plumbers could handle”. Well, not only is that no longer the case, [...]
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District 2 Councilman Sam Hall posted today on the proposed Automatic Aid Response Agreement which I railed against last week. It’s worthwhile reading.
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This year, more City candidates than ever have embraced the digital age and developed campaign websites. Here’s a listing of all the current candidate websites:
District 2
Sam Hall
Peter Saccomanno
District 4
Larry B. Johnson
District 8 (At-Large)
Diane Mack
Joe Buehler
District 9 (At-Large)
Megan Benson Pratt
Wendell Rich
Mayor of Pensacola
Mike Wiggins
C. J. Lewis
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Currently, the City of Pensacola and Escambia County have a mutual agreement to provide police and fire services to each other when requested. For example, if there was a fire in the County, but there was a Pensacola Fire Department station closer to the fire, Escambia County could request that PFD respond, and we typically [...]
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The Fraternal Order of Police Local 71 and the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 707, the respective unions for City police officers and firefighters, announced last week their joint endorsements for Pensacola City Council:
PCC-1: P. C. Wu (i)
PCC-2: Sam Hall (i)
PCC-3: Mike DeSorbo (i)
PCC-4: Larry B. Johnson
PCC-6: Jewel Cannada-Wynn
PCC-7: Robbie Andrews
PCC-8 (At-Large): Jack Nobles [...]
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While I’m talking about last week’s City Council meeting, I thought I’d share attorney Sharon Barnett’s comments regarding the CMPA Sunshine violations issue:
My favourite part:
Mr. Mayor, this is a clear violation of the Sunshine law. This is a not-for-profit private entity that is acting for a public agency … It is covered by the [...]
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It’s gotten better over the last year or two but citizens who speak before the Pensacola City Council are still occasionally spoken down to, belittled, or berated, and that needs to stop.
Regardless of my respect for him otherwise, the chief (but not only) culprit is Mayor John Fogg. I’ve lost count of how many [...]
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I’ll preface this by stating that while I was for and remain for the Community Maritime Park project, I have significant issues with a number of processes and decisions of the Community Maritime Park Associates (CMPA) Board.
One of those issues came to a head at last night’s meeting of the Pensacola City Council. For [...]
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This evening’s Pensacola City Council meeting was pretty uneventful. Four of our ten Council members — Nobles, DeSorbo, Wu, and Wiggins — didn’t even bother to show up.
However, a citizen did speak in open forum and raised an interesting issue. Last year, on September 21, 2007, Escambia County Sheriff (and candidate for reelection to that [...]
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The Pensacola City Council has a bad case of over-reliance on City staff. They constantly rubber-stamp the things that staff comes up with no input from Council, and when Council doesn’t know what to do with something, they just push it into staff’s lap and say “take some of that taxpayer money and pay [...]
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A roundup of events for this week:
Monday, July 21
Pensacola City Council Committee Meetings
3:15 PM, Hagler/Mason Room, 2nd Floor, Pensacola City Hall
Tuesday, July 22
Pensacola City Council Budget Workshop
3:30 PM, Hagler/Mason Room, 2nd Floor, Pensacola City Hall
Obama “Unite for Change” Organizing Meeting
6:00 PM, Escambia County Democratic Party Headquarters
2415 North Pace Boulevard
Gulf Breeze Area Chamber of Commerce Candidates [...]
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The Pensacola City Council Players, a troupe of comedians and jesters, will put on a special performance tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM at Pensacola City Hall. The troupe is well-known for its regular biweekly spectacles, which are rousing, fun-filled, and full of knee-slapping routines.
On a more serious note, they’ll be naming an interim City [...]
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It’s nice to see so many City Council races contested this year. I guess things have just gotten bad enough to motivate people. In a normal cycle, though, maybe half the Council seats are contested. I want to point out a fundamental flaw in our Council system that, in my opinion, discourages [...]
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Ever since Tom Bonfield’s decision to jump ship and head to Durham, North Carolina, I’ve been reading a number of Durham blogs, and I the thing that strikes me most is the apparent activism of their City Council. Despite the fact that they have the same council-city manager-weak mayor system that Pensacola does, their Council [...]
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In an article about current Pensacola city manager Tom Bonfield taking over at neighbouring Durham:
“We are the poorest urban area in the state and are falling even further behind,” [Pensacola Councilman Sam] Hall said Monday. “Economic development is almost nonexistent.”
But Hall said that’s not for lack of effort on Bonfield’s part. He said council members [...]
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