that's right [Music] i am good evening and welcome to the board of county commissioners regular meeting April 3rd 2025 5:30 p.m please turn your cell phones to vibrate silence or the off setting the board of county
commissioners any person to speak regarding any item on the agenda the speaker is limited three minutes unless otherwise determined by the chairperson to allow sufficient time for all speakers speakers shall refrain from abusive or profane remarks disruptive outburst protest or the conduct which interferes with good orderly conduct of the meeting upon completion of the public comments period discussion is limited to the board members and questions raised by the board commissioner Hoffber you have the invitation this evening yes thank you i'd like to invite Pastor Ted Trailer and Liz Trailer from All of Baptist Church to come up and lead us in our invocation
tonight thank you so much for being here please stand thank you Mr chairman in speaking to you beforehand uh I'm going to pray and include in that the May family the officer that uh died here in our city from Walton County and I think they're removing his body even probably as we stand here tonight i saw the flags going up on uh 110 and so we'll remember the May family as
well and those that serve us tonight schoffburger thank you for the invitation let's pray together father we approach your throne in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ lord we come with somewhat of a heavy heart tonight because of this family broken a wife two children left for this officer in our sister county that uh was shot and killed and I pray your comfort to
be on them and Lord that reminds us to pray for those that stand for us this day i thank you Lord for all of our authorities there is no authority but that is given to us by you and we thank you for that lord as we approach this Good Friday Easter season we thank you for the hope of heaven found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Lord now I bring these
commissioners before you and Lord I have but one prayer for them tonight i pray for wisdom lord we know wisdom is better than silver it is finer than gold it's more precious than jewels and nothing that we can desire compares to it and I pray Lord for wisdom wisdom wisdom to be on these that sit before us tonight thank you that wisdom is there for the asking and there
is no tariff on it i thank you Lord God for giving us wisdom when we ask and I ask Lord that these leaders would know the wisdom of the God of Yeshuan and it's in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you commissioner Barry would you like the pledge please join me in the pledge to our flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all
all right we'll go on down the line commissioner Barry anything you'd like to add to the agenda no thank you commissioner May no sir mr chairman Commissioner Stroberger no sir uh Commissioner Hberger no sir okay i don't have anything to add can u then in that case can we have an adop a motion to adopt so move Mr chairman is there a second hey can we try the voting electronically tonight by chance since we have a light light um in 12 years it ain't worked but let's try it it's going to work tonight oh my god we'll just give it a chance if it doesn't we'll do the hand hand vote
wow commissioner May you want to apolog No all right if you if you apologize for scamming me going Democrat I apologize for that all right so the motion passes 50 we're at Commissioner Forum commissioner Barry thank you Mr chairman um first I want to uh recognize GCA and our YO they had the livestock show this past Sat livestock and uh FFA show this past Saturday was a fantastic fantastic event had hundreds of uh hundreds of young people showing all kinds of uh you know all kinds of animals you know steers steers pigs goats chickens uh all types of uh all types
of things had about 80 uh 80 total winners and you know 15 18 categories uh it's a lovely affair it's an event that used to go on by 4 by the 4 center Matt Langley Bell property which is now uh part of the Navy Federal Campus uh we're probably in our seventh or eighth year in Molino and it's uh the the participation has been has been wonderful um everyone involved in GCO works very hard to put it on and then uh you know it kind of comes and goes like a uh you know like a whirlwind
on that day but want to thank them and all those congratulate all those young people for their work want to uh thank Administrator Moreno as well as Mike Rhodess i think Mike has left and Jamie Hickden we had a ground uh not a groundbreaking but a ribbon cutting yesterday kind of a grand opening for Gonzalez Jennings Park off of Old Chemistr some people would know the property as where the 99 boys ranch used to be and then it was an Escambia charter school after that but it's u another amenity another community amenity that I'm you know uh just absolutely pleased to uh be
pleased to be able to bring to my constituents um the paper parking can continues to thrive and we're you know we're working on that i want to thank Mike and Jamie again for you know continuing to get some uh you know some additional amenities out there a little bit more parking u you know all as a as a commissioner I know all of us all we want to see is utilization of these assets that we're you know that we try to put on the ground and uh you know to see the utilization see the daily use is uh you know is just a great thing um I want to recognize again Mike and
uh Madame Attorney's former aid uh Align who runs the Pensacola football or Pensacola Soccer Association they've got 150 teams coming to town this weekend to play soccer want to thank uh Superintendent Keith Leonard for kind of helping with a little bit of partnership at Lipkcom and MacArthur again to help the traffic there's going to be a lot of traffic out at Ashton Brozenham on uh Friday evening and Saturday and uh Superintendent Leonard helped with uh some access on school district owned um property on the east side of the campus and then a week from Saturday
uh we're going to be able to host another SEC soccer kind of a just a roundrobin tournament with um LSU Mississippi State and University of Florida going to come and play three soccer matches a week from Saturday out at Ashton Brozenham so a lot of good stuff happening out there and it's uh you know hopefully it'll be nice weather we'll get you know hopefully a couple thousand people out there to watch that thank you Mr chairman thank you Commissioner commissioner May thank you Mr chairman and uh Commissioner Halberger I certainly want to thank you for having Pastor
Ted trailer here from Molly Baptist ted thank you and when we talk about breaking down barriers of of communication I remember the first time I ever ran for office I didn't win but uh fundraiser that you were not even solicited you showed up and you showed up with a check and uh you supported and I will always remember that and will always be indebted and uh grateful uh for what you and Olive have done uh to help all districts uh and I appreciate it and uh my daughter and son became great basketball players because you allowed for your youth director to train them uh twice a week
at Olive Baptist without charge so we certainly will always be very thankful certainly want to acknowledge Horris Jones harris I know we had some issues in our district this year and explaining and and and letting people understanding zoning issues so Horus uh thank you so much uh we certainly uh appreciate all that you have done and I know the chairman will count my words uh he doesn't necessarily like Democrats so he counts my words i've never heard him say that to any of his Republican colleagues what he often says is my word count is it's going overboard but uh in all
seriousness I want to do uh a um condolences and prayers to Trent Richardson who went to University of Alabama NFL who had opportunity to play for me and has represented Pensacola in the loss of his mother uh we'll certainly be taking water and coats uh to to his house but uh to Trent Richardson and the Alabama family and to the Scamia High family uh he's lost his mom who not only mentored and coached Trent and and and took care of Trent but she took care of so many children in the community quite frankly in your district uh Commissioner uh Mr chairman uh they
grew up in Warrington and so to Trent Richardson and the whole Richardson family our prayers and condolences go out to them thank you Mr chairman thank you Commissioner May commissioner Sherberger yeah last week Hassan and I got to go to Sherwood Elementary School Leadership Day i think that was their first one is that right Hassan that was their first one and u we got to meet a future astronaut uh so everybody told us what they wanted what they wanted to be there was a YouTuber there
was an astronaut there was a basketball player this young lady is in third grade her name was Royalty her name is Royalty and I met her mom too her mom's an educator there and I and I told her I had to get my picture with her Hassan and I got her picture with her because because she's going to be an astronaut and I want to make sure I have my picture taken with her because when you know what you want to be when you want you know what you want to be this early in your life you're probably you're going to get there you'll get there because your focus is on that i know what
that's like so congratulations to Royalty um and all the other kids there it was a it was a great event um on Saturday morning again Hassan and I we do everything together it's my office wife everything yeah uh we attended the second annual Justin Gatlin Track Invitational oh that's really cool i'm star struck when I meet guys like Justin or uh Olympic boxers and uh it it was
just great because he's an Olympian and if if you don't know who Justin Gatlin is he is the most decorated 100meter runner in history awesome dude and I think he was like 32 or 34 when he had his personal best which is unheard of in the 100 meter which is astounding to to to have a personal best i think it was 9.74 something like that in the 100 meter at that age to be running that fast wow anyway that's all I got thank you thank you commission oh I got one more thing i got two young
ladies visiting us that are visiting us for for at least till her mom their mom finishes school here um my granddaughter so I want to welcome them to Pensacola thank you Commissioner Hoffberger thank you Pastor Trailer and Liz thank you so much for being here and for your continuous leadership in our community and for taking the time to pray over us and encourage us i really do thank you so much it has only been one week since our last board meeting but in our community a lot can happen in one week and there are some exciting things coming up that I want to invite you to be a
part of saturday April 12th is Cops Cars and Crawfish and that will be benefiting the Sheriff's Foundation that's going to be at Five Flag Speedway the same day from noon to 4 is EMS openhouse on W Street so you can bring your kids out they can walk through the ambulances press the buttons look at the lights and learn more about our first responders and on April 14th at 5:30 Escambia County is hosting a dive symposium so if you are part of the dive
community or interested in that I encourage you to attend and then April is Joy Blackman's birthday month so I want to make sure that we take time to celebrate the decades of service to our community come on up no and and thank her for her continuous push to move Escambia County forward so thank you so much for that this past week we elected a new congressman congratulation um Jimmy Petronis campaigns races and elections are extremely exciting and they're a huge part
of what we have built our democracy on so if you have not taken part or been involved in a campaign in the past I would encourage you to do so there are various organizations in our community that can help you get plugged in with that um Escambia County Federation of Republican Women is an active group they meet at Marcus Point Baptist Church um the last Thursday of each month thursday April 10th at 7 p.m i'll be speaking at the Pensacola Christian College Freedom Forum and this is really focused on sharing how young people can become more involved in
politics both on a local and a national level and then um Friday April 11th at 10:30 a.m i will be speaking to the Women for Responsible Legislation group at the Spring Street Library so I would encourage you to attend that as well and I want to um take a minute to thank everyone who came out this morning to collaborate in our Cal meeting it was a great meeting there were a lot of really good ideas there were a lot of things that we agreed on which is pretty awesome we've got some steps and a path to move forward and I am just really excited to get the Bay Center
project going breaking ground ground on that and really moving forward and seeing that become a huge asset to our community so thank you thank you Commissioner Hoffberger i want to first start by thanking Pastor Trailer for mentioning Deputy May i was asked if I would make a comment about it and um I I will sometimes service requires the ultimate sacrifice um I've seen that in my military career and and it makes life so precious when something like this happens because it makes
you reflect on where you are in your continuum of life and uh so for the May family and for that beautiful prayer that gave them some condolence and hopefully helped them through through their grief thank you very much and for the deputies and all the people serving in Walton County this board is very sorry for your loss i want to mention this week um last week when the chief financial officer he wanted to come over to district 2 to go to Patty Ship Building and Patty
uh fish market Joe Patty Fish Market and that was nice he came county administrator went uh Commissioner Hoffberger went it was a it was a great way for him to see some of the grassroots bluecollar get it done ship builders that work over there in Patty Ship Building Yard and also in the fish market he brought with him Senator Mayfield which grew up here she went to PHS and her her brothers went to Tate she was here because her her father her father had passed and I
just want to tell her I'm sorry for that as well um but the visit was great i want to congratulate uh our now Congressman Patronis i think we have a lot to learn from that election um I think Miss Valmont ran a great campaign and hopefully uh some of her ideas will uh flow over and help us Gambi County and I say that I never met her but I think she ran a good campaign and I think it'll be better for us county um the last few days I was in DC now now here's where it gets scary
whenever you go to DC but um I'm on the defense communities summit and you all heard of Doge and U so of course every every board that on there is talking about 8% 8% cut over the next five years 50 billion out of DoD now they don't have the granular level that those are big numbers those are astronomical numbers um there weren't any specifics if that would trickle down where yet but it seems real and so as you know every every county in the United States that has a military
base is fighting fighting very hard to make sure that they retain and keep their assets for their community um we're going to need to do that too because what normally happens is contracts go then they'll look at consolidation and um I think we're positioned pretty well i appreciate what the board has done with the custody to try to move us in the right direction but um I will definitely be fighting extremely hard i've I've been working with several Congress people to try to make sure that we protect our area as you know we we've been without a congressman for several months
now um but we do have some allies in Congress so I just we we all have to get together on that um one other thing I want to say this last week on the Pensacola Purto Bay estate program we had the honor of giving Senator Broxson and Mayor Fitch an award for their service as you guys know he's been a huge advocate for the estuary mayor Fitch was on the board for several years and she was she was just beautiful person to work with um I just wanted to highlight that and then the last thing I wanted to highlight what Commissioner Hoffberger said tomorrow we have so many events going on in
April for charity last week we did the furball and I think four of us were there lumen you I I didn't know you liked animals that was kind of But it was good to see you there listen we whatever we won man but um tomorrow night we have fork for cancer and that's kind of special for me because my wife's a cancer survivor we had a pretty good scare a couple years ago and then next week as you said cops and crawfish as well as first te so a lot of wonderful things going on in the community um it's a great community to be from and we give back all the time so that's all I have um for your
comments yes Commissioner Mayor i I I I would certainly like to recognize uh the celebration for the Sanger at the on on yesterday i mean that's important uh but also I would be remiss in you were there with Commissioner Stroberger the flew that the few that flew honoring Chappie James and all those people and um I probably wouldn't be sitting in this seat if it wasn't for a guy that's sitting in the audience right now by the name of Clifford Stokes and uh for him and Sam Horton uh to be honored uh I'm I'm deeply grateful uh that people who fight for equality opportunities
and have no desire to ever run for office but they just do it for the right reason and so uh whenever I have an opportunity uh to honor uh you know two of the nine that are still living uh Clifford Stokes and Sam Horton as y'all were there so Mr stokes thank you uh we appreciate it and you probably will never be repaid and history will probably not you know do justice to for what you've done but for me I'm very thankful to you and Sam and give you your flowers while you yet live and so we appreciate that and fighting for a minority majority district uh that could be
in jeopardy uh as we move forward in the next couple of years so thank you Mr chairman thank you with that said can we get a motion to adopt the So move Mr chairman second all right please vote and we're going to try it electronically i know we're we're kind of in transition here motion passes 5-0 um Mr gilmore can you come up and deliver the proclamation
chief Watson you want to read the proclamation director Gilmore has given me the privilege of reading the proclamation for you Mr watley so the Escambia County proclamation whereas the Escambia County has established an employee of the month program to recognize one employee to represent various departments and Nick Watley paramedic supervisor in the emergency medical services division in the public safety department began his employment with the county on January 24th 2022 and is selected as employee of the month for April of 2025 for the standards of excellence
he displays in the performance of his duties and in his role as paramedic supervisor Nick manages an entire shift of ambulances and guides dozens of paramedics and emergency medical technicians providing the necessary coordination and support that allows them to be successful and his commitment to provide the best possible service and care for residents is displayed in the constant collaboration with the emergency communications division leadership to maintain workflow and in his efforts to promote active relationships with local healthcare entities and
Nick's notable recent accomplishment was during the January winter storm Enzo when he actively managed his crews while cut off from any support for a significant period of time he even pulled or towed ambulances out of ditches and up icy roads and Nick demonstrated his commitment to the safety of the citizens of Escambia County Florida by pulling or towing multiple citizens who have otherwise been stranded out during the coldest weather experienced in decades now therefore be it proclaimed that the board of county commissioners of Escambia County Florida hereby commends and
congratulates Mr nick Watley in his selection as employee of the month for April 2025 board of County Commissioners signed Michael Kohler chair District 2 ashley Hoffberger Vice Chair District 4 steve Stroberger District 1 lumen May District 3 steven Barry District 5 thank you sir [Applause]
no okay thank you very much Dave congratulations all right we'll move did the clerk's office receive the proof of publication for the public hearings on the agenda and the board weekly uh board weekly meeting schedule yes Mr chairman the clerk's office has received all proofs okay do I have a Can we move to wave the reading thank you is there a second second please vote
motion passes 40 with Commissioner May off the DIS we're at the clerk and comprollers report oh I'm sorry I missed one public hearing 52 sorry I apologize for that uh we don't have any speakers right we have a motion to move 53 move the 532A1 through4 and B thank you very much is there a second second all right please vote uh
motion passes 40 with commissioner May out the das clerk and comp Charles charles report madam clerk the February investment report is on here documents for filing and minutes and reports that we prepared for your approval please okay any comments move the clerk's report all right second please vote second i'd second it but either way please vote
okay is it coming what's that i don't see it oh motion passes 5 i missed it and I guess it went away so quick all right yep horus at GMR come on up we have no speakers okay uh is there a second second all right please vote the delay motion passes 5 we're now at the county administrative report wes
thank you Mr chairman there are five items on the technical public service consent agenda there are no changes there are no speakers all right move the technical and public service consent second all right please vote motion passes 5-0 mr chairman there are 29 items on the budget finance consent agenda please drop card 2-16 2-9 and 2-20 and there are no speakers okay just I just want to make
a comment on 2-5 is there any ones that anyone else on the board wants to hold 16 19 and 20 three change orders i'm sorry Commissioner B can you repeat that three change orders okay so can we move the balance so move i move the balance all right second okay please vote i know oh as I was commission um the clerk sent me a note she'd like to make
a comment on the budget and finance i'm sorry Pam yes i just wanted to do this before you vote so it's more to inform you i'm not really looking for a response so I'd like to just read this so it's clear i began reviewing the use of commissioner's discretionary funds these funds are a part of the overall annual budget approval for the budget includes 50,000 per year for commissioner um and there's a rollover it's part of the general fund classified as aids to private organizations taxpayers dollars must be spent in a manner
that is consistent with article 7 of the Florida Constitution which requires a lawful county public purpose the public purpose for discretionary expenditures is not obvious when you allocate to private gaylas picnics benefits church revival school softball teams and golf tournaments looking at this in a different way taxpayers do not pay taxes for the county to make donations to private organizations of their choosing to enhance the mission of that organization
also there is a specific prohibition in article one of the Florida Constitution preventing revenue from being taken from the public treasury to aid any church or religious domini denomination if the commissioners want to support those organization a personal contribution is more appropriate i will be holding discretionary funding request until my review and opinion is completed then there needs to be a clarity identified and concrete county public purpose serving as the primary objective
with a reasonable expectation that such primary objective will be substantially and effectively accomplished through the expenditure to nonprofit non-government entities i would suggest that each commissioner work to evaluate whether a lawful public purpose exists for funds requested this is something that I've started reviewing it's come up through the years seeing more on the agenda for churches raised my awareness i've been doing research i planned on having a report ready
for May so I'm just putting you on notice that starting tonight I'm holding all discretionary fund requests until my review is complete madame clerk um I guess what I'm saying if you if there was something that said it was in public interest would you still hold the discretionary fund if you make it clear as to what that public interest is that is going to be most helpful madam attorney can you help guide I I know we Yeah i mean because what makes it what I mean we law enforcement fund
we do that what makes it eligible and legal i mean because we've done this for 10 years and so now we're saying that we can't do it well I didn't say that i said I'm going to hold the expenditures until I finish my review and you're right led is similar and that is also on my list to review um I have had conversation with the county attorney through time and through administrators about a concrete public purpose to re to reach the objective and I'm not really here tonight to have
a conversation with you i just wanted to let you know that I'm reviewing it there are things that have come to light that I think we should consider and I would like to consider that together i do look at the Florida Constitution when it talks about the religion so you're doing contributions to churches for their picnics or something they're having i think that's a violation and so I thought we might start having that conversation now but I will do my review i will do a report i would like
to talk to you about this um and continue the discussion okay and that's fine Madam Clerk i mean we're going to respect you write the checks uh but I mean it's it's certainly alarming and disappointing that we've done it for 10 years and at this point now we're beginning to do review in which we've helped multiple organizations which you know I'm not a lawyer uh that benefits the good of of the community and so at this point you know I don't do a lot of them so it really doesn't matter to me okay i mean I'd like to review it and I'd like your input
yeah and I think we all probably know what's going on at the federal level we know what's going on at the state level these are things we really should consider what we're spending on like you I've never sat down and defined and looked at absolutely everything can we defined it what backs it up um and I've been fairly comfortable through the years there are things that are changing there are opinions that are being made there's decisions being made at the federal level and state level
i think we need to look at this and it's been on my agenda for this year to do it so I'm going to follow through looking at something for churches i think there were two churches on this so I thought okay tonight might be a good night just to put you on notice that I I'm going to review this i' I'd love to for you to show us how we can rather than how we can't and how can we do it to continue there are concrete public purpose that you can state you're trying to reach a certain mission you can't just say it's public purpose and voila it is you have to state what it is and I think we
need to get in a better habit of doing that i've discussed with the county attorney during time different times about a form about a written form so you talked to the county attorney because this is the first I've heard of this well I haven't really needed to talk to you about it and I think Allison's shaking her head yes because we've had these and that's fine i just hadn't heard of it there's just because for the constituents it's important there's movement on the federal level on the state level for us to really look at our expenditures and making sure that they
meet a public purpose and again my awareness went up today with the churches being on there i think that's that is an absolute no as I sit here right now and I agree with you ma'am because I've never funded a church i don't think you have no I think I mean separation of church and state i I'm I'm with you on that okay if you'll just work with me and let's look at the review and I think the county attorney should review it but I think we should be looking at how we're spending our money
why we're spending it and a county public purpose if we're just making a charitable donation to a purpose that isn't county government purpose consider writing a personal check but I'll I appreciate that Madam Clerk i what I Madam attorney can you please give us some guidance in a timely manner that says that we're in or out of rags and so I don't like being embarrassed and I think I I feel like if we're doing something wrong I I don't want to do it i mean what I want is a legal opinion i don't care if it's politically expedient or not i want to know
if it's legally right and if it's ma'am I totally agree that's why I'm bringing this up i figured it was a quiet meeting i thought it was something we could talk about allison and I have talked about this from time to time i have mentioned it to Coler to Chairman Kohler and I would like to follow through on this i would like for us to look at Madam Attorney can you can you make a comment do you believe this what the clerk's saying is to be um that we're we've been doing things in the wrong way no I didn't say well are I I'm not sure what we're doing here but should we be doing
it differently maybe that's the right question i don't know if I mean quite frankly if we're doing it wrong then let's stop you know we went through all that I mean I don't want to be in a public meeting saying that I did something you know even the appearance of impropriety is wrong and I've been through enough of you know being accused of doing something that I had no knowledge of and so I'm not going to take a responsibility for something I have no knowledge of and so I've been told for 12 years that this is good so tonight I hear that it may not be good there's a pause on it if it is okay let's pause it what can But I'm not I'm not going to sit here i mean because there's
another way in which we can do it there's always a way in which you can do what's good and so I think that you know it's not like we're giving out millions of dollars i mean it's it's a basketball team that can't go to the state championship is that a a good good i mean there's people that I I don't I don't know i mean but I I can just tell you what if I'm helping Washington basketball team go to the state championship because the school district doesn't give those kids any money to me that's a common good you know but I want to know the legal position Mr chairman well it it sounds
like that's what the justification needs to be but I I'd like to hear from um Madame Attorney to give us some guidance as a board so that we can get ahead of this yeah we I can get with budget in the clerk's office it's been quite a while since this issue has been raised with me but yes it's certainly something we can come up with a solution with a better document or form to help uh document what you're doing and what your findings are all right and and Pam I'm good with that and listen Pam brought it up i'm Is it not a common good to feed people is it not a common
good to buy hamburgers and hot dogs for children in the inner city that don't have food to eat when we're when we're feeding homeless people when we're giving out money i mean so I mean we got to define that i mean maybe that's not a common good but I can just tell you I mean for the common benefit the common purpose of making sure that Brownsville Assembly is feeding people that has to be a common good for the community if you believe that is the county government's responsibility then we will have a form and you will write that right we're going to do it a little bit
differently while funds are being under scrutiny this is a really good time to look at this and I just wanted to talk to you collectively to tell you what I was doing madam Madam I would ask you that that and I'm and as a friend I'd like you to give the county a short amount of time to come back with a policy if you would be willing to do that well I'm just saying and I I don't know what reporting requirements you do but I would like to give the the the staff an opportunity if we we're
still not in compliance i completely understand and I respect you bringing this up but I'd like I'd like the staff to have a chance to you know come up with something and then review it with you if that's reasonable is that Wes can we get on that ASAP okay all right any other comments on that okay all right thank you Madam Clerk thank you Madam Attorney for your comments okay um I think the only other Did we have anything else on the Oh yeah did I have a motion to move the ball
second uh yeah were you first i think I think you were first lman did you move it commissioner Barry I don't I don't I don't know but I move I move the balance second anytime please vote thank you gentlemen i will a motion passes 5 i just I mentioned I wanted to make a comment about two-5 or two I'm sorry yeah two-5 um I think most of the board looked this this is the sheriff's
budget that was recommended uh that we voted on for the next three years I had the opportunity to sit down with the sheriff um his chief of staff as well as the county administrator and I just wanted to thank the sheriff for what I thought was somewhat reasonable negotiation ations um and I look forward to working with him it's going to benefit all of our districts I think but I just wanted to say thank you Chip Simmons and thank you Wes for your leadership on that is there anything so that's all I had to say on that oh yeah i pulled please
uh can I get a motion on on 2-5 i make a motion to move forward second please vote okay motion passes 5-0 i think we're at the county attorney report there's one item on the county attorney's report i can answer any questions move the county attorney's report okay is there a second second please vote okay motion passes 5-0 uh couple just um cleanup items is before we close out the couple things
that were supposed to be added to the agenda that Word and I want to put out there for clarification baptist Hospital um which we were supposed to discuss tonight the mayor called and asked that uh we defer that so it wasn't that the county um uh didn't live up to their responsibility tonight we had good negotiations and I think at the next meeting uh Wes is meeting with them Monday correct Wes and we'll have some options to look at commissioner May you have any comments thank you Mr chairman i I hope that we can somewhat find a landing spot a a a soft resolution in
which we can work um this is in a heart of my district um I'm looking forward to what Wes and Allison can negotiate uh with the city keeping in mind you know it's not my goal quite frankly of demolition it's the promises that were made to the constituents of that community um to have affordable attainable housing to have medical care and to have food and to me um if we can contribute to make that I mean that's a public benefit that's a public good uh for those constituents and so I
hope that you know we can come to a point where we are doing that that we're making sure that there's medical there's food and there's housing for those constituents who have been displaced uh you know in in district three we've had the largest largest relocations ever we had the third largest relocation in the United States of America at the super fund site where people were displaced and taken out of their homes uh because of the lack of um regulations that happened in that
super fund site and so now there are residents who grew up in Mars Court Addisc Court Alphabet Street who have been uh relocated dislocated with hopes that they would get the opportunity uh to come back and those that are staying there get opportunity to be able to get food uh to get medical uh and get hope and help and so I hope that that will be in consideration and Wes I hope that that's a part of the conversation about how do we contribute to enhance the quality of life and I've certainly been supportive of uh each of my commissioners if they are enhancing the
quality of life for their citizens and so I'm adamant uh about enhancing the quality of life uh for the citizens of of district three and probably one of the oldest African-American communities which ties North Hill uh to the west side of North Hill uh to Brownsville to Kufon Park uh and it's important to the citizens it's centrally located in the city of Pensacola uh within our county and so uh this is of great concern to me i know that they had a a bid today
Mike and I don't know what the numbers were i just looked to see if they'd send it so and and I agree with you Mr chairman i mean we should have known the number and I made that uh uh crystal clear to to the mayor that we shouldn't be participating uh in you know giving funds if we don't know but I certainly want to make sure that there's not blight uh or abandoned hospital left because across this country when they close hospitals particularly in the urban core in the inner cities they leave them blighted for many years and so I hope that we can continue to have that
conversation and candidly I would love Mr chairman that if we could have this joint meeting with the city council that this be a part of the agenda to have that discussion with the city council and the mayor yeah i mean I I'm fine with that i think what Wes I think Monday we'll know a little bit more um I know for me I'm I'm pretty a hard no on general fund and but I am willing to work with them if we can do something with the the concrete i've told Casey I've told I've told um the mayor this and there's some other options that you we're looking at with you know creative creative funding
and stuff so we'll see where we end up and and I certainly understand exactly with the general fund but I mean I think there's opportunities uh that um other funding sources CRA local office good that can help with rehabilitation and and making opportunities uh for the citizens who live there so uh I certainly uh respect my colleagues positions on on on the general fund as we have limited amount of money there uh but to make it good I mean no different than brother to me there
are some universal projects it's Pensacola Beach it's outline field 8 it's a jail and it's Baptist Hospital these are universal projects right that that's happening within the community and they're not just restricted to the city what Commissioner Halberg and myself are just it's all of our projects just as these other major projects are i think we're look you know I think that everyone's trying to get to right on this so let's just I think we'll know more Monday um I have one other thing I just want to ask the both Wes or Alison i know we didn't have OF8 on the agenda tonight
can you give us the status of where we are on that um I have had a teleconference with the triw council a week ago and they asked some very specific questions about some of the provisions in the proposed language and that is really the only update that I have i expect that we will get something from them in writing i don't have it yet and I have not heard much from the other
group um and have they both returned the red line they each got a red line back from us with essentially identical provisions in them um do we anticipate this on the next agenda Wes or else and I don't know i I would suggest that we give it one more board meeting to see if we get something back from one or both of the of the um proposers and then we can have a discussion about setting a deadline if we haven't can we Mr chairman can we set the expectation with the two parties that are
bidding on it that we need those contracts back no less than 24 hours before 48 hours sounds great before the board meeting yeah at least within the next 60 days i mean what I don't want Mr ch i mean listen I'm only one we don't need another public discussion about outline 8 it needs to go provide all the details to administrating the attorney and they bring us back a recommendation let go because we're not going to resolve it solve it here sitting on this doc right well and that's what is I just don't want somebody sending it to us at 5:00 right exactly i mean
if we can set that expectation with if you guys are good with setting give staff time enough to negotiate it and bring us back one recommendation well I like Yeah I'm fine with that but I think everyone needs to have an ability each one of us have to have ability to reach out to the attorney uh because we're negotiating it from the DA i mean we can't even negotiate our home mortgage from the DAS i mean we can't negotiate something this large from the DAS i that's it's unfair it's unfair to the developers and it's unfair to the citizens it's unfair to each of our colleagues i mean you
know and so that's so I'll I'll be wondering where we are in a week with and just asking I guess both of you will too to see where we are next meeting or meeting on that right to set that expectation no no no okay all right any other announcements by the board oh boy you guys owe me one tonight man oh dude you're doing it you if you hurry up you'll Hey hold on word count this meeting's over you'll be Kevin White's meeting yeah you'll be Kevin White now y'all have a good night