51st Coffee With The Commissioner This Wednesday: COVID-19 and Impacts on Law Enforcement

What are the impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on our local Law Enforcement?  Find out Wednesday as we discuss the Pandemic with Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan

We will be having our 51st Coffee with the Commissioner event this Wednesday morning, August 5th, from 6:30 to 7:30 AM live on Facebook.

As we have been doing, we will once again be focusing on the impacts the devastating COVID-19 Pandemic is having on our local community.

We have previously discussed the economic impacts, the impacts on our faith-based community, our schools, our tourism industry, small businesses, and of course--healthcare.

But what about Law Enforcement?

This week, we will welcome special guest Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan to the program, and we will be discussing the challenges this Pandemic has placed upon the men and women of Law Enforcement.

I'll be asking questions and if you have questions for the Sheriff on this topic--please email them to me or post them as comments to this blog post.

some initial areas of discussion will include the following:

1.  What is the greatest single impact this Pandemic is having on the Escambia County Sheriff's Office?

2.  Is the wearing of PPE, and masks in particular, an difficult issue for the deputies, from a physical standpoint?

3.  Has staffing been an issue as members of the ECSO test positive--and how have you overcome this issue?

4.  Is there an measurable increase in petty thefts, burglaries, and larceny since the pandemic?

5.  With many our of work, and many stuck working from home--has there been an uptick in domestic calls?

6.  Has the pandemic necessitated major changes to any particular aspects of the  work your deputies do for the citizens of Escambia County?

7.  In the unlikely event the Governor shuts our economy down again--many believe this will increase crime as folks will become desperate for necessities.  With the unemployment numbers rising and the economy in deep recession already--is this assumption on crime increasing correct in your opinion?  and if so--how can we get ahead of this?

I look forward to an interesting discussion on these topics Wednesday.  In addition to the Sheriff, we will also have County Administrator Janice Gilley and Escambia County Emergency Manager Eric Gilmore on the call to give an update on the impacts of the Pandemic on Escambia County.

I will ask the salient questions that everyone is asking me.

It will take place this Wednesday morning from 6:30-7:30 AM.  The replay will air on Myescambia.com.

Join us live, and ask your questions in real-time on facebook!

To join the event live Wednesday morning, simply go to https://www.facebook.com/CommissionerBergosh/

"See You" online this Wednesday!

Sheriff Says NO to BCC LETF Request for Drug Patches....

Sheriff Morgan to the Commissioners "I will not entertain any requests initiated by EBOCC or its staff for LET funds unless and until the commission's $250,000.00 discretionary fund is completely exhausted"

In a brief , terse one-page letter we received from Sheriff Morgan this week, The Corrections Office of the BCC was denied a request for $5,000.00 from the County Law Enforcement Trust Fund (LETF) for drug patches for inmates given probation.

In a recent BCC meeting, it was suggested that this request be made of the sheriff, as there is no doubt this would be an allowable expenditure as it is a 100%  a drug abuse prevention and safe neighborhood item.  But this modest, inexpensive request was summarily denied in the letter (below)

Knowing this request would likely be rejected, I went ahead and funded $5,000 toward these patches from my discretionary funds last month, and I will spend more if necessary for this worthwhile program that helps the judges and helps inmates stay out of our jail and stay clean and sober.

Letter from SAO Exonerating BCC--Shade Meeting was Legal and Appropriate

ECSO and ECSO Lawyer Lose on Complaint: State Attorney says "BCC Meeting was Legal."

The SAO sided with the BCC today;  The Shade meeting the BCC held in October was legal and appropriate.  The Sheriff  and his lawyer--and anyone else who thought it was inappropriate--were and are wrong...

The Chief Law Enforcement entity in the area, the State Attorneys Office, the "Super Judge" if you will, the office that decides what will be prosecuted and what will not be prosecuted, has spoken:

The State Attorney's Office  has told the Sheriff and the Sheriff's lawyer that their complaint lodged against the BCC was unfounded and without merit.

As I correctly predicted back in October right after we held this shade meeting-- because I knew all along it was perfectly legal and appropriate to do so--the State Attorney has now officially said that the shade meeting held by the Board of County Commissioners in October in response to the ECSO budget appeal was appropriate, comported with state law, and that the BCC violated neither the open meeting law nor the open records law.

Our attorneys and staff, as well as the BCC, were correct on this and the Sheriff and his lawyer were wrong.

We (BCC) were also 100% within our rights to not give the transcript of this meeting to ECSO when they demanded it--because under the law they are not yet entitled to receive it.

From the PNJ

 "Greg Marcille, assistant state attorney, said the County Commission complied with all noticing requirements for the meeting and listed multiple Florida Attorney General opinions and court cases citing that governmental entities are allowed to hold attorney-client sessions. 'For these reasons, it does not appear that the Escambia County Board of Commissioners violated the Sunshine Law by holding an attorney-client session," Marcille wrote. "Additionally no violations of the Florida Public Records law were committed..'The State Attorney's Office said the transcript can be kept confidential 'until such time as the litigation is concluded.' "

Equivocation is Easy....

In a classic scene from the 1981 comedy "Vacation" --Rusty is being attacked viciously by his cousin's dog, and Rusty's mom glibly states "Rusty, stop playing with the dog"--insinuating Rusty is somehow to blame for the mauling while simultaneously downplaying the dog's role in the attack and the seriousness of the attack....the scene was so patently absurd that it produced bellicose laughter among the audience--because it was so ridiculous!

Sunday’s PNJ editorial encourages the Sheriff and the BOCC, as it relates to this year’s budget and subsequent appeal and response, to “Grow Up and Get Over It!” imploring us to solve the issue like “leaders.”

On its face, this editorial and it’s message seems reasonable and rational.  However, upon a more stringent, reasoned analysis—it seems like the author has taken the lazy, easy path—and equivocation in this instance is both convenient and expedient.  It is immediately apparent that whomever wrote this piece did not read the county’s response to the Sheriff’s budget appeal, because like a wrecking ball going through an abandoned building set for demolition, the BCC response cuts devastating swaths of destruction through the Sheriff’s argument(s).  Had the author read the response, he/she would have known this, and perhaps some intelligent themes could have been expounded upon/infused in the editorial, such as:

--The Sheriff has said on many occasions that his men “went7 years without a pay raise”..but wait---Attachment 13 of the ECSO’s own appeal clearly shows that ECSO employees have had raises in 7 of the last 11 years, and in 14 of the last 18 years!  Why the disconnect—in what 7-year period did the deputies not receive raises??

--The Sheriff has said our budgeting process this year has been “arbitrary and capricious”—but paragraph 1 of page 4 of our answer to his appeal succinctly vaporizes that claim.  Did PNJ read this paragraph and the case cited?

--The BCC’s public comments and statements, so far as the public record clearly indicates, have been professional, courteous, and respectful toward the sheriff and his officers.  The Sheriff, by contrast, has engaged in a summer of name calling, personal attacks, and ad hominem insults directed at individual commissioners and BCC staff. The sheriff has insinuated that the administrator is dishonest, he has referred to the BCC as out of touch, saying we “can’t read, can’t hear, can’t find the nose on our face.”  The Sheriff even called me a “Bullshit Artist” on WCOA radio. (he used a radio-

Logic, Reason, and Facts: A Review of the BCC's Answer to the Sheriff's Budget Appeal, Part I

If you listen carefully, you can hear the citizens of Escambia County reading the facts and saying, collectively, "oooohhhhhhh, now I see what is happening and why there are so many problems...."  (Note:  If you get a "knot in your shirt" and stuff this knotted shirt in your ear, though, you won't hear anything)

Yesterday afternoon, the Escambia BCC finalized its response to the Sheriff's appeal of his 2017-2018 budget allotment.

The staff did an excellent job of capturing the issues, documenting them, and putting these issues into a very easy to read, easy to understand response.  Kudos to Administrator Jack Brown, County Attorney Alison Rogers, Asst. Administrator Amy Lovoy, Asst. Administrator Matt Coughlin, Deputy County Attorney Charlie Peppler, and all the other staff that contributed to producing this response.

The cover letter is 29 pages that reads very easily and makes a very impactful statement on why the BCC's budget should be upheld by the Governor.  The BCC response is based on logic, reason, and facts.  It is noticeably barren of emotion.  Just the facts, laid out very plainly with nearly 600 pages of associated back-up documents.

The entire package can be viewed and downloaded by any citizen by going to this page.

Contrary to what some people have stated, I have never said that the Governor has only seen 3 responses to these sorts of appeals over the last 30 years.  What I have stated over and over like a broken record is that the Governor and his full Administration Committee have only had to make the final ruling on one of these appeals just 3 times in the last 30 years.  Of course I understand that many more have been filed, but what I have also stated on numerous occasions is that this process is designed to foster a compromise before the Governor has to make a ruling personally.  This is factual, and if some folks that appear to be tone-deaf would simply listen and not get their shirts in a knot (and then stuff the shirt in their ears) they would realize this!  Only 3 times all the way through the entire process in 30 years.  Listen.

So after spending three hours consuming every page of this document last night--several points bear further inspection/study/dissemination--starting with the following parts of the 29 page opening document/statement:

---Page 6. paragraph 2 and the table illustrate clearly that in the past 5 years, the Sheriff's personnel budget has increased an average of 5% yearly.  ( don't have any idea where the 1% budget increase claim that we have all seen in videos comes from.  Even if we only took the last 5 years' worth of increases and assumed no increases for the previous 5 years before that---you still have annual budget growth in the personnel budget of 2.07% per year over the last ten year period.  This is simple, factual arithmetic, folks)

-- Page 8.  Could the LETF have been used for more appropriate crime prevention initiatives?  Training?  Complex investigations costs?  equipment?  School Resource Officers?

P. 9.  Why no use of  a fixed percentage of total LETF yearly (how about 50%) to help pay for School Resource Officers?  Any savings achieved by utilization of LETF funds for a portion of these SRO costs would have freed-up money from the Sheriff's general fund to help with his pay issues.

P. 12 .  Why were the reported entry deputy salaries LOWERED after 2013?

P. 13 Why the discrepency between what is reported as starting salaries and what the actual starting salary is?

P. 15.  The Evergreen Salary Study is not complete, has not been accepted by the BCC yet.  Let me repeat.  The Evergreen Salary Study is not complete, it has not been accepted by the BCC yet.

P. 16--last sentence on page....  Why has county staff had to wait three months (more than 90 days) for W-2's that were requested on July 20th from the Sheriff?  These documents were necessary to compare to what has been reported as "pay" for deputies on spreadsheets.  The county wishes to compare what is listed as "pay" to what was actually "paid" historically--however if we cannot get the documents to make this comparison---how can we make the comparison.  Why have we not received one (1) W-2 yet from the Sheriff after waiting more than 90 days?

P. 18--The BCC's budget has yet to reach the levels we were at in 2007....2007 BCC total Budget was $458 Million.    2017 Budget is $456 Million.  ( Sheriff's personnel budget is up 5% per year on average as illustrated on page 6).

P.22--This Graph clearly illustrates that it is simply not true that a better ratio of deputy per 1000 residents lowers crime.  Not true, not borne out by the facts on the page.

P. 25  Very LIBERAL sick-leave payout policy that is much more genereous than the policy for county employees is putting pressure on the Sheriff's budget

P.  28  Because the Sheriff subsidizes his employees' health insurance costs to such a generous degree, his budget is being pressured.  (BOCC employees' health premiums cost as much as 673% more in premium than do the Sheriff's employees)

There are many more examples of really stark issues with the Sheriff's appeal to be discussed.  This is simply the first pass.  I would encourage all citizens, and especially employees of the Sheriff's office, to look carefully at the BCC's response and the associated attachments.  Our response is based upon logic, reason, and facts.  We value law enforcement, public safety, and all of our citizens.  But this year, even as we compromised and provided raises once again (6th year in a row with a 3% raise for deputies)--this fair budget is being appealed.  I look forward to the upcoming 12-14 months as we work through this process........I stand behind our work and I believe the BCC will prevail in this process and that the Governor will not force us to raise tax rates on property owners in order to give the Sheriff an extra $2.7 Million.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.....

So last night's compromise vote to extend a 3% salary increase to the Sheriff's office deputies, along with all the other county employees ( EMS, Fire, Corrections, Dispatch and everyone else) was met with anger by some.  No good deed goes unpunished I guess.....

About an hour after the meeting, I received the below text from Sheriff Morgan (highlighted on the bottom of the string.)

I have not responded.

But in the meantime, I certainly DO NOT want the sheriff to send me a "copy upon completion." 

What will he send me a copy of--the areas he is not longer going to patrol as frequently?  I don't want that list, because once I have it (if I receive it) it may possibly become a public record which I must release if I am asked (if it is not an exempted item). If it is released, it will go to the media, if it goes to the media, the bad guys will know what areas will be "seeing a reduction of patrol coverage"  Is that what the Sheriff wants to happen?

To say I am disappointed that the sheriff is telling District 1 that we will receive a reduction of patrol coverage is an understatement.  We have had big issues with crime in West Escambia, Myrtle Grove, Avondale, Bellview, and other areas of District 1.  We have had murders in Beulah (Billings murders, Billy Boyette murder spree, and the recent murder where a body was dumped on Klondike Road) residents in Logan Place have endured had a rash of car burglaries--and to say these areas are going to receive "a reduction of patrol coverage" is astonishingly disappointing.

Even if this was planned it should not be discussed.  And the timing of this text, right after the meeting where we attempted to compromise with Sheriff Morgan (where we bumped his budget up to give all his men a 3% raise) could be construed by some as retaliatory or worse yet.....threatening.

All because, apparently, we did not fund him an 8% year over year budget increase.  8%.

What a disappointment.