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Could North Escambia Become Part Of The City Of Pensacola?
August 5, 2008
The entire North Escambia county area, including the Town of Century, would join the rest of Escambia County and the City of Pensacola under one unified government if a new political organization gets its way. The new combined government would form the fourth largest city in Florida.
“What the unified government model does is take those and put them into one government,” Jason Crawford, co-chair of the group Escambia All For One, said of the existing governments of Escambia County, Century and Pensacola. “We are talking about creating a new government that represents the people of Escambia County.”
The group publicly unveiled its plan for the first time Monday night at a meeting of the Century Town Council. The All For One Plan would possibly do away with the town’s mayor, council and even the town itself.
“Would the municipality of Century still exist?” Council President Anne Brooks asked.
“There’s opportunity to look at how to do that,” Crawford (pictured left) responded. But, he pointed out, attempts to keep smaller cities within larger consolidations have failed in other locations around the country.
“Tonight we came to you not with answers, but with questions,” he said. “Would it be smart for the city of Century to be part of a consolidated government?”
The consolidated Escambia County or City of Pensacola government would benefit the citizens in the county with reduced costs from the consolidation of services and the reduction of service duplication. That, Crawford said, would reduce taxes.
And being the fourth largest city in Florida would have other benefits as well, according to All For One.
“It’s going to impact economic development,” Crawford said. “One thing we need to do is improve our voice. It (the consolidated government) is your voice to Tallahassee and the state. It’s your voice to Washington, D.C.”
Crawford said the 90 members of Escambia All For One are not “the downtown crowd”, and they are not a “chamber of commerce” group.
He invited the Town of Century to become involved in the group, perhaps appointing a committee and hold town hall meetings to discuss the process. The council will attempt to hold a workshop with representatives of Escambia All For One in the future.
The Escambia All For One “Vision 2020″ reads as follows:
We the citizens of Escambia County respectfully petition the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners, the city councils of the City of Pensacola and the City of Century, the Escambia County School Board, the elected constitutional officers of Escambia County, and any and all special districts and authorities to hear our plan and respond to our call for unified local government that is fair and just for all, efficient in the use of public resources, accountable and responsive to the general citizenry without regard to race, gender, creed, national origin, or social station.
Furthermore, we do humbly beseech you to establish a local government that is unified in mission, vision and values. We the people do not desire multiple masters located in the same geographic area, duplicating services and competing for the same precious resources.
To wit:
- We pray this new government will be a modern model of accountability and efficiency.
- This government should be dedicated to the elimination of poverty and committed to shielding citizens from the harsh realities of inadequate housing, homelessness, inadequate health care and hunger.
- We long for a strong government that is a solitary, unified voice in pursuit of jobs, economic opportunity and prosperity for all people.
- This government should be the lead supporter for the recruitment of new business and industry.
- This government should be the primary representative to business and industry re-locators, economic developers and the resident political powers in Washington and Tallahassee.
- This government should build upon the long-standing relationships that exist between the local community and the military.
- This government should provide quality public health and safety services, including fire prevention and suppression, law enforcement, sewage disposal and treatment, trash collection and clean potable water.
- This government should be the prime coordinator of community planning, including transportation, recreation and emergency planning.
- This government should respect natural assets, the waterfront, beaches, bays, bayous and rivers of the region.
Comments
17 Responses to “Could North Escambia Become Part Of The City Of Pensacola?”
I THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA LETS MOVE ALONG AND MAKE IT HAPPEN
Well it seems the ” consolidation group ” is back. And I know that Jason Crawford would love to see your comments. You can find him at escambiaallforone.com. I find it very interesting that consolidation is not mentioned on the website. We voted down charter goverment, consolidation is the same horse, just a diffrent color. And I do not want the form of goverment that Jacksonville Fla. has. I do not wish to be part of pensacola,and I never will. I see no benefits to this. I do fear that we would only be used as a tax base to prop up the ridieuious idea’s that the city has. If the city wants to grow ,they need to ask who would like to be annexed. bet they will not have anyone wanting to jump on that boat.
Jeremi, I am with you. We live out in the county for a reason! Yes, some things can always improve. At least we can live in an area where you don’t have to worry about locking your car everytime you park it (and I am talking about in your driveway).
We can all agree that Century does not have curb appeal. But get real, every town and city in the county has areas that need improvement. Every town and city has politicians who only care about their chosen few and what they can gain. But there are a lot of good people out there who care and are trying to make a difference. Maybe you should stop and actually look instead of just speeding down highway 29 and making assumptions.
If I wanted to be a resident of Pensacola, I would live there. It is interesting that they would like all of us poor, uncultured, uninformed country folks to be a part of the Pensacola tax base.
Please print the names and addresses of the members of “Escambia All For One”. I strongly suspect that the majority live south of Ten Mile Road if they live in Escambia County, Florida at all.
We understand that you all would like to be a part of us. Those of you who can, come see us. You will love it here in the country—-just the way it is.
In response to whoever “What” is in the message below:
Do people every stop to think that maybe we don’t want to change our area. I can’t speak for Century since I am not a resident there. I do live in Bratt however, and I can say that the majority of people in our community love it the way it is.
And as far as your comment about our independence leading us into poverty, alcohol, and drugs, are there not poverty, alcohol, and drugs in Pensacola and all surrounding areas? What kind of a comment is that?
If you respond, and I hope you will, please list a name other than “what” and where exactly you are located in the county!
OK, who’s pulling the April Fool’s Day joke ? This is hilarious. I hope this area, even though I don’t live here, never becomes “The City of Pensacola”. I’m familiar with Pensacola. Let it remain on the coast far, far away from this area !! PLEASE !!!
Are you serious? I cannot believe the comments in this blog. You drive through Century and you see nothing! There is no business to speak of. No way for the people to live close to home and have a decent job, and no future “real” plans to make anything happen to change that. But you are sitting on a land GoldMine!!
If Century had any true planning, they would be working on an area to have real industry come in and tie it into the local rail system. Think about it, land, infrastructure, and great transportation routes. Big industry, good paying jobs.
But no. Instead, you have no plan. But yet you gripe about even a thought of losing your independance. But your independance is doing nothing for you except leading most of the citizens into poverty, alcohol and drugs.
Folks, I’m not saying that is the way to go. But please realize, the way it is going now is certainly not. The Mayor is a very nice man I certainly do not reflect my comments to him. However, it’s time to get rid of the local politics in Cenruty and think BIG.
Consider alternatives!!
Political consolidation sounds like it would save taxpayers money but does not always work out that way. I have read several articles which identify several economic pitfalls that go along with trying to make all services the same across the whole county:
Labor cost ( some union / some not )
Service response times (police & fire )
Creating special districts because representation could become fragmented in rural areas.
Economic development and benefits tend to drift toward those areas where there is a greater density of people and money. While i favor reviewing any measure that would save taxpayers money and improve service, the citizens have voted Charter Government down twice. Currently taxpayers have the option to vote with their feet if they want more service or less service, higher or lower taxes, more or less representation, they can move to their area of choice.
I would however favor Functional consolidation. The easiest way to identify those functions are the ones that could serve a regional interest like:
Recreation, Transportation, Public works, Planning and Economic development, Major equipment purchases, information technology.
All these things could be accomplished with letters of understanding between jurisdictions and would not require special legislative actions and if the programs do not work can be undone or adjusted to respond to inequities or cost of service.
I guess my point is please do the research on other communities that have gone down that road.
Escambia county cannot even get their paid and volunteer firemen to cooperate with each other and you want to get three political entities to give up their kingdoms for the good of the whole…..good luck with that.
NO
NO THANK YOU
AND NO WAY
JUST HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO VOTE DOWN CONSOLIDATION?
(IT’S LIKE THEY KEEP TRYING TO REINVENT THE WHEEL)
Why should we trust this group. We can’t even get our county leaders to look in our direction. I am tired of seeing all of my tax dollars being put into Pensacola. Prove to me that your group would change this and we’ll talk. Furthermore, from my viewpoint, it seems this would be a great idea….for Pensacola.
Just curious: How many individuals in your “group” are actually from the north end of the county.
They MUST be joking!? Not if WE have a vote on any of it!! I live in the country because I love it here!! I sure don’t want any MORE of the control that the county already exercises on us shoved in our faces in the name of “improvements”. I like things like they are. WHO would this be helping?? Not us!!
As an after thought, rather than reduce control and representation of the people; How about this . . . lets split District 5 into parts (Redistrict).
Give Century a voice (1).
Give Bratt, Davisville, and Byrneville a voice (2).
Give Walnut Hill a voice (3).
Give Beulah, Molino, and Gonzalez a voice (4).
Each with their own Commissioner; in other words, break up District 5 into 4 or 5 parts where the people of the district are closer to their representative;
THEN talk about consolidating some of the government services, like fire, law enforcement, garbage, sewage, road maintenance, etc. . . . Oh, you say that we already have consolidated services in the North End! Well My, My, My . . .
Yes, in theory a unified services government might have some good parts in it; however, there are many practical aspects that have to be ironed out; and one of those is “what if something goes terribly wrong?” What if we were to get a constitutionally elected official who was LESS THAN a hard working, noble statesman interested only in the public good – like a local Sadam Husein? If that person is abusing their constitutional authority, or Century, or the people, how much will our vote count toward changing how things are done or removing that person(?) or do we have to convenience the rest of the county too?
I believe that Century need MORE control over our own destiny, not less. We have all seen or remember incompetent, selfish, do-nothing politicians, and if you don’t believe that ask the victims of Katrina in New Orleans – the question is “How would we be able to vote them out?”
Also, the North-End doesn’t have much respect or involvement in county affairs as it is; not unless the City of Pensacola, or the Board of County Commissioners needs our participation or vote – then they promise us anything; like Century was promised $1 Million for a public library for supporting the Local Option Sales Tax. But when It came time to deliver; the county gutted a perfectly good $900,000 police station that had never been used in order to build a BRANCH library worth half as much in it – right on Hwy 29 – and with no fence to keep the kids from running into the busy highway or a cross-over-walk to get over it – not even a traffic light.
When has there been a dialog between Century and the county or Pensacola about Century participating in the regular “Committee of the Whole” meetings held in Pensacola? When was the last Committee of the Whole” meeting held in Century, or Molino, or Cantonment?
If Mayor McCall had not stepped up with a Blue Ribbon Committee on Education, and Pastor Stallworth had not been there to lead it . . . Century would have lost it’s school THIS YEAR — and without a voice or input — and that isn’t over yet!
I think there are some current issues and problems that have to be solved before the North-End needs to even consider taking steps toward an “All for One” proposal; where do you want me to begin the list? Will “All for One” help the North End resolve our issues . . . . FIRST? (Not that we don’t trust you or nothin’ . . . .’”)
People seem to do things in this county just because they can — whether or not it is the right thing to do or not. The people of the North End have to take care of themselves and speak out in their own interest.
I am not convinced that “one government” is the best thing for the North End.
Jack Moran
Bratt
I believe this is a terrible idea, the concerns of city residents and rural residents are not the same. In a consolidated government the more urban area will have a greater say in how everyone’s money is spent.
The City has it’s own set of laws and rules… things like livestock ordinances, burn regulations, even the management of septic systems are structured around a higher population density. One of the reasons we live in the county are the less restrictive regulations.. imagine letting code enforcement loose north of 10 mile road with the same rules they apply to the city.
There are special tax’s in the city limits to pay for city specific services… I do not care to fund services I do not have access to, or do not care to use…. the citizen of Century is not gonna get a lot of use from them either.
The larger the region that a tax authority covers, the less representation that it’s citizens have. Much like the discussion about the motion made to separate Florida into ‘North Florida’ and ‘South Florida’, the bottom line is the money.
I recall a news story a while back about Century (or was it Jay) wanted to annex all the land north of Pensacola to get a larger tax base. That was a bad idea, and I see this as no different.
Not quite sure this would be beneficial to the folks that live up here…….especially if there is a hidden agenda lurking about……..all that glitters is not gold!!
Salt water intrusion is making it’s way north people, they want our good clean drinking water. Just another attempt to figure out a way to get what they want. Educate yourselves, make a list of pros and cons and actively participate in your community governments. Don’t let misinformation or being uninformed be the end of our rural existence. Don’t let the expression “Times are changing, move into the new millinium” pressure you to make poor decisions about your children and their children’s small town environment. Get a scanner, listen to what goes on in the “City of Pensacola.” Or don’t complain when life is not what you wanted it to be because you sat idly by and did use your right to vote and express an opinion be counted.