Two Town Halls Upcoming in District 1

I look forward to hosting  two town halls in the first two months of 2022---one in Perdido/Innerarity and one in Beulah.

As I recently said I would do, I have now scheduled two town halls for the first two months of 2022.

With a lot of changes to the county's district lines as a result of our once-per-decade redistricting process having been completed--I thought it imperative to schedule these so that I can hear input directly from the constituents of the newly formed District 1 as soon as possible.

On Monday, January 31st we will have our first of these two town halls in the Perdido Area of District 1, at the Perdido Bay United Methodist Church, 13660 Innerarity Point Road.  It will be scheduled from 5:30-7:00 PM.  I will have staff with me, and I will also have my District 1 peer elected representatives from ECUA and the School Board as well--and they will have the opportunity to give remarks at the meeting.  Primarily, I want to have staff give updates and I want to hear from residents.  What are their concerns, priorities, and observations.  I will have a list of questions for which I will elicit simple responses from the audience utilizing "agree" and "disagee" placards--and comment cards will be distributed and collected so that the maximum number of questions/comments/concerns can be taken in by myself and staff.

On Tuesday, February 22nd, we will have our second of these two town halls--this one in Beulah at Beulah Middle School, 6001 West 9-Mile Road.  It will also be scheduled from 5:30-7:00 PM.  Again, I will have staff and my counterparts from ECUA and the School Board at this meeting as well.  We will utilize the same format and we will have an agenda for the meeting.

I look forward to hearing from the constituents and continuing our momentum in District 1 at completing big projects for the citizens.

When 28 - 6 = 28???......(and costs Escambia Taxpayers $37,179.00*)

Basic arithmetic should not be this difficult for the state's department of corrections.....

There was a costly, frustrating, and exasperating event that was brought to my attention the other evening:  It had my blood boiling.

The caller was angry, and frustrated.  "Jeff, this is going to piss you off, I know it is, but you need to find out if this is true.  It is absolutely killing morale among some of the corrections officers"

The caller went on to describe the horrible outcome of our jail attempting to transfer 28 prisoners, already convicted and sentenced to state prison,  to the state's custody the day before.  Apparently, according this individual's account (and since confirmed by multiple sources), our jail had COVID tested all 28 of these convicts, got their paperwork in order, staffed three transport vans (with officers on OT to drive) along with a chase car with a supervisor on OT---and sent these prisoners 4 hours away at "zero dark thirty."  This was the plan, to transfer them to the state.  But like the best laid plans, sometimes they fall apart.  Upon arrival at the state facility---all of the convicts were tested again for COVID.  And what do you know, six of them tested positive.....

Okay--but now what?  I mean, it's not like we, at the county jail can turn away a prisoner that has COVID--we have to take them in and quarantine them.  Surely the state corrections department has to do this as well, right?

Wrong.

So here's where the story becomes incredibly infuriating.  Because, as we know, we are already housing MANY state prisoners at our county jail for zero compensation (although the costs to us for this service adds up to $90.00 per day per prisoner)----so the thought of handing off a group of 28 state prisoners to the state department of corrections was one that many in the jail were very relieved to be doing.  Not to mention that these convicted prisoners are among the most difficult for officers to deal with day in and day out....

But the state blew up the plan.  Apparently they have a policy against accepting any prisoner who has COVID or has been exposed to anyone who has COVID.  So they rejected NOT just the 6 positives---they sent ALL 28 State Prisoners back to Escambia County to be quarantined for a two week period before we can "attempt" to send them back again.  Can you believe that??

"The rub is, they would have quarantined them there anyway had they not tested positive--for 14 days!" said one exasperated, knowledgable source within the jail with whom I spoke.

"How much did this evolution cost the taxpayers of Escambia County!"  was my question to this individual.

"A lot---and after this COVID pandemic is over there will be dissertations written on just how costly

Florida Auditor General's Office to Commence Operational Audit of Escambia's TDT Funds Beginning Today

Later this morning staffs from the County and the Clerk of the Court's office will "kick-off" the process for the conducting of an operational audit on the county's use of Tourist Development Tax dollars from October of 2020 through December of 2021.  This audit is coming via the Joint Legislative Audit Committee at the specific request of the Escambia Tourist Development Council.  

The county will facilitate the auditors with whatever information they require to do this work, to include office space, parking, network connections, information and files.  The Clerk's office, I assume, will do likewise.

For my part, as a brand new member (as of last Thursday) of the Escambia Tourist Develoment Council------ I welcome the audit and any findings which will be helpful in our local administration of these important funds for the purposes allowed and according to statutory limitatations and stipulations/conditions. 

The estimated time for completion of the field work will be 4-5 months--with an initial, preliminary report to come sometime in late spring or early summer.  See the engagement letter, below.

County to Engage Search Firm (for a $22,500.00 fee) for County Administrator Search

The county will begin a search for a permanent County Administrator in the next few weeks.  According to the proposal of the search firm selected by the county--the entire process could take as little as 14 weeks....

The county is moving forward with the initial steps necessary to begin the seach process for the selection of our next, permanent, County Administrator.

My personal belief is that our current (interim) Administrator, Wes Moreno, is doing a fantastic job.  And therefore I am not pushing for the selection to start post-haste.

But because we do currently have an interim admisistrator, and due to the fact that some members of the board have expressed interest in moving this eventually necessary process forward--the purchasing department had been working on advertising a solicitation for this purpose for the last several months.  A number of firms submitted packages and letters of interest in doing this work for the BCC.

Staff have now gone through the responses and they have subsequently winnowed the pool of potential firms down to one.

GovHR out of Illinois is the successful applicant and they have submitted a 40-page, detailed proposal that lists their process, their team's accomplishments and respective resumes, and their references.  Additionally--the package gives detailed information on over 100 other recent placement(s) this firm has facilitated for cities, counties, and other entities nationwide over the last several years.  Page 15 of their proposal has a rough timeline of their process, 14 weeks in total, from commencement to hiring (which seems aggressive and optimistic to me) and also the proposal discusses the firm's protocols for interviewing and meeting potential candidates in the era of COVID-19 with emphasis on the leveraging of technology to assist in this process.

The amount of the purchase, $22,500.00,  falls below the threshold necessary for requiring pre-approval by the board.  Therefore, the company selected will be paid via a county purchase order to begin the process iminently.

Going by what they believe they can do and the timeline in which they can do it---it seems as if we may just have a new administrator as soon as late April, early May.

We shall see

Read the complete GovHR proposal here

BCC's First February Meeting pushed to 2-10-22; No COW on 1-13-22 or on 2-10-22

 

Board Reaches Settlement with David Bear--We're OUT of the Underhill Lawsuit

Nearly two years ago the Board of County Commissioners were sued for something that was not our fault and something for which we were not responsible.

The actions of one commissioner were being used against the other four members of the board.

It was never right--but I understand the reasons why what happened came to pass.  Nobody from the State Attorney's office looked into the withholding of the records---although they were notified of this issue by multiple persons.   And the county's staff did not convince Commissioner Underhill to turn over documents that the county considers to be public records.  Nobody had administrative rights over social media platforms that only Commissioner Underhill controlled----so nothing was happening.

But now, as of last night, those of us who did no wrong and had no culpability in the withholding of public records are OUT of the lawsuit.  It's Done!  And it was WAY past time for this to happen.

One of my top priorities as chairman was to get the settlement talks on the fast track;  they had been occurring for about 8 months but it was a back and forth, excrutiating slow motion ping pong match that was unbearable to live through.

So we have now made the light-speed jump over the last 48 hours to finish this once and for all.   We got a draft of a stipulation of facts and settlement sent to the County Attorney, completed a shade session on this topic particularly, and we culminated this "at-pace" exercise by approving a settlement agreement with David Bear and his attorney yesterday evening at our meeting.  It was our last order of business and we got it done.

Now, the other 4 board members are out of a state case and a federal case leaving one commissioner, Doug Underhill, in both cases in his personal capacity (and in his official capacity in the Federal Case).

This is an appropriate outcome:  After all, it was never about us, it was always about him, and now he can stand alone and answer the charges and accusations alone as he should.

Read the settlement HERE.

Read the stipulation of facts document approved by a 4-0 vote of the board (Doug Underhill abstained) last night HERE.

The media locally, as per usual, have no idea this happend.  They were asleep at the switch talking about the "Insurrection" anniversary.......So what they'll do is poach my site later, copy the documents, and then run a story late this afternoon on this without any attribution or a link to this site where they got the story; sadly, that's what they do and how they operate around here.  Easy, lazy, and borderline unethical....😀  Nevertheless this is a big story though, and they should cover it.  And they will.

68th Coffee with the Commissioner this Wednesday

Join us for our virtual 68th Coffee with the Commissioner event on Wednesday, Jan. 12. The live stream will take place from 6:30 - 7:30 a.m. To join the meeting, visit  www.facebook.com/CommissionerBergosh/. 

Attendees will include Interim County Administrator Wes Moreno, Public Safety Director Eric Gilmore, County Engineer Joy Jones, and Flood Defender founder Jay Faison and member Chris Curb. Moreno will give an update on county matters, Gilmore will discuss current public safety initiatives and Jones will discuss stormwater issues in the county along with Faison and Curb. This conversation will also include strategies to address the flooding issues in Escambia County, proposed legislation for this session in the Florida House to aid in flood resiliency, and other topics of interest related to stormwater management and flood prevention, preparation and mitigation.

Residents are encouraged to send virtual questions and comments they would like to discuss with District 1 Commissioner Bergosh during the event through Facebook. 

For more information, contact District 1 at 850-595-4910