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Commissioner Calls Budget Proposal Absurd, Wrong In Letter
August 2, 2009
One Escambia County Commissioner called County Administrator Bob McLaughlin’s proposed budget “absurd” in a letter he sent through the county attorney to all commissioners.
“The budget you have presented is not sustainable and it is absurd to use reserves to balance a budget,” District 5 Commissioner Kevin White wrote in his letter. “I will not be supporting the proposed budget as it stands now. It is poor fiscal planning on your part and I will not bear the responsibility of voting for something that I know is wrong.”
(Click the image to view the letter.)
“He’s using reserves, one time revenue, to save jobs once for this year. Next year, these people are going to be going,” White explained to NorthEscambia.com. He estimated that the county would need to dip into $5 to $8 million in reserves to meet McLaughlin’s proposed budget, just to save those jobs that he believes the county will not be able to fund in another year.
“The budget is fiscal irresponsibility,” White said. “The other four commissioners just sat there and did not say a word.”
But the District 5 commissioner did say a word — about 400 of them — all negative toward the budget as proposed by the county administrator.
One of McLaughlin’s proposals involves working on the Land Development Code in-house rather than using an outside contractor, and other proposals shift more work to county staff. White said that he does not believe that already overworked staff members have the ability to perform at the same level as outside contractors on some projects.
“It is unfortunate but I do not have the confidence in some of the staff to come up with documents that will simplify the process to do business in Escambia County. It has been proven in the past that some staff does not follow Board direction very well,” White wrote in his letter. “The Board gets out of whack when we have staff members not doing their jobs and getting involved in the politics.”
White told NorthEscambia that he wrote the letter to make his point about just how against the budget he really is.
“We must come up with a budget out of the General Fund, not the reserves,” he said.
White’s letter does not just chastise the county administrator; it also takes aim at the county’s code enforcement.
“There have been a number of complaints filed from employees to citizens and nothing has been done. I would have to say based on all the documents that an active citizen has showed me, they are probably correct about this department. As Janet Landers stated in a memo, this department is ‘dysfunctional at best’ and every time there is a complaint it is swept under the rug,” he wrote. Janet Landers is the former county attorney, and White said he was referring to a memo that she wrote several years ago .
White’s letter was distributed by County Attorney Allison Rogers who advised that she believed the letter from White to his fellow commissioners to be legal “so long as it is only a one-way communication”. She advised other commissioners against distributing their opinion on the budget proposal in any form “as it could be perceived as interaction”. She also advised against using the media as a liaison.
Florida’s Sunshine Law prevents commissioners from discussing items before the commission except at public advertised meetings.
Click here to read White’s letter with the introductory memo from the county attorney (pdf).
Comments
8 Responses to “Commissioner Calls Budget Proposal Absurd, Wrong In Letter”
Ok Joe, If the County Administrator has the control and final say _ so over how the projects are alloicated out. What is the use for our money at the Northend. Sound’s like these fool’s have it all figured out on what we need. Witch is apparentlly NOTHING !! Why is it not at least a certain percentage varies to each District. Some needing more. And some needing Less. What happen to Adminstrator and District Leaders have some kind of Community meetings in the Communitiy of the District it holds office for. We at the Northend fells as that our District leaders Love the revenue that we produce with taxes and take that money to build Pensacola. I think it is time for Pensacola to return the Favor. We are not needed until we empty out our Pockets.
Has anyone thought that maybe the County Administrator controls what projects get done. His dislike for Kevin and Kevin standing up to Bob does not make Bob a happy boy.
Kevin did not say the department was dysfunctional, the County Attorney Attorney did.
I do not agree with some of the things Kevin does, but I’m not ready to kick him to the curb yet.
It’s remarkable that all this elected clown can do is make negative/ popular statements. When is he going to propose something useful, make a decision, and best yet quit all of his ignorant “smirky” comments. He likes to make these as a chumminess with Marie. Obviously he doesn’t realize his no know where in her league.
Kevin should quit meddling in staff’s jobs if he wants them to stay out of politics. If he really thought these actions were absurd, he should have let his “pet” employees be cut which were initially proposed.
Folks we can elect anyone to make this rants and raves. It only takes a simple mind such as Kevin’s. I have intentionally left out he title commissioner, he may have won the election but not the respect. When is HE going to make progress or sense?
I think that they all need to be replaced.It seems the north end gets nothing. Pensacola gets all the tax payed money. We are part of Escambia County Florida. But we have lost a school,tag office, and part of the health department. Next we lose our law enforcement. I don’t understand why the county is cut in half and we have our own county taxes that helps from Molino up to alabama line. Beside We have the Water that Pensacola so desperatly needs. I say we have something to bargan with!!! What do you think? Then maybe we could get a Walmart in our county and produce some jobs for our Residents of the NorthEnd.
Yes, when are you going to finish paving hwy 99 from Alabama to hwy 97. You put some asphalt down on the sides that just made it have more bumps. I have drove down dirt roads in better shape. please get this fixed.
Some times you have to look through the smoke to see the fire. Mr. Kevin White is in his second term of office , so that means he’s been part of the problem of wasting our sales tax dollars instead of paving our dirt roads as promised. Do you ever realize (according to Mr. White) how something conveniently happens which he can use to explain why our roads are not paved. Fortunately for him, a lot of the constituents in the north end of the county think that putting a $12,000 playground in is enough of a comittment for our sales dollars. By the way, I’m for good playgrounds for our kids and families, but let’s get real! This is a drop in the bucket when you consider the millons they take in and spend. Also, we have playgrounds within a few miles of each other and I hardly see them in use. I had written Mr. White an E-mail several years ago suggesting that an efficiency study be performed on the county works department. We may not be incurring a budget problem if he had taken this suggestion.To my knowledge it wasn’t done and my e-mail was never answered. Here are a few items to ponder.
1. Mr. White has not been pro-active on any issues since he was elected ,eg.
George Turant resignation and budget cuts when the economy went south.
2. He has failed to support a north south connector. This was placed solely in his
hands by Mr. Whitehead.
3 The suggestions of Tax Watch are still for the most part ignored.
I would like to say I’m sure the county works department could be more efficient which would help them stay within a proper budget. However, they still do a better job than our Commissioner.
Please ask you self what has Mr. White really done for the North end of Escambia County?
It is nice to have a comissioner who is actually standing up for what he believes is right. As long as Kevin White is representing us, I feel that I can trust that my best interests are being looked after rather than someones hidden agenda. Keep up the good work!
This comment will address two parties.(1) Thank you William for making things such as this available to the general list of concerned citizens. Your service and dedication will long be remembered. (2) I will give credit to this site for Comm White finally taking a stand. Whether you reside in N Esc or not this site has had an impact on your Comm. Maybe it is time for the Comm to take a look at other departments and also label them as (dysfunctional). Our roads that were paved just a few short years are already gettin overlays while some are still waiting for theirs to be paved. The local option tax has been a salvation for the comm for the l ast years, but If the voters don’t vote for it the next time they will be in deep trouble. I would ask that all the citizens of this county call your commissioner and demand they come on out of the office ,move among the voters and find out what we want,because simply put these people work for you. Post your comments on this site show them you are concerned and we are tired of business as usual. I can assure you each of them read from this site daily.