Jeff Bergosh Blog: Coffee with the Commissioner 9-26-2017

Guidelines

I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Coffee with the Commissioner 9-26-2017

This morning we hosted September's coffee with the commissioner event at the Denny's on Mobile Highway.

We had several citizens attend, and each had something they wanted to discuss with me and the county staff that was present.

Tori was a young man that lives in District 2. His issue was code enforcement. "How is it right that county code enforcement can enter my property, through a closed gate, even though I have a 'no trespassing' sign installed?" He was upset-understanding he probably warranted a citation, he just did not like the personnel coming on his property. Deputy Administrator Matt Coughlin took this gentleman's information for staff follow up.

Dawn, a resident of District 5, was concerned about the final path of the north-bound Beulah Beltway route. In addition to this, she was concerned that code enforcement has not done enough to bring a nuisance property into compliance near where she owns property. "I have tried for a year and a half to sell this property--but because this neighbor and the condition of his property--I have suffered a loss in property value-even after lowering the asking price, I can't sell my property." she continued "I'm here to see if more can be done to have code enforcement cite this property owner to force compliance." We told Dawn we would have Commissioner Barry's office notified of this issue.

Daryl, who lives in the eastern part of District 1, said he was upset about the clean sweeps being curtailed by the ECSO. I explained that this is out of the BCC's control.

Another attendee quipped "The Sheriff used to run the jail and patrol the neighborhoods. Now, he doesn't run the jail and says he is stopping the neighborhood patrols--so why are we paying him? was the rhetorical question.

Mike, a resident of District 4, wanted my take on the Bill in Congress to allow private ownership of beach properties at Pensacola Beach--so we discussed this in-depth with the participants.

Kevin Robinson from the PNJ came this morning to cover the coffee event and to speak with several of the attendees.

Overall, it was another great opportunity to connect with the citizens, hear their issues, and hopefully provide some potential solutions.

I look forward to next month's event.