BACKGROUND
We are blessed to live in a wonderful, vibrant
community. We are also blessed in that
we have a group of several dozen men and women in our community that have done
very well for themselves in business. We’re
blessed because many of these men and women want to give back to make Pensacola
and Escambia County better. They give
back to our community in many ways that enrich our lives and make our community
and Pensacola better. We should be
thankful for these men and women. I won’t
name them, I’d leave someone out and that would not be good, but anyone who
pays attention to local news can work out many of these names on their own with
very little effort.
GOOD MEN, GOOD
INTENTIONS, AND OLF 8
I have served on the Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs
Committee for a decade, and in that time I have met many great members of the
military and the business community who have served on this board. The common thread of this committee is that
all at the table understand the tremendous value the military brings to the
panhandle of Florida in general, and to Pensacola and Escambia County in
particular. It is with this mindset that
when the Navy approached the Chamber of Commerce about a potential land swap
that could allow Escambia County to take possession of OLF8 in Beulah, many of
these great community leaders stepped up to the plate. They knew two things. 1.) This deal could greatly benefit military
aviation training, potentially making Whiting Field “BRAC proof” (BRAC is an
acronym for the onerous Base Realignment and Closure process that occasionally
takes place, moving military components or shutting them down completely)
keeping this training and all of its related jobs here in the two county area
instead of transferring to Alabama, Texas, or the West Coast. 2.) This deal could give the county much
needed and in-demand space for large-scale, high tech manufacturing. So this group of leaders, including a retired
Admiral, several members of the staff of the Chamber, Commercial Real Estate
Developers, and others began working on the feasibility of such a swap.
OLF8 COMMERCE PARK,
INDECISION, LEADERDSHIP FAILURES, AND DEVASTATING COST OVERRUNS…
With the devastating aftermath of the BP Oil Spill,
settlement monies awarded from this event will help to restore our environment
as well as restoring our economy locally.
With the rankings of projects under multiple broad areas, the OLF8
project ranked number 1 under economic development. The group of community leaders that had
helped to foster this deal, including the Admiral, have recently been shown the
door. After all of the hard work put in
and the time and resources spent in helping the chamber and the county bring
this project to the finish line, this committee of citizens was recently told
their services “were no longer needed.”
Now, the entire deal is fraught with cost overruns, the Navy is in the
cat-bird seat requiring enhancements to the OLFX site in Santa Rosa County that
were never part of the original deal. If
the Admiral and others had still been involved in these late-stage, last minute
discussions, many that are very familiar with this entire process believe these
additional demands could have been negotiated away to keep the project within
budget. But some individuals with an incomplete
understanding of the whole project demanded that this group, the group of
citizens and leaders that brought the county to the dance on this deal, be
thrown out of the dancehall just as the band began to play. Now the project is over budget by more than a
million dollars, and we don’t have the deal done yet. Other issues are not resolved with OLFX,
issues many do not even realize exist.
The smartest guy in the room hasn’t a clue about some of these issues
that are now putting the entire plan in peril because when you fire the team
that got you to the table, you lose ALL of their corporate knowledge on the
subject as well as their personal relationships developed with the
players. This turn of events has been
devastating for the entire deal and for the taxpayers. Meanwhile, some people
bloviate about how terrible this deal is, yet these same people vote “YES” for
every vote taken on this project that comes before them. Spock from Star Trek would call this
“fascinating.”
ESCAMBIA’S TRACK
RECORD WITH COMMERCE PARKS
If it were a baseball prospect in the major leagues, it
would be batting .750 and going for a record setting contract of astronomical
value….as Forest Gump might say “GAZILLIONS!” Yes, Escambia is batting .750 on
its commerce parks. Let’s look it
over: Heritage Oaks, sold out, an
incredible
