We work closely with the city on several issues, and three of my counterparts have large swaths of their districts that are also within the city limits. So, there will always be some synergies and some crossover that requires city/county cooperation. The homelessness issue and the related problems are a big topic that will require us working together. In addition to this, my employer ESA South is very interested in the happenings in the city so they asked if I would attend this event. So, I made it a point to attend last evening's "State of the City" Civicon event at the Sanders Beach Community Center.
Here are some highlights of his hour and ten-minute
presentation.
First, the mayor focused on describing his progress in
addressing his initial promised improvements in safety, housing, and jobs. To illustrate his progress, he utilized data
from a UWF Haas study the city commissioned of only city residents, and he also
utilized data from the recently completed PYP Quality of Life Survey of area
residents (including Escambia County Residents).
Highlights:
--94% of residents rated Pensacola Fire Department Excellent
or Very Good
--87% of residents rated Pensacola Police Department
Excellent or Very Good
--89% believe the city is heading in the “right direction.”
--new North City Police Substation will be opened at the PSC
campus within the next 60 days
--City Fire Service enjoys the Highest ISO Rating, a 1
--$840,000 grant received for the installation of high tech
“Shot Spotter” technology that will enable law enforcement to react to gunfire
in real time and at the precise location where the gunfire occurred
--He discussed the ongoing efforts and legislative requests
this upcoming session for $18 Million for demolition and re-purposing of the
50-acre legacy campus of Baptist Hospital for housing and other city needs.
--He discussed the current effort and #1 legislative ask
from the state legislative delegation for a 5-gate expansion at the Pensacola
International Airport-from 12 to 17 gates and additional concession
options. The funding necessary for
completing this project will be split between the city, the state, and the
federal government, according to Reeves.
Initial design is underway.
--Pensacola’s Airport throughput is at a record high already
this year, and the projection is that by year’s end we will have had more than
2.65 million enplanements, which represents an 89% increase over enplanements
in 2013
He next described what the survey data revealed to be the most desirable features of the city. Access to
the waterfront was the number 1 response, and walkablility was also a highly rated attribute. He described the city’s work on the soon to be completed Sander’s Beach Park and the Sun Trail along Scenic Highway. He also explained his rationale for closing the Bluffs Park due to safety issues and his plan to work with a statewide nonprofit to repair and reopen that facility and to ensure it is kept in a conservation state going forward so that it will never be commercially developed. He also described the city’s pursuit of a $2 Million dollar grant to create a walkable path from the foot of the Three Mile Bridge over to the Bayou Texar Bridge—and he feels confident in his ability to win this statewide, competitive grant, to build this trail.He dedicated the last part of his talk to his upcoming goals
for the next year and the ways he is addressing the most vexing challenges in
the city (Parking downtown, Crime, Recycling, and homelessness reduction.)
He went into detail in describing all the troubles with the
downtown area’s hodgepodge of paid parking.
He differentiated between the City’s “Green” parking spaces and the
private “red” vendor operated parking spaces.
He indicated most of the issues and complaints he fields must deal with
the “red” premium parking areas and the various fees, fines and costs that
those private companies charge—not from the city’s $.50 per half hour
spaces. “If someone gets home from Texas
and had a bad parking experience in Pensacola—it will be a reflection on
Pensacola and the story will be told to others---so we have to fix it” Reeves
stated. The city has spent $300,000 in
upgrades to their downtown parking structure and the city will be phasing out
the “kiosks” in favor of an industry-leading parking app which is currently in
use throughout the country and the state of Florida. This will begin next year.
On recycling, he surveyed residents and asked their opinion
on paying an extra $10 monthly to support “Opt-In” recycling and the response
indicated 50% of the residents would support this. He acknowledged that recycling is challenging
and that it might be something that winds up requiring subsidies to
maintain. In the meantime, he described
the facility the City runs on North Palafox that currently accepts recycling
from city residents Monday through Friday as an alternative until curbside,
opt-in service can be established in the city limits.
Going forward, his next priorities include completing the
renovations of Roger Scott tennis center, demolition of the Malcolm Younge
Gymnasium, and “taking care of what we have already [facilities and
infrastructure] being prioritized above opening new facilities.” In addition,
he is excited to be completing a job and salary study for all the city’s 800
employees which will be costly but necessary, an effort he will begin in early
2024. “We are talking about using taxpayer
dollars for this, and I treat these funds with the utmost respect, but if we
are treating our employees respectfully, we have to pay them fairly” he
quipped.
He gave updates on the economic development projects with
the American Magic sailing facility and said the funding is in place and the
design is underway, indicating the American Magic team will be back from
Barcelona in late fall of 2024 in Pensacola.
He also discussed work with ST Engineering at the Pensacola
Airport and the work in conjunction with PSC to ensure a pipeline of qualified
citizens to fill the jobs ST needs to fill.
As he wrapped up his comments, Reeves recognized all his
department heads, to include his newly created position of grant writer. This newly created grant writer position,
according to the mayor, was responsible for finding, writing, winning, and
being funded more than $72 Million, start to finish, in the last 8 months since
the position was established!
The evening ended
with a brief question and answer session with the editor of the PNJ asking a
series of questions of the mayor.
4 comments:
Who leads the county? When is the state of the county speech?
John, the five board members, the individual commissioners, make up and comprise the Board of County Commissioners, who together lead the county via an administrator and his staff that carry out the direction of the board. It's a different system than the city, but you already knew that, though. :)
Anon 9:42 has a valid question. Where is a State of the County address? Each commissioner has their own district they represent but each one is 1/5th the vote needed for my district. Fire, EMS, the Sheriff's Dept., infrastructure, jobs, crime, etc don't know district lines. So while you're not my commissioner and you may not care about my opinion what each commissioner brings to the table and how they vote affects Escambia County as a whole and that's who all five represent.
So no State of the County?
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