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| "If you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need!" |
I've now had a number of folks ask me about why it is I don't "support" building a brand new medical examiner's office in Santa Rosa County.
And I have answered them with logic, not emotion (contrasted with one local morning radio DJ/entertainment host who apparently can't do this as he attempts,
fecklessly and unsuccessfully, to weaponize this issue against the BCC with emotion-laden faux arguments in support of Escambia County Taxpayers spending upwards of $15 Million outside of Escambia County on a new facility when we can spend a fraction of that amount and meet the facility requirement here in the existing location).
So this is my response, to a constituent on this issue, below:
"XXX,
Thanks for the email and for the compliments on efforts
to increase public access at beaches in Perdido Key. With respect to the DOMES issue--it is fairly
cut and dried-for my vote. We can spend
$3 Million at the current facility to expand the coolers, improve the spaces,
add additional space and viewing areas as well as autopsy stations. I know this because I went there and toured the site and the county is already proactively fixing some of the issues at
this current location. The alternative
is to spend ten times as much, easily $30 Million in today's construction cost
altered universe---which is untenable for my vote. It is all about meeting the requirement. What is the requirement? Also--the vast majority of death in this
district requiring an autopsy (not all deaths require one, only about 20%, XXX)
occur here in Escambia County. So for
many good reasons including the two I have listed above, the function needs to
remain here in Escambia county. I am not
opposed to re-opening the annex in Okaloosa County as that might be prudent to
do perhaps one day per week there.
But no, I am not going to ask Escambia taxpayers to spend
$15 Million (our proportionate share of the costs for a new facility) building
a "NEW" facility in Santa Rosa County when we can spend a fraction of
that amount and meet the ME's requirement.
It's like the Rolling Stones: You can't always get what you want, but
you'll get what you need."
