Project Narrative Leads to Resident Concerns.....

A potential development at the NW Corner of Blue Angel Pkwy and Hwy 98 in District 1 is creating a lot of consternation among nearby residents who oppose this....

A recent pre-application narrative describing a proposed shopping center at the NW corner of the Intersection of Hwy 98 and Blue Angel Pkwy in District 1 ( along with supporting documents )has led to some significant concern among many nearby residents.

My office has begun to see a steady influx of phone calls and emails about this potential development.

I've been asked to attend an upcoming Home Owner's Association (HOA) meeting for a nearby neighborhood--which I have agreed to do.

The main issues of concern center around the potential piping of sewage from this proposed development north east to an existing ECUA sewage lift station that sits within the Southbay neighborhood.  The residents I have spoken with are vehemently opposed to having any additional sewage routed to this lift station--which many have complained eminates a foul odor already----and they don't want that increased.  Of course, that decision about where sewage would go rests solely with ECUA, not the county.

The other concerns are the two chief concerns I hear about on every potential development:  Traffic and Stormwater issues.

This narrative, pictured above, has created some significant concern among nearby residents

The narrative presented with the pre-application, above, does nothing to assuage the concerns of nearby residents on either front--as it clearly indicates the intention of cutting and filling the parcel and raising elevations to overcome the topographical issues on the parcel.  This sort of language always sparks concerns among neighbors--as many county stormwater issues have been created when one development is permitted and builds "up" (to a higher elevation than nearby parcels) to mitigate stormwater impacts.  Often, even with the best engineered stormwater mitigation "plans" baked into the developments---the development itself leads to more stormwater dumping onto adjacent properties.  It happens and has happened.  So naturally--this gets neighbors' attention.  And mine.

The other issue is traffic.  This particular area has seen a tremendous impact from the traffic snafu created by a newly permitted "ER" facility that has subsequently utilized a portion of Hwy 98 as their defacto "helipad" for transfer of patients to other facilities.  And when Hwy 98 is shut down for a

Is There a Better Way for Us to Govern?

The Escambia Board of County Commissioners operate and govern via 5 County Commissioners seated in 5 single-member districts.  Only the citizens of each specific district can vote for their commissioner. 

Formerly, like most counties nationwide and throughout Florida, commissioners were all seated in distinct, apportioned geographic districts and voted upon by electors from the entire county--meaning every citizen got to vote for 5 commissioners.

This made sense as decisions county commissioners make affect every citizen in the county--so it only made sense that every voter should be able to vote for every commissioner.

But this, regrettably,  led to a condition locally where minority (black) candidates could not be and were not being elected--even though the minority population of Escambia County was and has been significant at roughly twice the national percentage of the black population overall (24% locally, 12% nationally).

So litigation in the late 1970s that sought to correct this inequity and allow for appropriate minority representation in county government led to the issue going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1984.  That Supreme Court decision let stand a lower-court ruling mandating single member districts in Escambia County--with one district being a "minority-majority" district by law, in perpetuity.

Fast forward to today, and about 28 counties (Including Escambia County) of 67 in Florida utilize single-member districts for the election of county commissioners, shcool board members, and utility authority board members.  The majority of counties in Florida, and in the rest of the nation, however, utilize the model where individual commissioners are voted upon by ALL constituents and seated (with a concomitant residency requirment) in specific districts.

District wide elections help to prevent the "ward-politics" effect that we witness locally--where obviously clear-cut decisions, rulings, and votes by the board instead get pushed back in a byzantine method of appeasment to small groups of citizens vocally opposed to initiatives or decisions in "their neighborhoods."  Easy decisions get kicked down the road or denied outright. This occurs simply to appease one geographic block of voters--for the benefit

A Wrench in the Works?

Could all five County Commissioners in Escambia County be up for election together in 2022.... or 2024??

Commissioners were notified late yesterday afternoon about a late add-on to a committee bill in Tallahassee that could have big consequences on next year's elections for county commissioners statewide, to include those of us elected to serve in Escambia County.

Senate Bill 90 is related to elections and election administration.

Some folks are opposed to it, many support it, and still others like some provisions contained in the bill and not other components in the proposed legislation.

The related bill, Proposed committee bill 21-05 expands upon SB 90 in a big way.  

And on the very last page of this house committee bill, a major paragraph was added having to do with  the way County Commissioners elected in single-member districts statewide will be elected going forward:  

"Notwithstanding the terms provided elsewhere in

 law, at the election immediately following redistricting

 directed by s. 1(e), Art. VIII of the State Constitution, each

commissioner elected only by electors who reside in the district

 must be elected and terms thereafter shall be staggered as

 provided in s. 100.041.

Section 26. This act shall take effect July 1, 2021."

In a nutshell, this language appears to stipulate that ALL commissioners representing single member districts (28 counties in Florida will be affected) must stand for election in the first election after the constitutionally-mandated redistricting necessitated by the decennial census every ten years--meaning for some commissioners their 4-year terms will be sliced in half.  In Escambia County, this would mean Districts 1,3, and 5 would have to stand for re-election again in 2022 -two years ahead of time- and once more in 2024-in order to achieve the "staggering" of terms indicated in Florida statutes.  If enacted, this would result in three commissioners locally being made to stand for election three times in the span of 4 years.  This would be required if this bill passes with this language in tact and if we complete the redistricting this year.  

Page 6 of the House Committee's analysis of the impacts of this provision of the legislation sums up the issue very succinctly:

"Effect of Proposed Change:  The bill provides that in the next election following each constitutionally required, decennial redistricting, a commissioner for each district must be elected again and terms will be staggered as provided in s. 100.041. This will divide in half the four-year terms of 2 or 3 single-district commissioners in each county, with even or odd numbered districts affected depending on the redistricting year. The change will not affect at-large commissioners or district commissioners elected county-wide."

County Commissioners from 28 Counties in Florida may be tremendously, negatively  impacted by a one-paragraph "add-on" to a House Committee Bill if that language, the final paragraph language in PCB 21-05, stands and becomes law.  Timing of the re-districting plans will become the new thing to watch...

Then it would all come down the the redistricting timeline.  

Under Chapter 124.01 (3) Florida Statutes, redistricting for County Commission districts "shall be made only in an odd-numbered years."  It is supposed to happen this year.  If it could not be completed this year, it appears it would have to move to 2023 to comport with Chapter 124--meaning the onerous provisions of SB 90's House bill 21-05-- would fall on districts 2 and 4 locally in the election the following year, 2024.

But wait just a minute, hold on.......Could redistricting really take that long though?

Uh, yes, it could......  

Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic--the US Census Bureau is way, way behind schedule in delivering us the data we will need locally in order to draw new district boundaries.  It looks as though we may not even get this data until late September or early October!  Taking into account the lost week in November to Thanksgiving, and the two weeks lost in December to Christmas and New Years--that would only give us about 9 weeks to do the research, have hearings, take input, hold joint meetings, meet and workshop with the Supervisor of Elections' staff,  advertise, and vote on the new boundaries.  

That is a really, really aggressive and compact timeframe that may not be achievable.

10 years ago when I was on the school board--the county, school board, and ECUA took about 7 months in total to redraw the commissioner, school board member, and ECUA districts in Escambia County that were ultimately adopted in September of that year.  It was a time-consuming, citizen involved, drawn-out process--but we did it right and it did not get challenged in court.  

If we rush it to meet a deadline--to complete this task in 2021 (the "odd" year stipulated in the state constitution) there is no telling what the ramifications could be if the new districts draw challenges or lawsuits.

So it will be interesting to watch, going forward, whether that language in SB 90 and it's related committe bill in the house 21-05-- survives the session.

If it does, the next thing to watch is this:  

When will counties statewide complete the redistricting process?   A rush-job in COVID-19 wracked 2021, or deliberatively with all data and plenty of time in  2023?

Inside the Planning for Beulah's Brand New, State of the Art Firehouse

 

Exterior Elevations of the soon to be constructed Beulah Fire Station from the latest design drawings 

The work toward constructing a new, modern, state of the art fire house in Beulah is moving ahead.  According to staff, the 95% design drawings will be completed by the early April.

Meanwhile, I have requested and have now received the most recent drawings for this project that illustrate how the facility is being envisioned by the architect who is designing it.

Interestingly--this same design will be utilized at both of the new firehouses that are to be constructed in Escambia County over the next two years (one in Beulah, one in Pleasant Grove).  The rationale for using one common design and then "site-adapting" that same design to the location for construction is that it saves time, effort, and resources.  For the end user, it creates a uniform space with which to work.  Bottom Line:  It saves taxpayer money on design--and is a very smart way to go because we're building two stations and it creates an economy of scale.

Building highlights:

The currently envisioned floorplan of the soon to be constructed Beulah Fire house 

The highlights of the new facility include a size of 14,502 SF, four truck bays, with a high-bay size capable of accommodating the largest apparatus in ECFR.  Additional facility components include office spaces, 8 bunk rooms, four large bathrooms with showers, a day room, a large training room, and two EMS ready rooms.  In addition to this, the facility will have a large modern kitchen as well as large laundry and gear storage rooms.  The design of this new "prototypical" station was made with input from a committee that included planning, facilities and ECFR (paid and volunteer) personnel--with the aim of capturing all the necessary requirements for the crews that will man this station. 

Due to the irregular lot size in Beulah (a "flag-lot"--with a narrow strip on the southern boundary on 9-Mile Road and a wider width further in toward the northern boundary)-the initial plan is to build the facility set-back from the front, utilizing the narrow southern portion along with an ingress/egress easement for accessing 9-Mile Road.

The existing lot size and dimensions for the Beulah station will present a challenge.  But to overcome the conditions planners are designing access that conforms to the lot's dimensions, as illustrated above.  Additionally, I am told that when we get our 95% drawings in early April,  The retention pond may have to be more linear and nearer to the front of the lot-due to the fact that a wet pond may be required instead of the dry pond that had initially been envisioned for the site.  We will see what that looks like after the soils engineers do the calculations.

I'm excited to see the final plans, and I am very happy that the men and women volunteer firefighters in Beulah, along with the potential day-shift paid crew we are working to fund, will finally be getting a modern station with everything they need to continue to provide fire protection for our community!

Much more to come in the next several months!

Released Public Record from Federal Trial is Revealing

This document, above, is one of several that came out of a hearing before a Federal Magistrate Judge a few weeks back in Doug Underhill's public records lawsuit.  Apparently, this is one of the many documents that was/is considered to be a public record by the court but that was not initially turned over to the requestor by Commissioner Underhill.  So the document was released this month.

I hear many, many more-- perhaps hundreds more-- will be coming soon.

The interesting thing to me about this particular document, though,  is that "Jacqueline" in this facebook messenger conversation is apparently filing/or has filed a complaint against my brother, Circuit Court Judge Gary Bergosh.  If it is the "Jacqueline" I believe it to be, this is very interesting, indeed.

If it is "Jacqueline" from the Facebook chat site "Escambia Citizens Watch"---I wonder why it is my brother she is targeting?  I mean, there is no doubt she strongly dislikes me.  She runs me down all the time and lies about me on her site--ho hum no big deal.  I have a thick skin, her opinions mean nothing to me, and I ignore that echo chamber of hate, irrelevant site anyway.  

But why bring in my family?  Why go after my brother -- a Retired Marine LT. COL who went to Iraq and put "boots on the ground there?"  A literal Eagle Scout who has done absolutely nothing wrong, a guy who simply does his job, and does it well.  He's a guy who is regarded by most attorneys I speak with as a "good judge, fair and reasonable."

Obviously----- nothing did come or will come of any such garbage, baseless complaint against my brother to the JQC by "Jacqueline"  anyway--it is utter rubbish.  

But what a sick, degenerate thing to do.  Come after me all you want, but leave my family out of it.

To relish in filing an ethics complaint against my brother--- because someone has a beef with me?  

How totally and completely disgusting is that?  And she says "I hope Judge Bergosh has bad times ahead."  Embarrassing for "Jacqueline."  Who would say that and wish that on someone who did nothing wrong?  Uncharitable, non-Christian, Sick and disgusting.

Wow.  Can't wait for the rest of these records to come out....I wonder what else we will find??

Costs, Next Steps Identified for Completion of Escambia's Newest Public Library in District 1

The construction contract for Escambia's newest public library has been awarded.  The video above presents a virtual rendering of what this library (which will be located on Mobile Hwy directly across the street from Bellview Elementary School) will look like upon completion.  This Bellview library, which will be the first public library constructed and located in Escambia County's District 1, will be completed in one year-----in March of 2022.  This is a little over one year behind our initial projections of completion in 2021---due to the fact that the addition of extra, necessary parking spaces called for the design of an engineered retention pond, which in turn required engineering, plans, and permitting--all of which took an extended period of time to complete due to numerous factors not the least of which was the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic.  

Thankfully--the above work has all been completed now; initial sitework is underway, temporary power has been installed, and groundbreaking is imminent.  This previous post from January of 2020 shows a rendering of how the new library will lay on the property (albeit it will now have more parking and a storm retention pond on the property).

See the lists of the materials costs totaling $3.8 Million, and the latest, revised construction timeline, below:

NFCU's Check Was "In the Mail" After All!

At our last Board of County Commissioners meeting, the Committee of the Whole, I once again asked about the status of our payment(s) to DPZ for their design services for OLF-8.  Specifically, I asked where we were at with obtaining reimbursement from Navy Federal Credit Union for these services.  As of the 11th of March-- the date of this meeting last week--we hadn't received any additional reimbursement (s) from NFCU for the planning efforts at OLF-8 beyond their first payment several months back.  Meanwhile, the county was up to nearly $700K in direct payments to DPZ....despite some significant ethical questions raised about DPZ's conduct. (This relates to DPZ not notifying it's client (Escambia County) of plans DPZ was notified of to "embarrass" commissioners and undermine Escambia County's economic development initiatives at OLF-8)

So at this committee of the whole last week, In jest (because we had yet to receive a second check from NFCU), a brief discussion ensued culminating in the trope "Is NFCU's payment on the way, Is the Check in the Mail?"

Well, lo and behold it was.  Apparently it was cut on March 9, 2021--two days before our meeting on the 11th.  The check WAS in the mail.

In all seriousness though, this is important on a couple of levels.

1.  This latest reimbursement has occurred after/since the "summit" where top leaders from Florida West, PEDC, Escambia County, and Keith Hoskins (representing NFCU) hammered out the current "Hybrid Plan" compromise for OLF-8.  It is my understanding NFCU was asked, in that "summit," meeting if they had any problems/issues with the hybrid plan---and no issues were given/identified by Hoskins on behalf of NFCU.

2.  Because no issues were mentioned/given by NFCU when they weighed-in on the latest compromise, and because they have subsequently now sent another payment of $275K for the planning effort--the logical assumption can be made that if the final plan moves forward based upon this hybrid compromise, NFCU will follow-through with their previous pledge to fund reimbursement of the total costs of the planning effort for OLF-8 per the terms of their MOU with the Escambia Board of County Commissioners.

So this is all good news, so far as I can tell.  I certainly hope NFCU makes the final payment once this plan is approved.  Meanwhile, here is staff's narrative that accompanied the notification about NFCU's payment:

"A check from Navy Federal has been received for $275,714.38 (copy attached). Check will be delivered to the Clerk’s office.  Here are the project funding details to date:

 Contract Amount            $1,263,507.00

Paid to DPZ                       $699,943.77

Balance on contract        $563,863.23

 Paid by Navy Federal      $631,753.50

 As discussed last week, any future invoices will be the responsibility of Escambia County. Phase 3 (Phase 4 on the reimbursement schedule in the MOU) outlines that we can invoice NFCU once final OLF8 Master Plan and Development Report is officially adopted by BOCC up to 100% of the Master Plan Expenses invoiced."