It's All About Personal Relationships.......

I was honored to bring remarks on behalf of the Board of County Commissioners to Monday's lease signing between the City of Pensacola and the American Magic sailing team.  

Monday's signing ceremony between American Magic's sailing team and the City of Pensacola at the Port of Pensacola was the culmination of years' worth of work by lots of individuals and carried to fruition due to the generosity, hard work and determination by a host of entities.

To much press fanfare and celebration, American Magic's skipper Terry Hutchinson joined current Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves and a raft of elected officials and other dignitaries on a chamber of commerce weather day at the port to formalize a 10-year agreement.

It was a huge day, and the event was covered in multiple press outlets.  The American Magic webpage celebrated the deal as transformational.  It was a massive win-win of epic proportion.

And it all happened due to a long standing friendship between area Icon and surgeon, Dr. James Andrews, and members of the American Magic team, chiefly Terry Hutchinson(skipper) and Doug DeVoss (principal).

Often times in life, when good things happen, there is a story behind the story......And just as ofter--It's all about personal relationships.

This story is no different.

The DeVoss family and Dr. Andrews all enjoy competitive sailing.  Dr. Andrews competed in numerous America's Cup races over the years, and had a boat named Abracadabra.  A number of years back, Dr. Andrews was building a boat in Maui and the DeVoss family lent a helping hand to finish it up.

Years later, as American Magic was sailing in Key West and had run into some bureaucratic hiccups with the local government down there---a call went out from the team up here to Pensacola.  To Dr. Andrews specifically.

"You all need to come up here to Pensacola" was Dr. Andrews' advice to them.

Shortly thereafter, in early 2018, Dr. Andrews spoke with his good friend and then Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward.  The conversation centered around the port.  Could they use space at the port?  was the question.

Ashton enthusiastically supported the idea, the team sent a contingent up to Pensacola, and they began sailing here that year.  And their presence has grown here every year since.  And each successive mayor has carried forward the baton of this project.

A few years later, in 2021, local restaurantier Collier Merrill and Commodore Tom Pace from the Pensacola Yacht Club began to publicly advocate for an expanded presence for American Magic here in Pensacola.  They approached me with the idea after a TDC meeting and I encouraged them to come the very next day to the regular Board of County Commissioners meeting to gain additional support.  Which they did and which support they did gain.  Then the Tourist Development Council, a board upon which I sat and still remain a member of  supported the project, then Triumph Gulf Coast, then the Governor's Job Growth fund and Escambia County and the City of Pensacola.

Everyone got on board, and this lease happened Monday.  It will be an enormous win for our area and will make Pensacola, Florida, the sailing epicenter of the United States.

But it didn't happen in a vacuum, and it wasn't a one man show.

Lots of folks carried the water, pushed and made it happen.

And none of it would have happened had it not been for a personal relationship that was nurtured and maintained over decades of time--interspliced with other overlapping personal relationships.

Because it's all about personal relationships. Life, governance, sailing, and team building, too!

Neighbors Are Frustrated, Concerned, and Angry

 

Neighbors are concerned that more homeless allowed to camp near existing neighborhoods will create more blight, lowered property values, more crime, and more trash including shopping carts full of feces and trash dumped in yards...How does such a plan make neighborhoods and communities better?

My phone has been blowing up about the city's proposed homeless campsite in the County, in District 1 on Houston Avenue.

Anger, frustration, concern.  Those are the adjectives I'd use to describe what I am hearing.  I'd also add hopeless and dejected to those three words.

They don't want the camp 15 feet from their homes.

In short, they feel that if this happens, they are being used to shoulder a problem the city has right now under the  I-110 bridge.  

Thankfully--the city council put this plan on the back burner by a 5-2 vote last night.  That was a smart vote.  And they all know I am vocally and actively opposing any such plan.

Some individuals who are familiar with the issues of the existing camp in the city say a lot of the problems of the existing camp are not being shared with the public.  According to one source who is intimately familiar:  "The PPD have been called out to the camp dozens and dozens of times.  There are drug users, there have been sexual assaults, and all kind of other criminal activities in this camp.  If they get put in the county--all those calls for service will now fall on the Escambia County Sheriff's Office to handle.  Do we really need to do this?  was the rhetorical question this individual asked.

The answer is NO we don't have to.  Take them to the woods--not to suburbia.

Meanwhile--the residents in the general area of the proposed county site, with whom I have communicated, express real concern for the homeless who are down on their luck.  I've not heard one of them say anything disparaging about these folks.  They simply don't believe putting this camp right next to their neighborhood is prudent.  The below email sums up the feelings of these neighbors, perfectly.

"Commissioner Bergosh,

 My name is XXXXXXXX  XXXXXXXX and my family and I live at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, Pensacola, FL 32526 on the corner of XXXXXXXX  and  XXXXXXXXXX Avenues.

 Our property is across Houston Avenue and a few dozen feet from the proposed location to set up a homeless camp. We have serious concerns with this proposal.

 In the four years we have lived here, we have seen several unnerving activities on Houston Ave., including an abandoned car set on fire, a motorist driving on the grass attempting to run over her significant other, homeless individuals smoking what appeared to be illegal narcotics, intoxicated individuals screaming obscenities at the top of their lungs while dancing down the middle of Houston Ave., and countless tons of littering. All of these instances occured with 15 feet of our property.

 Since several homeless individuals already live at times in the proposed camp location off Houston, we have found needles and drug baggies in our lawn and have had a shopping cart full of human feces, rotten food, clothes, and trash dumped in our yard. This has occurred with only a few people living there, let alone hundreds of individuals.

 Since purchasing the house, we have worked hard to improve the neighborhood and build strong

Mayor Robinson on Rick Outzen's Podcast: Strong County Administrator Idea Won't Work

Mayor Grover Robinson gave an interesting take on the concept of a "Strong" Elected County Administrator on Rick's Podcast yesterday.  It was a very interesting interview and opinion.....revealing a somewhat unexpected position on the topic...

I listened to Real News With Rick Outzen's Podcast late yesterday afternoon and there were some very interesting comments from Mayor Grover Robinson.

After he was done speaking with Rick about several city issues--the topic of the pros and cons of the City Charter's Strong Mayor was discussed in depth.  And then the conversation naturally segued into the current discussions wafting around a few downtown offices about a "Strong County Administrator" type of governance structure.

As a guy who used to be a commissioner and who now wields incredible power as a strong mayor of Pensacola-- his vantage point on this topic is unique.  And I must admit I was somewhat surprised by his comments on this subject.  He said "he didn't think it would work."  Then he elaborated on his rationale for thinking this--discussing some of his current interactions with the city council  and also discussing and describing his time on the BCC and different administrators he worked with.  He also discussed our community's switch in 2020 from an elected to an appointed superintendent.

He then asked a seminal question that we should all ponder.  

"Tell me how that structure [elected county administrator] is better?"

It is a worthwhile interview to hear--for folks on both side of the issue.

I've made my personal opinion known with emphasis.

Now, apparently, the current mayor of Pensacola has as well.

I wonder if John Peacock and the others heard the interview yet?

Listen to the Podcast here.

A Stallion Becomes a Titan Thursday!

An artist's rendering of what project Titan will look like, on the ground at the Pensacola Airport, in 2024.

A few years back we celebrated the completion of project Stallion and we looked forward with eager anticipation to the funding and commencement of project Titan.

These names, Stallion and Titan,  are the economic development code words for the quarter of a Billion Dollar build out of hangars and administrative facilities for the Pensacola Airport by ST Engineering Aerospace that bagan with the $46 Million project Stallion, completed in 2017-2018.

That event was amazing, and I was honored to speak at the grand opening of hangar 1 (4:10 of this video) along with Mayor Ashton Hayward, Governor Rick Scott, and dignitaries from ST Engineering--the world's leader in aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul.

Between then and now, a lot of hard work has been put in, lots of money has been raised, and this week--the $210 Million Dollar project Titan officially begins with a groundbreaking on Thursday.

a staggering $66Million for this local project came from Triumph Gulf Coast (BP) funds---the largest such award in the panhandle of Florida to date!

Once again I have been invited to speak at this ceremony on behalf of the county-which I am very happy to do.  I know the value of economic development in general--and to our community specifically.  

While some feel we should not expend ANY taxpayer funds to pursue ANY opportunities like this and other large employers such as Navy Federal Credit Union, Ascend Performance Materials and/or ST Engineering--I completely disagree.  In fact, I believe to go after such opportunities is an essential function of good governance! 

Fortunately for the majority of rational, intelligent citizens that understand basic tenets of economic theory and economic development-- the very small and insignificant  voices of dissent on such opportunities by naysayer policymakers locally get quashed by the majority that are rational and understand such things.  Narrow minds never win the prize--and to listen to them on this project would result in this, what will be one of the largest MRO campuses in the world, going somewhere else like Austin, Seattle, San Diego, or Pittsburgh.  But because those voices of dissent were not, are not, and will never be given any creedence on important topics like this--Such an opportunity and the concomitant $210,000,000 is being spent here, in Pensacola.  With this project, once completed, Escambia County, Pensacola, and our region will achieve the following: (projected from a HAAS center study conducted in 2017)

--1,325 new, high paying jobs (in addition to the 400 new jobs from Project Stallion)

--a regional Center of Excellence for the MRO industry

--a new Aerospace industry sector, adding resiliency to the economic base, in addition to tourism and military

--a regional magnet to attract talent and supply chain businesses

--Enhanced and expanded regional educational programming- George Stone, Pensacola State College, B.T. Washington and others.

--a pathway to the middle class for many

--1,725 new jobs in the targeted Aviation/Aerospace industry sector for a fully developed MRO aviation campus (Project Stallion and Project Titan combined). New jobs will be added as each hangar element is completed.

--Average guaranteed wages >$45,000 per employee (actual amount is greater)

--3,400 new indirect jobs*

--$400 Million annual personal income increase

--$600 Million Florida GDP annual increase

--Annual rental income of > $1.0 million per year  to Pensacola International Airport from ST Engineering

--Annual ad valorem income of > $3.5 million to City and County from ST Engineering

The groundbreaking ceremony will take place this Thursday morning at 10:30AM.  See the "run of the show" below.