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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 : Political Advertisement Paid for and Approved by Jeff Bergosh, Republican, for Escambia County Commissioner District 1








Monday, May 6, 2019

46 Days......

Beginning Thursday at midnight, Escambia County will have neither a permanent Administrator nor  a permanent Assistant Administrator on staff.  This condition may continue for 46 days until our newly-selected, permanent County Administrator Janice Gilley officially begins her employment with the county....


Starting this Friday, both Interim County Administrator Amy Lovoy and Assistant County Administrator Matt Coughlin will be gone.

They both submitted 90 days notice initially, but both have indicated they will be leaving ahead of the full 90 days time frame they initially gave the BCC for their departure (s) from county employment.  And coincidentally this actual departure date is this Friday--for both of these employees.

This is completely up to them, at their prerogative.  Best of luck to both of them.

But this early departure leaves us with an exacerbated leadership vacuum that MUST be filled.

Because it will be 46 days from Friday, the last days for Amy Lovoy and Matt Coughlin----until June 24th--- the  first day of potential employment for our newly selected County Administrator, Janice Gilley.

46 days.

That's not an insignificant period of time given all the issues we have before us in Escambia County currently.

I've not yet been formally notified of who will be interim Administrator and interim Assistant Administrator as of this coming Friday--and this is an important data point that I need.  I have heard rumors, the press has speculated, but nothing official has been passed to the board so far as I can tell.

Therefore I have made an official request for this information.

Additionally, I have asked for an updated organizational chart with the updated names, email addresses, and phone numbers of all permanent and interim department heads written-in---including the interim .Administrator and interim Assistant Administrator.

Thursday will come and go very quickly--yet the mission of Escambia County will continue past Friday.  We need to be able to route our issues to the appropriate staff members in order to do our jobs effectively for the citizens of  Escambia County.

Because the mission of Escambia County is not, has never been, and will never be "mission failure" no matter who says this on their way out the door as they quit.

To accede to such a flawed characterization would be to kick every hard working, dedicated member


 of the Escambia County team in the teeth and to call the mission a failure  just isn't true.

Nope--just the opposite is where the truth lies.  We have had some challenges--yes-- and we will overcome these issues.  What large organization does not go through tough times occasionally?

 Meanwhile, the vast majority of our 2,000 + employees are coming to work day in, day out, doing the peoples work in every county department.  Buses are running, streets are being repaired and repaved, projects are being reviewed, lifeguards are stationed at the beaches, the parks are open and utilized, and office staff are in their offices doing their work. And the VAST majority of these great people are doing a fantastic job!

The world keeps turning and Escambia County keeps moving forward--despite the fatalistic, dystopian assessments by some that are not accurate.  Time to turn the page with new leadership--which starts this Thursday at midnight.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for Matt and Josh stepping up. People don't want to believe how toxic the environment has become in the county in Mr Brown's absence. It may not come out but there is an absolute problem with social media and even with one's wife defaming citizens and diagnosis of supposedly mental illness. Is she being coerced herself? How many closed door meetings happened on the fourth floor to make one go so far out on a limb?. The letter attempting to force the BOCC to capitulation has his influence all over. Disgusting.

Anonymous said...

Two weeks. It doesn't take a genius to follow online and see the effects of a toxic workplace. It becomes apparent as far as this EMS debacle when Underhill barged in with his facebook assault and media blitz on PEOPLE who work there. He is unable to see that he is a very poor leader and apparently supports others who are like him.

You all were willing to write off the billing error and had assurances it was being addressed. I guess when you get an email you decide to recoup the losses. Fine.

You don't blow the place up to confront problems. It's amazing he is still messaging that he did the right thing. No he did not and is not. Bad Colleague.

Vote of No confidence, clear backfire.

You can't put it all on Mrs. Gilley like a firehose but you would think director Weaver would file a lawsuit instead of just backing down. I hope it is coming and the poor toxic leadership is uprooted and exposed.

The public is more willing to understand mistakes and the need to correct them than some may realize. We aren't all the media and cartoonists and mean girls club wanting to hang some one out to dry. The big mouths shooting people in the back (metaphorically) publicly online are completely losing the respect they must so desperately covet. No one wants to be thrown under the bus, ridiculed, mocked censored nor bullied nor watch it happen to other good people.

It's not difficult to see who resorts to those tactics and has been doing it the entire tenure and it's D2 and his propaganda machine. PNJ included.



Political Advertisement Paid For and Approved by Jeff Bergosh, Republican for Escambia Commission D1