On WCOA's Real News with Rick Outzen

 

I was a guest on the area's #1 morning drive radio program, "Real News with Rick Outzen" yesterday morning.  

We talked about last week's meeting and the important takeaways from the Thursday meeting.

In particular, we discussed the jail and the surprise turn of events surrounding Doug Underhill's complete reversal on the county's newly passed resign to run ordinance (Underhill went from staunch disapproval and vocal opposition to such an ordinance to actually voting to approve and making the motion to approve this ordinance.

This flip flop by Underhill has led to some significant consternation and infighting on at least one Facebook chat site.

Meanwhile, many of us simply believe he lost his place on the agenda and made the motion and voted for the ordinance because he was confused or didn't know at the time what it was he was moving and voting for.

Regardless, it happend.  And, if it was by accident due to confusion, such an admission would never come from Underhill, so far as I can tell.

It was a good conversation--Listen to the Podcast here

Big Media's Hair Will Be On FIRE if this Goes Through and Senate Passes HB 7049 (Local Government Legal Notice Reform)!

The bill to allow local governments to bypass archaic laws and rules where legal notices must be placed in local newspapers is now actually moving in the Florida Senate.

The house passed the bill already by a large margin.

The senate has now put the bill into a rules committee hearing tomorrow.  If it passes, it could go onto the Senate Floor for a vote before the end of the session Friday.

Collective media heads will explode if this passes---as they make a lot of cheddar off of counties and cities being FORCED to advertise with local papers ---while public notices could easily be made on the internet saving local governments MILLIONs of dollars yearly.

Ironically, as is the case locally, often times the local paper is openly hostile, overtly critical, and biased against the very government (s) that must pay to advertise with such media outlets.  So passage of this bill (it's a long shot at this point) sure would be sweet! 

Even though it is unlikely to pass the senate-- the media is terrified of this bill's passage---and what it would do to their print media's bottom line in the state.

All eyes on the senate this week.  From the county's lobbyist in Tallahassee:

"In an 11th-hour move, the Senate has scheduled a committee meeting Tuesday to take up a House bill that would make changes in laws about publishing local-government legal notices. The House voted 78-39 last week to approve the bill, which has faced opposition from the newspaper industry. The Senate had not considered the proposal during the legislative session that started Jan. 11. But with the session scheduled to end Friday, the Senate posted notice of a Rules Committee meeting Tuesday to take up the issue (HB 7049). If it passes the Rules Committee, the bill could go before the full Senate. The bill, in part, would allow local governments to publish legal notices on publicly available county websites if it would be cheaper than publishing them in newspapers. The Rules Committee also will take up a House bill (HB 861) about terms related to medical specialties."

Bear Trap Part III

 

The legal saga over a 401(a) plan's "legality"  will eventually be settled.  But for the clerk of the court and comptroller--either outcome produces a pyrrhic victory so far as I can tell.....

As I discussed via multiple blog posts way back in June  and August, respectively, of last year--the ratcheting up of legal wrangling back and forth by the Clerk's office really does not help the Clerk's case.

It's simple.  The 401 a plan is either legal for commissioners--or it isn't.

And a judge will decide this.

And then we can all move forward---- as the legality of the plan is and aways has been the seminal question that needs to be answered so far as I am concerned.

Meanwhile--a bona fide contract approved by the Escambia BCC has been terminated by the clerk (constructively) via her failure to uphold the terms of it by the withholding of payments stipulated within said contract.  That's what my issue is and has been from the beginning--I don't take the plan at issue but I jealously guard the powers, rights, and responsibilities of this board, just as constitutional officers like the clerk guard their powers, duties and responsibilities under statute.  The passive allowance of this unilateral decimation of a bona fide contract of the BCC by the clerk  is bad  precedent to set, outside the purview of the clerk, and in very poor form if----as many believe-----the contract and stipulations as to 401 a payments are in fact legal.

But again, that is now in the hands of  one judge and a bunch of lawyers, and now even more lawyers(with new lawyers signing up recently to jump on the clerk's side churning up legal bills, fees, costs and $$ invoices the clerk will likely ask us to pay--not unlike orcas and sharks churning the bloody water feeding on a decaying whale carcass  out  at sea....it's an ugly display.  Meanwhile-the legal team the county is utilizing has provided their service pro-bono).  

So yes the legality question will get worked out--some lawyers will churn fees and costs others are

Jail Issues Front and Center this Week

With the ongoing media spotlight on the jail, and in the wake of a congressional letter of inquiry on the matter---issues at Escambia County's Correctional facilities will take front and center stage this week.

The letter, addressed to the administrator and the sheriff, will be answered by administrator Wes Moreno this week.  The sheriff has already submitted and made public his response.

Yes, as illustrated in the pictures I have previously submitted in earlier blogs and am attaching to this post---the conditions within the old jail are unacceptable.  Yes, these are human beings and must be controlled in custody and care of our staff within safe and sanitary conditions.  Sleeping on the ground next to a stinking, leaking overfolwing toilet is something I never thought I'd see in Escambia County--I doubt you'd even find this in most third world countries  (see below)

Sadly, this condition is a reality.  Here.  Not in Guatemala, Honduras, Chad, or Eritrea--here, in Escambia.

And mold and filthy, non-serviced and maintained ductwork--to boot.  (see below).

So no,  I'm not interested in spending another nickel, not one red cent, on the old jail.  As I was directly quoted saying in Sunday's paper--I want to demo that facility and forget it ever existed.    Because it is past the point of salvage--and to attempt a temporary fix would be akin to using a band aid on a sucking chest wound.  Too many decades with feckless maintenance and care, and too many liabilities if we keep it open.  Mold.  Need I say more?

So we MUST move forward with that jail in the rear view.  ASAP.

To that end, our administrator will be bringing a plan for the board's consideration this week at our Thursday committee of the whole  (COW) meeting to do the following:

1. An action plan to, as quickly as practicable,  to move personnel and inmates from the areas where facility conditions are borderline unacceptable within our corrections department.
2. a plan to enact a near-term strategy to harden other existing county owned corrections facilities to safely allow the movement and relocation of all prisoners out of our old jail and into acceptable new buildings/spaces.
3. Utilize the $9 Million we (BOCC) have allocated toward old-jail repairs to quickly implement #1 and #2 above.

 

Additional guidance and information, as well as the way forward, will be discussed between staff, the board, and the administrator at the board’s committee of the whole meeting this Thursday, March 10^th at 0900.

Public Beach Access # 4 Opened Today!

 See the video of the event here, below, followed by a photo gallery of the event.  Today was a great day for Escambia County!

Photos below:

The Old Jail Must Come Down.....It's Time

It's time to demolish the old jail.

The cat is out of the bag now.  The old jail must come down.

I made quite a lot of noise about the unacceptable conditions in the jail two weeks back.  And the local media picked up the story from my blog and ran with it.

Now everybody is talking about it.  

But where are the members of the BCC on this subject?  

In listening to my counterparts on the board yesterday at the meetings on this topic--it is apparent that the sentiment of the majority is that we demolish the old jail and move forward with Administrator Wes Moreno's evolving plan to house inmates temporarily in other facilities which we are in the process of upgrading to accomodate this move.

Our new jail can hold 850 inmates. (Probably a hundred more than that with some minor adjustments)  The Road Prison can hold 200.  The county's work release facility on Fairfield Drive can hold another 400, and a facility we own and are in the process of taking back, a state work release facility on L street, can hold another 150.

That adds up to 1600-1700 capacity--and our average daily "census" of prisoners in Escambia County is 1500 or so.

With this as the scenario--we can move the existing inmates out of the unacceptable, third-world conditions of the old jail--and I'm not going to vote to spend another dime on anything at the old jail.  We have $9 Million earmarked for repairs to the old jail--but in the condition that facility is in at the moment-$9 Million won't add up to a drop in the bucket of what is needed to bring that facility back to useability.

It has simply been allowed to deteriorate due to poor maintenance for decades.

So now it's time to move forward with the new plan, empty the old jail, and demo it.

Then we can determine the long-term fix which will more than likely include bonding the cost(s) of constructing a planned "expansion" wing on our new jail.

County's "Resign to Run" Ordinance Passes Unanimously

Escambia County's Resign to Run Ordinance passed unanimously tonight--with Commissioner Doug Underhill making the motion to adopt and also voting "for" the passage of this ordinance.  And no citizens, not one, spoke in opposition to this ordinance's passage.

This evening at the BCC's regular meeting an ordinance was passed which addresses employee participation in elections for the County Commission.

Although the topic has generated no interest among the public--it had elicited much conversation from insiders, partisans, at least one (1) facebook chat/fanboy site, and entertainment radio talk show host Andrew "Tallman" McKay.  He, Tallman-McKay- even threatened to come to our meeting and "scold" us for even bringing such an ordinance.  He didn't show up to speak, though.  Nobody else did either.  Nope--no keyboard warriors, no Tallman Mckay, nobody.

And now the item has moved forward.  

The reason there was no pushback from anyone so far as I can tell, and that nobody spoke to the item at tonight's public hearing is  because such ordinances are ubiquitous in Florida. And everywhere else around America to boot.

But the truly amazing thing was this:

The motion to approve the ordinance was made by County Commissioner Doug Underhill.

Not only did he (Commissioner Doug Underhill) make the motion to approve the ordinance--he also voted "yes" on the item-which subsequently passed unanimously 5-0.