Rick Outzen, host of the Pensacola/Escambia County area's best, most trusted and popular morning drive news program "Real News with Rick Outzen" on 1370 WCOA-- has asked me to appear tomorrow morning at 7:10 as a guest on his show.
Rick has asked me on the show to discuss my latest blog posts on the COX bid protest and also the other post--- about how one citizen is costing the county and ordinary citizens hundreds of thousands of dollars with multiple identical and unsuccessful challenges to opt-outs from the county's very unpopular sector plan.
Interesting to me that the COX bid protest was picked up off of my blog by literally every local media outlet as I was the first to break that story. They all ran that story with no attribution of where they got it but that is standard and I could really care less; I put things on this blog that they all read and I only put things on here I want them to pick up and cover.
But the other story----the one that is more important in many respects--has been all but ignored and has received no follow-on coverage by the local media. This is perplexing as that blog post on this site is getting much more volume/comments/attention from the readers of this blog. It is getting crushed. It is a compelling story, how one citizen can weaponize a legitimate process to force property owners to spend tens of thousands of dollars even as every single such complaint this serial plaintiff has filed has been unsuccessful.
Perhaps this is because the citizen that is causing all of this consternation via this vexatious litigation is actually slated to win an award from CIVICON (PNJ) tomorrow. What?!?This is emblematic of just how out of touch the PNJ is with what is really happening here in the county as they are rewarding a serial petitioner who has cost the taxpayers and ordinary citizens literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and expert witness fees over the last several years utilizing antagonistic, never winnable cut and paste complaints that have been rejected by DOAH multiple times over and over. PNJ ignores this. Just totally tone-deaf to what really is going on around here--that's the PNJ.
Anyway--hopefully we will have ample time to discuss both tomorrow morning on Rick's show.
I'm glad he's willing to entertain the discussion. Once Rick publishes the podcast I will post it here.
45 comments:
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The lack of curiosity from the media isn’t really surprising, Commissioner Bergosh. This is not sound bite material, and a lot of heifer dust has been in the air for years. It’s true that the Sector Plan debacle, enacted by a prior board of county commissioners, is poorly understood only by a few, and not understood at all by most. Sector plans were designed to replace the old development of regional impact regulations. They required a minimum of 15,000 acres to gain approval at the state level. In Escambia County three developers had about 3500 acres among them. To get to that 15,000 acre threshold, the county had to drag in not only the landfill and a lot of land from the North Florida water management district, also some international paper land, but approximately 1600 parcels owned by small landowners who never had a clue what was really going on. In the initial, scoping meetings, only landowners with 150 acres or more, were considered stakeholders and invited to the meetings, can you guess how many landowners within the footprint of the sector plan have ownership of 150 acres or more? The answer is approximately six.
Some would have you believe that these so-called conservation neighborhoods are designated that way because they actually are more environmentally sensitive than the higher density areas in the sector plan carved out for the original development group. In fact, the opposite is true as the administrative hearing final orders in our case clearly show.
If anyone in the media or the general public would like to do the due diligence and a little bit of work to understand this issue, rather than just slinging words around, please call or email me and I will do my best to point you to the neutral sources, primarily in the DOAH dockets, as well as many video meetings of both Planning Board and the board of county commissioners, so that you can discover for yourself the truth. Also, I would strongly recommend anyone who is interested should read the sector plan detailed specific area plan document, which is downloadable from myescambia.com, be sure to look at the section on conservation neighborhoods, where you will learn something shocking known as the 50% rule in which property owners unlucky enough to have been assigned to this category without their knowledge or consent, must, if their land is ever developed, give up 50% of it for no compensation.
My name is Elizabeth Westmark. My husband is Frank Westmark. Florida statutes allow landowners to opt out of a county’s sector plan. The application process is difficult, but we jumped through all of the hoops that were required, and our application to opt out was approved by the Planning Board, twice by the board of county commissioners, by the Florida Department of economic opportunity, and then challenged by Mrs. Jacqueline Rogers. The opt-outs of two of our neighbors, Clyde Jolly and Miriam Arnold, were also challenged in the same rigorous 3-day DOAH hearing.
The lengthy docket for that hearing is public record, plus much of it was videotaped by studio 850 and is available for viewing on the Internet.
I understand that people are busy, and that we live in a sound byte time, where people active on social media have their friends, their enemies, their Frenemies, and it is all too easy to Leap to conclusions, and forget that real people, i.e. small landowners, who have been dragged into this through no fault of their own, are being hurt by these repetitive challenges. If the county will go ahead and do what the BCC voted to do more than a year ago and dismantle the sector plan, these continual challenges by Mrs. Rogers would come to an end. Every other sector plan in Florida has only one owner. The Escambia County sector plan with more than 1600, was doomed to failure from the beginning.
My email address is ejwestmark@gmail.com. My phone number is 850-777-7594.
The hearing is being live streamed by the County from the Central Planning Complex. The parties are about to present their arguments:
Escambia County youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ45wPQSuhw
I thought I would catch you on your buddy’s little radio show and I must say that was sickening. If that was an attempt to get me to see things your way it failed miserably. The Civic Con award JAR is going to receive has nothing to do with this litigation but your tried to link the two. The Westmarks are “good friends” of yours so you made it clear you’re biased. You don’t have a problem with the cost of litigation for the Cox complaint even when the board knew that was going to happen nor a problem spending taxpayer money on defending the 401a and that will cost us money. I hope she prevails just to stick it back in your face. That was nothing more than intimidation put on full display.
It is so annoying to watch her mumble. 🙄 I've watched a bit. So, is cottage hill required to provide water in their franchise area. Y
Is Highway 29/95 able to handle more cars Y.
3 hrs later whisper mumble push up glasses..other attn. BOOM Boom Boom.
Judge seems like a nice man. Allowing witnesses to be on the mic once.
Did you do a study or analysis..mumble mumble.. Well those are local,roads, not TPO..paving would actually improve sediment in streams..
Poor court reporter. Umm mumble, mumble, push up glasses, talk at the same time..
shuffle notes .. mumble mumble
Now going into the FLU FLUM MUS..
Good sound bite on the pod cast on Rick's Blog. Someone should have nominated you for the Government transparency award Commissioner Bergosh, I read over the Civic com and there is actually some interesting discussions there on PNJ by Kevin Robinson, in my opinion. His willingness to be open to more information was a plus.
Thanks Mrs Westmark for speaking up. I saw parts of your hearing. I also saw how awful she was to you in public on her page. It was despicable.
Perhaps the county does like some of the planning for the larger parcels in the sector plan.
It is a complex issue, in a way. When I first heard of opt out, I looked it up and saw it was legal for a land owner to revert usage back to the original land use out of the plan. I saw Commissioner Barry helped make it possible. I also know there is equal protection under the law so this further challenge is totally unwarranted. I think it is veering off into splintered direction and does need to be shut down.
This will probably be the last challenge but it should have been put to rest before now. No time like the present.
No doubt regional impacts need to be studied.
She is NIMBY on steroids though.
Maybe that property would be a good site for affordable housing. It is adjacent to Highway 29 and close to the paper mill.
I don't know if Judge Early can rule today but thank you for bringing this to our collective attention.
I doubt a reporter is grasping this.
Have PIO officer ready to report and prepare a press release, would be my suggestion.
Jeff, why can’t Escambia County, under your leadership, adhere to any of our protocols?
1.
I assume that the sector plan was put in place to restrict development in order to protect the rural areas in the north end of the county.
Are you today publicly scapegoating a private citizen of district 5 for attempting to hold Escambia County to our zoning ordinance?
I watched Steven Barry’s recent Town Hall: Multiple constituents pleaded with Barry to slow down the runaway development in district 5.
At that Town Hall, a non-plussed Mr. Barry assured his constituents that he was encouraging development as a means to “combat inflation”.
2.
Why have you recently rezoned Pensacola Beach and approved multiple conditional use variances that increase hotel room capacity from 30 units per acre to 50 units per acre to the benefit of private developers?
Why did we originally limit those private developers to 30 units per acre in the first place if our developer-friendly commissioners were simply going to approve 50 units per acre in 2022?
This past October, you approved Innisfree Hotels to combine parcels, and allowed an enormous 67% increase in hotel rooms in order to facilitate the construction of an enormous 12 story private tower at 2 Via de Luna on Casino Beach.
You have approved multiple conditional use variances nearly immediately after you misled our great citizens that you rejected fee simple tax policy in order to “Save Pensacola Beach” from runaway private development.
Today, you scapegoat the Pensacola Beach leaseholders for your own absurd policy decision.
And it is my understanding that you don’t pay ad valorem tax on the precious land underneath your lavish Pensacola Beach condo.
Unlike you, I pay full ad valorem taxes on both my land and my home, AND an annual lease fee.
How dare you, Barry, and May denigrate my neighbors and me from the dais at public meetings!!
3.
Why are you allowing Commissioner Barry to change the sequence of the chairmanship?
Didn’t your voting partner, Steven Barry, pull this same unethical stunt prior to the 2020 election process?
Don’t you agree that shifting the sequence of the Chair in order to provide a political advantage to Barry is unethical?
Particularly unethical in light of the fact that D2 has not held that Chair for several years.
4.
Why did you consent to allow Mr. Barry to deviate from our standard bidding process on this multi million dollar internet scheme?
You fully understood that Barry was deviating from our protocol. Are you really that intimidated by Mr. Barry that you won’t raise an objection when you know something is wrong?
Aren’t we using federal money on this internet project?
By deviating from our protocol in order to affect the outcome of our bidding process, aren’t you jeopardizing Escambia County’s future federal grants?
5.
Why did you, May, and Barry misappropriate a $3.3 million dollar FEMA grant that had been awarded by the federal government in order to replace sand on Pensacola Beach?
That FEMA grant was both applied for and awarded to replace sand lost on our public beaches due to a 2012 hurricane.
You misappropriated that FEMA grant at the 25 March 2021 BCC meeting.
Doesn’t your misappropriation of FEMA money jeopardize Escambia County’s ability to apply for future federal funds?
What are your ethical boundaries?
I would never be good in public service. I have no patience and am quick tempered.
I want to shout and shake her out of delusions. " Hey Stupid, You are wasting everybody's time and money, OPT OUTS ARE ALLOWED ... HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU HAVE TO BE TOLD!"
The planner is trying to tell her that.
So ridiculous.
She can't see the forest for the trees...same with the EMS. And the FRS.
What some don't understand is the culture and nature of many of the people around here historically do not openly confront people when they disagree for the most part. It is time consuming and impolite.
Social media has changed the civil conversations.
Elected officials are to be respected and left to do their jobs.
The person leading charge to open transparency does not need to be one with faulty reasoning abilities.
He who know not and knows not that he/she knows not is a fool. Shun him.
Watching the hearing.
Attourney "Does this opt out go against the Comp plan" paraphrased
Expert witness
"No"
1215 The original reporter said in the article she prevaild in Opts out to prevent Urban Sprawl. Kevin Robinson removed that after push back because it was false reporting.
It was not true.
Then he put an editors note at the top saying he removed the language.
I'm putting Tom in the same class at the guy saying he is the county clerk.
Ya'll need to give Horace an award. 🤣
And there it is, Wilson Robertson Opt out.. she is fixated.
I think she just enjoys harassing people and having attention drawn to her.
Well, I won't challenge one. Yall hired someone that will talk the judge to death.
Energizer bunny...still going.
You just perfectly described Pino.
What a black hole time suck. Ridiculous.
Jan 23 2023 Final Order. Yes I think it was a waste of time and resources.
Well, she clearly perjured herself under oath multiple times. Badly.
Hopefully the County will prosecute that and stop letting her sew these lies in court.
My favorite part was how, after the County Attorney Steven West called for a break, when she was having her credibility blown to smithereens by expert Ken Metcalf, she suddenly had it dawn on her when she came back that she had to be home by 6:30. Funny, she hadn't mentioned it up til that point.
I said to Kevin, watch, she won't be able to stop gnawing the bone on the cross and will show she was lying about having to be home at a certain time. Which she did, and further pulls down her credibility that Metcalf shattered anyway.
Jaqueline, coming from somebody from farm country, who worked on farms: by the time you got done digging your grave, the barn cats had been given their saucers of milk, the pitcher on the kitchen table was empty, the dairy cattle had settled down in their stalls and were chewing their cud, and, if this was harvest season, the combines would have been headed out to the field.
She's a fraud, of course. This judge will hopefully see that when he digs into the documents. And I hope he won't like the fact that she played him on how many opt outs she has brought. Can't wait for the transcript.
That hearing took a lot of bandwidth, I missed earlier testimony about a panther that they were going to refute later. But didn't.
I and my neighbors as well as a wildlife rehabilitor saw elusive black panthers a few counties over several years ago. Up close. I also saw the calico kittens scurry across a road behind a female I tried to tell FWC and they said thet aren't there. They were. Maybe smaller than the ones in SWFL.
I do wish you all would set aside conservation lands and wildlife corridors.
I did learn a little more watching this actually.
Sorry, should have said that hopefully the County Attorney will file with the State's Attorney's Office to prosecute Jacqueline's perjury.
Given my zero faith in the SAO at this point, I can understand why people might be fatalistic. After all, Ginger Rogers has yet to move on the crooked contractors. Santa Rosa police seem to be finding a way around her. But she clearly doesn't like to do anything with media level cases. I say file it for perjury and let the SAO decline to prosecute, but I'm sure the County Attorney might have other ideas about putting something before her office's weak sauce. So many people had such high hopes for her. What a disappointment.
Follow up thought: Jacqueline might think it's cool to perjure herself under oath, because she saw Dr. Edler doing it over and over in her defamation case against me, and in her sworn affidavit briefs.
What I assume Jacqueline understands from being under the hood with Edler and Doug is that you can't sue for defamation when somebody defames you in a court docket. It's protected speech.
But what can happen is turning Jacqueline's perjury over to the authority, which is the State's Attorney's Office. File a complaint. If Ms. Maddens doesn't prosecute it, that's her decision. But we were going to file a complaint on Rayme Edler for perjury in her defamation case against me, but never got the opportunity, because she dropped it. The County needs to act now.
"Gnawing the bone on the cross"
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Yes that was strange.
The humorous part was seeing the fatigue setting in from West, and a few others.
The jealousy is oozing from every word you write, Pino.
new cc: Jim Little
Dear all,
It was a surprise to me to see Kevin Robinson on the stage tonight for the CivicCon rewards, as I got the below from his email on a message i sent earlier today:
image.png [provided an image of Kevin Robinson's out of office notification
I can well imagine he is well ready for a break after organizing all this, so I have cc'd Jim Little in his place.
Likewise was I surprised that Jacqueline Rogers showed up on stage, after she surprised the Administrative Law Judge in the hearing today, after 8 hours of mentioning no time limit every time he brought up that he was willing to stay as long as necessary, that she had to be somewhere by 6:30.
Please let that sink in. The administrative law judge was encouraging all parties to stay as long as necessary to get things done, and he was urging this all day. Jacqueline waited until not long before the awards ceremony, and then informed the Court that she had to be somewhere at 6:30.
By my recollection, that means that just a couple of hours after she, in my opinion, perjured herself under oath multiple times, she--the person CivicCon is awarding for government transparency--literally truncated a court hearing so she could go get an award.
Typical of how she operates. Sorry that CivicCon got played on this, but not sorry enough that those of us who have been following her deceit for a long time won't keep exposing it, regardless of the context.
I've already public record requested the transcript from this hearing, which will make clear that Jacqueline lied under oath just before she received this award from CivicCon. I would encourage the press to PRR it as well. Although I'm sure the judge will figure it out, it's about time the community gets it as well.
Sincerely,
Melissa Pino
555 your tu torque makes you sound like a kindergarten student
Pino isn't filing lawsuits costing us money collectively nor individually.
*Tu quoque
Early will rule with the county and warn her to not file again.
ECW will says she is a heroine.
SAO won't touch this.
Nothing will change.
Thanks Anon 8:32...I've never filed a suit in my life, although I have given serious consideration to filing defamation suits on Jaqueline and Wendy Underhill. I decided it simply isn't worth it. Probably could have come back to the County to recup fees on the Edler thing, but that's not worth it either. The important thing was getting it exposed that the EMS were getting railroaded, and although it took a lot longer because of Jacqueline's constant disinformation--I still run into people who think I sued Edler because of Jacqueline's lies on it--in the end, the truth of their circumstances came out.
And having some time to think on it, it would be a waste of time for the County to file a perjury claim on Jacqueline, because there is very little likelihood that the SAO would prosecute it. So why give her that one more political "win."
But people do need to understand that perjury is knowingly lying under oath in a way that could materially impact your case, in DOAH just like any other court. Jacqueline refused to state the number of actual opt outs she has petitioned on, potentially leaving the Court with the idea that she has only filed 5 and withdrawn 2. More problematic, she lied about the terms of her withdrawing those 2 petitions, a lie that is easily verifiable through court record. She also claimed that the Westmarks didn't "prevail" in obtaining fees, costs, and sanctions on her. That's a strange definition of prevail, when they never brought her back to court on it. She probably picked up that nasty sleight of hand from the Edler case as well, as they PR'd her being soundly defeated in all 5 of her TROs, a sua sponta TRO from the first judge (which was later remedied by Judge Danheisser), and her dropping the case as "prevailing." It's a very strange sense of "winning," if lying under oath and truncating a hearing for an award ceremony feels like a victory.
Of course, if the press doesn't pick it up, the propaganda machines may just clean it up for her once again. At the very least, hopefully the County will pursue having her tossed from DOAH on these opt-outs. If she loses this one, but that remedy is not put in place, this won't be her last use of our court system to harass innocent people, badmouth the County, burn through taxpayer money, and set herself up as a victimized hero.
I'm sorry you don't have the intelligence to understand or the willingness to admit this conversation is over your head.
1:05
I understand it completely
I see PNJ covered this.
https://www.pnj.com/story/news/local/escambia-county/2022/12/06/escambia-county-looks-to-recoup-cost-of-court-challenges-from-community-activist-jacqueline-rogers/69703166007/
Really we don't know what the judge will rule as far as designating her a vexatious pro se litigant. It is a big step to take away the rightto redress government, but it is necessary for serial abusers -- like in this case. I hope he recognizes that. I believe the county is only asking for court costs in this one case, not all the others.
Some of the landowners after having had to spend the first amount of time and expense probably won't continue to incurr more costs. She most likely doesn't have a lot of funds to cover that anyway, so they may never be remedied.
Yes she will play the David and Goliath type ploy and most won't understand the total cost or see her obsession and faulty reasoning because really, most don't like growth.
What a con.
Looks like someone had J. Little correct it to how many cases for "Opt 9outs" CON veniently leaving out how many cases TOTAL brought and filed and lost to the DOAH.
Should you ask for another correction. 🤣 I think so.
Search DOAH Department of Administrative Hearing with the term "Jacqueline Rogers "
If you want more evidence she is not contrite and has no intention of stopping she is providing the screen shot.
Yep, she is going down. Even if the judge doesn't award fees nor designate her a vexation litigan at the end of January, at this point they will probably appeal if that happens.
Especially with this last public admission
The county has had enough, and I don't blame them one bit.
I'm looking at the DOAH docket and it looks to me that the Westmarks filed for attorney fees. The motion is compelling reading. They intervened and prevailed, It looks like Jacqueline Rogers is lying on her facebook page tonight. Can you believe the people who believe her.
It looks like she dropped the case with the other two last year because they were tied in with the Westmarks.
Checked the CV of Kenneth Metcalf, the expert the county hired on this case.
She absolutely needs to be stopped.
I think she is crazy.
Other people are afraid to opt out because of her and her hammer of defamation using ECW is on record on the DOAH docket. She is a terror.
2:07 PM, the Westmarks intervened at the beginning of her opt out quest against their property and two others that were consolidated into one hearing. The ALJ rolled out the red carpet for the Westmarks and/or County to pursue fees, costs, and sanctions (why she didn't just do it sua sponte is beyond me, but judges typically seem to hate acting against other officers of the court, and especially bend over backwards for pro se litigants who pull the "woe is me I can't afford an attorney on the cases I am bringing serially" drama. Even with that tendency, the judge absolutely excoriated Jacqueline's arguments during that hearing, pointed out the expert witnesses weren't prepared to speak to the actual matter at hand, and nearly invited the County/Westmarks to correct the situation.
After we got to pay for the DEO to have to deal with her 38 EXCEPTIONS to the ALJ's ruling, and went to great lengths to rule against her on every single exception, the County did not pursue any remedy for the taxpayers in that case. The Westmarks made a single filing, if memory serves, but apparently decided to take the high road and never actually brought it to court. Thus another truth coloring when she said "they did not prevail," insinuating that they pursued it.
I was happy to see that in the print version today the numbers of her opt out attempts and hearing on them have been re-corrected. She apparently got ahold of Jim Little with her gaslighting yesterday and snowed him the same way she tried to snow the judge. Guess she thinks the judge won't refer to the previous cases and understand that she had purposely misled the court.
Okay, for the sake of honesty, I did hear back from the PNJ that the are standing by their correction that the three consolidated opt-out cases = 1 opt out because there was only one hearing. No doubt a healthy dose of pressure from upstairs on that one.
I pointed out that the clear way to upend that fallacy is that the three opt outs had to be heard separately on a County level before they got consolidated for the DOAH hearing, no doubt for the purposes of getting through all of her filings. (While that consolidated case was already going, she brought two more!)
Here was the process on the County level. Three properties, three owners, three sets of paperwork, three opt out fees, three quasi judicial hearings. How that equals one opt out in the PNJ's arithmetic is beyond me, but I don't have access to the people who sit on the PNJ reporters when they are trying their best to report accurately. Jim got it right the first time. Looks like "editorial" intervention to me.
A.17489
Case #: OSP-2019-02
Applicant: Frank & Elizabeth Westmark, Owners
Address: 2025 Kingsfield Road
Property Size: 84.10 +/- acres
From: Conservation Neighborhood
To: MU-S, Mixed-Use Suburban
B.17488
Case #: OSP-2019-03
Applicant: Clyde L. Jolly, Agent for Miriam C. Arnold Life Estate, Cecil D. Arnold & Cynthia A. Jolly, Owners
Address: 1900 BLK W Kingsfield Road
Property Size: 4.04 +/- acres
From: Conservation Neighborhood
To: MU-S, Mixed-Use Suburban
C.17490
Case #: OSP-2019-04
Applicant: Clyde L. & Cynthia A. Jolly, Owners
Address: 1955 W Kingsfield Road & 2003 W Kingsfield Road
Property Size: 5.99 +/- acres
From: Conservation Neighborhood
To: MU-S, Mixed-Use Suburban
Thanks Melissa, I saw the first correction and figured she had gone to him and didn't see the second. I'm glad someone followed up to set the record straight.
Thank you all.
I do think that would be perjury in court. She is a liar. With intent.
She is still lying saying county is trying to shut her up. I believe the correct statement is the county is trying to recoup court costs and get her labeled a vexatious litigant.
Speaking up is not the same thing as filing lawsuits and administrative hearing over and over with the same issue time after time.
But fear not, they will get a fund raiser to pay us back, so have at it.
I think the law is clear.
Kenneth Metcalf's report is on file on docket DOAH. Educational. Looks like this will be decided in February.
These comments have turned this blog into a cesspool full hypocrisy and hate. It has become full of lies and disinformation. I had expected better after November but some things never change. We can now see the real instigators.
So there you have it PNJ still not reporting correctly.
I looked for the correction on the digital version and never saw it.
1018, Joel, the root of the problem is apparent and it isn't this blog.
Most likely the Civic Con /Studer institute didn't want to eat too much crow.
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