The Wake up Call for Tuesday: Catching up with Former Pensacola Mayor Ashton J. Hayward

 

Today on the wake-up call live on WPNN 103.7 we discussed state, local, national, and international topics of interest.  We also welcomed onto the show former Pensacola Mayor and the current President of the Andrews Research and Education Foundation Ashton Hayward.  He and I discussed ST Engineering, Economic Development, the upward trajectory of Pensacola and Escambia County, his days as Mayor and his recollections of that time, his work at the Andrews Foundation, and his interest in OLF 8.  It was a great discussion.

In addition to this, we discussed:

-local news and information

-The hostages in Gaza

-Tulsi Gabbard’s upcoming confirmation vote

-25% Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum going into effect

-Tucker Carlson’s statements on who it was to blame for the attempts on Donald Trump’s life

-Federal Judges attempting to block Trumps reforms

-Rob Blagojevich’s full pardon from Trump today

-Charges against Eric Adams dropped by DOJ

And much more….

Listen to my interview with Ashton Hayward here

You can hear a complete recording of today’s live show here.

We are live each weekday morning from 6:00AM-8:00AM on WPNN-Pensacola's Information Station, where local, conservative morning-drive talk radio is ALIVE and Well and where we give you the most powerful hour(s) in local morning drive talk radio.

News, weather, traffic, humor, and educated, intelligent discourse with no PC filters....

The Wakeup Call with Jeff Bergosh on WPNN FM 103.7:  Radio UNRESTRAINED.

Bold, Decisive Leadership Needed to Approve ST Engineering Aerospace Deal

I was proud to be a signatory to the original MOU for Project Titan back in October--now it is crunch time and I hope we can get this win for Escambia County and Pensacola--I hope we can get this project over the line!

I strongly support economic development, job diversification, and making our economy locally more resilient to the inevitable financial stresses and downturns that come and go in cycles.  High-tech jobs provide this diversification, and I support seeking these employers for our area.

If we follow through with Project Titan as we have planned
Pensacola and Escambia County will experience a huge
economic benefit from this effort

The project to bring a large MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) facility to Pensacola has been ongoing for the last 8 years.  While I was on the school board in 2012-2013-the local school district's vocational education department began preparing for these jobs.  The city of Pensacola pushed for these jobs. The County chipped in $Millions.  In 2018, the first hangar opened for business and we now have ST Engineering, the world's largest Aviation MRO provider with a significant presence in Escambia County.  (in addition our area boasts the world's largest credit union NFCU, and Ascend Performance Materials the world's largest producer of nylon 6 resin).  Having world-wide industry leaders in Escambia County is a GREAT thing to pursue and to have!

Now-- as we press for the next steps in creating the ST Engineering MRO campus in Pensacola that will employ an additional 1,325 citizens at above average salaries--we have run into a funding shortfall.

The County committed $10 Million to the effort last year, as did the city.

But some other funding sources needed to complete the deal have fallen short.   We are being asked to commit an additional $5 Million to the effort from the county.  I think we need to do this.

Here is why I support pushing forward with this project:

---1325 new jobs will be added that will pay an average of $46K per year plus benefits.  This payroll influx will stimulate housing and retail purchases that will also generate sales tax and property tax revenues for the County

---More than 70 local companies currently do business and supply ST Engineering with goods and services--this expansion of ST will increase sales of goods and services for these and other ST purveyor companies. 

---The 1325 new jobs plus the 400 existing jobs created from ST Engineering's Hangar 1 project will spin off an estimated 3,400 ancillary jobs in our community.

---Upon completion of the build out-ST engineering will pay $1.7 Million yearly in local taxes (County, City, School Board)--of which an estimated $652,470.00 yearly will come to the BCC.

---Millions of dollars will be spent locally and Hundreds of  additional temporary jobs will be created locally to support the design and construction of this campus if the project moves forward.

This project will provide good jobs to the community and a ladder to the middle class that many residents currently do not have.  The naysayers have come out in force to try and kill this project spouting propaganda and rhetoric like... "The amount of money per job is $XXXX--and that's too much" or "We can't afford to do this--we need to pay for infrastructure needs"  Here is the reality that disputes the naysayers--at least in my opinion.

The $210 Million should not be looked at as an amount of money per job...rather, it should be looked at as a pot of money that will be PAYING FOR PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE at the airport---assets that once built will spin revenue out for the city and county and assets that from the point of construction going forward will be the property of the citizens of our community.

And from my perspective as a County Commissioner--we will benefit greatly from leveraging all the benefits of this $210 Million Dollar project (compiled from multiple funding sources) for an investment of just over 7% of the total cost of the project (if we vote to add the $5 Million on Thursday to our original $10 Million commitment bringing our total commitment to $15 Million).  7% to get the benefits we will get is a fantastic deal. And if we look at what the county's tax dollars are paying per job--that number is actually just over $11,000.00 per job.  Do the math, $15 Million divided by 1325 new direct jobs.

Finally, the naysayers do not accept the reality of the situation when they talk about how expensive they believe this project is;  Remember to always think realistically when assessing the arguments of these naysayers.  These folks would have you believe that if we do not do this project, somehow we can still control and receive the benefit of the total project investment locally.  But this is simply not true.  If we do not push this forward, the $56 Million Triumph investment likely goes to one of our neighboring counties to the east, and Escambia loses out Pooof...gone! If this project goes away-ST Engineering will pull out the $35 Million they have earmarked for this deal and spend it elsewhere....Poof, gone! And the various other sources of tax proceeds that would have been spent on this deal---you guessed it---Pooof, gone to another part of the state.

 Bottom line---if we kill this project, this pot of money will ultimately fund some other Florida City's infrastructure.  That would be a huge loss if that happened.  The intelligent play here if we are thinking long game is to push forward with this project for the long-term benefit of our area.

Interlocal Agreement between County and City Approved and Signed by BCC on 11/1/2018

Look below to see the Interlocal agreement between the County and the City regarding ST Engineering Aerospace's forthcoming expansion at Pensacola's Airport.  It is anticipated that Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward will sign this document at an upcoming meeting of the Pensacola City Council  at which point this document will be fully executed.

The county voted 4-1 to approve this document last night, a document which now bears my signature as chairman of the board. 

Doug Underhill was the lone voice of dissent on this item.  He voted "No."

Massive, Positive Local and International Media Response to ST Engineering Aerospace Deal

Huge Economic Development Deal for Escambia County and Pensacola goes viral worldwide in the press.  Historic!

The Escambia Board of County Commissioners joined the city of Pensacola and Florida West in attracting the World's #1 leader in Air Frame Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) services to come to Pensacola.

The County has now committed a total of $18 Million to this effort.

This week we signed an Historic Agreement in Singapore to massively expand this operation and bring thousands of GOOD jobs to our region!

The press coverage of this historic event has been huge...and it has been international.

Check out the coverage locally--- and overseas--of this monumental announcement and agreement!

Here

Here

Here 

Here 

Here 

Here

Here

and in lots of other outlets.

While some still believe economic development is "not appropriate" for local governments to pursue--I could not disagree more.  Actually---I believe what we are doing to grow jobs and diversify our tax base locally is an ESSENTIAL GOVERNMENT FUNCTION!  I'm extremely proud of this agreement, this deal, and bringing these jobs home to Escambia County!

Huge Day for Escambia County and The City of Pensacola

ST Engineering Aerospace deal was signed on Saturday, October 27th 2018.  This project will bring 1,400 new, high-paying jobs to Escambia County

Saturday was a huge day for Escambia County and the city of Pensacola.

An historic agreement was inked between the city and ST Engineering Aerospace that will positively impact our community for decades to come.

Escambia County, Pensacola, and ST Engineering agreed to a $210 Million dollar deal to massively expand the Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) footprint in our area.

Once completed, this will represent the largest footprint in North America for the World's #1MRO provider.

Locally, it will mean an additional 1,400 good-paying jobs at our airport--which will translate into 5,000 direct and indirect jobs of our area.

ST Engineering Aerospace deal was signed on Saturday, October 27th 2018.  This project will bring 1,400 new, high-paying jobs to Escambia County

This is a huge deal that was finalized this Saturday via a signing ceremony in Singapore.

Present for the ceremony were Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward, Escambia County Commission Chairman Jeff Bergosh, and Florida West Executive Director Scott Luth---as well as every executive from ST Engineering's Far-East Headquarters.

Saturday was historic---and the Pensacola area and Escambia County will benefit from this deal for decades to come!

Once this project is fully completed, Escambia County will be home to TWO (2) Worldwide # 1 entities:

#1 Credit Union Worldwide   Navy Federal Credit Union

# 1 Airframe MRO, ST Engineering Aerospace.

ST Engineering Aerospace deal was signed on Saturday, October 27th 2018.  This project will bring 1,400 new, high-paying jobs to Escambia County

This is a huge win for our community--many thanks go out to Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward and Florida West for bringing this deal "in for a landing."

ST Engineering, Project Titan, and Creating Synergies That Will Help Our Community Move Forward

This week I had the honor and privilege of  learning all about ST Engineering in Singapore.  Our local delegation has spent the last several days finalizing an agreement to bring 1,400 good jobs to Pensacola.  In the process of doing this, we have met the top leadership of this firm and we have toured their facilities and learned all about their various capabilities and business lines worldwide.  The knowledge we have gained and the relationships we have forged this week have been tremendous----- and will benefit Escambia County with positive dividends for years to come!

I have been in Singapore this week meeting with leaders of VT Engineering.  Tomorrow we will sign an historic agreement that will bring nearly 1,400 more good jobs to Pensacola.

Developing a diversified jobs base is critical to the long-term future of our community.  Doing this means sometimes we must travel to meet would-be jobs creators.

This week I have had the honor and privilege of meeting all of the top brass from ST Engineering.  This company is the worldwide leader in Aviation Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) services.

When we close this deal tomorrow, secure the funding from Triumph gulf coast, and begin with construction of three additional MRO hangars and an administrative facility at Pensacola Airport--this will be a tremendous win for Escambia County and Pensacola.

This project, once completed, will inject $400 Million into our local economy yearly while employing over 5000 citizens (direct and indirect jobs).  This is a win on the same level as was our win with bringing in Navy Federal Credit Union to Pensacola for their campus in Beulah.

Unfortunately, there are some that feel this sort of effort is somehow "not appropriate" for a local government to be involved in.

Some naysayers actually go further and say we should NOT do ANY economic development projects.  Many of these same folks believe bringing NFCU to Beulah was a "Mistake"

I can't have a rational conversation with folks that cannot see the value in working to bring the NFCU's and the ST Engineering's to Pensacola.  We must constantly be working to bring these sorts of initiatives home to our community--or else we are not doing our jobs.

This week, I have been criticized in the press for taking this trip I'm on currently;  I've been accused of wasting taxpayer money.

But I reject these accusations because they are ridiculous, naive, and short-sighted!

Developing personal relationships is how progress happens.

Getting to know the top leadership of ST Engineering  is worth the money spent doing so.

As this current project moves forward, I feel confident that other good projects will follow that will benefit our community---projects that may never have materialized had we not come to Singapore to meet the leadership at ST Engineering this week.

Additionally---this project will further grow a booming industry in our area and will facilitate the establishment of a "pipeline" for students to move into this business if they so choose.

And this pipeline will begin in elementary school for those students who show interest in working with their hands in this field.  This will create opportunities for MANY students in the inner-city communities of Pensacola who otherwise would never be exposed to this field of study.

How can the value of this alone be quantified?  Answer:  It can't be.  The money spent is worth it if it allows folks a new pathway to the middle class that didn't exist previously.

And this project has the very real potential of positively changing the trajectory of many young peoples' lives in our area and giving these same citizens a pathway to the middle class that might otherwise not exist.

But some narrow segments of the public locally scoff at this---and they belittle these efforts.

Sadly, these naysayers will always take shots at the leaders that engage in the work of economic development.  This  will not change.

But leaders that know the value of Business Development and Economic Development must never collapse from this pressure--there is simply too much at stake if we back away from these efforts and allow other communities to snatch these opportunities away from us because "some citizens" don't like leaders travelling to promote job creation.

Thank God the  majority of citizens understand the value and tremendous benefits derived from Economic Development projects that bring good jobs to our area.  Thank God for the intelligent, rational, understanding "silent majority."

They GET it, where others will NEVER "get it."

Project Titan: Moving Forward to the Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding

I was honored to speak at the ST Engineering Aerospace MRO facility grand opening in June.  We will soon be building three additional hangars at the airport and adding another 1,325 good paying jobs for Escambia County!

Project Titan, the effort to massively expand the ST Engineering Aerospace Maintenance, Renovation, and Overhaul (MRO) facility in Pensacola, is moving forward.

A ceremonial signing event will occur on Saturday, October 27th, in Singapore, memorializing this transformational project.

Escambia County has committed $10 Million to this effort ($18 Million total if the county's previous investment in ST Engineering's first facility is added).  Once completed, this project will massively, positively impact our county in many ways.  This power point document gives a great breakdown of the project and the benefits it will bring to our community.

I have been asked to provide a comment on this project, on the occasion of the signing of this historic agreement.  My statement is below:

County Steps up to Support Project Titan

Escambia County partnered with the city and Triumph Gulf Coast yesterday for a project that will provide as many as 4,725 new direct and indirect jobs in our area--a tremendous economic development win for years to come!

Last night the Escambia Board of County Commissioners took the first steps toward providing essential local funds for Project Titan.

Project Titan is the initiative to bring three additional MRO (Maintenance, Renovation, and Overhaul) hangars to the Pensacola International Airport as well as an administrative building over the next 4 years.

Triumph Gulf Coast has stepped up with a conditional approval for $56 Million Dollars toward this $210 Million dollar project.  The company that will be occupying these hangars (ST Engineering Aerospace) will be contributing another $35 Million toward this effort.  Various other funding sources will be needed and are being sought in order to be eligible to receive these triumph funds, and the next big ask comes of the city next Thursday when the Mayor will request $8 Million in funding for the project.

The really beneficial thing about the county's funding is the way the payments are structured and back-loaded to the out-years as follows:

Year 1---$0 net new money from county ($3.2 Million owed to county from city will be credited)
Year 2---$0
Year 3---$2 Million
Year 4---$4.8 Million

If the project holds true to the timeline and schedule, shortly after the county commits the largest out of pocket funding for this project($4.8 Million in FY2022-2023)--the county will within 12 months of this time begin reaping the economic windfall of nearly $3 Million in new revenue yearly from this build up to 1725 jobs resulting from this project. ($2 Million in recurring ad valorem revenue and a nearly $1 Million increase in sales tax revenue)

 If these projections of revenue hold true--within 4 years after the build-out of these hangars, the county's investment will be recouped fully, and the increased ad-valorem and sales tax revenue will continue coming in to the county's coffers as long as this operation is running.

This is a tremendously beneficial and profound project, a fantastic win for Escambia County and Pensacola--glad that the majority of commissioners clearly recognized this as a winning proposition in every respect.

What is Project Titan?

No, it's not that science fiction movie on Netflix.. It is not a scientific mission to Planet Saturn's moon Titan.

It is a massive project to bring more good-quality, high-paying jobs to Escambia County that will be presented by Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward our next upcoming meeting of the Board of County Commissioners.  It will be added onto the written communication portion of our September 6th meeting.

Elected Officials (l to r Senator Doug Broxson, Escambia Commission Chairman Jeff Bergosh, and Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward  Celebrated the Opening of the first ST Engineering Aerospace MRO Hangar in Pensacola on June 8, 2018

Project Titan has been approved by Triumph Gulf Coast to the tune of $56 Million over the next 4 years, and there are multiple entities that may contribute to this project which will more than quadruple ST Engineering Aerospace's operations and employment here in Escambia County!

ST Engineering Aerospace opened their first hangar in Pensacola this past June (that opening was a fantastic day for our community), and they are ramping up toward 400 jobs in that current facility. 

As the worldwide leader in the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Industry--ST Engineering Aerospace has facilities worldwide--but they want to massively expand their footprint here in Pensacola to keep pace with their growing business.  Although their current project here in Pensacola is fantastic....it is about to get much better with Project Titan.

I was honored to speak at the ST Engineering Aerospace grand opening last June

This project, if the city and the county are intelligent and go forward, will add three additional hangars at the Pensacola International Airport, as well as a brand new ST Engineering Aerospace administration facility.

The collective impacts---an additional 1,325 new direct jobs, 3400 indirect jobs, and upon full implementation, an influx of over $2 Million yearly in new ad-valorem revenue for the county as well as nearly $1 Million more in sales tax expenditures locally to support the operation which will flow back to the Board of County Commissioners.

The tentative financing of the $210 Million deal deal breaks down as follows:

Triumph Funds                                   $56 Million
ST Engineering                                  $35 Million
FDOT Funds                                      $50 Million
Governor's Job fund (year 1)             $4 Million
Legislative appropriation 2019          $3 Million
Governor's Job fund (year 2)             $20 Million
City of Pensacola funds                     $8 Million
Escambia County funds                     $12 Million
EDA (Federal funds)                         $17 Million
Additional funding to be identified   $5 Million

The massive positive benefits of this project will be a tremendous economic infusion into our community along with a further diversification of our jobs base.  The most compelling attribute:  we will get all of this financial activity and long term revenue for a very small commitment of local taxpayer funds.  $91 Million, representing 43% of total project budget, is derived from non-taxpayer funding sources!  When we look at just the county's portion of the deal, in order to leverage this $ 210 Million dollar initiative, our investment is a mere 5.7%.

This is a tremendous opportunity for our area, and I hope we will be able to move this forward despite the naysayers that do not believe in economic development.  Economic development is vitally important role of government, no matter who says otherwise.

I'm bullish on the future of Pensacola and Escambia County--Kudos to Mayor Hayward, Governor Scott,  Senator Broxson, and Florida West for helping to put this together!

Read Mayor Hayward's letter here.

When Naysayers are Wrong, Part I

Naysayers have been all around us since the beginning of time.  They are often wrong......

Naysayers are part of life.  From the beginning of time and throughout history there were and are to this day naysayers.  The thing about Naysayers is they are sometimes right in their position, sometimes.   But just as often they are wrong.

History tends to sort out the truth and whether or not the Naysayers were right or wrong on a particular topic.  One thing I'll say about naysayers....if the predictions turn out to be right, they have a lot more credibility than if they were/are wrong all the time...

Take, for example, the first explorers who set out to find the new world in the 1400's.  Naysayers of the time said they would fail.  Worse yet, naysayers back then said these early explorers would fall off the end of the earth because "the earth was flat..... "  We all know what happened there.

Closer to home and on a more personal note, there were naysayers in my last election--one of whom in particular predicted I would "lose spectacularly!"  Of course, those naysayers and the one in particular were all absolutely 100% wrong;  I actually won my primary election putting their hand-selected candidate in last place before going on to win my general election race with nearly 70% of the vote over my Democrat opponent. (I actually won with the highest margin of victory of any local Republican candidate on the slate, on a percentage basis,  up against a Democrat opponent in the 2016 General Election).  So yes, those naysayers got that one about as wrong as humanly possible.  What a hoot!

About the same time as the naysayers were predicting, inaccurately, my political demise--one naysayer was also loudly predicting that a highly successful, local economic development initiative that I strongly supported at that time(and still support) was going to fail.  Here is what this naysayer said, verbatim, about the VT MAE (now ST Engineering Aerospace) airport MRO project back in 2016....

"VT MAE is a huge failure.  It is an attempt to capture crumbs off someone elses [SIC] table because we lack the leadership to figure out our own vision for our community.  Has anyone articulated why

This is What Leadership Looks Like

As I toured the amazing ST Engineering Aerospace hangar today at the Pensacola International Airport as a part of the opening ceremonies – I was struck by a thought…..This is what leadership looks like.

More than just the sheer size of this hangar—173,000 square feet—capable of holding four (4) Boing 757 Jets at the same time—was the reality of what it took to get this project accomplished for the citizens of Escambia County and Pensacola.

It took leadership. 

Leadership to push forward with an intelligent plan to partner with the largest Maintenance, Renovation, and Overhaul (MRO) company in the world to bring this amazing hangar and 400 good paying jobs to our community.

Leadership to put together a public/private financing package and incentive deal.

And leadership to push through the critics.

Because along the way there were naysayers.  There were those that scoffed and the total price of $46 Million.  There were naysayers that excoriated the BCC for fronting the $8Million for the County and City share of the deal.  There were armchair quarterbacks that criticized the Governor, the Mayor and everyone else associated with this project.

“This isn’t the job of the government!” some would say loudly

“This is a scam!”

“This won’t work, there won’t be any jobs!”

Some people are just content with the status quo.  Some people are not leaders.

But without leaders, we don’t get deals like this one done.  So to all the leaders that worked to make this deal a reality, my hat’s off to you.

And somewhere in our community, we will now have families that are currently working 2 or 3 part-time jobs to make ends meet have the opportunity to work one job that pays well and offers a path upward with a worldwide leader in the industry.

So as I was fortunate and humbled to be able to speak today at this opening ceremony—I felt compelled to say it to everyone there.  For every deal like this one that crosses the finish line, dozens like it never happen—because of a lack of leadership!

So I told them today “Look around you at this facility and these people—This is what Leadership Looks Like!”