NFCU's Check Was "In the Mail" After All!

At our last Board of County Commissioners meeting, the Committee of the Whole, I once again asked about the status of our payment(s) to DPZ for their design services for OLF-8.  Specifically, I asked where we were at with obtaining reimbursement from Navy Federal Credit Union for these services.  As of the 11th of March-- the date of this meeting last week--we hadn't received any additional reimbursement (s) from NFCU for the planning efforts at OLF-8 beyond their first payment several months back.  Meanwhile, the county was up to nearly $700K in direct payments to DPZ....despite some significant ethical questions raised about DPZ's conduct. (This relates to DPZ not notifying it's client (Escambia County) of plans DPZ was notified of to "embarrass" commissioners and undermine Escambia County's economic development initiatives at OLF-8)

So at this committee of the whole last week, In jest (because we had yet to receive a second check from NFCU), a brief discussion ensued culminating in the trope "Is NFCU's payment on the way, Is the Check in the Mail?"

Well, lo and behold it was.  Apparently it was cut on March 9, 2021--two days before our meeting on the 11th.  The check WAS in the mail.

In all seriousness though, this is important on a couple of levels.

1.  This latest reimbursement has occurred after/since the "summit" where top leaders from Florida West, PEDC, Escambia County, and Keith Hoskins (representing NFCU) hammered out the current "Hybrid Plan" compromise for OLF-8.  It is my understanding NFCU was asked, in that "summit," meeting if they had any problems/issues with the hybrid plan---and no issues were given/identified by Hoskins on behalf of NFCU.

2.  Because no issues were mentioned/given by NFCU when they weighed-in on the latest compromise, and because they have subsequently now sent another payment of $275K for the planning effort--the logical assumption can be made that if the final plan moves forward based upon this hybrid compromise, NFCU will follow-through with their previous pledge to fund reimbursement of the total costs of the planning effort for OLF-8 per the terms of their MOU with the Escambia Board of County Commissioners.

So this is all good news, so far as I can tell.  I certainly hope NFCU makes the final payment once this plan is approved.  Meanwhile, here is staff's narrative that accompanied the notification about NFCU's payment:

"A check from Navy Federal has been received for $275,714.38 (copy attached). Check will be delivered to the Clerk’s office.  Here are the project funding details to date:

 Contract Amount            $1,263,507.00

Paid to DPZ                       $699,943.77

Balance on contract        $563,863.23

 Paid by Navy Federal      $631,753.50

 As discussed last week, any future invoices will be the responsibility of Escambia County. Phase 3 (Phase 4 on the reimbursement schedule in the MOU) outlines that we can invoice NFCU once final OLF8 Master Plan and Development Report is officially adopted by BOCC up to 100% of the Master Plan Expenses invoiced." 

 

Inside the DPZ Text Messages and Emails: Part VI "Navy Fed Got Burnt"

 

Why does DPZ feel "Navy Fed got 'burnt' on this deal?"

As I wake up today coming off of what I felt was a good meeting yesterday (beginning at 20:08 of this video), where the commissioners were working together and arrived at a compromise for the development of OLF-8--I can't help but wonder about the text message, above, from Mike Weich of DPZ Co Design to Marina Khoury, also of DPZ Co Design.  In it, Weich states that  he "Just feel(s) bad for Navy Fed...they were 'burnt' on this deal."

This text message comes as a result of a public records request that DPZ fulfilled late last week.  The context of the above quote is:   this was a commentary between these two on a series of unflattering articles, blog posts, news pieces and television stories that came out last month illustrating the fact that there were several "behind the scenes" meetings between Navy Federal Credit Union, a coalition of NFCU employees and some residents, and the county's consultant, DPZ.  In these meetings, county staffers were specifically excluded and the goal of "embarrassing" and undermining the BCC's goals were discussed and DPZ staff was copied on these plans.

Then it was also revealed in these articles that the chief media spokesman for NFCU, Bill Pearson, was simultaneously working with the "NO Commerce Park on OLF 8" campaign against the BCC.  He (Pearson) even helped edit their talking points.  And Marina Khoury was aware of this, as members of the DPZ team were copied on these conversations.  Sadly, at the time these machinations were occurring, nobody at the BCC (DPZ's Client) was notified in real time.  Many believe this was a breach of DPZ's ethical obligation to the BCC, DPZ's sole client here on this OLF-8 project.  This all was discovered after the fact--- which was embarrassing for both NFCU and DPZ.

So perhaps Weich feels NFCU got "burnt" because of the poor way in which DPZ handled these actions--leading to the conduct at issue being discovered through a local journalist's public records request?  If that's why he feels they got "burnt"- he should look in the mirror for the culprit.

But maybe Weich feels NFCU got "burnt" because they didn't successfully kill all the jobs and commerce to be developed on OLF-8?  (This could be valid--as prior to the embarrassing public records emails detailing the NFCU behind the scenes involvement with DPZ in this---what was

Inside DPZ Co-Design's Emails and Text Messages: Part V--Does DPZ STILL Think "Everyone" is Their Client?!?

DPZ Co Design team members apparently still believe "everyone" is their client, and not the BCC.  Hopefully their lawyer can explain to them that this is a flawed, inaccurate assessment.

How can a firm working for the county to implement county goals and objectives feel that "everyone" is their client?  If everyone is someone's client--why do we have a contract with DPZ?  Why does DPZ send invoices to the county? It's ridiculous, preposterous, and inaccurate for them to say this.

It's because "everyone" is NOT DPZ's Client, the County, the Board of County Commissioners is DPZ's sole client on the OLF-8 Master Planning project.  And one would assume these folks would know this, but apparently DPZ team members Mike Weich and Marina Khoury continue to cling to the flawed notion that everyone is their client--based upon new text messages provided late last week.  It really is astonishing.

Late last month, I asked our attorney for her opinion--- which she quickly provided.  

“Pursuant to your ask, it is my opinion that privity of contract exists solely between the BCC and DPZ.  The BCC is a legal entity and even though the BCC is a board elected by the public, the BCC is the actual client and not the public.  I certainly understand that sounds counterintuitive, but hopefully the board is supporting the wants of its constituency.”

It is odd that this even has to be discussed and defined for Khoury and Weich, but nevertheless it apparently must be reinforced again.  Over and over.

I can only assume this notion of "everyone" is the client is a defense mechanism they are utilizing to rationalize their actions when they were notified of movements to undermine and embarrass their sole client here, the BCC--and DPZ did NOT notify their client in real time as .  I mean, if everyone and every citizen is your "client" yeah, you don't need to notify anyone of anything I guess.

Real life doesn't work this way though, and that argument is feckless and ridiculous....

Inside the DPZ Co-Design Emails and Text Messages: Part IV --What was Inflammatory?

 

DPZ-Co Design "team" members doing damage assessment via text messages following the release of their public record emails which were less than flattering....

As I go through pages and pages of text messages and emails from DPZ Co-Design, the text messages are very interesting and revealing.  This one, above, is from a string between Travis Peterson, Peter Bazeli, and Marina Khoury.  They were talking about the first dump of emails that had been leaked into the press after a records request by a local journalist.  And in this exchange, Travis apparently feels he has "let the team down" by some of what was revealed being less than flattering.  Which it was, by the way.

Interesting that Peter Bazeli comes in to comfort Travis, along with Marina, by saying "the most inflammatory thing in there was when Lissa [sic] told you (a) Quint called her to remind her- which is a non-event but feeds into the notion that Quint is a hub of influence, and (b) when Lissa [sic] said you'd have to bring her reporter up to speed"

And yes, those were inflammatory examples from the first batch of emails-- not the most inflammatory in my opinion, but yes, not flattering.  

But there are some more that are even more inflammatory from this latest batch of text messages and emails I received late last week--which I'm still going through and which I will share here.  More to come, stay tuned....

Inside the DPZ Co-Design Emails and Text Messages, Part III: Secret Weapon?

Yet another recent, disappointing example of the BCC's consultant, DPZ Co-Design, working behind the scenes against their client the County....

Late last year and early this year, my neighborhood HOA president began, through our HOA, emailing residents in my subdivision "information" about OLF-8.  And a lot of it was misinformation/disinformation from some small groups (Not DPZ) that don't want commerce on OLF-8.  I didn't think much of it at the time, but I did respond to it.  I even did a series of posts about it--because I felt it was really outlandish and the information was propaganda! (plus, this was before the embarrassing DPZ email issues were made public by Rick Outzen and the other media outlets, illustrating NFCU's involvement-so I still thought, naively, that DPZ was working with us, not against us.)

Fast forward a few months and now the pieces are coming together.

Now that I am receiving DPZ Co-Design's recent batch of emails-- I realize why me and my neighborhood  were being targeted.  According to the emails in the latest batch, an employee of DPZ's subcontractor Impact Campaigns indicated she had an "uncle" that lives in my neighborhood.  In emails only circulated within the DPZ team (County project managers excluded), this was described as Brooke's "secret weapon."  In August the DPZ team was conducting extensive outreach to many of the neighborhoods.  No harm in that, right?  

But in the winter, some groups with which DPZ had been communicating (NFCU/Beulah Coalition, No Commerce Park on OLF-8) began openly advocating, via email, against any commerce at all on the field--in direct contravention to what their client, the BCC, had identified as one of the client's top goals with this property.  Not only that, these emails were full of inaccuracies and outright lies!

My response to my neighbors, via email, apparently made its way back to DPZ through one of these "other" entities, at which point the DPZ team apparently relished, and shared, the strife they felt they had created between my neighbors and myself, as the sitting county commissioner that represents that neighborhood. (Again, county staffers apparently were left out of this operation and not copied on this string). But boy oh boy--Travis Peterson of Impact Campaigns sure seemed pleased to create and stir up this discontent, stating: 

"From Belle [sic] Ridge Forest neighborhood association.  Brooke's uncle lives there.  Bergosh is feeling the heat, and I think this is exactly how we want to be positioned right now-- as the honest

Inside the DPZ Co-Design Emails and Text Messages, Part I: Colorful Text Message Commentary...

Text Messages like this one, above, have been turned over to commissioners late last week from our consultant DPZ CoDesign.  They are not flattering....

Late Friday afternoon DPZ Co-Design Team leader Marina Khoury sent two drop box hyperlinks to the county.  The links contain the emails and text messages I requested pertaining to the OLF-8 master planning project DPZ is working on for the county.  I requested them after a contentious meeting and after learning about some other concerning issues as a result of some blogs and articles in Rick Outzen's InWeekly.

(DPZ is requesting the county, their client, pay them a large sum of money for providing this information requested public record information. from Khoury's email  "The fee for this work is $5433.75 (28.75 hours x $189" . This seems to be very excessive, exorbitant --so this will be discussed Thursday at our Committee of the Whole Workshop.)

Last month the whole process was upended when emails were disclosed that showed our consultant, DPZ, was copied on emails where some vocal minority-opinion groups were setting out to undermine our economic development goals and objectives and publicly embarrass the commissioners.  The county was never notified of this in real time, which to many observers constituted a serious breach of professional ethics on the part of DPZ.  We are DPZ's sole client, and intentions potentially harmful to the client and the client's project related to DPZ via email copy should have been immediately reported back to the county. But they were not.

This was the genesis of some very negative press for DPZ and Navy Federal Credit Union.

So later this morning my aide will begin making copies of these latest emails and text messages so that I can more easily go through every one of them, page by page, centimeter by centimeter.  Which I will do.

Meanwhile, a quick look at some of the text messages over the weekend is enough to get me started.

The recurring theme seems to be simple:  DPZ have their ideas and plans, massive residential, minimal commerce, and anyone who disagrees with them is the enemy.  Rick Outzen is the enemy for his blog posts and stories--simply for covering the machinations discovered in his publicly requested emails--and for telling the truth.  Scott Luth apparently is not respected and not liked---in one text released DPZ team member Mike Weich says of Scott Luth "He really doesn't get it--I'm embarrassed for him."  Why?  Scott is sharp and works hard to bring jobs to our county.  Why disparage him?? And of course--- I am the most hated of all.  Referred to as an "Ass" by team leader Khoury in one text--run down and disparaged in several others.  It's okay--doesn't hurt my feelings.  At least I wasn't called an "ASSHOLE"-like  Rick Outzen was.  Rick is referred to as an "Asshole" twice in just the few texts I've managed to wade through thus far.  (SEE TEXTS MESSAGE SCREEN SHOTS BELOW THIS POST)

The thing that is most disappointing---why the scheming and conniving, the backbiting and the bitterness from our supposed consultant?  We are all supposed to be working collaboratively on this project to do something good for the community-not work against each others' interests.  Disappointed in what I am reading is an understatement.  I'm not here to make best friends with DPZ or anyone else, I'm here to make the best decisions I can for the citizens I serve.  I've been in politics long enough now that none of this surprises me and because I have alligator thick skin--none of it bothers me.  I just wonder why DPZ didn't just pick up the phone and call me if they had something to say?  Why the backbiting and scheming?

DPZ team discussing and quoting from a February 10th blog post by Rick Outzen

DPZ team discussing and quoting from a February 15th blog post by me