Rick Outzen--journalist, publisher, and host of the area's best, most widely listened-to and most informative local morning drive news-talk program "Real News with Rick Outzen" on 1370 WCOA--has invited me onto his show later this morning at 7:00 as his leadoff guest.
Rick has asked me to come on and talk about the last year on the BCC and accomplishments the board has made over this past year as we prepare for tomorrow's swearing in and re-organizational meeting at 9:00AM when I will hand over the chairman's gavel to D3 Commissioner Lumon May.
Once this podcast is completed later today, I will post it here.
We will discuss the big-ticket wins of the last year districtwide:
--Completion of once every 10-years redistricting of county commissioners' districts
--Completion of the 4-year salary deal with ECSO
--Moving out of COVID Pandemic utilizing Cares Act and Rescue Plan funding
--Building a better staff/County Leadership Team
--Formalizing/negotiating Wes Moreno's contract as Administrator
--Completion of Bargaining with all the County's Bargaining Groups
--Opening Beach Access #4 at Perdido Key
--Record $620 Million FY 23 Budget WITHOUT raising Millage Tax Rates
--Funding $1.6 Million for regional Advanced Traffic Management System
If time permits, I'll also spotlight some completed D1 Specific projects
--Opening of the first D1 public library, the Bellview Library
--Awarding contract and breaking ground on the Beulah Fire Station
--Working to get Sorrento Road widening project on Sorrento Road moved up on TPO priority list
--funding for Beulah area master plan finalized, project is forthcoming
23 comments:
The obvious thing that needs to be mentioned is that you and Rick Outzen have formed a mutual admiration society.
I’m confident that you have had some success - the commissioners set policy, receive a generous annual $100,000 compensation package, and have a $600 million dollar annual budget. You had better be providing some benefit to the Escambia County citizens.
But let’s be realistic. That podcast was in no way an honest, unbiased assessment of your performance over the past several years.
Did Rick challenge you even once? That was essentially an ego-boosting fluff piece.
No one wants to see Escambia County benefit more than I. I wish you great success, but I have major legitimate criticisms.
Rick had zero criticisms.
Quality of life in Escambia County is definitely improving. Some of your actions have likely contributed. But, certainly, much of our improved quality of life is a natural outcome of inherent technological advancements that are independent of our Escambia County commissioners.
For example; we are all pleased with synchronized traffic lights. But do the commissioners deserve that credit or are those “smart” traffic lights a result of technological advances? If any commissioner was part of that success, I would wager that it was Commissioner Bender.
You have been in office for approximately ten years (with the school board and the commission). You have been privileged to have spent billions of dollars in public funds over those ten years. Certainly, you have had some success. Congratulations on that success!
But from my perspective, your performance has been spotty.
Rancor and discord during your tenure has been the norm. You scapegoat former Administrator Gilley, but you hired her, and no board member could provide an intelligible reason as to why she was terminated.
You claim that you and your colleagues turned around the jail. I hope that’s true. But didn’t you guys allow the old jail to burn to the ground? And do we already have some issues with the new jail? We spent millions on that new facility - I hope that you five adequately supervised the design and the construction.
Moving our WWTP north of the City, and the construction of a new Pensacola Bay Bridge are two fantastic improvements. But again, how much of a role did our current county commission play in achieving those improvements?
I’m worried about Pensacola Beach. You lost millions in ad valorem taxes when you rejected fee simple. Can you explain even one single benefit that the great Escambia County citizens achieve from our absurd lease system?
You regularly scapegoat the great Pensacola Beach leaseholders for your own imprudent policy decisions. But don’t 50% of the great leaseholders pay FULL ad valorem taxes on both their land and on their improvements, as well as a lease fee? Your public derision of the great leaseholders is just one example of the needless discord that you perpetuate.
We are underfunding Pensacola Beach. We received $21.8 million in tourist development taxes in 2022 - most of which was generated on Pensacola Beach, but we are hardly reinvesting a dime back into our crown jewel.
You, May, and Barry misappropriated a $3.3 million dollar FEMA grant that had been both applied for and awarded for Pensacola Beach sand replenishment.
It’s difficult to claim that we are environmentally-conscious on our Beach. We are discharging one million gallons of effluent into the Santa Rosa Sound daily.
We have recently approved the construction of several enormous private towers. The terms for those private towers were each detrimental to the Escambia County citizens. If we are going to sell off Pensacola Beach; let’s at least negotiate a fair deal.
Bravo Tom
Tom Jardine and Anonymous 7:31--You've failed to understand the facts. Rick invited me on the show to discuss the accomplishments of the last year for the board as I served as chairman. Every issue I mentioned is factual. The historic raises and four year salary deal for our deputies, yes that is real. The massive $10,000 raise we provided for entry level firefighters, yes that is real. Every thing discussed was real. Are there still issues in challenged communities within the county? Of course there is, but this board took action over the last year that makes our community stronger, more vibrant, and frankly--much more appealing, thus the massive growth. Look, you can throw out garbage like blaming me for a fire and flood that happened years before I got into office, or the ridiculous statement that because we are implementing an advanced traffic management system that the board deserves no credit for getting the state funding because we "didn't invent" the technology. That is absolute rubbish Tom. I suspect you know that deep down. Last year there were some significant progress made all over the county--but you don't see it and/or won't recognize it because you are a contrarian Tom, that and you have some issues at the beach that did not go the way you want them. But setting that aside, you type out a diatribe, laced with personal attacks and ad hominem character assasination shots, and expect to be taken seriously? Contemplate the concept of disagreeing on policy and positions, combined with limiting the personal attacks, and perhaps someone will take you seriously one day. Remember, just because you won't recognize leadership, doesn't mean it's not there.
Jeff, no one engages in childish, ad hominem attacks more than you. You act like a third grader 50% of the time. Even you have to concede that fact.
The podcast was only 11 minutes in duration, but I noticed that both you and Rick made the time to take some cheap shots at the outgoing district 2 commissioner even though he was not present to refute your petty childishness.
Rick Outzen claims to deliver “Real News”.
Rick didn’t challenge you even once. That was nothing more than an 11 minute press release.
I believe that you have had some success. Congratulations!
However, you have been on our commission for six years, we pay you fabulously well, and we have benefited from the last two years in which the Federal Reserve has flooded the US economy with TRILLIONS of dollars in liquidity. You had certainly better be achieving some success.
Yes, it seems that the population of Escambia County is booming. My understanding is that the population throughout Florida has increased by one million in the past two years. How well have you managed that growth?
Completion of redistricting: Ok. Has there ever been a decade in which the commission has failed to complete the redistricting process?
New salary deal with the ECSO: Fantastic! I hope you made our deputies happy.
Moving out of the Covid pandemic: Alright Jeff. Did you navigate us through that?
Better county administration team? I hope so. Have you not been part of the process in choosing the administrative team in each of your last six years? We have had a significant amount of turmoil in those six years. I’m pleased that you have finally gotten things smoothed out.
Beach access 4: Jeff, why do the public access points on Perdido Key close between sunset and sunrise? Why are the citizens of Escambia County restricted from using our public beaches fifty percent of the time?
Fix that immediately, sir!
Record $620 million budget: Is that a good thing?
Why would you have to increase the millage rate? We have galloping inflation. Real estate prices have skyrocketed all over the country.
“Things on the Beach haven’t gone the way that I wanted?”
You, May, and Barry have implemented an absurd tax policy on Pensacola Beach. I, again, challenge you: How do the great citizens of Escambia County benefit from your absurd lease system?
You, May, and Barry have been overtly hostile towards Pensacola Beach. You have repeatedly derided and scapegoated the leaseholders for your own foolish policy decisions. You have threatened to eliminate county services despite the fact that you only return to Pensacola Beach fifty percent of the annual ad valorem taxes that we pay to Escambia County.
Furthermore, you have gone beyond childish rhetoric. In the spring of 2021; you, Barry, and May misappropriated a $3.3 million dollar FEMA grant that was awarded to replenish sand on our public beaches.
You and your three-commissioner voting block are clearly underfunding and mismanaging Pensacola Beach.
Funny Jeff always says he wants honest debate and conversation but NEVER listens to anyone and ALWAYS claims to be correct. That’s not honest debate.
Tom, you go ad hominem right there in your second sentence. You do it so much, it probably doesn't phase you and you are nose-blind to it apparently. But you sound like a broken record spinning the same tunes over and over and over, conflating issues, exaggerating issues, slamming Rick for the professional way in which he conducts an interview--unlike your hero, Tallman McKay on the other station who interrupts guests and is rude--and drudging up your grudges about things on the beach that don't go your way. Then when a question is answered with fact, you engage in sea lioning a string of unrelated issues/questions one by one over and over. It really is tiresome and boring, Tom. You throw in national issues over which you know we exercise no control, and blame me and my counterparts on the board for decisions other boards make. You are obvioulsly far superior to any of us in your genius ideas and solutions Tom. Let us know when you file paperwork to run against me or one of my counterparts as you are passionate and I KNOW you want to be part of the solution so run for office. You can do it Tom! Don't be a back-bencher, a member of the peanut gallery who sounds foolish because you don't really understand the concepts on which you speak. Lace em up, and get in the game! Be a man and do it. Otherwise, all this angst and condescention is just entertanment for you, a man who live Thoreau's "Life of Quiet Desperation".....ANON1032---I listen to everything--I just don't always agree. That's how the world works. And BTW--I don't always claim to be correct, I'm frequently wrong and always looking to improve. :)
I find McKay to be an honest radio personality. The media should be questioning the board about a 401a, a second firetruck that was passed over without discussion, and the decision to remove shells from a waterway based on a report paid for by an activist yet the board dismissed its own staff. We've all heard enough about the left-wing national media that has failed to do their jobs. Outzen is just the PR man for the remaining four and can't be taken seriously. If McKay is rubbing you the wrong way then you might want to adjust your man thong. I expect the media to raise questions about the decisions of our local officials.
Great accomplishments. 👍
Jeff, I would not stand a chance against you in a district one election.
First, I don’t live in district one. Secondly, you enjoy the patronage of the big private developers.
While I have no quarrels with responsible development, I actively lobby against the sweetheart deals that you regularly dole out to your wealthy benefactors.
For example; on Pensacola Beach, you have recently gifted Innisfree Hotels several unbelievable deals, each one at the expense of the great citizens of Escambia County.
Allow me to expound upon just one of those sweetheart deals:
On 30 September 2020, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sally, while the great citizens of Escambia County were preoccupied, Innisfree Hotels requested a 2,755 square foot previously unleased Casino Beach property.
You, both directly and indirectly through your Island Authority appointee, surreptitiously sold that beautiful Casino Beach property for the low-low price of $8,500 to facilitate the construction of an enormous 12 story private tower located at 2 Via de Luna on Casino Beach.
You rezoned that property to allow for mixed use residential and hotel. You moved sixteen residential units onto that property. Then you allowed Innisfree to combine their parcels, approved an enormous 67% increase in hotel rooms per acre, and eliminated our long-standing impact fee.
You even attempted to allow Innisfree to conduct private helicopter operations directly over Casino Beach.
You provided this sweetheart deal (and many more that I won’t elaborate on at this moment) immediately after you had rejected fee simple on the false premise that fee simple would allow leaseholders to combine parcels and build a condo canyon.
The many enormous private towers that you have recently approved for your private developer benefactors will cost our great citizens millions $.
Those developers have already driven approximately 1,000 35 ton loads across our ancient Bob Sikes Bridge. The citizens have just recently spent $5 million to repair that Bridge.
We don’t have the money to replace that Bridge. The toll revenues are being diverted to pay for the $16 million dollar Via de Luna expansion. The citizens were compelled to widen Via de Luna in order to accommodate these enormous private developers (your benefactors).
We will not satisfy that loan debt until 2032, but the Bob Sikes toll bridge will need to replaced at that point.
The residents of your enormous private towers will likely park in our Casino Beach parking lot compelling the citizens to pay for a multi million dollar parking garage. They will exacerbate the million gallons of waste water effluent that we discharge directly into our beautiful Santa Rosa Sound.
Meanwhile, you forfeited millions of dollars in annual ad valorem taxes when you rejected fee simple. And you forfeited the federal layer of protection over the unleased parcels located on Pensacola Beach that was an integral component of the fee simple legislation that you foolishly rejected.
You can’t cite one benefit that our great citizens gain from our absurd lease system that you championed, but you regularly publicly scapegoat the leaseholders for your absurd policy decision.
And all the while, you don’t pay county ad valorem taxes on the priceless land underneath your luxury private Pensacola Beach condominium.
No, I would not have a fighting chance against you. You are the darling of the private developers.
It would be nice if we just cancelled the lease system and had the leaseholders clear off their structures and let it go back to nature and turned the bridges into pedestrian fishing piers. The Santa Rosa Island be only available by boat.
No more ridiculous insurance premiums to bail out idiots building on sandbags ruining the industry for the rest of us with enough common sense not to live adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico.
What wiped out the first settlement?
Tom, actually the signalization started when I realized from watching video that Doug had taken a bunch of money from the commissioners up front for a DOT grant he knew he was never going to get on the multi-use path, then counted on them to lose track of the loan between fiscal years. 240K, if memory serves, and administration had to take it from the signalization bank that a County staff member had been adding to for years right as he was ready to unroll the project. When I recognized what had happened, I let the commissioners know so they could check into it. Answer: yep. So they voted the money back from him, and the first County-managed install of synchronized signalize happened not too long after.
Oh and Anon 11:07 AM, quit with the disinformation on the shell piles already. The head of Natural Resources, Chips Kirschenfeld, finally admitted in public, to the BCC, that the project "hadn't held up as long as they thought it would." You know, because the entire thing is falling apart, because, you know, it was never properly engineered and they used bags that were going to degrade into the shredded mess they are now. Not to mention the bottom row of bags now popping out from the weight of the rocks piled on top of the shells to try to keep the piles from falling over. It doesn't matter how many times it is projected as a possibility the project can be salvaged--say it another ten, one hundred, or one thousand times and it will still not be truth. The sun came up today, the moon will rise tonight, and the shell piles will continue breaking more quickly than we can haul them out of the water when they become detached. Which is what the BCC finally recognized to be true, despite the director gaslighting them on the project for five long years. Being pretty pragmatic people, once they realized the entire project was falling apart--just as we had been saying for years, while it continued to get worse--they voted to get it out of the water and off our shoreline. It's really as simple as that.
"hadn't held up as long as they thought it would." doesn't mean the project was a complete failure. The county failed to maintain the project. You paid for that report and I'm 100% confident it was presented in a manner to reflect your objective. If it hadn't nobody would have ever seen the paper. The fact it is missing other data that is important is nothing more than you spreading "disinformation". Get over yourself. I'm not arguing that there aren't problems with the project. It's the manner in which you commissioned the report and then passed it along to Bergosh and then he tried to ram it through the board. Maybe one day you'll understand how things appear. Let's add to the conversation the statement you made about taking down Chips. "I'm fully committed, every hour of every day, with the full disposal of every resource I have, to take down two people in the County, and tow only: Douglas Underhill and Chips Kirschenfeld.
Tom Jardine: Once again your rank ignorance is on display, front and center. First, I am the product of nobody's patronage. I grew up dirt poor, have worked like a dog, two to three jobs at a time, my whole life, for everything I have. I lived in a single-wide trailer off of Gulf Beach Hwy on Valdosta street and was adopted when I was 10. Second, I am nobody's darling, other than apparently my constituents who have voted me back into office by large margins over my competitors in the elections of 2006, 2010, 2014, twice in 2016 and again in 2020. You are truly glib if you believe the disinformation and outright lies of a group of malcontent gadfly's online. About campaign finance, let me properly edify you so you don't sound clueless.... Donors locally typically donate to all the candidates (let me explain that for you Tom--look on all commissioners' campaign finance reports and you will see that by and large it is the same folks donating and writing checks to all the candidates.) So are you one of the foil hat haters that disapprove of the donations by some to my campaign, while you are perfectly fine with the donations of these same individuals and entities to the campaigns of those candidates you favor? Sounds like you are. Makes you look ridiculous Tom. Finally, as I have illustrated multiple times to you Tom, you are a contrarian who sea-lions over and over with the same tired tropes and incorrect facts and outright falsehoods in the belief this makes you appear smart to a few on a few online sites. But we all see it, we all know. You don't know what you are talking about and the more you type, the clearer it gets. You really do need to get a copy of Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau-- and read it. You will find it quite the easy read with lots of practical applications to today' modern, technologically advanced society. You will find the writing to be clear, unambiguous, and free of the use of any figure of speech or sarcasm. Finally, you will realize, after you read it, that every man is relevant and has worth and something to add to society, and everyone deserves their "participation trophy" even you, Tom. Or maybe it is the opposite of that and a bit more starkly realistic. You decide Tom. Are you Thoreau's man who lives a life of quiet desperation? You know the answer to that one, I am sure of that.
I love that book. I may pull it off the shelf and read it again.
What I do know, Jeff, is that you have (directly and indirectly) gifted several sweetheart deals to Innisfree Hotels in the past two years. And each of those deals will cost our citizens millions of dollars, in my opinion. And each of Innisfree’s three new enormous private towers will have an adverse impact on our unique Santa Rosa Island.
For example; to construct their Fairfield Inn at 16 Via de Luna, Innisfree pounded 350 pilings 75 feet into our fragile Island. And they carried 9,800 cubic yards of concrete and 680 tons of rebar in 17 ton trucks. My understanding is that a typical concrete truck can carry only 10 cubic yards of concrete, so those those heavily laden trucks crossed our aging Bob Sikes Bridge 1000 times.
And I know for a fact that you have been repeatedly unfairly hostile to the great leaseholders - frequently during public meetings.
In regards to political influence; I viewed a recording of David Bear being deposed prior to a judicial proceeding. Mr. Bear testified that he has repeatedly consulted our commissioners via cell phone DURING our commission meetings.
Do you provide privileged access to developers and financial contributors?
I read Walden in my freshman year in college. It didn’t appeal to me. I’m pleased to be living in the 21st century.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Actually, you weren't voted "back into office" in 2006. That was your first run for the school board seat your brother was vacating and won strictly off name recognition and voter confusion.
This quote from Bender says all you need to know about how BOCC members see their value add. Pothole politics
It is about improving the county," Bender said. "As we say, potholes don't know if you're a Republican or a Democrat when you drive over it.
Screening and censuring comments again.
928 you know comments don't just show up like Facebook, don't you Negative Nancy?
And its censor, not censure dim wit.
11:34 and 9:28 (Same IP address, and likely JC from the Facebook Hate Chamber)--I do not "censure" comments, I did vote and lead the board in censuring your hero Doug after he threatened and attempted to intimidate a female employee of the county. I think you meant to say "censor"--but are mixed up and confused. I do NOT Censor comments, unless they are blatantly and offensively profane. I believe in free speech, and anonymous speech is free speech. So to your other point, you are right I was elected in 2006 to my first term in the primary election for school board against two formidable opponents, where I took 54% of the votes and won it outright in the primary. My brother's good name and reputation helped, no doubt, but I did campaign and went to several thousand homes door to door in that campaign so my brother's name is not the sole reason I won, and for you to say that illuminates your ignorance. But just for your edification, four years later, again in a three man race, I took 67% of the votes to win again in the primary election of 2010. And I was unopposed in 2014, I won my general election two years later taking nearly 70% against my Democratic opponent in November of that year. And I won again in 2020. I guess all those elections I won were because voters were confused and thought I was my brother? You are smoking crystal if you really believe that, JC. How dumb do you think the voters of D1 are if you think I only win because of my brother?!? Let me help you out. Whether it is a business position, a spot in a band, an acting gig, or a political office--a name will help get you established, or possibly a reading, interview or an audition--- but once the ACTUAL work starts, the curtain goes up, or the red light on the camera goes on--someone who got a "chance" still has to perform--otherwise they are gone no matter what their name is/was. Can you comprehend that reality? Here's what you can do: Go encourage your boy to run again, even though he doesn't live in D1 anymore and will have to do just as he did last time--move from D2 into D1 to run against me. Encourage him to run, write him a check--heck, you ought to be his campaign manager. It won't matter, because the results he got last time will be the same result he gets in 2024. Believe that, you can take it to the bank! He will get stepped on again, just like a roach.
To say you don’t censor comments is disingenuous. I’ve asked this question several times and it never sees the light of day which tells me the real answer. Why are you using ARP funds for broadband when there is infrastructure funding specifically for broadband? Did we not pursue or get that funding? When I asked a county official why you aren’t responding they said because you don’t want to upset Barry who apparently is running the BOCC
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