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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








Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Election Night Vindication!

Many believe last night's election results validate the direction the BCC is going with respect to the operation of the county.  I tend to agree....

I was asked to appear on last night's live election coverage on the area's best, most trusted, most accurate, and most listened to news talk station--- WCOA 1370AM.  Rick Outzen was anchoring the show and the focus of our brief discussion, after speaking of the Governor's HUGE election victory, as well as Senator Rubio's win-- was on the vindication the county can take from a couple of the local election results.

--Commissioner Robert Bender, the only incumbent commissioner on the ballot, defeated his challenger Myra Van Hoose by nearly 20 points.

--The county's EDATE ballot measure passed by a 10-point margin.

These were profound outcomes--as some in the community (and at least 12 on one facebook chat site) were "all-in" for Bender's opponent and were smearing Robert Bender all over the place unfairly.  Bender's opponent even launched an attack ad on radio that was fact barren, full of lies, and nothing but an ad hominem attack.  It backfired on her spectacularly--- to the point that from this point forward she'll simply be known as #MyraVanWho?  She lied in the ad and said "The commissioner's voted to increase their pay" which is a bald-faced lie!  The state sets our salary.  It was an attack on Bender--but also a smear job on the rest of us.  It was total BS,

The same voices and Bender's opponent tried their best to kill the county's EDATE initiative--but they had no sway and carried no influence whatsoever with voters (or anyone else) and therefore the EDATE ballot measure easily passed for another 10 year run.  Thank You to the voters for that!!!! Thank You!!!

While on the show, Rick asked somewhat rhetorically "Doesn't this outcome sort of validate the direction the county is going and also--doesn't it point out that negative campaigning in local Escambia races doesn't work?"  To which I agreed and elaborated in response and in support of his theory/thought.  Robert's been unfairly attacked, he is a good person, a nice person, and a hard worker on this board.  He didn't do anything wrong and he didn't deserve (nor did his family, nor did Angela Crawley) the garbage lies spewed from these haters and his opponent.   And a lot of lies have been told about the retirment plan (which lies will be brought to the light of truth once the lawsuit is settled), and again---the radio attack ad on Bender and the rest of the Commissioners was nthing but a big fat disgusting hatchet job--I'm glad it backfired.

It was vindication.  More vindication to come--stay tuned!

26 comments:

Unknown said...

I honestly hope you can mature a bit more. The use of the term vindication still demonstrates to me you are in the compete mode. Look it up. Kampman drama triangle.

We know Underhill and Jacqueline Rogers typed on a facebook page that you wouldn't win in 2016.

Let's see if you can move beyond that.

The best thing you can do is type in a journal and put it in a drawer.

The election was feedback.

Yes half the people supported Edates about half didn't.
Bender took D4, mostly because democrats suck and yes, we know the 401a is a one time annuity and not a long term pension plan.





Jeff Bergosh said...

Unknown--thanks for the unsolicited advice. I know some think it is perhaps unsavory to point out facts after an election--but vindication is precisely the right term, thank you very much. Let me tell you about maturity: It takes tremendous maturity and self-control to not go overboard on celebrating big victories in an even bigger way when the victories are over a fellow board member that attacks his counterparts ----and their family members---with lies, libels, and slanders. Over and over for years on end. So excuse me if you feel I have spiked the football after the victory. I did spike it, but I did it in a restrained manner, in the endzone after the touchdown. I mean it's not like I spiked it in the endzone and again at midfield on the logo of the "home-team" as I have seen happen in real life before. So yes, when one attacks and lies about the family members of peers, with lies and ad hominems, that person and his minions deserve to have the ball spiked in the endzone after the touchdown, on their logo at midfield after the touchdown, and frankly--if I'm being totally honest--in their face. That blog post above --given the context of all that swirls around this environment-- is actually a restrained, mature observation of a factual outcome. Remember--after the 22nd (or sooner, if folks do what they should) I believe you will see a lot less of this acrimony; you'll see five men getting a lot of great things accomplished for the citizens of Escambia County. But until such time, I am staying the course of telling the truth about this individual and his minions when they lie about me and my family. Hopefully, you get that. If not, we agree to disagree and that's okay, too. :)

Anonymous said...

They are still at it today. Pretty 🤪 crazy. Lots of lies and incorrect info. I'm going to turn it off.

Anonymous said...

Well you might want to give Keith Bowe of Beach Haven a phone call and explain a few things to him. Look at his post on ECW first.

Anonymous said...

As well as give McKay a call then. The board voted to clean up the shell project. Unwind it. Prior to the discussion in the agenda review. It was on the agenda, advertised and voted on in the sunshine. McKay is spreading lies. If you listen, Moreno is cheerful and said he understood the direction of the board. I believe he has been around long enough and chose not to elaborate.

Yes one just wishes these people would stop the non sense.

We know you had talked about guzzling down some Dom Perignom like Mean Joe Green last meeting.

It is frustrating to read and listen to it knowing what it is.

They try to make up,something that's not there.. always.



Anonymous said...

Did he fire the shots at Wade? Maybe the ECSO should question him..

Yo 1:46 said...

You are sadly mistaken about the shell removal project. Staff was instructed to get cost figures and bring those back to the board. Nothing had been finalized. It was never on the agenda for that night's meeting and nothing has been put out to bid. The board discussed the project at the agenda review with no public input. It's not even clear if it will be some or all of the shells that are removed or how they will be disposed of.

Anonymous said...

You can how JAR rolls, she gives partial info to McKay, he does a pod cast no one can comment on, doesn't put it on facebook. They now have a new Spox willing to carry water. Bowe, who posts it on her site, calls in Wendy then add her 2 cents at the end about Barry, Alison, etcetera. They have blocked people who have seen through them.
That is the real Escambia sociopath. She used to pass things to Marlette and he would go with it. It probably finally got him fired.

One could go to the Oct meeting, see it's on the agenda and the board voted. As far as the shells in the water. Even Keith Wilkins, an engineer and now even Day and also,Chips said it is a failed project.

Bowe..she is using you dude. You can be guaranteed they PM sending info,to him like they did Alex Arduini.

It is costing them dearly because the Underhills would not give up all the PMs ..

most likely.

Although we did see what they set up with the judge. Instead of holding a child accountable for stealing and assault and battery on video,in the lunchroom.

I remember when I first got here and found that site and thought how on earth do they think they can have any political clout doing that?

Once I was on the phone with Barry, and he said. Exactly.

So I'm blocked and not in the group, as they have done to many, so there is no direct contact there. However that is exactly what it looks like to me that they do.

Now that an elected commissioner is not in there, it may not matter as much and it can just wither away, although it is very difficult to see such evil propaganda allowed to be in the discourse.

I enjoyed seeing the attorney get in the post they tried to get going about May incorrectly.

I think Wendy and Jacqueline using the medical director to sue a citizen took the cake.

Maybe Karma will knock on their door sooner than later.

Anyway that is what that looks like to me what is going on there.

Yes it would be nice to just be able to turn that off.

Not my circus, not my monkey.

But it's like once you see it, you can't unsee it.










Anonymous said...

Its really called antisocial personality disorder.

Anonymous said...

Yo,455 it was on the agenda in Oct and voted on to unwind it. Will of the board.
Now it is in the procurement stage out for a bid to remove it.
It will come back to the board for another vote.
To finalize it.
Agenda review was a effing discussion dip stick. Asking about progress.

After that
Oct. Vote Someone took a gun shot at Wade.while he was documenting the shell piles breaking away.

Who dunit?

Don't play with fire. Might get burned.

Out here.


Anonymous said...

Reading ECW is like watching Saturday Night Live oldies with Molly Shannon as Sister Mary Katherine Gallager-- Superstar.

Melissa Pino said...

Three shots, 6:33 PM. The first one hit the bottom of the canopy and ricocheted slightly. The shooter immediately corrected and sent the next two in rapid fire right over his head. Either a very high-power air rifle or, more likely, a 22 rifle. We're really grateful for ECSD taking it seriously, and investigating it through their gun violence division.

And then people wonder why the huge majority of people on Navy Point who detest this project and realize it is an abject failure stay quiet on the topic publicly. People generally don't like to get shot at, or have trees in front of their houses pulled down, or have their beloved dog targeted by Underhill supporter phone trees harassing Animal Control to impound him (even though we've never had a single ticket on him, because none was ever warranted).

We have no reason to believe that Keith Bowe or anybody else outside the neighborhood fired the shots, though. So I want to be clear about that. Also want to be clear that we've had every reason to believe for some time now that Keith Bowe and his Beach Haven band are nonetheless dangerous, in terms of their reactionary leanings and their use of Keith as their disinformation weapon to try to amass political capital for their group.

For what it's worth, I'll be sending an email to McKay asking him whether he's ignorant or a liar. He's a pretty hardened con artist himself, and scrabbling to come up with content as Rick Outzen cleans his clock, so I doubt he'll care.

Melissa Pino said...

(con.)

Hopefully the incoming commissioner isn't falling for this, and is watching meetings so he's aware that the Board already voted on the direction. This is standard operating procedure, as anyone who is familiar with County business recognizes. In fact, this project received far and aware more discussion, repeatedly, than most things that get passed on the menu. Dozens of items on the consent agenda pass regularly with no discussion (hence "consent"), even when Underhill was there. And the vote to put together information on the removal was even covered in the PNJ. (Apparently, McKay isn't aware of what the real journalists in town are covering?) Once the vendor is identified, then of course it will come back for the funding allocation. Couldn't be any more standard.

Equally dangerous is the idea that "some people are for and some are against" as a reason to drag things out. This isn't a popularity contest, and the fact that Doug and the head of Natural Resources turned it into personality politics from the get-go is one more indicator that they had *nothing* to back the project up with. Even if 99% of the neighborhood and the West Side were duped into thinking that the project is doing some good, or is benign--rather than nearly everyone who actually recreates in and along the water hating the project and recognizing its danger, the destruction it has caused to the shoreline, and the fact that it is falling apart--that doesn't change facts and science. The project was failing before they even had all of it laid; hence the need to pile it with rock to keep it from falling down, which has now caused the bottom bags to squirt out from under the weight of the piles.

The fact that some people are so easily duped, and apparently can't be bothered to view the videos of its horrendous deterioration, or can't trust their own eyes, is moot. Fact does still exist in the world, and thankfully the commission finally recognized that we were never lying or exaggerating about the project, and that it needs to come out before the bags deteriorate to the point of no return. Hopefully the disinformation set, along with the hopelessly duped, won't have any impact on Mr. Kohler's understanding. There are so many people hoping for his successful tenure, and getting dragged into nonsense by a pack of Douggites would be a really unfortunate start to his tenure. :( We need somebody willing to break with that track. I'm certainly rooting for him to follow that path--we need it in this district, badly.

The saddest thing of all is that this project was never really about the Navy Point shoreline. Among other things--flirting with divestment of the park, for instance--one of its primary purposes was to be a high-visibility advertisement, done on the cheap, so it could be used as a display to go after grants for REAL projects. Designed by actual engineers, and implemented with big money. It takes millions of dollars to do a project of this enormity correctly. And yet there are incredibly confused people who think that a 180k garbage dump along the shoreline is something that needs to be cherished. Moral of the story: government "doing something" isn't necessarily a gift. :(

Anonymous said...


ECW doesn't fail to disappoint. They approve a post saying to remove the project is now a half a million dollars. Right?
And try to tag Mike Kohler.
Are we going to have a repeat of D2 commissioner participation in that site?
I certainly hope not.
Introduce an ordinance Nov 21. Spell it out. V o te on it. Make it clear.

How many 10s of thousands of dollars has the participation of the past D2 commissioner in that site cost us? Commissioner Bergosh? Not only dollars in legal fees but in lost personnel, time.. effort? Lost economic development opportunities, and more.

When you think they can't sink any lower, there it is.

I actually think the price tag Tim and Chips tried to put on it is ridiculous, however, we know and they know on ECW the price has not been determined. It is out for bid.

Take the lowest.

How hard is it?

All eyes.







Anonymous said...

Staying tuned. That new profile claiming the removal is 500K is most likely a fake account to further the propaganda. Business as usual. Then now you have them publishing private message. Gross.

Anonymous said...

The fake account is probably Mrs. And she brings in one of her buddies who wanted to keep the public beach access for the select few. You can see how they roll. Should stick to goats and wine. You have to wonder if her using her husband's profile in there is really what was behind a lot of the name calling which got them sued. Ole BCB. You have the evidence posted on another blog.

Sorry this veered of topic Commissioner Bergosh.

So much toxicity but it is interesting to watch in a bizarre sort of way, like unraveling a mystery in the peanut gallery.. until the lawyers get involved.

You've done a great job of elevating the county out of the mire Commissioner Bergosh, and Melissa has a lot of staying power.

And this is all opinion and speculation but I think I'm right.

The style of writing is a giveaway.

Stay the course.



Melissa Pino said...

Anon 10:38, I was well aware that he would post the comments to ECW--no shock there. Of course he won't post the end of the text string, just as his recap of the shell pile discussion omitted Chips finally admitting at the end of the exchange that the project "didn't hold up as long as we thought it would." (Thanks for five years of governmental gaslighting and libeling on that note. Chips--I won't hold my breath for an apology.)

My text response to Keith:

"I have no interest in further dialogue with you, Keith. Apparently you are not aware that Jacqueline has anybody who has ever countered Doug's villainy on ECW blocked from commenting. She blocked me from commenting four years ago; almost everybody I know is also blocked from commenting. That's why it is a useless echo chamber, as the political community at large came to understand a long time ago. I contacted you merely to send you a personal note reminding you that there is a difference between opinion and prosecutable malice. Speak whatever opinion you want about my political activity. Refrain from actual slander and you will have no legal issue to deal with from me."

His response: "Unblock me if you're sincere."

What can I say. You can't fix stupid. Or crazy.

But anyhow, he has now acknowledged--publicly--that he received my written request that he be careful not to move any closer to actual defamation, with malice. You know, in front of a THOUSAND AND A HALF USERS. Pretty difficult to make a legal argument in the future that he wasn't aware of what he has been doing, as he himself put our written exchange on the public record.

As Jacqueline likes to say, screen shot and filed. Along with our text messages, before his Signal blows them away. Candy from a baby comes to mind. Enjoy this amazing day everybody!


Anonymous said...

There it is..
Now they get ole trusty to post a link to the Ethics committee, what about all the District offices. Haha.

Anonymous said...

I hope you give Bowe a 📞. His phone number is listed. He is saying basically they gave you champagne as a gift so you would remove the shell piles.

Anyone with a brain can look at the Ethics training and realize a sip of champagne, celebrated on the departure of the most destruction commissioner on the board of CC was in order. A gift would be 100 dollars but that was AFTER the Oct vote. Anyways.

Also it was on the agenda earlier, voted on in the sunshine to remove it. Unwind was the term. By the entire board.

You had the engineer on the line during the meeting as well as Keith Wilkins at the podium.

He really is blowing hard and irritating me to read it.

They will be removed and then later when new D2 is there, you ALL can decide what to do going forward.

That is pretty clear.

They are letting him run on, business as usual. I can't stand that site because of that type garbage. Gossip, and lies.

They will have some one edit profanity but leave up a comment alledging Mel has skinned knees. You know what that implies.


He seems to be the new leader of the pack. Blowhard.


Jeff Bergosh said...

1224 Who the heck is Keith Blow? Is he like the "12th-man" on that Facebook Site's Practice Squad? If it's that guy I have no reason to call him, he facebook messaged me a while back and I have no interest in meeting with nor talking to that guy. Keith who? Shell piles are leaving, doug is leaving, and the world of politics is quickly going to colesce locally back into a good working relationaship among the five men on the board. Others who want to create drama can do videos of themselves singing as if they are Michael McDonald from the Doobie Brothers, do elaborate intros to videotaped meetings nobody will ever watch and/or do other nonsensical stuff as if they are relevant, whilst those of us that are elected to lead do our jobs. I certainly hope each of the "12" on that hate chamber takes a framed copy of that "picture" and frames it, placing it over their bed(s). If that's the picture they want to fawn over, it's actually a pretty good picture. What a great, fun night that was. Victory. Keith Blow? Keith who?

Anonymous said...

Is Keith Blow a rap star? He sings Basketball, right? What a strange area we live in.

Unknown said...

Chief Blow.

Anonymous said...

Chief Blow.

Jeff Bergosh said...

I was wrong--not Keith Blow--It is actually Kurtis Blow. He sings a song called "Basketball" here is the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_shxzlTRK44 My favorite line: "Basketball is my favorite sport--I like the way they dribble up and down the court" Heavy lyric...

Jeff Bergosh said...

Chief Keef? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TilnAWU7qHM

Anonymous said...

Cootie and the Blowfish.

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