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Legislative Delegation Approves Consolidated Government Bill
January 24, 2009
The local legislative delegation has given their approval to a bill that would create a 25-member commission to draft a consolidated government proposal. The consolidation would roll Escambia County, Century and Pensacola governments into one.
Friday night, the delegation consisting of Rep. Greg Evers, Rep. Dave Murzin, Sen. Durell Peaden, Sen. Don Gaetz and Rep. Clay Ford gave their approval for the bill supported by the pro-consolidation group Escambia All for One. The bill will now head to the state legislature for a spring vote.
If approved at the state level, the commission would be formed to draft the proposal which would then be sent to Century, Pensacola and Escambia County for approval. The plan would be due back to the legislative delegation by January 15, 2010. Ultimately, the plan would up for a county-wide vote, most likely in November 2010.
Escambia County, the City of Pensacola and the Town of Century all passed resolutions in favor of the consolidation back in December. But the Town of Century later backed out and rescinded their support, with town officials saying that they were misled by All For One.
Background
There would be up to 25 members appointed to the commission by July 1. They would be appointed as follows:
- One by each Escambia County Commissioner from their district (5 total)
- One Century resident appointed by the Town of Century
- Two Pensacola residents appointed by the City of Pensacola
- One from the Escambia County NAACP
- One from the Escambia Taxpayer’s Association
- One from the League of Women Voters
- One from the Pensacola Young Professionals
- One from the Pensacola Ministerial Alliance
- One from the Escambia County Farm Bureau
- One from the Home Builders Association of West Florida
- One with “expertise on local government” from the faculty of UWF
- One each appointed by the sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, clerk of court, and supervisor of elections
- Two Florida Bar members appointed by the Chief Judge of the First Judicial Circuit
- One appointed by the Escambia County School Board
- One from the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority
In addition, a Special Advisory Committee on Public Safety will be formed to provide advise and counsel to the commission. That committee would include the sheriff, Pensacola police chief, the Escambia County Community Corrections Bureau, the Escambia County Public Safety Bureau chief, the Pensacola fire chief, the Escambia County fire chief, the Escambia County medical director, and the chairman of the Escambia County Fire Services Advisory Board. Additional members will be appointed by the City of Pensacola Police Benevolent Association, the Escambia County Police Benevolent Association, the City of Pensacola Chapter of the International Association of Firefighters.
A Special Advisory Committee on Economic Development will advise the commission as well. Those members would include appointees from: Pensacola Junior College, Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, Perdido Key Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Improvement Board, the Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce, the local chapter of the Florida Black Chamber of Commerce, Florida’s Great Northwest, and the Century Chamber of Commerce.
Baptist Health Care, Sacred Heart Health System, West Florida Hospital, the Escambia County Health Department and the Escambia Medical Society will appoint a Committee on Health Care to advise the main committee.
The committee would meet once per month from July of this year to January 2010. A status report would be due by November 30, and the full consolidation plan would be due by January 15, 2010, to the local legislative delegation.
The commission will accept private contributions up to $3,000, but no state or local government entity will be required to provide funding. However, the Town of Century, City of Pensacola and Escambia County will be required to provide “reasonable technical, legal and clerical assistance”.
The consolidation plan would be voted on in a general election, presumably in November 2010. At that time, any property owned by the commission would become the property of Escambia County.
Comments
14 Responses to “Legislative Delegation Approves Consolidated Government Bill”
Numerous cities in the south have consolidated their city- county governments, Nashville, for example has merged with Davidson County and that did not move everyone to the railroad tracks and Jacksonville- Duval County is full of hunters who own their own property in rural parts of the county. The city limits of Pensacola are too small and continue to decline in population do to the loss of jobs and revenue in the county, but we could compete better with the state under a unified government because we would become the fourth largest city which would allow us to compete with large regional cities such as Memphis, Atlanta, Tampa, and Miami bringing in much needed jobs. Please ask yourselves this question: Has Escambia County and City of Pensacola gained economically under the current system? If you want to continue the current system, then the area will continue to decline economically causing more people to leave the area which is what has destroyed Pensacola and if you were born and raised in Pensacola, you just never want to leave because it is your home. This is why I support Pensacola- Escambia Consolidation.
You had better wake up, Consolidation is happening right under your nose in the form of the Evaluation & Appraisal Report (EAR) – based amendments to the Escambia County Comprehensive Plan 2000.
There is only one more public meeting, It is February 3rd, Tuesday 6:00PM @
Ransom Middle School located at 1000 W. Kingsfield Road
Why havent you heard of this? What are they trying to accomplish?
The intention is to RE-ZONE all of Escambia County to facilitate the Consolidation. Approved living and Development areas will be located next to the railroad tracks, growth in the norther section of Escambia will be limited to 1 house per 20 acres(per Future Land Use Map 2030).
The current Code will be thrown out, and replaced to grant authority to the county to enforce you to construct sidewalks, to legislate how much water you are permitted to consume, and to elevate the rights of nature above the rights of the property owner.
to Quote the New Code (working Document):
http://www.myescambia.com/departments/planning_zoning/
“The purpose of the Housing Element is to ensure the provision of safe, sanitary and affordable housing for all residents of Escambia County.”
The Housing Element of the Comprehensive Plan advocates for reorganization
of policies, citing “Many policies do not directly relate to the objective under
which they are listed. This can be confusing to the reader,”
If you own land in Escambia County you will be affected,
your property will be re-zoned without your approval.
DO SOMETHING!
I am against consolidation. Pensacola has nothing to offer Escambia County. Bigger government is what has us in financial trouble now. It will mean more politicans and more govenment interference.
70 million maritime park and no way to pay for it, not enough money to fix roads and pot holes(PNJ 10 years worth of pot holes) cannot fund their share of ECAT, a semi-working port and a steady decline of city reidents.This is why EAFO wants to consolidated goverment. No matter what they say, the truth is THE CITY IS BROKE!! Do not buy into what EAFO is saying.The people of escambia county will be the real loser’s.Consolidated government is not about our voice, It is about their voice and the power to do what they wish. As a county resident I do not care what the city does,the city cannot offer me one service that I don’t already have. If the city can afford it, then let it rip.EAFO misrepresent it’s intentions and I find it highly insulting to think that pensacola could manage to run the county.
Chuck remember that they will be able to tax land also, and we have a whole lot more land than they do in pensacola. No one wants to be govern by tha city of pensacola, or in keeping with deluna, a ship of fool’s.
Chuck seems to be overly proud of Pensacola with its shrinking economy. People in the North end of the county enjoy their lower taxes and hey they even get homestead exemption. They have access to everything Pcola does with less cost.
Perdido is the cash cow. Wow that doesn’t say much for Pensacola either does it, since people either live in Perdido or, are moving to Santa Rosa county.
What is the motivation for All for one? I doubt it is love for Century and Molino so what is it?
Look at the following and ask yourself even though you live in Pensacola.
One by each Escambia County Commissioner from their district (5 total)
One Century resident appointed by the Town of Century. I wonder why no one will listen to them?????????????
Two Pensacola residents appointed by the City of Pensacola “SELF SERVING.”
One from the Escambia County NAACP “SELF SERVING.”
One from the Escambia Taxpayer’s Association. Are you kidding me?
One from the League of Women Voters “SELF SERVING.”
One from the Pensacola Young Professionals ???????????????? What type profressionals?
One from the Pensacola Ministerial Alliance. Seperation of church and state, in this case county.
One from the Escambia County Farm Bureau “SELF SERVING.”
One from the Home Builders Association of West Florida “SELF SERVING.”
One with “expertise on local government” from the faculty of UWF. POSSIBLE.
One each appointed by the sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, clerk of court, and supervisor of elections “SELF SERVING.”
Two Florida Bar members appointed by the Chief Judge of the First Judicial Circuit, may not know where Century or Molino is even though they drive through on their way to Auburn or Birmingham?
One appointed by the Escambia County School Board. Why?
One from the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority “SELF SERVING.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME????????????????????
These people are not elected to take care of you.
Alright take your shots! I moved to Santa Rosa County. YWE!
The money is still out of site from the normal person in Escambia and even Santa Rosa. Tourism is in, and industry is out. I do not make my money locally so the loca economy is good to me but I know that. In my 55 years Pensacola has steadily shrank. This is sad. No new industry nothing but tourist (when the economy is goood) which is good for the environment except for Champion and their polluting Perdidio river. Folks the Tri county area is quite unique in that the people are very creative (Emmitt Snith etc) and like myself we gain the skills to work all over the world but yet cannot work at home an make a living.
That said how do the people of the county come together and make something of the blessed area of the Panhandle?
As pathetic as the county goverment is, it is still the best option when there is a choice of commissioners on the ballot which is rare.
Jim you are still going to get hunt because the people you are addressing know nothing about hunting. You are under the radar, go with it.
The local legislative delegation has given their approval to a bill that would create a 25-member commission to draft a consolidated government proposal. The consolidation would roll Escambia County, Century and Pensacola governments into one.
WHO ARE THE LOCAL DELEGATION? NAMES PLEASE??? What are their credentials and qualifications?
I am sorry I think it is sad it is more like a syndication than goverment.
John Bryan
People……stop deluding yourselves. If you think that the city of pensacola is hell bent on gaining the paltry taxes that the “north end” generates your crazy. If anything the north end would be a burden. Perdido key is and has been the cash cow for our county for ages. Compare like propertys on Chris’s website and you will see that a 3 thousand sq. ft. house on a nice piece of property in the north end (and there are’nt that many) is about equivalent in taxes to and average cookie cutter in a mediocre neighborhood in pensacola.
Pensacola can not even run or support itself. They need money and this is the new cash cow. EAFO needs to be selling something else , because this is not going to fly.
Vote for the right person not the political party the next time.
I don’t know why we would want to be under Pensacola, they can’t run the city of Pensacola much less the county. I don’t want anything to do with Pensacola.
I did not vote for Mr. White because of this, and will not vote for him next time unless some thing changes. He is for the north end and does not care for Century, Byrnville, Bratt or Walnut Hill.
Leave it like it is. We are use to getting the short end of the stick on the north end of the county anyway. Jay, at least Century got one person Walnut Hill, Bratt, Davisville, Barrineau Park, & Enon didn’t get anyone. Of course we don’t count to Mr. White anyway as long as we elect someone from the south end we are going to get screwed everytime. They need to have another district for north of Molino so we can have our voices heard up here also. Of course Molino or Cantonment didn’t get anyone either to speak for them did they? Mr. White might do that for them.
p
I emailed Escambia All For One a simple question last week. If all of Escambia county becomes the City of Pensacola, and I go to my hunting club and shoot a deer , hog , duck or whatever, will I get arrested or a ticket for firing a gun within the city limits. Being that I would be over two miles from the nearest house. Their answer was…….well they didn’t answer me!!! I wonder why, maybe they feel the people of North Escambia wouldn’t like the answer.
The Pensacola Young Professionals? Huh? I don’t see anyone representing our elderly population. Why do the 25 year old downtown crowd lawyers and accountants and preppies get more say than people over 30 thirty something?
I see groups representing our black population. That is good. But what about our growing Latino population?
And our kids? One from the schools out of 25. You better believe they want to take over the school board too. Why else would they get up in school board business over Carver/Century?
And sports, parks and recreation? Who’s going to speak out for that? Bye bye Little League.
And transportation? Guess that’s not important either.
And…
ALL for one? Yeah right. All for the downtown preppy Pensacola Young Professionals.
There you have it, “One from town of Century, Two from the city of Pensacola….” This All for One smoke and mirrors effort is not about those of us on the North End. At best we’ll see only two reps. for the commission, but we’ll probably get only one when Kevin White selects someone from the Nine Mile Rd. area to sit on the board. So, one out of 25 on the commission, what kind of fair shake do you think we’ll get? I’ll say all we’ll get are big city government, higher taxes to support it, and little if any change in the services we already receive. What can “All for One” do for us and what else do we need? We already get government run garbage service (ECUA), police with the sheriff’s office, fire with our outstanding VFD’s, Escambia County EMS for ambulance, and city water from Central Water Works, Town of Century, or Davisville, Bratt, Walnut Hill.