You guys ready? The board of county commissioners meeting is now called to order. Please turn your cell phones to the vibrate silence or off setting. The board of county commissioners allows any person to speak regarding an agenda item. The speaker is limited to three minutes unless otherwise determined by the chairperson to allow sufficient time for all speakers. If we have more than 15 speakers sign up to speak out of respect for all attendees and speakers, we will limit speakers to two minutes. Speakers shall refrain from abusive profane remarks,
disruptive outbursts, protests, or other conduct which interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting. Upon completion of the public comment period, discussion is limited to board members and questions raised by the board. Commissioner Kohler, you have the invocation for this evening. Chair, thank you. Pastor Kirby, if you'd come up and lead us in prayer, please rise.
Father, purpose. It's what you've made each and every person in here to be. Purpose. You made us on purpose for a purpose with an identity. That identity is you, which is love. Every single person in this building was made to be love. Now, that was stolen from us, but Jesus paid it the price. And now we have that identity back because now we're here for a purpose. Your purpose, not our individual purposes. Your purpose
to advance your kingdom in Escambia County. Your purpose that people wouldn't be seen as numbers, but as hearts and souls. Father, I bless every single person in this room, but I pray that you would give wisdom and discernment to the sport. Lord God, would you be glorified and magnified? And all of God's children said, "Amen." Amen. Thank you, Pastor Kirby. Commissioner Stroberger, if you'll lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Yeah, please join me for the pledge. I pledge
allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all. Commissioner Coler, are there any items to be added to the agenda? You know, this is the first time I'm going to add something to the agenda, but at the end of the meeting, uh, and I think it'd be more appropriate after commissioners forum, I'd like to see if the board would be willing to put a joint letter in to the Coast Guard, and I'll explain more about that in commissioner forum.
Why I'm asking for Okay, wonderful. Commissioner Barry, nothing to add. Commissioner May, no ma'am. Commissioner Stroberger? No, ma'am. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? Second. All in favor? Motion passes 5. Thank you. And Commissioner Forum, Commissioner Kohler. Yeah, thank you all. And then uh please indulge me. There's we haven't met in a while. And I got several things in a two-minute video I need to show everyone. First thing I want to talk about is FACK, Florida
Association of Counties. Uh we met um just a few weeks back. It was prior to this meeting and most of the stuff was pretty cut and dry that we're going to recommend to the legislative session. But the most contentious thing throughout the state obviously is the property tax issue. And um I can say with affirmity that there's not a county in the state that supports this. I know there's going to be a push and pull between the counties and the state legislature, but I would encourage everyone
to go to Keep Florida Thriving and look at some of the data out there as well as the fact site where it talks about property taxes and what they go for and those kind of things throughout the county. The second thing I'd like to do last last week or December 6th, obviously I want to thank Governor DeSantis for putting the flags at half mass for um the terrorist attack that was on December 6th of 2019. I also want to thank Senator Scott, Senator Moody, Senator Tubberville, Senator Waro,
Senator Oaf, and Senator Britt for putting Senate resolution uh recognizing that day and the horrible effects that happened to our area. I'll I can tell you I'll never forget it because I was a exo lieutenant command out there and as well we need to remember Pearl Harbor Dece December 7th 1941. There's only a handful of those survivors left and there won't be many for very much longer. Okay, before I go to the next thing, if the the media group can run this video and then I'll explain a little bit what's been going on the last three weeks. So, um can we push play on the video?
The United States Coast Guard is on the front lines securing our borders, facilitating commerce vital to economic prosperity, and responding to crises at home and abroad. The brave men and women of the Coast Guard are making America safe again, achieving record-breaking drug seizures and modernizing its fleet, fueled by historic investment from President Trump. This success rests on the shoulders of our service members. They are skilled, dedicated, and always ready for action.
Backed by nearly $25 billion from the one big beautiful bill act, we're executing force design 2028 to build the Coast Guard into a more agile, capable, and responsive fighting force. This includes strategically expanding our personnel by up to 15,000 Coast Guard men and women to meet the nation's growing security needs. We've already exceeded our recruiting goals. As the Coast Guard continues its historic growth, we're outpacing the capacity of our existing
training and workforce support facility. To grow and train our force, we need more space. That's why we are looking for locations across the country for a new Coastg Guard training facility. Expanding our training and workforce support capacity will be a critical piece of the Coast Guard's long-term force structure, a vital investment in the future of our service and our nation's security. This is more than buildings. It's where we will forge the next generation of Coast Guard heroes. Every day, the Coast Guard is ready to respond to
the challenges of the 21st century. And these new training and workforce support facilities will be critical to meet the needs of that mission. We are seeking partners who share our commitment to excellence. You can contribute to laying the foundation that will support the future of the United States Coast Guard. find more details about the request for information and market research, including location criteria and other information. So, why are you watching that video? About two and
a half weeks ago, I got reached out by Senator Moody's office and was asked about the RFIs and I immediately reached out to the base co and we started having group conversations on the potential of putting this RFI in and last Thursday after several conversations with Senator Moody's staff and the base co uh my aid on last Wednesday we started drafting this up just from my background knowledge on the base. Thursday, we spent about 3 hours going through the base on the
buildings of opportunity that could potentially be used. And then that day, I called uh Congressman Petronis and Senator Scott's staff and put in the RFI on Monday, which was the deadline to put it in um to Mr. Peter Spanella. This, if we can be selected for this site, is a transformational change to Escambi County. it would increase the training out there by about 20%. So the RFI just
is a request to be looked at to be selected the next evolution and I've been through several of these in my career as a jail when they closed everything in Alama. Um when we brought 479th out on the base I was on the integration team on the medical assets to support them. The Kona study that was a disaster. We lost hundreds of jobs at the Navy hospital. But I do think we're very well fit for this RFI and I think we're we can be very competitive. There's a couple obstacles that
DHS would have to would have to agree to, but this is going to take an all hands on deck and that's why I'm going to ask for a letter from our board. Um, as I said, Senator Moody has already sent a letter to Homeland Security. Congressman Patronis has sent one into Lundday. Admiral Lundy, I think I'm saying his name right. Um and and so we're going to need to have all um all assets here. I talked to Santa Rosa County and Commissioner Wright is going to work with them
since the border county. I've also talked to the mayor about this. I've talked to Northwest Florida for Defense Coalition. Um but we have a long way to go. The next thing is to get a site visit and then from that hopefully we could get an integration team. But at least we're in the game. We're at the start line. doesn't mean we're going to make the finish, but it's it's really important to me to help fortify the base. So, I just want to let you know I'm committed to this like you don't know, and I hope the board is. Uh the the long-term round uh assets for our county
are just unbelievable. All right, so I know it's Christmas time and I need you guys to do something for me. Do you mind taking a picture with me I after I give you all my Christmas presents? Okay, let's all stand up behind this Gambia County sign here. Steve, come on. I know you're the group.
Whatever you want. I think we should get a photo. I I took everything they had out exchange. They thought it was crazy. Thank you. And and last thing because it's a very very exciting weekend. I'm
sure Commissioner Stroberg was going to say this, but go Navy. beat Army. That's all. Um, Commissioner Col, what do you need from us to support this? I mean, that's Do we need to Florida West or do we need to support? I think we'll have to get the chamber involved. Florida West. Um, obviously I've I've talked to Mr. Morehead already about this and I've talked to Mr. Hoaxing. I need to reach out to Todd Thompson. But, um, the very I need to put a strategic plan together next week on all the doouts that
we need to do, but it'll include more than just our board. So, okay. I mean, so there's no action. You don't need anything to I I want to put a joint letter together and I can help work with legal to do that. I've already I already done a draft for someone else. But, um, and then maybe we could all sign it collectively since it's such a big deal if you would like to do that or we can just have the chair do it. I don't really care. But, I'm good with the chair signing it, but what whatever you want. I mean, is there is that a voting item we'd have to vote on? Do we vote now or do we do it at the end? Yeah, I think that's why he was adding it to asking to add it
to the agenda. so that we get a board vote that the board is sending a letter. And I think his ask was from a ceremonial perspective if he could have each of the five signatures on the letter, which we can certainly do that. That's fine. If you guys are up for that, I think that'd be great. I'll make a motion that um I can work with legal to get a letter out to DHS and uh Department of War in support of uh Escambia County being the site for the future workforce training center for the Coast Guard. I'll second it. Second it. All in favor? Motion passes 5. Thank you.
Thank you, madam chairperson. Uh first I want to thank uh Wes and uh Jamie Hickden and folks from public works. They had their Christmas lunchon yesterday. Had probably 250 275 county employees out there and I think they were up at four o'clock or 4:30 cooking uh cooking for the employees. uh current supervisor of elections uh Robert Bender uh mine and uh Luma's colleague for for a number of years uh I think was out there very early with him as well cooking and then he was serving and got to visit and uh speak to the employees some as well. It's nice to see uh see Robert out there
but um you know the the folks that that get up and cook for cook for the employees especially during the season want to thank them. I think they get started every day and I think there's five or six of these kind of large large employee events that are going on the next week or two. I want to recognize International Paper Foundation. Uh this week they awarded $65,000 in um in grants to uh about 10 or 12 local uh nonprofits and education organizations. And I want to specifically
recognize uh Whitney Fe, a dear friend that does public relations, uh the communications manager for International Paper. And I know she leads that uh you know, kind of leads that project, evaluates the evaluates the applications from the different entities. And that's a you know, that's a nice shot of private money being injected into our uh you know, into our local nonprofit and education system, especially in the u in the north end in district 5. want to recognize Kristen Danley, the principal of Lipkcom. Uh she's uh lucky enough to have a very talented young lady on her staff.
This year they announced the top five teachers in Escambia County. They do uh the top five teachers in the county and then they select from there the what's going to be the county teacher of the year, but Courtney Guyger from Lipkcom Elementary was one of the top five and I want to specifically recognize her. drive by Lipkcom Elementary multiple times per day and very proud to uh have one in the top five from right behind uh right behind our house. But thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh certainly want to send my condolences uh to the Mercy family um
who actually live lives in in in Warrington. Uh Miss Mercy uh who's been around for a long time. Wanita Alice Mercy uh her funeral will be this Friday uh at the first baptism warranton church at 11 o'clock and to uh Mary Mercy and all those I mean they've given great years of service to the military uh offer our prayers and condolences to them and as well as uh some people would recognize his name Robert Lasser but most of us would recognize Starchild who is probably the most famed
uh DJ in all of Northwest Florida and across this country uh kind of known as the blues as the blues hounds and the blues um master. Um we certainly are sending our prayers and thoughts out to the entire LER family and to Starchild. And I know that there are some things that are going on in the community uh to recognize him. So we certainly appreciate him. Uh we got by Brownsville to the facilities management. We didn't get a chance to stay uh because we were running. uh thank them
for the invite to um their uh Christmas party uh the other day and as well as to human services to Claire and her team. Uh it was great to kind of do drivebys and and to say hello. Uh congratulations uh to West Florida and Commissioner Bear. I know you like this Tate. I think those two teams made it to furthest. Uh and all of our teams. I mean, we have great football and great baseball and, you know, great basketball here in Escambia County and, uh, we support those teams. Uh, I think that,
uh, it's important that we support them, uh, because, uh, they probably do more advertising, they do more marketing, uh, for our community uh, than most things that we spend millions of dollars when they're representing us in in sectionals, regionals, and state tournaments. uh they're not rec um they they are just not representing their schools, but they're representing all of Escami County and all of Pensacola. And so I'm proud to support them. We're going to continue to try and support them uh in any way that we possibly can because we know that it's a challenge
uh for funding uh for these uh programs, but these uh young people uh need the support of their entire county. Uh with that, just like to wish everyone a happy holidays, merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, Kowanza, uh whatever your faith allows for you to recognize. Uh we recognize that with you and we just hope that you have a blessed holiday season. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, chair. So, I also want to recognize December 6th, uh our sixth anniversary of the terrorist attack
at NAS Pensacola. Um we use the word hero a lot even when it's not necessary but that day was absolutely earned. Um last year at this I guess before this it was in the October fair in 204 I got to meet uh Lieutenant Mike Hland. He's the one who stopped the attacker and saved lives. He is a hero in every sense. My friend, Lieutenant Steve Schaef was also on the scene and I want to thank both of them for their courage and their continued service. Um, on November 22nd, Commissioner I
don't know if you're going to bring this up or not about BET CV. Okay. On November 22nd, Commissioner Kohler, myself, and Commissioner Hoffberger, I was her guest, uh, attended the Vet CV Foundation dinner. It was a fantastic event with great food, great company, and excellent speakers. Rudy uh Rutiger was there of Rud of Rudy fame. Everybody know who Rudy was? Um I gave him a little bit of heck but I think he took it in good stride. Uh but it was fun and and like I said I
was I sat with Commissioner um Hoffberger and it was at her, you know, I was her guest there. Sat with her. That was good time. My wife was there and Grant was there. This Saturday night is the Christmas parade. I'm looking forward to that and so are my granddaughters. And on Sunday, we'll participate in wreaths across some of us will with wreaths across America uh on the base there as we honor our fallen. On December 18th, Assan and I will be visiting Ba Elementary School to read with the students. I'm looking forward to that and so is uh my granddaughter. On December 21st,
Silver Lake will host a Christmas celebration, another wonderful community event this season. Hassan Connor and I will be giving out presents in good cheer. We might even be riding a uh firet truck and I might even be Santa Claus. I'm not sure yet. But this is a community event organized by my good friend and my aid, Hassan. So, thank you very much, Hassan. He's a real community outreach kind of guy. The three days before Thanksgiving, the crew of SWAT held their
fifth annual I think it was the fifth one, wasn't it? the fifth grand giving food distribution to support families heading into the holidays. And I want to thank them for their generosity and their community spirit. And I I also want to recognize them at a later date. Also, um after our last border county commissioners meeting, the Navy T uh Navy Days team led by Captain Dan McCort, that's Navy Captain Dan McCort, retired, we visited Pensacola High School to present the Navy Days Rotty 4K run team trophy. And today, uh, Dan and I traveled to North View High School
to present the second trophy, um, to the North View High School, uh, team. Congratulations to both team for their outstanding performances. And finally, the one I wasn't sure if I wanted to mention, but we're tenatively planning a town hall in Bula at the Bula Baptist Church, and we'll share the a confirmed date. I think that we're tentatively looking at about the 29th and we look forward to hearing from the residents there. Thank you, chair. Awesome. Thank you. Um, as for
your town halls, Casey put on a great virtual town hall today. So, if you need a virtual component, she knows how to do it and she is a pro and we had um it was very easy. So, thank you. Um, thank you all for being here tonight and advocating for what you believe is best for your community. I appreciate your efforts and your dedication. With this being the last meeting of 2025, I want to celebrate all the amazing things that this board has accomplished this year. We invested a record amount into public safety, moving forward with new fire stations and having more ambulances
on the road than ever before. We set a state record in funding law enforcement salaries. And at the recommendation of Nikki Powell and HR, we've approved policy after policy to strengthen our company culture and our employee retention. To this board, thank you. Thank you for a wonderful year of heated but productive discussions. I value the fact that we don't always agree and I am grateful for the passionate way that each one of us represents our districts. Commissioner Barry, I appreciate your skill for working with numbers and your ability to explain it in a way that our
community can easily understand. Commissioner May, I appreciate your consistency and your passion surrounding affordable housing, accessible health care, and safer neighborhoods. Commissioner Stroberger, I am grateful we are newbies on the board together. I have enjoyed learning alongside of you and I appreciate how you highlight and support our military families. And Commissioner Kohler, thank you for your leadership as board chair this past year. It's a difficult position and you did it with grace and full of heart. So, thank you for setting that example. Allison and Wes, thank you for being the glue that holds this board together. I know the five of us are
drastically different and your days range from calming chaos to milestone celebrations for our community. I appreciate the public discussions and the out-of-box ideas that are coming forward and thank you so much for working through all of this with us. Um and then Wes, you said you had um some announcements as well. Yeah. Uh we've got a lot of things going on and I don't usually get too longwinded, so I'll try to keep it as brief as I can. Uh Mr. Lee Rogers, if you would come to the podium real quick. Lee Rogers is our new deputy director of engineering. Uh, the
only negative thing that I can say about him that I know of so far is he is an Alabama fan. And uh, I think he said when his kids were growing up, he'd take all the orange and blue crayons out the color crown box. So, they weren't allowed to touch. But he brings he brings a wealth of experience and of knowledge. He's been around, done quite a few things, a lot of good enthusiasm that he's brought to engineering so far. And uh Lee, I'll I'll let
you introduce yourself just a little bit, but welcome aboard. It's great to have you. Well, I'm glad to be here. Uh I've met most of of you now. I think I'm looking forward to working together. Uh I have discovered a great staff in the engineering department and I'm really really excited about working with these guys going going forward. Thank you. All right, welcome aboard. Welcome aboard, Lee. We have a uh for those that don't know in the public, we do have two veteran services uh service officers here in Escambia County and they stay very busy. They
they carry a heavy workload. They stay booked and uh we don't hear a lot publicly from that group. But I did get an email from a customer uh said, "Wes, I had the occasion to visit in the new county complex off Fairfield Drive yesterday. Was impressed by how friendly the staff was, starting with a lady near the front door wearing a sheriff's badge, who greeted me with and assisted me in finding the VA services office. I had an appointment with the VA counselor, Lisa Hin, to file my first VA claim since retiring from the Navy in 1991. had never dealt with a VA before
and had some trepidation. But wow, that lady made the visit a breeze. She was very kind and helpful, listened well, answered all my questions and assisted me in every way she could, reminded me of how things got done when we worked at the engineering department. Plea, please pass along a thank you to her. And if you're in the area, your people are doing good work. So, I just wanted to highlight our veteran services officers over there. They do a great job. Like I say, you don't hear a lot from them, but I do I do very much appreciate them. Uh, this
past weekend was a busy busy weekend for county staff. The other thing that the public doesn't see a lot of times is, uh, when you wake up early Thursday morning and you have some issues going on in corrections that have to be dealt with, and we dealt with them. And then you wake up a little bit later and then we have a tree fall and a backflow pre that knocks all the water out to the jail. And you can't find a part anywhere in town. You call all of our contractors we do business with. We got Jamie Higgling with public works rolling. We got Robbie Freeman with facilities rolling.
You got Rich Powell trying to handle the chaos at the jail with no water. Uh but they all came together as a good together as a good team and worked together. We finally were able to bring it back online and by the time we got done with that, we had power failure at the base center. And so we dove dove into that and were able to bring them back online and then we had a bit of a plane crash at the airport which we EMS responded to. Just things that happen uh throughout the weekend sometimes throughout the overnight that the general public doesn't always see but
our staff is always there. They come together. They work well together and u I appreciate them. I know we're coming up on the holidays and so I want to wish all of our staff a merry Christmas. You're an awesome staff. We cannot be successful without you and what you do out in the public for the citizens. And I thank every every single one of you. I I think of y'all as family. Uh I really do. I think of y'all as family. So I appreciate appreciate you. Uh Madam Chair asked me to give a brief update about fire stations. Uh we're we're wide open. We're awarding a design build contract
tonight for Pleasant Grove. our uh Paradise Beach Commissioner Stroberger will be ready to bid for construction in April and we're moving forward with the designs on Myrtle Grove and getting ready to do Kingsville as well. So, we're wide open on that initiative as as well. Uh just a lot of good things going on, a lot of good things going on. A lot of a lot of good work going on. So, thank y'all so much. Wonderful. Thank you all. And we do have a special visit from Winterfest.
Hi, my name is Liddonna Day. I'm the operations manager for Winterfest. Denise could not be here tonight. Uh her husband had surgery and she could not be here. But she wanted me to first of all thank all of you all on the county commission and all the uh building building facilities for supporting us and in making this site a beautiful site and working with us. We have had um customers from Alaska, Atlanta, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee,
and they are visiting our beaches. They're staying in our hotels. They're eating at our restaurants and shopping in our local shops, which is a boost to Pensacola's economy during this time. I'd also like to thank Mr. Gochez working with the police. This week, we had a little incident where the Grinch had stole one of our trees and working with him and the police, we got our tree back today, and we're very happy and thank you so much for that. Um, at this time I
would like to introduce one of our new tours. It's uh Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang. Here they come. What are we doing here? Oh, hi fancy people at a dance. Oh, we need to stand. Okay, stand. Hi, Snoopy. Okay.
Happiness and cheer for all that children. olden times and rhells in the air. Beauty everywhere.
You tied by the fire side and joyful meories there. Christmas time is here. Oh such and done. Now would be a great time to clap.
Hi, my name is Lucy Vanpelt. Of course, I am here with Charlie Brown and a couple of other blockheads from our brand new trolley. And we have been on the hunt for the best Christmas tree in all of Pensacola to cure Charlie Brown's Christmas blues. Charlie Brown, come on. You had one job. Now, Charlie Brown is going to introduce our friend that we brought today. Say it. Oh, Santa Claus is coming. Enter Santa Claus. Santa.
Santa and Rudolph. Oh, he's made it. Merry Christmas. Which song? Santa Claus. That's a great one. You better watch out. You better not claw.
He's making a list. He's checking out your Santa Claus. Oh, that was county commissioners. Hello. Thank you for allowing us to come before you tonight. I have a small Winterfest proclamation I would like to share with you. Whereas the Merry Commissioners of Escambia County have once again opened their generous hearts and
granted this old Santa the delightful privilege of parking his jingling sleigh right in front of the courthouse during the whimsical and wonderful festival of Winterfest. Whereas the children of Escambia County and all the nearby towns have shown themselves to be some of the kindest, cheeriest, most wonderfully well- behaved youngsters I have met anywhere on my travels. By their smiles alone could light up the North Pole. Whereas the twinkling lights and magical decorations of downtown Pensacola shine so brightly and beautifully that even my
reindeer paws mid-flight to admire them. And whereas Pensacola Winterfest has spread joy, such joy far and wide that people from around the world dream of joining the fun and are adding a visit to this charming county to their holiday wish lists. Therefore, be it proclaimed that I, Santa Claus, do joyfully and jolly declare that Escambia County is my absolute favorite place to visit during the Christmas season. Merry Christmas
to you all and happy new year eventually. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Ready? Merry Christmas. Wonderful. Thank you so much for a great presentation and all of the goodies we'll be able to take home. We appreciate that. We have two proclamations to ratify and
six proclamations to adopt. Do I have a motion to do so? Do I have a second? All in favor? Passes 5. All right. The first is going to be our employee of the month. I'll be very brief in this as brief as I can, but uh it's I have the privilege of reading this proclamation for our employee of the month for December, Taylor Busby. Taylor Busby is a
lifeguard supervisor in the water safety division of the public safety department. He began his employment in the county as a seasonal employee in October of 2015. He became a full-time employee with the county May 2024. He has been selected as employee of the month for December 2025 for the standards of excellence displayed in his performance of his duties. Whereas his role as lifeguard supervisor, he's responsible for instruction and development of lifeguards through the water safety program. And this extends into the junior lifeguard program
where he molds 13 to 15 year olds to become successful lifeguards. As of now, almost 40 lifeguards were former junior lifeguards. Taylor displays leadership and calm demeanor successfully diffuses tension through and encourages excellence. His co-workers have remarked that the water safety program runs with the precision of a Swiss watch. He has successfully coordinated the scam with Escambia County Fire Rescue and Escambia County Emergency Medical
Services to ensure the operational effectiveness of the programs. And he maintains a passion for his community and volunteers with the Upper Room Church of Pensacola Beach to welcome attendance, making general morning announcements, and close a church service. So be it now therefore be it now proclaimed that the board of county commissioner of Scami County Florida hereby commends and congratulates Mr. Taylor Busby in his selection as employee of the month for December 2025.
Thank you. Middle. Awesome. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next is our employee of the year proclamation
commissioners. Uh we were here uh last month uh to congratulate Brent on his uh nomination and award of employee of the month. Uh tonight we're here to uh award Brent with the employee of the year uh award. Um, I've had the privilege of working with Brent for the last 25 years and uh have really uh become very uh respectful of his knowledge and his dedication to Escambia County and to helping the citizens uh of Escambia County. Uh there there was a time when he first
started working with the county 25 years ago where we thought he may not get through his probationary period. As you as you know, every new employee goes through six-month probationary period. Well, during that time, uh Brent took his supervisor out to Jones Swamp in a brand new truck that we just purchased to show the supervisor the results of a prescribed burn that we did there. As Brent was driving through what he thought was a small mud puddle, uh it turned out to be a very deep hole
full of water. Well, the truck got stuck. water came in through the doors and the windows uh and the uh road department had to do a wonderful job restoring that truck, but we thought for sure that might be the end of Brent's employment with Escami County, but he recovered and uh he's more than made up for for that incident. Uh I I would like to read this proclamation. Whereas Escami County has established an employee of the year program to recognize one employee to represent
the various departments. And whereas Brent Wiff, water quality and land management division manager of the natural resources management department, began his employment with the county in October of 2001. Whereas Brent Whiff was selected employee of the month for November 2025. Whereas in his role as a water quality and land management division manager, Brent develops and exceeds operational performance standards for management of the county's environment and
natural resources. And whereas his subject matter expertise in marine biology and his proactive problem solving skills have aided him in collaborating with all the other county departments as well as community stakeholders to improve surface water quality, reduce flooding, and restore vital wildlife habitat. And whereas Brent's exceptional communication skills, reliable competence, and his professional positive attitude make him an exemplary colleague to work with in
improving the quality of life for county residents and visitors. And whereas Brent's overwhelming desire to provide assistance and help county citizens who call him to discuss their questions and their issues make him an outstanding public servant and a valuable resource for the county. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the board of county commissioners of Escami County, Florida, hereby commend and congratulate Mr. Brent Whip in his selection as employee of the year for 2025.
Board of County Commissioners, Ashley Hoffberger, Chair Steve Stroberger, Vice Chair, Lumen J. May, District 3, Steven Barry, District 5, and Michael S. Kohler, District 2. Congratulations, Brent. Thank you so much. It it it truly is an honor to be recognized uh by this board uh as the employee of the year. it it really does mean uh a lot to me. Um while I'm just listening to that,
while I'm I'm not entirely sure that I always measure up to uh the the kind words or um or the the the uh generous things that that that were were said in the proclamation, uh one thing I can assure you is true. Um the the part where I talked about my my desire to serve the the citizens of Escambia County, uh that part absolutely is uh is true. Um the my
absolute favorite part of the job is is is helping citizens, serving citizens. Uh it is my absolute favorite part and I thank you for uh giving me the opportunity, this opportunity to serve uh to serve my community. I I I very much uh cherish that. So, thank you so much for that. Thank you for this this amazing recognition. Um I am I'm truly grateful. Thank you so much.
I know Brent's family's here, so maybe they can come up for the picture. And uh staff Congratulations.
Thank you. Next we have Patricia's retirement. David, you want to come forward? You and your wife. First, let me say congratulations to you. Thank you. A lot of hard work. One thing I can say about David, and I know the board knows this, whenever though his services are needed, whenever there's an event that needs to be covered, pictures need to be taken, video needs to be done, edited, I don't care what time of the the day of the week it is, time of the day it is,
David's always been available and he's always done it with a smile on his face. He does great great work, produce great work. So, David, we appreciate you. Wish you well in your retirement. I'm going to read this proclamation and then we'll hear from a few other folks. Says, "Whereas David Haru began his service to Escambia County on May 24th, 2016 when he was hired as production specialist and through his dedication and extensive corporate media experience. David was promoted on October the 2nd, 2021 to the position of director of communications
and public information. And whereas David is a veteran of the United States Navy, having served honorably as an air crewman and flying more than 100 missions over the Mediterranean Sea, demonstrating courage, discipline, and commitment to duty. Very nice. Very much appreciated, David. Whereas during his time with Eskeemic County, he has been recognized with the employee of the month award and the shining star award for his exceptional performance and contributions. And whereas David has earned the trust and appreciation of Escambia County citizens as
reflected in letters and emails sent to the board of commissioners praising his professionalism, dedication, and willingness to go above and beyond in service to the community. And whereas David has strengthened the county's readiness and response capabilities and during times of crisis, including the CO 19 pandemic, he has played an integral role in the ensuring the public receive timely, accurate, and vital information on behalf of Escami County. That doesn't include hurricanes, tornadoes, tropical storms, and everything else that come at us. Now therefore, be it
proclaimed that the board of county commissioners of Escambia County, Florida, hereby recognizes and commends David Hero for his outstanding service, dedication, and leadership to the citizens of Escami County. Be it further proclaimed that the board of county commissioners expresses its sincere gratitude for David's nine years of service to Eskeami County. Ashley Hoffberger, chair, district 4. Steve Stroberger, vice chair, district 1. Lemon J. May District 3, Steven Barry, District 5, and Michael Culler, District 2. Congratulations, David. Thank you very much.
Well, as Chris Kerr would say, I I'll keep this brief. I want to thank the commission and um Wes for this opportunity to uh serve the citizens of Escambia County. And um it's really important for me to point out that CMR is is is important to me. They've got a it's just a great staff. It's Andy likes to say it's a small but mighty team and it is and we're leaving it in great hands now with Casey. I'm uh I'm very happy about that and uh I
want to thank them for making this transition into retirement smooth. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, David, I want to personally thank you outside of your job as a county as a county employee. Uh what you and your wife do so many events I've been a part that you are there uh always looking out for the children, always looking out for the community. I mean, you are the perfect example and a true example of what a public servant is. Uh I'm indebted to
you. I know District 3 is indebted to you. A lot of the children that we work with in our CRAAS are indebted to you. And so we will always be thankful and grateful for your service that you have done to Scamia County. I can't think of a better employee that I've ever met than you, Dave. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. Thank you, Commissioner Barry. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so I believe Jack Brown was administrator when uh when you were hired and uh Jack uh came to me, we had an opening in the uh public information office and uh Jack came to me and said, "Hey,
you know, we're taking applications and we've got somebody that that looks fantastic and you might know who it is." And he told me who it was. And I said, "Jack, I do know who that is." As I said, he uh uh and it was better than 20 years ago now um with nonprofit uh when David was at Cox Communications, he came in and did some work uh I believe pro bono, but aided some uh gave some video expertise to uh uh to a nonprofit group that I was involved in. It was very kind and uh David probably wouldn't have remembered meeting me at the time, but I did uh you
know I did remember meeting him and so when Jack brought his name up I said, "Sounds fantastic." and and you know and it's worked out well. Uh you know some of uh some of the ideas that that we have may not have worked out as well but it's uh certainly been a success and I want to thank you for the years of service David. Thank you. Thank you Commissioner Kohler. Yeah. Thanks Dave for your service and not just to the county also to the Navy. But when I first got elected three years ago I don't know if you remember this conversation but I did. Um I said what do you what
can you do for us as the commissioner? Tell me a little bit about what you're doing. And he says, "Well, one day a week we start about 5:45 for coffee with the commissioner." And I said, "Okay." And then and then it went on. Do you remember he said, "Well, we do all the events." And I was sitting there thinking, "Wow, you guys really expand the clock." So, but you have and you've done it for all the commissioners or whatever they've asked for. And I think all of us are very grateful for what you've done. I've enjoyed getting close to you and talking Navy talk. I think some of the stuff we went, you know, you shared with me. It's it just it was a
great fellowship learning about you. Thanks again for your service and I'm going to miss you. So, thanks very much, Commissioner Sturburger. Yeah, David, I've only known you a few years. It seems like I feel like I've known you longer than that. A lot longer than three years. And in a good way. In a good way. And I'm going to miss you. I'm going to miss your friendship because I think you're you've been a fantastic director for that department, CMR. And I I don't know what more I could have asked of you. You've just been fantastic. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir.
And I do want to echo all of that. I've only been able to work with you for a year, but it has been so much fun. And you have been absolutely amazing. And anytime we need something, you have all the facts and you know exactly what to do. And just looking at your team and how you've poured into them and you have set them up for success with you retiring, that means so much. So, thank you for that. Thank you. All right, David. I do have one more thing for you. Yes, sir. a couple things. So, David has purchased a Big Green Egg. Yes. So, he's aspiring to be a world champion barbecue man. So,
there's some things you're going to need. Uh, you got to have good rubber seasonings. Yeah. This one of the best on the market right here. Don't tell it anybody. Don't share it with anybody. Just now this one here is known as the best color in barbecue. It's not always about the flavor. You got to be about the look, right? So, I can tell from your social media post. There you go. Now, there's a couple more in there. But also,
a good barbecuer has to be able to check his time and his temperature and all that good stuff. So, put it to good work. Put it to good use. I will. Thank you. All right. That's We'll put it all back in here and we'll take some pictures. Board, would you like to come take a picture with David?
I have a feeling you'll still be doing something. I think so too. All righty. We have Patricia's retirement next. So many things to celebrate tonight. Thank you.
Thank you, board. I was trying to find out find a way to kind of open this up and I don't have a get stuck story in a truck like Chip did. So, we're going to wing it. Um I think Wes hit it on the head earlier when he said you know when you work with an employee so long uh they begin to be family and um so this is Patricia Lair. She has been here for 32 years and she is retiring. So I asked her was she serious about a retirement and she said absolutely. So,
uh, and she asked me if I would make this quick because I don't know who's more nervous, myself or her. But Patricia started with the county in 1993, February 1993. Uh, since she's been here, just to give you a couple of her accomplishments, uh, Patricia has won the Eagle Award two years in a row for 2004 2005. She is success uh she is also awarded the star award in June 28 of 2006. On top of that, Patricia was voted employee of the month in 2018. So you see your 32 years, an employee
like this is hard to replace and it's harder to find one to replace her. Um a 32-year employee like Wes and some of Jamie and some of the other guys around here, that's that's a long time to spend in one place. and uh she has become family to a lot of the employees here. Um I've only got the opportunity to know her in the last few months just because we just our paths don't cross as much as I would like them to, but we're going to change that. Um we all know we have these things, storms,
hurricanes, things like that. It comes in and they mess up our buildings, they destroy things. Patricia is one of the first ones to come in and help us get cleaned back up and and and get us back in uh back in our offices and things like that. Um I don't know what else to say, but we are going to deeply miss you. Um we hope that you stay in contact with us because I would love to see what you have in store for the next stage of your life. Yes, sir. And I pray that God gives you many more years of retirement and health. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.
I just want to thank everybody. First of first and foremost, I want to thank God cuz without him, I wouldn't be here on this mission for so long. And I want to thank all of my co-workers and my directors and my friends and family for putting up with me for so long. And thank you, Miss Pam. Thank you. Um, and merry Christmas everybody. Merry Christmas.
Madam Chair, Pat, while you getting ready to take the picture, I mean, I would be remiss if I didn't say anything about you. I mean, today, you probably two of the most special people I know, David and you are leaving. Uh, you made offices feel like a home. You made it clean. I mean, one of the reasons that I advocate every day uh for our custodial staff and our maintenance staff is because of you. Uh because you are a welcoming voice to people that come in this office, into this building. Uh you go beyond your call of duty and I' I've watched you show people how to get to the clerk's office, how to get to the tax collector's office, how to get up,
and you do it with such humility, such love. Uh you're going to be missed. Thank you for your service. And as my grandmother would say, the least of them shall be the greatest of them when it's all ending. So, thank you and God bless you. Thank all of you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, our next proclamation is for Veteran Services Office and that's
going to be presented by Commissioner Kohler. Thank you, Madam Chair. And before I read this, um, when I first came on the board, I got a call from Admiral Quinn and he said, "We don't have enough VSOs, Mike." And at that time, we only had one. And he retired. And but I went to Wes and said, "We need to expand this service." And most people don't realize these are dollars that come back into our economy and help
our economy. And um what you do, a lot of people don't know, but when a widow or widowerower dies, you're there to help them move on. I know you helped Captain Brady's wife. Um and she was very grateful. She and I wanted to share that with you. I know Miss Williams gives you very hard time, Marca, but she's, you know, she's she's a friend. But thank you for what you do for the veterans in our community. It it matters. And I don't think we have enough VSOs because even out at the Seabox. So we're fortunate to have you folks here in the county serving our veterans. So thank you
so much. So I'll read this proclamation then if you guys want to say anything you're welcome to. Whereas the scami county office of veteran services operate operates by its mission to advocate with purpose and mission for veterans in the local communities and serve as a leazison to superior and muchneeded services, benefits and support. And our veteran service officers work tirelessly to bridge the gap between local veterans and the resources available to them to achieve highquality life by holding daily meetings and attending numerous outreach events throughout the year to aid veterans experience homelessness, illness, and others various needs for assistance.
Whereas veteran service also hosts community outreach events in several community centers throughout the county to help increase awareness of the benefits available to veterans and reach those who are in a remote area that may not have the resources to travel. During outreach events held in Deisville Community Center, Byronville Community Center, Molino Community Center, this year, our veteran service officers established approximately $20,896 in recurring monthly income and an estimated $142,441 in retroactive payments for veterans attending. Additionally,
$5,358 were recovered from the Department of Veteran Affairs for veteran barrels and returned to the county's budget for other community projects. Thank you. Whereas the main point of contact for veterans living in homelessness, the Office of Veteran Service reached out over 130 homeless veterans in the last year and it played an important role in providing on-site training to case workers of different community partners to better assist veterans in need. Whereas veteran service aids incarcerated veterans to secure and manage benefits while behind bars and help
facilitate their reintegration into decide into society by reestablishing their benefits. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the board of county commissioners of Escambia County, Florida commends the Escambia County Office of Veteran Service Services for its dedication and unrelenting efforts to serve and improve the quality of our life and our local heroes. Board of County Commissioners of Scampi County, Florida. Ashley Hoffberger, chair, District 4. Steve Stroberger, vice chair, District 1. Um, Mike Coler, District 2. Lumen May, District 3. Steven Barry, District 5. There you go. Thank you all. You want to say anything?
All three of us would like to uh thank the county for the opportunity to help our fellow veterans. Uh, these two are both go Navy. Just for the record, I'm Air Force. We're out of the game. So, we don't care. Aim high.
Commissioner Stroberger. Yeah. I just wanted to say something about that. I uh I retired in February. It'll be 19 years ago. I retired from the Navy and I went to um I was living in Connecticut working for Sorski Aircraft. Went to um the VA. Um was told to come back later. Cold to come back later. I uh left my phone number. They called me back six years
later. I had the same phone. They called me back six years later. you remember the dark times of the VA. Six years, I got a call. They asked me if I still needed to come in. I'd never ever been seen by the VA. And I said, "No, forget it." And then it's when I arrived here to Pensacola, I remember Commissioner Kohler saying, "Have you ever been to the VA or or seen a VSO about a disability rating or go and see them?" And I'm like, I was really reluctant to do it.
I finally went in and I think I was my case was closed probably in four months from the time I walked in. Maybe five. I don't know how long it was. But I thank you. You guys are local heroes to the veterans. Thank you very much for your service. Thank you. Did the clerk's office receive the proof of publication for the public hearings on the agenda and the board's weekly meeting schedule? Madame chair, the clerk's office has
received all proofs. Do I have a motion to wave the reading? So move. Second. All in favor? 5. Public hearing 531. We have no speakers on 531. Move the 531. All in favor? Passes. 50. Public hearing 532. We have four speakers. The first is Clay Romano and Jerry Price. She'll be next.
Good evening board, and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. My name is Clay Romano and I'm I'm here on behalf of the Waterfront Mission, an organization that has proudly served this community for more than 76 years with one central purpose, helping individuals overcome homelessness and addiction and develop healthy, sustainable lives. Today, I want to share a challenge that is becoming increasingly urgent for both our organization and our community.
the growing number of individuals camping on the public sidewalks and the rideway directly surrounding the mission. These individuals often struggle with untreated mental illness, trauma, and addiction. They deserve compassion and real opportunities to change their circumstances. Although waterfront provides many services including overnight shelter, meals, addiction recovery, respit care services, and other long-term programs, many of the individuals camping outside are unwilling to participate in any of our services. Instead, they remain in the
public spaces even when those spaces are unsafe. Just this past Monday, December 8th, an individual living on the sidewalk outside the mission was struck by a car speeding down Herman Street. Thankfully, that individual survived. The hit and run was arrested shortly thereafter. But this incident underscores the danger that these encampments pose both to the individuals living in them and to our community. We also consider we also cons we also continue to see
illicit drug use, increased aggression, sanitation issues, and behaviors that actively hinder our ability to operate a safe recoveryoriented environment for the hundreds of men and women that come to Waterfront seeking help. Currently, our only recourse is to suspend services when those individuals behavior become unsafe. But even then they often do not leave the immediate area around the mission. This leaves us and them in a difficult situation.
Please understand homelessness is a complex issue and no single organization can solve it alone. The mission is committed to being a part of the solution. But we cannot carry the burden by ourselves without coordinated county support from both a policy and an enforcement perspective. What we need is a county-led plan that brings safety, security, and accountability to this issue. That would include first guidance on redirecting individuals to ensure that unsafe
encampments are not allowed to continue. This is not about punishment. This is about guiding people towards healthier options. Second, stronger coordination among outreach teams, mental health services. Just wrap up. Thank you. Addiction treatment providers and housing resources. These services exist, but without alignment, people will continue to fall through the cracks. We are ready and willing to serve as the central location for our community partners to offer
supportive services to our homeless community. And lastly, we need expand access to public structured shelters or sanctioned sites where individuals can stay safely with basic hygiene, trash services, but with clear expectations. Let me be very clear, the status quo is neither compassionate nor sustainable. Allowing people to remain in unsafe, unsanitary sidewalk encampments is not
care. It is prolonged harm. True compassion means helping people take steps out of homelessness and addiction, not enabling the conditions that trap them in it. The mission stands ready to bring decades of experience to a partnership with the county, with our many community partners to create a system that protects our community, our neighborhoods, supports our first responders, and most importantly offers real pathways for people to reclaim their lives. Thank
you for your time and your willingness to address this incredibly urgent issue. Thank you. Thank you for that insight. We appreciate it. Jerry Price and then Melissa Pino's next. Thank you, Mr. Romano. I'm on the other side of the fence on this one. Sorry about that. With the camping issue on district two in the areas where I've seen it, you have people that
make choices. The choices they make is to stay out there. They can go into programs. They choose not to. They don't want to give up on their fix for the night. They want to trespass. They think that they have the right to lay their head wherever they want to. And the sheriff's department, they're it's a good sheriff's department. They've got to go by probable cause and the people that
own the property have to call in the trespassing. I can't call it in. They won't listen to me. I don't own the property. You have people on the storefronts sleeping and they just continue to camp. Going into programs like the waterfront, it costs money to stay there overnight and they would barely use the money for something that benefits them. And staying at the waterfront is not a
benefit unless it's raining. Then they get in out of the rain. I hope that when you vote that you'll vote for the ordinance to eliminate the camping on the rightways. And one particular intersection is Mobile Highway and New Orleton Road. I constantly pick up trash. In a week's period of time,
I fill up my dumpster. That's how much is being left there. The ordinance would help. Thank you. Thank you, Jerry Price. Melissa Pino, and Kevin Wade, you're next. Thank you, Chairman. Woman Hoffberger. Melissa Pino 413 Southeast Bobblets. We pick up tons of garbage, too. Floats off of boats, lands on our shoreline. We pick it up every day. Pounds and pounds of garbage. Um, people who
are empathetic to the homeless, who aren't many people in this community. Period. End of story. I don't want to call us homeless advocates. I'm ashamed to call myself an advocate because I really haven't done anything with it except for donate the last year. I give money. I give tarps. I used to do a lot more before I got fatalistic and depressed about it. And we all kind of get painted with a broad stroke as if we all feel the same way about every single, you know, issue. Well, I'm here. I must be up for Michael Kimbell. I love Mike. I think he's a godsend. We
don't agree on everything. And I didn't even speak with him about this ordinance. I let him know that it was on the agenda. He hadn't even taken a look at it. He's a little tied up with all the crap going on over at the city right now. I'm going to speak a little bit more about the spirit of this on the next item. But on this ordinance, I do not agree with Michael that people should be able to camp on the sidewalks. Makes no sense. People need to walk on those sidewalks. And the RO, it's a it's a public safety hazard. That's not to say camping in general, but why would you guys follow
the city's lead on anything? They're a mess. They go from one lawsuit to another. DC is totally out of control on this right now. They are dealing with having arrested Michael Kimbell for doing nothing while they're going on an anonymous permit from a third party that doesn't even have an EIN, doesn't have a tax number. They can't even identify what the what who these people are. Food not bombs never even put the permit in. And on and on it goes with the lunacy over there. I
just looked at this ordinance quickly and I do not believe in camping on sidewalks and ros. So has anybody ever thought about making an ordinance that says you can't recline on a sidewalk? Why get into all of this stuff about camping with all of these definitions and all somebody's done is crossed out outdoors or overnight or whatever it is? It's like I I could have done it. A child could have done it. Why Why don't you guys take this seriously and get it right? Because
the definitions that you've got right now, I am telling you, you're going to get sued on. Maybe you don't care, but you're gonna get sued like the city gets sued because those definitions boil down to recreational activities in the afternoon as well on beaches, in parks, at sporting events. It's a careless ordinance and I really think that you guys should take a better look at it. I know you're probably just going to vote it, but you should be more careful. Kevin Wade, Madam Chair. Yes, sir. Alison, quick question because I was over at Waterfront and I
I'll tell you, it's horrible. I mean, they can't his staff, they can't even function with what's happening. I mean, so they want to help people, but does these tents stop us from putting a tent at Ensley football field. This ordinance doesn't stop that. Correct. I mean, we can set tents up if we want to set tents up for the football game. We set them up Friday night to come play Saturday, we're still good with this ordinance. That that is not necessarily what the ordinance is about. You already have this ordinance on the books, right? Law enforcement needed a little bit stronger tool, so we're loosening up what the definition of camping is. This comes out of a state
statutory mandate from last year. We've had an ordinance on the books for quite a while. This is just adjusting the definition of camping. The state law currently indicates that camping is only overnight. This opens it up to be if you're camping even during the day. It shouldn't address simply the use of a tent, right? Meaning you just can't hang out with your coolers and cook out on our sidewalks and public spaces day or night. Correct. The law enforcement, my understanding, is mostly addressed with folks who are literally living,
sleeping all day, all night in certain public areas. And that's really what it's designed to get after. So I mean I guess my question you know just for my friends at water if someone's laying out in front of Waterfront Mission on the sidewalk in front of their building which I've experienced can does this strengthen that they can walk up and say you have to get off that sidewalk. If it appears as though they are camping it would absolutely affect them and it and law enforcement
would be able to use them. So and that's at the discretion of the law enforcement officer. These things always have some discretion based on the reasonable observations of the law enforcement officer. Thank you, Kevin. Madam Chair, if I can ask one question. I'm sorry, Commissioner. So, I I did I did see where when I read through this quickly was mostly overnight. Do they have to have like a a tarp or or anything like that? So it was the current existing ordinance tracks almost
identically the state statutory language from the state statute that came out last year which defined camping as overnight and in conversations with sheriff's department and uh those who I guess who've been out in the field dealing with enforcement of this there was an ask to loosen it up so that it would be for camping if it's occurring ing in the same places that's already in the ordinance, but even during the day. So, they have folks who are setting up and camping and sleeping on sidewalks on public rights of
way all day long and law enforcement found that to be a very frustrating thing that you had to wait until overnight in order to do something about it. And camping is strictly defined. It has something as the storage of items, the setup of a tent, blankets, pillows. on observations that you're essentially using it for living space essentially. Okay. I uh just for the board, I I talked to Deputy Hobbs actually earlier today about something else and this
and I asked him on both the two issues coming up. Now, obviously the sheriff's department's very supportive of these. So that that's all I have to add to that. Thank you, Kevin. Wait, now it's your turn. I apologize. Thank you. don't have to apologize to me. I discussion is good. The social safety net is falling. Those cracks in our social safety net are are getting
larger and larger and larger. And what holds many people t to the tenuous life that they have now is the discretion of the person with the badge who shows up to say you can't feed people here. You can't stand here. Go move. shift. You know, it's a song that comes out in many forms. Go
Move Shift is a 300-year-old song. And really, it was about pushing the poor and pushing them and pushing them and pushing them to get them on boats to get them out of the countries they were in. Oh, this this this, you know, it's there aren't enough beds for people to sleep in any of the shelters. And how many of those shelters charge? So, to be able to get into a shelter,
you have to stand around and find $10 somewhere. We have people in this town who have whatever job they have at night scrabbling through, who live in their cars, and they end up in the parks, at the malls, many places. They need to be able to get some sleep because they don't have anywhere to
go yet. Many of them are still still years of trying to cobble together something. And what stops what stops being kicked off the beach or if you're waiting for tickets or whatever sale, you know, if you're at Best Buy waiting for those store those doors to open on that special day and there's 300 people waiting there. Okay. How many of those people will fall
asleep? How many of those people will go ahead and get a ticket or told to go move shift? Um, it's uh find a way really find ways to get help out there. Thank you, board. Just Alison, as you just said, this is changing nothing with the current
ordinance at all. It's just clearing up the limit. We have had an ordinance in place for a while based on the state statutory change from last session, last year. Um, this is simply loosening up the where it has said overnight camping must be overnight. Now, it can be camping if it's any time of the day. That's all you're doing. We are not necessarily directly tracking anything going on at the city. This is your existing ordinance based on the state statute and it is addressing the opening up of the time of day. Okay,
good. Commissioner Sturburgger. Yeah, I don't think anybody on the DAS here believes that being homeless is a crime. It's not a crime to be homeless. Circumstances have led that person to be that way. But man, I've said it before. I hate seeing it. I hate seeing there was one hot dog when I was still working for Commissioner Kohler. You might remember the picture I I I gave you. I'm on my way home driving through Warrington and right across from that wonderful establishment,
U Cubs crawfish, there's a water fountain. And at that water fountain, I see a guy smoking a cigar or a cigarette having a beer sitting inside the water fountain. And this is a guy who'd been there who who's always panhandling. Had always been there. He's gone now. There's still one guy left, but he's I pull in. I ask him what he's doing. I'm pretty mad. He's pretty happy. He's told that he can do this. I don't know if he can, but I convince him he can't, so he leaves. But man,
I hate seeing that. He I mean, he's just making a public nuisance of himself. And I've gotten complaints from from um the establishment I mentioned before about him doing things that he shouldn't be doing in front of in front of a restaurant, sleeping on the benches and stuff like that, ruining the business. So, I hate seeing that. So, I'm in support of this. I do agree with you. I think it should be stronger. If we can make it stronger, if we could, I'd support that.
Commissioner Barry. I was going to move the item. Move the 532. Is there a second? Okay. All in favor? 50. Thank you. Next is public hearing 533. And we do have two speakers for this. So, first speaker is Jerry Price and then Mel Pino is going to be our second speaker. So, Jerry, if you'll go on and come up. I'm going to bring up the same intersection again. Not only was there camping going on,
but you've got a lot of pan handling and that's um it's a median that's 7'2 in wide. I think the state has a six-foot width on medians and I'm glad that this county is considering 8 foot or less. It'll help with a lot of medians in a lot of districts, not just district two, but everybody's up here. And again,
I I don't want to be critical of the homeless, but if you're homeless, get a job. I mean, it's easy to go put applications in. Nobody's keeping you from doing that. Maybe somebody will hire you. And I don't see this happening. They say it's a disease. It's a sickness. Now it's laziness. They think they can get money from people in cars. So why go work? I can make
just as much money people giving me money. And that's what's happening in these medians. That pretty much says it all. Thank you, sir. Melissa Pino. Thank you, Chairman Hoffber. less pun with the southeast Boblet want to speak fast so I can get a lot in. Um I support the median ordinance. Um first time I ever saw people out on a median. It wasn't even it was the firefighters with their boot drive and we had just moved here and they
were holding these boots out off the median as we were driving by on Navy Boulevard and I was like good God I can't even believe they allow this um here. So um support this ordinance. Um, it is the spirit of a lot of this that is what people find so revolting. And I don't remember the passage from the Bible where Jesus says, "Man, I can't stand looking at these poor people." I remember him washing Mary Magdalene's feet. I remember him uh forgiving the thief that hung on the cross next
to him. I remember the passage that Commissioner May quoted at the beginning of the meeting about well not at the beginning during the proclamation because you know the janitors are not the least of us. The homeless are the least of us and yes there is a percentage of them that work this system like any system but you are spitting into the wind to think that it cannot happen to you. Most most
American families are two paychecks away from the slippery slope that starts homelessness. And let me tell you something, we are in a grapes of wrath moment. So for any of you who don't understand how bad it already is and how much worse it's going to get. You have no idea. Wait until two months from now. Wait until 6 months from now. Wait until everybody's losing their health care. They're already working three jobs to put food on their kids' table and choosing between whether they
want to eat or get their prescription drugs. Trump voters understand this. Now, 22% of Trump voters are the only people who think that the economy is doing okay. 33% think that there's a chance that it's going to turn around. The rest of them are raising the the they can't decide whether to raise a red flag or raise a white flag. It is going to get so bad out there. How are you going to help? So again, I support the median ordinance. I support our sheriff's department. I hate they're
out there as the at the front line. And like I told you, Commissioner Kohler, I spoke with Chip about this. I I typically try to check in with him on these things and see if they support it. what they support is anyway what you guys just passed is going to get you sued. So yes, our law enforcement needs more help. As for Waterfront, I have trouble supporting an organization that does news uh you know events standing in a room with empty beds because the people can't afford
$10 to get through the first the the front door. It's Christmas. Thank you. Christmas. Do we have discussion from the board? That was our last speaker. No, Madam Chair, um, and I support this ordinance because I think it's dangerous to have children out on medium collecting money whether they're doing it for their youth sports team. But I do recognize, you know, that um, they do what they have to do to to try to raise fund, but funds, but it is dangerous. But Mel, you're absolutely right. We have an affordability crisis in this country, and if we don't think that it's
going to get worse, then we're fooling ourselves. And you know, we we can pass every ordinance that we want to. Uh I refute anyone who says that everyone that's homeless is lazy. Uh because I can just tell you lady that stays in a white Malibu behind the gym every night down on Gregory, she has three children that go to Global and she works at the Red Roof Inn just trying to make ends meet with three children. She's not lazy. She just can't make enough to pay for her children. She can't make enough to pay $1,500 a month rent. And so I mean we have to figure out how are we going
to how we going to help the least of them. And so whether we're creating more homeless camps or we're finding places for people to go or rather we are finding ways to subsidize recognizing that HUD and many of those federal programs are being cut. Uh our human services is more important than ever because people are it's teachers aids, it's bus drivers, it's custodial staff people that can't find a place to live more than ever. People having to move back in with their parents and they can't move back in their parents when they have three or four children. So, as a county, I hope that we pass this, but I hope that we have the discussion maybe as a committee of the
whole. What more can we do? I mean, everybody out there is not some bomb that's drinking and getting drunk. Uh there are some people who are working hard, working 40 hours a week, uh that can't make ends meet. So, I certainly support this. Uh but I'm certainly u Madam Chair, we need if you ask what we want to talk about, we should be talking about that uh for rent, housing, and homelessness. Thank you, Commissioner May. I appreciate that. Commissioner Kohler. Yeah, I struggle with this as a nurse and my wife being a teacher. Um there's a lot of kids in this county
that live in cars at night. That's sad. I mean, as a community, um it's hard to believe that happens, but that's near every community. But this actual ordinance is a good ordinance, and I'll tell you why I'm strongly in support of it. Um the intersection that Mr. Price said there's about this much rise in that intersection and there's people laying in that intersection all the time. Um, we've had people that expose themselves to cars that wouldn't give them dollars. I've had
the sheriff's department out there and none of that's good. But I will say this on homelessness. Homelessness is like it's a multiffactor problem. There's some people that just lost their job. There's some people that got mental health. There's some people that are addicts. It's not a one-sizefits-all. And but we have a responsibility to have a safe keep our streets just safe because I don't want to get I don't want to run over homeless person. I I don't I don't want to hurt anyone. And that some of these intersections that these folks are in are about this wide and they're
in the middle of the road and that it's just it it's it's a public safety issue for me on this. So, I support this ordinance to listen to what everyone said and I don't give a broad brush to everyone in one category is homeless. Thank you. Is that a motion? A motion to pass. Uh, did you want to say something? Yeah. One one thing. Just one thing. Yeah. I I guess I want to clarify what I said about not liking to see it. I I don't like even seeing the idea of homelessness because I'm
I'm sympathetic to it. I I think I'd mentioned that on a Thanksgiving. I brought a homeless guy home to my home for Thanksgiving. Mistake. Not a good idea. But uh but I mean even you can see the evidence of homelessness too. And I hate seeing that. There's a guy I see frequently, Navy Boulevard. You know who he is. He's always there. He never cleans up after himself. He just leaves all his stuff there. He goes, I don't know where he goes, but he comes back panhandling,
leaves everything there. He just leaves a mess. I don't think being homeless means you need to be filthy. So, I I would agree with that. And um just as a personal experience, we have just hired somebody that is currently homeless at the waterfront. So, these missions will help them get their skills. So, if you own a small business and you're hearing this, reach out to some of the homeless shelters and see if they have anybody to fill those vacancies in your business. Um, Commissioner Coler, I believe you made a motion. Do we have a second on the floor? Commissioner Barry, all in favor? 50. Thank you. The next is public hearing 535. We do not have any speakers
for 5:35. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? 50. Thank you. Um, Madame Clerk, the clerk and controllers report, please. Uh, yes, ma'am. We have three items on the consent agenda. The first one is the October investment report. The second is the TDT report for the October stays. You'll see that there was an increase 1.7%. Also, minutes and reports are on the agenda. I would also like to note that I'd like to speak on car 1-4. Thank you. Thank you. Yes,
ma'am. Do I have a motion? Motion for the close report. Second. Is there a second? All in favor? 50. Thank you. Um Horus, the growth management report, please. Yes. Merry Christmas to all. Um 5:45 we have the uh amendment future land use small scale map amendment to review and adopt. Second. All in favor? Oh, we do have one speaker, Meredith Bush. Did you want to speak to that?
Okay. All in favor? 5. Thank you. Then we have our consent agenda. Second. All in favor. 5. Thank you. Next is the county administrator's report. Thank you, Madam Chair. There's 17 items on the technical public service consent agenda. There are no changes. Please hold car 1-4 uh for madame clerk's comments. Um well, please hold 116 too. I want a discussion on the committee assignments if
you don't mind. and 116. Move the balance. Second. All in favor? 50. Thank you. Item number four, Madame Clerk. Thank you, Madam Chair. If you'll indulge me, I've got a little bit of information just to hopefully provide some clarification as to why I'm talking. Um, this has to do with the drop policy. um comproller goals were set and one of the goals we set was to do a payroll review
and we were doing a payroll review because we've had a lot of changes in staff. We've had changes in procedure policy and when you have that you you're just not real sure. So we looked at the risk areas and this was one of the risk areas that a staff of four thought we needed to address. So we did so in November 7th just last month we gave you a review of the drop payouts um and we did discover that excess payouts have occurred. So here's a little bit of
the background. The BCC policy for draft payouts was last amended in 2014. However, in 2021, there began interpretations of the policy by then former HR director Crystal Dora. Our staff continued to talk. Then we received in 2023 an email from the county attorney's office that basically says there should be a 500 PTO drop payout at the entry, 500 drop payout at separation.
This is not the right interpretation. It is not accurate. It does not reflect the policy. The plain language of the policy does not state that. And to further to further support that, you have your own drop processing like u I think it's called drop processing form G I think is what it was. That tells you one, two, and three. This is what you can do. And that is not an option.
You cannot do 500 at the entry and 500 at the exit. So yes, I'm here to tell you that excess payments have happened. Why have they happened? My staff does not track drop payouts. Our UKG is our system that we went live on in October, December of 21, I think it was. And that system has its own vulnerability when it comes to payroll. It does not track drop. I believe the county HR tracks
drop, but I'll let them speak for themselves. There should be no change in the drop policy. The amendment should not go forth as written. This is a substantial change in policy and very large ongoing financial impacts. It also treats FRS employees very differently. There is an FRS pension. There is an FRS investment plan. Only FRS pension employees can inter drop. So you
put F FRS investment plan employees at a complete disadvantage and there appears to be no rational basis for this. And what is the point of two payouts for drop participants only? Um and and are you going to encourage every FRS pension person to enter drop even for the minimal time just to cash out? it could really create a huge financial impact. To substantiate what I'm saying,
we surveyed 30 counties. We also called the state of Florida. And I will tell you that your policy as written is in line with the state of Florida and throughout the state of Florida. It is a good policy as written for drop payouts. And I believe that if Escambia County changes their policy, you are going to be an extreme outlier. This is going to cost you millions. And I don't think
that's the fiscal impact that you're trying to have. Um, also what we have found is a Scambia County has more leave buckets than any of the 30 counties we surveyed and you have payouts for each of those buckets. And I think that should be reviewed. So I'd like to tell you that the interpretation should have never been done. The payouts in excess should have never happened and the policy for drop should not be amended. I'd like to further comment on the entire package
document put before you that amends all of section five, seven, and maybe some of 10. This document becomes our official records. This document is not a striketh through of the May 2021 policy. It's as if it's a created document and then it's a striketh through document. For that reason alone, you should reject this. Go back and look at your policy language and track it. I had
a very difficult time. I did several snippets. There's paragraphs missing. There's paragraphs created that were never in the policy. I would ask that you go back and create a very good official documents for our records. Um because otherwise this is sort of legislative editing that's not even to a policy. I also believe as your controller that no constitutional officer in this county should have this lucrative of a payout that you are looking to amend. Thank you for your
time. Sam, I I do have a question. How long have we been paying out the hours on the front and then the hours on the back? I looked back because we've been on UKG since December of 2021. That's what I looked back to. So, it looks like December of 2021. And it's good to see Miss Powell come up because she was the uh payroll supervisor for me, the clerk's office. Um, as this was transitioning, we were looking at UKG and where we are today. Perfect. Vicki, can you answer that? How long
have we been paying out on the front and the back? So, we've been paying out on the front and the back since 2014. Um that was the change that was taken to the board by the HR director at the time. That was Mr. Tom Turner. The background summary that he presented to the board did explain um basically that we were allowing employees to take terminal leave at the end of their drop period which was no benefit to the county. They were not working. We could not fill the positions and he asked that the leave be paid out at the end because they continued to acrue the leave.
Okay. And then I know that when we talked you agreed that this policy was very generous and that you're looking to kind of adapt the policy in the future, but it sounded as if we have people who are in drop now and it was explained to them one way and we're concerned about negatively impacting them. That is correct. I have um several of you have actually come to see me and you've been to my office. There's a stack of policies on my desk about like this. There's post-it notes, sticky notes all through there. a lot of analysis that we've been doing. A lot of things we presented to each of you as far as what your take on these things were. And one of the biggest things and
that you should know are any policy changes cannot be unilaterally applied to your unions. Those have to be bargained with your unions. So, we would need direction, the county administrator and I would need direction to bargain that with the unions if we're going to change the policy or the practice. Okay. And is there a way to since we have been doing it since 2014 and we have I think a dozen or eightish people who are in drop now depending on that is there a way to apply this recommendation to those folks but let anybody know that applies for drop afterwards that we're going
to be having a new policy going forward that so that is what Santa Rosa County did. Yes. So and we've looked at again we've reached out to counties as well. We've been working on analysis for different um policies. They did a change to their policy and they said everybody that was in, they're under this policy. Everybody that is going in, they're going to go under a new policy. We've looked at those provisions as well. And again, you got to think about your unions and whether or not your direction is for me to bargain that with the unions as well. So,
so right now we're talking about unclassified employees. Unclassified notions. Well, and classified who are not in union positions. Okay, that makes sense. So you have about um can I ask you is there a difference between terminal leave that the director Tom Turner had in the policy versus PTO payout? Is there a difference? Because I believe the amendment was adding terminal leave which is when somebody is still there was already a terminal leave policy in place and what was
happening is they were using the terminal leave policy at the end of their drop. The term leave policy was for 480 hours. They were using that at the end of their drop because you were continuing to acrue leave. And so they would say, "Oh, I'm just going to take three months off and you can't stop me." And I I you know, I'm just I'm I'm ad liibbing here as far as the assessment of what Mr. Turner did and presented to the board. Um, I also have a copy of his records from 2014 where
he amended the HR policies and procedures, but he did not take them to the board. So, he brought you the drop policy. He did not bring the HR policies and procedures. He did amend them. They were not updated to reflect that same change to the drop policy. So these are all things that are in in my notes in my office that I have been going through of yes this drop policy was changed but the HR policies and procedures were not updated to reflect that. Another one would be the um I'm trying to think of a policy off the top of my head that you guys approved. FMLA for example
is a separate policy but it is also in the HR policies and procedures. So the FMLA policy has been approved by the board but not amended in the HR policies and procedures. So stepping into the role um about two years ago, this was one of the things I identified and and coming from Miss Child shoulders's office is conflicting policies when working in payroll are very difficult. So taking these conflicting policies, identifying them, and then again reaching out to each of the commissioners to get their feedback of what their direction is in order to bring a
final product or a finished product to you guys. And I know when we talked, I'm just making our conversation public here. Yes. You also seem to have a concern that there is a benefit given to those that are in the pension plan versus the investment. Yes, absolutely. So, any policies going forward would make those more similar in the payout as far as vacation? My intent as long as that is the intent of the board. Okay, that makes sense. Um, Commissioner Kohler. Yeah, thanks Madam Chair and u I did call Nikki up and I want to just have a little bit of conversation.
The inequities in certain policies that's not uncommon in organizations. There's all kinds of that that happens in in the federal government. I'm used to that. But I do um with if you take a 40% or an early retirement or GS. I mean there just that there's a lot of different ways to skin a cat. But the clerk had sent me something a couple months back when I still chair on the drop and I went to I went to the county administrator and county attorney and we went over it. But when I talked to you, one of my concerns, other constitutionals are paying on both ends, right?
Even in Escambia County, isn't that what you told me? At least one. Is there only one? Is it just Go ahead. You told me it was a sheriff's department I know of. Yes. Okay. So, this policy would have substantiate that. I think it's the SOE that has an older policy that pays on both sides. So, this policy wouldn't change that. No, we don't govern the sheriff's office. No. And and my other concern is I I obviously would think there should be a grandfather because this will be a morale buster for the for the staff. Everyone knows that doesn't mean it may not be right, but it's a it's a morale
buster for the staff. I mean, if we were to change this um something else that we discussed, if you don't mind me speaking. No, I actually of those counties that um of those counties that we reviewed while our leave policy is more general generous. Thank you. I'm a little nervous. Um Oh, yeah. You're doing great. While our leave policy is a little generous, our positions are not paid as much as those positions in those neighboring counties or even our neighboring entity right here
in Escambia County. So, we have to look at that offset and the full benefit package when we're looking at what we're offering employees if we want to recruit and retain. Can you substantiate that in most of our uh positions in the county? I mean, you said that, but I mean, there's certain people in the county I think they're probably getting more than I think on average we're analyze. We analyze the positions by annually as per policy. Okay. So, that's something that
the board I think should maybe consider. I don't or or change pay scale. There's a couple options, you know. I don't know. I think it's something that we need to think about how we want to move forward with this. Commissioner Barry, thank you, Madam Chairman. I was most concerned by what you stated from a previous HR director. What what did you say with No. Yeah, I'm aware. But what what did he do? No, he submitted the drop policy change to you um that you approved in 2014. Yeah.
He amended the HR policies and procedures. He did not he did not have them approved by the board, but he also did not did not push them out as approved. He had a copy in his records of amending the HR policies and procedures. So my my belief is his intent was to submit a full packet. So he amended them, but he never there was the the amendments were never implemented. Is that what you're saying? For the drop portion of the HR policies. So he had like a draft amendment that he just never brought forward. Correct. So that's why you see in your backup today, section five is a
redline copy and a clean copy. Section seven is a redline copy and a clean copy. But the HR policies and procedures are just section five added and section seven added. Then I added section 10, 19, 18, and 26 that had the redline copies on the previous board agendas. Yeah. because I made the same mistake in updating a policy but not having you amend the HR policy and procedure book. Okay. So, you know, one of the things and and I don't think any of us have been, you know, have been
uh, you know, employees of the county, you know, or no career employees, you know, are now in board seats. So, you know, in just conversations over the years, yeah, what one of the one of the uh, you know, kind of tones in our community is, you know, that if somebody hires on with the county, the pay may not be, you know, equivalent to, uh, you know, to a neighboring municipality, but the uh, but the benefits are good. You know, they they like our health insurance. They like the uh, the leave acrual. That's the, you know, that those those are those are things that that uh, you know,
kind of tip the pendulum for people coming to Escambia County. So I mean I think that's a that's certainly a true thing. The when you say the the leave uh acrruel or calculation is is generous, you know, maybe relatively generous, but that's mirrored in our bargained employees agreements. Correct. And that's what I was referring to when I refer to the unions and the union agreements is if we are going to unilaterally impose a policy, it's only going to be imposed on your unclassified or your classified that are not in a union. anything else would have to be bargained. So you don't see
that in what is brought forward to you today. That would be brought forward in a bargaining agreement. Right. Well, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if we if if we were to make changes if we were to make changes to our non, you know, non-bargained employees, we're not evening them out with our bargained employees. We're then pushing their calculations below the bargained employees at that time. Correct. So it's not as if we're e we're not leveling the playing field. We're actually moving the non-bargain employees to a calculation that's lower than the
bargained employees if we were to make changes. If not the changes that are if we were to move the com the comment future changes. Yes. Um, Madam Chair, as I, you know, I appreciate the comments of of everybody when it, you know, when it comes forward, I'm going to support uh, you know, I I think that these policies are, you know, they're the product of a lot of work of Dickies and as well as the county attorney's office. Um, if this is what's coming forward from our professional staff, I'm going to be supportive of that. Um, if the majority of the board thinks there needs to be
some more work put on it, I will support what the majority of the board would like to do as well. Commissioner May. Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, candidly, you know, non-bargaining bargaining whether you work for another constitutional, to me it should be all level playing fields for me. I mean, and so to me, you have to figure that out. I mean, I understand they're bargaining units, but all the employees are are precious. I mean,
if this is the work product and we say this is we have it where it meets the legal test and uh we're not fighting another lawsuit. I mean, I guess that's where it is. I did ask at the last meeting, one of the things I talked about was bringing forth to have the conversation about leave, salaries, and those type of things at a committee of the whole because quite frankly, this is a lot to absorb, you know, in this meeting. uh trying to understand it. I think you know many of the employees don't even understand it. I mean when I was onboarded um it's probably why we ended up in
such confusion state of a retirement plan because um no one really understood the onboarding and everything that we needed to understand and so I did say madam chair that we could at least discuss all of this you know at a committee of the whole because it's not just one part it's moving parts as our directors just said I mean with unions and bargaining units uh and different positions and different constitutionals who kind of set their own salaries with their own staff. Uh if we going to do what's good for the goose is good for the gander. What happens to one employee on taxpayers
back should happen to all employees on taxpayers back in in in my opinion. So uh you know I'll yield and and listen to what my colleagues have to say. I I will say just to get my opinion out there I'm I don't love the policy but I understand it's been paid out since 2014 and I think it's important to honor the people who are in drop who have been depending on this. But I would like to see a policy that is more in line with the rest of the state of Florida come budget season. So that that that would be my expectation and I I do agree we can have a cow. I will say there was a salary
study in 2017 which two of you were here for. Um and I looked through that and I to my knowledge I don't think we implemented any of that. So if we're going to have those conversations I just want to be thinking about how we're going to do it, what that's going to look like and what implementation would look like. Okay. Okay. Um and just Oh no, we didn't. We had the study done. Yeah, we could we could afford the study. We could afford the implementation. The issue may have been deploying the study, right? And I mean, so if you go Yeah. I mean, we we can't have a conversation
about roll back or uh cutting if we're going to talk about raising salaries. I mean, but I mean, I'm happy to have that conversation. I think you're right. I'm just throwing out the pieces. I mean, we probably should have that conversation because it is important for the retention of of good employees and to incentivize them. But, I mean, if we're going to have a conversation about benefits, payouts, PTO, MO, uh, drop, uh, you know, when we talk about services and resources, I mean, we got to talk about revenue, too. So, I' I'd love to make that a part of a committee hall to have that conversation. And, you know, I don't know, you know, when this policy has to
be adopted. You know, is is it critical? Is it timesensitive tonight? Um, if it is, I'll support it. If it's not, I'm happy to continue to have the conversation for a better clarification. I think judging by our conversation, it is timesensitive tonight. But to maintain status quo, it would be timesensitive. Um, but again, not opposed to a grandfather situation that we discussed that would happen during budget season. Allison, what is the legalities of that as far as like passing this but knowing there's another policy coming down the pipeline?
I mean, do do we have to notify employees like if you're not in by this date or how does that work? Yes. I mean, most likely, yes, we're going to need to do that. Um, we internally can handle dealing with the the unions. I mean, we that's something we can we can address if that's what we're going to be doing. So, Commissioner May, that might be an option. I do think on this one, I don't want to I agree. I don't want to steal Nikki's thunder, but I do believe she has said that there are maybe a half dozen employees over the holidays
who are separating and have been in drop. And so, I think that this action probably would be important to ensure that those folks get what they're anticipating is going to happen. Isn't that correct, Nikki? Yes. Yeah. And county attorney, I would agree because in my drop review, I told you that I was going to follow the policy as written because former HR director addressed terminal leave, which is different than PTO leave, which creates the conflict of clarity.
So, we would need clarity from this board to do the payments at separation, which is why I issued the drop review. Madam chair, I move the item uh A, B, and C as it's presented by staff. All in favor? Okay, 5O. Thank you. and we'll see you back at budgeting with those other policies. Thank you.
And if you guys have any questions, just reach out, let me know. We'll work on those policies. We we're bringing all this stuff back to clear all this up at a committee of the whole, right? To get an understanding of So, our first committee, our first three committee meetings of the whole have already been laid out. The first one in January is the Town Commerce Park. The second one is your ECAT request. And then the third one is going to be the budget. it. Can we get the fourth one then? Can we bring it on the fourth one then? Yeah. You want to do that or do you want to tie it into
budget? Oh, at your discretion. Maybe budget. Let's tie it into budget for the third. Sounds good. Great. Wonderful. Yeah. I just you know that I think if I Madam Chair, if I can make a comment. Um Madame Clerk, I appreciate what you sent. I'm struggling with the right solution on this because I do think the lower pay and I just want this out there so the employees know that the benefits that there everything isn't always pay if you've ever ran an organization sometimes people's time
off is more important than a little extra money and you know so I think and I also don't like I think Nikki you told me like a third of the staff is under bargaining agreements right a third of the county st is that correct 42% 42 okay So that yeah, we got to look at that if it's going to hurt the uh non-bargaining employees. So yeah, I'm I'm interested to see where we land on this and thank you madam both of you. Thank you. I appreciate it and thank you for bringing it up because I gave us time to work with Nikki and make sure the people who are currently in that situation are protected,
but going forward we're being more responsible stewards. That was the goal. Thank you. Okay, the next item was item 16 and Commissioner Cole, I believe that was held at your request. Yeah, I just have one. I need to come up with a solution and I've talked to Allison about this a little bit. I had I didn't really have any problem except for with one of the the committee assignments and it's the Northwest Florida Defense Coalition and it was never an assignment till I put it on. It it
has never been assignment on the board. In my my opinion, that assignment should be treated like PEDC. It should be a two-year assignment at a minimum when you're working with with these folks that are um policy in the federal government moves very slow. It just does. So, uh to work with the folks that we're working on for some of the projects, um I just don't see how anyone I would like to have two people on this board. Commissioner Stroberger, I know you you've
I think you've had voice that this is important to you, too. The MAC doesn't bother me. I've been on that for years and I know what what that's all about. But Allison, I asked you for some solutions and I'd like the board support no matter what we end up doing with this assignment. If not, I need to I need to freelance to work the Coast Guard thing and I'm I'm going to do it no matter what. I'm not going to lose that kind of money. So, if I'm remembering correctly, the Northwest Florida Defense Coalition does not meet in the sunshine. That's the issue that we've talked about. So we
can't per state statute put two two commissioners on that. Is that correct? So my concern is that this particular group, not the MAC, but this particular group does not meet in public. So I have advised that I would be extremely concerned about sunshine law issues if we had two commissioners concurrently simultaneously sitting in board meetings in private in private meetings and and we do fund some of their activities. They were one of our community partners. We got that I
I asked for the increase. So, okay. And you all voted for it and it's necessary and it's even when you look at ADC and I know Allison, you and I have had differences of opinion on this. Santa Rosa sent four commissioners and they have two. Now, I know that we're a difference legally, but like Leon Petta said, if we're not fighting, we're losing. It's just a fact. So, this isn't something to mess around with with half our economy on the line. It's just not. Um, and you know, I
I just would like to have more of a presence from Escambia County. And I agree with that. I know how passionate Mike is about this. Commissioner Kohler is about this. And and and I believe you got to be on it more than one year to really make an impact. So I if we can find a way to make that happen, Allison, I we we need to I I and like you said, we I mean the last the last one that we went to out there in Monterey, all the commissioners from Santa Rosa were there, but one commissioner.
I don't have a problem myself legally with more than one commissioner traveling assuming the board votes to find that county travel is authorized to these events that they have when you're traveling so long as the commissioners if there's more than one going understand the rules of the sunshine law and follow it on their honor just like when you're at any other conference. That's not my issue. My issue is these board meetings where they meet in private. I've spoken with some of the folks
associated with this. They do not intend to evolve this to public meetings. So that is my concern. Is that the difference between the eststerary or value adjustment like PEDC is established by state law and there are two county commissioners on the PEEDC and they meet in public and the sunshine law is followed and they advertise their meetings for the public to attend. This group does not and so I am very concerned about Couldn't we advertise it if two people were going? Couldn't they don't want the public there? Well, we may I mean I mean they're going to change that not let the
public but aren't they being funded by government dollars? Yeah. So they are on their they have to figure out if sunshine law applies to them as a group or not. But I certainly don't want two commissioners concurrently sitting through a board meeting in private. That concerns me a lot. Mike, you know, I I think when I think of military leadership, I I think of you and Commissioner Stroberger. you've just done enormous job representing us at FAC and in the military and so I mean well just on the current supportive there's about five different things I'm already
working on tomorrow I'm meeting with our lobbyist just on this on this project so and there's about four other things that got to happen so I would like that to make a motion that either Steve and I could be on it if the board was okay with that under the rules that um Allison lined out that we would honor the sunshine and then I also will work with Shannon and Colton and Mr. Morehead to uh advertise the um meeting the coalition meeting in the sunshine. Yeah. You don't
like it? They they've already said they're not doing it. They've told me they won't do it. Mike, they're not going to do that. So I would I was I mean I think Commissioner Schroberger I think Commissioner Shber would let you serve, Mike. I mean you're that passion about it. I'll help you do whatever. I'll help you do whatever. Are you okay with me serving another year? Well, I I I don't know why we can't continue the way we were up until today. Is look I What if What if Mike continues to serve as the official board person and we recognize
and we authorize your county travel like she was talking about doing where you can travel to all the things. Can you live with that, Steve? And the board I'm sure the board we would be happy to do that. I'll be honest, I don't have a problem rolling off next year cuz by then the hanger, the South Navy Boulevard, if we get lucky enough to get this Coast Guard thing, it's going to probably happen in the next 30. I will say the reason that I put Commissioner Stroberger on there is because you have served a year and Commissioner Stroberger moving into the chair position. Yeah. I felt like he needed those relationships within the community to make sure
that he can advocate for Escambia County. And I understand it is between the two of you. However, you guys I understand that you didn't know all the things going on and and then and that's but I would just tell you like just like uh Commission Not that I didn't understand. I made a decision based on him moving into this position. Well, I I don't think you knew all the things that I were doing. I guess I worded that the wrong way that offended you. But what I would say I agree with Commissioner Stroberger that this should be two years no matter what. The federal policy just moves too slow. There's no way you could be on this and have an effective impact.
So, I would say Steve, if you're okay with it, I I would ask that you let me serve one more year and then I'll continue. Yeah, I'm not okay, but I'll do it. I'll do it. Well, well, I'll make a deal with you that next year I'll roll off if you know. Commissioner, what if what if we move what if we move the chairperson's assignments except making an edit to that committee appointing Commissioner Kohler. But at the same time, the same motion can also authorize the out of county travel uh as necessary for, you know, for the for the uh uh for the travel for Commissioner Stroberger to be able to attend as Allison was alluding. Is that a motion? That is my motion. Second it.
Okay. All in favor. Steve, if you can live with that, that's Thank you, Commissioner Stroberger. And and and honestly, so much for this. The board need I would like to share with the board it it's it's important to have more of an impact and and there's only a few veterans on that board. We're just going We're gonna hold you accountable for getting those jobs. Huh. It's a big lift, buddy. I I will say as we're adding to the cow spending, you guys need to check our travel budget because it is a lot. Okay, moving on. Madam Chair. Yeah, you don't. There are 35 items on the budget
finance consent agenda. There are no changes. Please hold card 2-35 for speaker. Wonderful. Thank you so much. car 2-35, Mary Kopka, your speaker for that if you want to come on up. Oh, I'm sorry. Hold on just a second. Do we have a motion to move the balance? Do we have a second? Second. All in favor? Okay. 50. Thank you, Miss Kopk. Uh, it is item number 35, the recommendation concerning a funding allocation for Leah Gibson Foundation Thanksgiving feast.
Okay, I I'm here. Commissioner Culler, you said in one of these meetings not long ago that you were a good butcher when you're talking about budget. And I'm telling you, all these little things, giving our tax money here and there, there's lots of food banks out there. There's lots of veteran services out there. these little ones that pop up that want
500 here and a thousand here say, "Oh, we'll help veterans. We'll help homeless." I mean, there's a a lot of places to help already. And I just think all these little boondoggles, uniforms for a basketball team, this and that. It's just spending our money, spending our money. We've had to cut back. You guys need to cut back. Save some of our money that you are extracting
from us. Okay. I'm homeless. I'm I don't have my hand out. You teach a person to fish, how to catch the fish, not sit back and expect it. I employ nothing but disabled people. I have a homeless disabled person that I employ and he's decided to turn his life around and go to school. So,
he's in a voke rehab program at Pensacola State. You need to get out in the community, get sponsors for these homeless people. see if you can get a person to sponsor a homeless person. And the homeless people that don't care, they want to stay addicted, they have that behavior, you know, it's their choice. So, I decided just because I'm homeless, I'm still going to have my job and I'm
still going to do the right things. So that's it. Thank you for your time. Board, do we have any discussion or a motion to move item 35? So move. Second. All in favor? Okay. Um I do want to say I have a meeting with the clerk and her attorney next week to go over some details so we can work together on future funding and make sure that we have a clearer picture of this because I know we have some that have been approved and not paid. and I want to make sure we're being transparent
and working together as a team. So, thank you for setting up that meeting and Kristen Hule is also working with us on that. So, thank you. Um, we need to go back and make a correction to card uh 1-2. The time listed on the agenda was for that meeting to be or that hearing to be scheduled at 9:33 a.m. We need to make an amendment for that to be at 9:30 or I'm sorry, an amendment to 5:33 p.m. So, can I get a motion to make that change? Move to amend car to All in
favor. Thank you all. Um car discussion items. Um Wes, thank you, Madam Chair. Uh item number one is a recommendation concerning the authorization of payment for general release of all claims against Escambia County. This has to do with the West Kingsville uh road widening project. I move the item. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor? Thank you. Item two, uh, board,
I'm asking the board to approve and ratify my selection of that is Davenport as the mass transit director. I've worked with that is for quite quite some time. I watched him successfully launch microtransit. I watched him successfully do some stuff on the beach. uh just the other day when the folks from uh Guantanamo Bay were here last minute, I saw him coordinate some some rides to the Bay Center, but more importantly, he brings 23 years of mass transit experience.
Uh I I respect him highly, and I think he and I and Debbie and staff at the mass transit at ECAT are going to be doing some great things very shortly. Uh, I think we have moved the needle, but we have a lot of work to do. And I do feel like that is is is my person to help me do that. Okay. Is there any discussion or a motion to move? Yeah, I move uh item two. Wonderful. Do we have a second? And yeah, second. All in favor? 5. Thank you. Um, item number three, I believe we need a
written vote for that. Yes. Congratulations. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you so much. Are are any of the applicants here? I think I see one. Any other applicants here? M we we voted now, but I mean maybe we could have let him spoken.
Casey, does do you guys want to say anything? I mean, is that the only person planned for the job, Madam Chair? No, there were three applicants on the thing you just filled out. Yeah. Is she the only one here tonight? Yes, I believe so. Nope. One more. Marie Matzu. Maria M. Okay.
All righty, ladies. Whoever can go first. Um, good evening. Marie Mott, Florida Department of Health in Escambia County. Um, applying to the board for the Northwest Florida Health Services Council. Um, haven't seen you guys lately, which is a good thing. So, happy to be here. happy to serve on the council if you want me to. Um I know there's multiple applicants and I appreciate everybody's service to the community. So wonderful. Thank you and thank you for working with us um on the other project with Fairy Pass
Community Center as well. Miss Joy, thank you. I echo my colleague and um um Escambia County over the last nine almost nine years has become my home. Um and I am very very passionate as you can probably hear in my voice about the health uh and wellness and well-being of our residents. Um this um council is a blessing to so many people when we talk about uninsured, underinsured,
um lack of they show up and I would love to um serve. I'm going to serve regardless. Not not saying that if you don't appoint me, but I'm going to volunteer and do what I need to do with them. So, thank you so much. Wonderful. Thank you. Hi. Hi there. I'm Trudy. I'm representing Northwest Florida Health Council. Our executive director could not be here. However, he did um provide a letter if you would like me to read that. Yes, please. Thank you. Thank you. Um I'm a little
nervous, so please excuse me. Okay. Just act like you're reading a children's book. Okay, there you go. Good evening, honorable Escambia County Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today, for the opportunity to address you today and for your continued partnership and support of the Northwest Florida Health Council. I regret that I am unable to attend in person due to illness and I'm grateful for the opportunity to share these remarks with you today. The Northwest
Florida Health Council serves as a region's as the region's state designated health planning agency, bringing together community partners to assess needs, support local health initiatives and advance datadriven strategies that improve health outcomes across our 4ount district. I am writing regarding the three applicants who have submitted their names for consideration
to serve as a Scambia County Representative on the Northwest Florida Health Council's board of directors. Each candidate brings unique strengths, professional insight, and lived experience that serve the council and ultimately the residents of Escambia County especially well. Each applicant also represents organizations that are invaluable partners in our shared work and we are genuinely
grateful for the strong collaboration across Escambia County. I want to express my sincere appreciation to all three applicants for their interest and willingness to serve. It is evident to each of them that each of them is deeply committed to improving the health and well-being of our region. I can affirm without hesitation that all three applicants are fully capable of representing the county with professionalism,
integrity, and a shared commitment to advancing regional health priorities. Because of that, the council remains fully confident in the direction and judgment of this board as it determines which individual is best represented will best represent Escambia County in its role. We stand ready to welcome and support whomever you appoint and we remain committed to our strong partnership with all three candidates and the organizations that they represent.
Thank you again for your partnership, your leadership, and your continued investment in the work we do. I trust your deliberation and decision, and I look forward to continuing our strong relationship in the months ahead. Best regards, Kyle Merritt, executive director. Wonderful. Thank you so much for being here and taking the time to share that. Um, is there anyone who needs their paperback to change their vote? Okay. Do we have a tally on the votes?
Uh, Madame Chair, District One voted for Marie Mott. District two voted for Joy Powell. District three voted for Joy Powell. District four voted for Joy Powell. And district five voted for Sally Bgosh for a total of one vote for Sally Bgosh, one vote for Marie Mott, and three votes for Joy Powell. Wonderful. Thank you all. We really appreciate everything you do for our community. And we move to appoint Joy Powell.
Thank you. All in favor? 5. We appreciate that. Um, item number four. Looks like we are talking about the Bay Center. Was there documentation supplied for this? No. Okay. Thank you uh commissioners for the opportunity to come and give you an update. Um, we've been having conversations with staff and wanted to bring this to you today uh to get the group
together instead of individually one-on-one and um seek your guidance if it's okay to bring forward the studies, the reports, the findings uh at a meeting in January. We're at the point where the final drafts have come in. We've we've compiled everything from the CSL study which is a feasibility to determine if what types of buildings and shapes we need uh what type of a amenities we need and then what kind of perform it can do and in return as well as some cost designs and estimates on what that would look like. It was a bit challenging because as we went through
the process, we did look at a holistic uh view. Um not just putting a building in there and not figuring out parking. Um because with additional facilities, you are going to need additional parking. Um that is a very pricey price tag to build uh parking structures. Uh the one concept that came in was a stacked version with a event center in the back parking lot with an ice sheet uh parking garages, but also the study did return a demand um or a need for a headquarter hotel
connected to it. So I know we have the issue with the Grand Hotel and what's going on over there. Um that's really private, you know, development in that area. It's not necessarily public, but we wanted to put forth together a plan that shows you what can happen and give you those options on the table. We also have within that because of the stacked version, which maximize the most use, it is the most expensive to build because you have to support the structure to put an exhibition floor over an ice rink that takes quite a bit of steel. You can't have the columns, the spaces,
and so forth. So we are bringing forward uh some different options where it separates those and also gives you the way of of looking at it is if you want all three components but the price tag is too much the budget can't afford it. Um then we can look at where we can cut what we can look at to do. Um, again, still focusing on the Bay Center, uh, the arena operations to make sure that can continue into the future, uh, with the improvements to to create the revenue generation that it needs to to reduce that subsidy down to zero, uh, and make that more of a a break even,
uh, operation for the county. And so with that um any questions and to seek uh guidance for me to take back to my corporate office our legends global uh team members uh our vice president of the United States um of I'm sorry vice president of United States operations uh for Legends Global um to see if we can get them together and finish that report and bring that back to you uh towards the end of January. We had mentioned we would bring it back to you uh end of November, beginning
of December. Um but we wanted to put more pencil to paper because of the parking problem. Um to make sure that we flush that out to be able to deliver you a good product. Okay. So confirming that won't be ready until the end of January. Correct. Okay. So maybe we can add that as part of our February cow. We can look at that. How long is this ECAT conversation going to take in February? If if I may, we were trying to we were and again it's up to you on your your dates and so forth,
but I looked at the schedule and we were trying to target that. I think you had something January 22nd. We we're if you tell us January 22nd, we're going to plan to deliver it on January 22nd. Okay. So, you're comfortable doing it at BCC meeting, you don't need a committee meeting of the whole. I we're going to give you a full presentation. So, Michael, we going Is that presentation in included? And I know that when we had the joint meeting with the city council and the mayor uh that they were looking at a study. I mean is this just completely independent or do we need
to be having a discussion uh with the results with the city of what they had? Um because I know this is completely independent. This is what Legends Global uh came forward to do to deliver for the Bay Center itself. I know we had the joint meeting. Uh I saw the mayor's press conference this week and uh I was actually reached out by the economic development uh staff member to connect with the persons that are doing that study. Uh we have not connected. They just called today. Um so we have not had any further conversation with the city with what they're planning for the district
side. Everything that we're talking about doing is on the property of the Bay Center. Uh but keeping in mind that what we're doing on the property on the base center doesn't mean we now we have to build a parking facility or two or three to support that on surrounding properties. Makes sense. Commissioner Coler. Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. Hey Mike, thanks for being here tonight. Um I I had two questions. One was I think kind of oversees or highlights what Commissioner May said. I know that the mayor had his study they had fire they had got rid of the original
um and they have a new one. Is their dueout still in January? I believe they're just getting started. I I I I haven't had any conversation with with the city on that side of things. Uh they were engaged with that original group. Uh then they had to pivot and I think that caused a delay on trying to to get that study back in time. I have some time concerns just because of what the legislature put out last year with using TDT for $1,000 per homeowner. If that was to come back and get life, this would never h this would not happen. This project couldn't happen
um without a really big bond, without using those tourist development dollars. Well, I mean, if the funds are encumbered, then if they Yeah. Well, that's the point. That's why I said the time more income. No, but if they were encumbered like what Commissioner Barry is saying, then we're good. Yeah, that's what So, we need to keep an eye on what's going on in the legislature. But, um, Mike, the amount that you the amount that you said, um, was a pretty substantial amount. And have you talked to ASM about a larger number? And, you know, I we're going to
have to talk to the city about their input and the DIB. Has any of those conversations been going on with you yet or not? Yes, sir. I've had those conversations on our calls. We We have So, is ASM happy with the number I want? I'll let ASM or Legend speak for themselves on that one. Um but uh those individuals that are are going to make those decisions um they're planning to be here for that January meeting. Okay. So, and that would be part of that conversation. Wonder. So, are we all comfortable having that on the agenda for January 22nd? Okay. Do we need a motion for
that? Nope. Yes. Thank you. Yes, sir. We we'll start coordinating at that next week. Um and I I would envision I don't want to count anybody in without their you know looking at their schedules but should include CSL which did the study for the the feasibility and then populace which did the study for the architect design engineering side of it and then our legends uh project development team. Same individuals that that recently did the the renovations with the New Orleans Super Dome
and other major projects that we work across the country with. Can we get the documentation that's going along with that about a week or two ahead of time so we can start looking that over? I've uh targeted January 9th. Okay. If that's plenty of time. That's wonderful. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you so much. The fence looks great by the way. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you guys. Okay. Um moving on. Item number five is being held. We do have one speaker, Charles Krepnik. Yes, Charles Cropnik, uh, 14500 River Road, Purito Key, uh, and, uh, director on the Purito
Key Association, uh, board of directors. Um, members of the PK board uh opposed oil and gas uh drilling off the Florida's coast. Uh, and the Pito Key property owners survey uh completed just a couple of months ago showed overwhelming opposition to drilling uh in the 2025 survey. Um, the Escambia County Commission resolution Thank you. Thank you. the Escambia County Commission
resolution uh put forward uh looks like a very positive step towards reversing or trying to reverse the federal plans uh to drill off our coasts. uh the economic hardships and personal uh problems that many felt from the 2010 uh Deep Water Horizon oil spill. Uh including things like suffering health concerns for breathing dispersants from the cleanup. Uh you know those some of those are passed and the key is doing very well but uh that was a very
traumatic time for many. Uh the beaches on Purto K eventually survived the oil spill in fair shape. uh because they're mostly sand, so bacteria and plentiful oxygen could convert the oil to water and CO2. The swampier areas to the west were less fortunate, as were species such as newborn dolphins, green turtles, uh that feed mostly on vegetation. So, some of the wildlife loss has passed. Green turtles are recovering, but we don't need any of this repeated. So, again,
thank you for creating the resolution. Uh we look forward to its passage and hopefully uh cancelling plans to drill off Florida's Gulf Coast. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you for your time tonight. We appreciate it. Is there any discussion or a motion? Okay. Do we have a second? All in favor? I need you to make sure you specify what you're moving because it's just a discussion item. So, okay. Obviously, uh the motion will be to um put a letter in to oppose any drilling off um off the shores of Florida. The backup is a resolution that opposes the offshore drilling. So if you want the
board to do something different than that. So the motion is to adopt the resolution provided in the backup. Second. You okay with that? Okay. Perfect. Okay. All in favor. Thank you. Um Allison, the county attorney's report. There are seven items on tonight's county attorney's report. either myself or the housing finance authority representatives who are here can answer any questions. We do have one item. Item number five is going to be held for a speaker. Uh Commissioner Coler. Oh, I'm sorry.
Second. All in favor? 50. Thank you. Um our one speaker is Mary Kopka. on this case. That is item number five. I was curious as to what pot of money that $40,000 is coming out of. Is that the taxpayers's money? I do actually believe this one is general revenue and and is not insurance money
is my understanding. Yes. Okay. So it it's my understanding the person Bobby Stro Mass hurt his foot in um defective great or something like that. So, it would be um nice if we'd have such a pretty town if they would kind of patrol and check things out and um whatever departments in charge of that
um to keep us out of these problems, just like it would be great to have real roof inspections because I think that's going to come back um and bite somebody now that I've told everybody that you don't really get a roof inspection. When you get an inspection, you just get a little letter. Um, and that's a slap in the face, especially to the elderly who can't get up on their roofs and
double check anything. So, um, Mr. Moreno, did you know that was going on over on Park Place? I know that Tim Tolbert uh does a good job with his inspections and and our inspectors do a good job as far as roof inspections. I can certainly put him in touch with you, let let him walk you through that process. Okay. Well, talk to Miss Reber, too, cuz she's the one that told me he just does drivebys. He may get on the roof for commercial, but residential,
I was told they just do drivebys. So, I'll make sure we get you that clarification. I appreciate it. Thank you. I move the item. All in favor? I vote. Thank you. I appreciate it. That is all for the county attorney's report. Did I miss anything? That That's it. That's it. Okay. We did have one item added to the agenda. It was in reference to the letter of support for the Coast Guard.
That's what you did uh during Okay. So, we voted on that. We're done. Okay. Wonderful. We'll work with D2's office if that's okay with you all and then we'll make sure that each five of you sign it. Okay. Um are there any other announcements? No. Okay. Our meeting is adjourned. Thank you so much and merry Christmas. I am dying. It is.