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Sheriff Fires Back Over Taxpayer’s Association News Journal Story
September 18, 2009
Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan fired back Thursday night over a published report in the Pensacola News Journal.
The report said, the Escambia County Taxpayers’ Association, led by attorney Bob Kerrigan, was “blasting” Morgan for a union contract “that contains pay raises no longer available to county employees”.
Morgan’s comments came during an Escambia County Commission budget hearing Thursday night. The commission has already approved a $74 million budget for the Sheriff’s Office, a decrease of just over $4 million from last year. The commission turned down another $2 million to provide a three percent employee raise.
The News Journal report claimed that commission was unaware that employees would receive a raise anyway in the form of longevity pay that increases from two percent at five years up to 10 percent at 25 years. In the PNJ report, Kerrigan spoke out against the sheriff and his budget.
“One of the things I will not tolerate is being misled,” Morgan said Thursday night about Kerrigan and Tax Watch. He said he sat down with Tax Watch and came to an agreement as to how much the sheriff’s office could reasonably cut from their budget.
That report published in the Pensacola News Journal, the sheriff said, was “completely contrary” to his Tax Watch meetings. That report, he said, stated that his department could cut $12 to $27 million in additional cuts. Morgan filed a response which “was sadly not printed in the Pensacola News Journal”. NorthEscambia.com did publish an article about the sheriff’s disagreement with Tax Watch, and we also provided a the full text of Morgan’s response to Tax Watch. Read that story from August 13 by clicking here.
Morgan told commissioners that Tax Watch had agreed to support his budget request, less a three percent requested raise for deputies.
“Then imagine my surprise…when once again we get a full spread in the Pensacola News Journal that bore no resemblance, no resemblance to the meetings that we had held with Tax Watch,” Morgan said. “To tell you that I am angry about that, is an understatement.”
“Tonight I thought I would come in blazing with both guns at the county commission. But something I learned during my military career is target identification,” the sheriff said. “The right target is an unelected self appointed board that is determined that they can run the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office better than I.”
Morgan said that for the county commission to consider any Tax Watch recommendation would be a “disservice to the citizens of Escambia County”.
“When you attack the men and women of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, you attack me,” he said. “And I take personal offense at the statement made by Mr. Kerrigan about the fine men and women of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.”
Commissioner Gene Valentino praised Morgan’s efforts to cut $4 million from his budget, but he said the question asked by some is how much more could have been cut.
“We’ve cut all that we can,” Morgan replied.
Pictured: Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan expresses his anger Thursday night over a story in the Pensacola News Journal.
Comments
10 Responses to “Sheriff Fires Back Over Taxpayer’s Association News Journal Story”
■john on September 18th, 2009 4:23 pm
Century Girl,
If you believe the Sherrifs deputies are underpaid, dig and see the amount of retirement they are presently getting. the average 25-30 yr service, deputies are going in the five year drop program and walking away with about $4,500.00 monthly retirement PLUS AROUND $300,000.00 to $ $450,000.00 LUMP SUM. Now don’ whine about the sherrif’s office pay and the same is true for school board workers including teachers. Tax Watch needs to expose this next..
Lets see.. A rookie deputy starts at approximately $34,500.00 a year. You say that is enough for him/her to risk their life on a daily basis. Then it is okay for the county to pay a dump truck driver or teacher the same amount or more to never risk their life? Wake up. The next thing you’ll say is that the men and women in our military don’t deserve any pay at all because they volunteered to join. That is just ridiculous. The deputies should be getting paid more than any other job in this county. They are the ones that stand between us and the hoodlums that will and do destroy our county. Unless your willing to be the one to standup and catch the criminals, instead. Escambia County is one of the lowest paying counties in the state , for law enforcement. When was the last time the deputies received a pay raise? I am not talking about the cost of living raise. That does not count, because every county employee receives it.
I’m glad to see him stand up for his employee and stopped the good ole boy system that was in place as for the school system the leader changed but the good ole boys are still running the show and finding all kind of ways to save their jobs even if it hurts the regular workers….David Morgan is a man of his words and I can’t say that for the other ones I voted for !!!!!!!!!!
I hear ya Sheriff David Morgan,
I am so Glad to see some one in Office to stand up to the Good ol boys and the Click of County officals. Law Enforcement is all the North end of the County still has. Everything else has been taken from us. I think Mr. Morgan has the experince and the quilifacations to run the Sheriff Department. I voted for him and he has shown that he cares for all of Escambia county taxpapers. I will vote for him again. To many cheifs and not enough Indians.
WHO LET THE DOG OUT!!!!!!!! HUH HUH HUH
You cannot put a price on public safety. Give the man what he needs to run a good department and quit yanking his chain. From the looks of his track record, he is doing a GREAT job!
To John, After dealing with the likes of alot of the people in this county, A Deputy who has this for 25 to 30 years deserves a good retirement.
Century Girl,
If you believe the Sherrifs deputies are underpaid, dig and see the amount of retirement they are presently getting. the average 25-30 yr service, deputies are going in the five year drop program and walking away with about $4,500.00 monthly retirement PLUS AROUND $300,000.00 to $ $450,000.00 LUMP SUM. Now don’ whine about the sherrif’s office pay and the same is true for school board workers including teachers. Tax Watch needs to expose this next..
Well, the fact is David Morgan got elected and broke up the “good ole boys” and they are not happy, so they attack every chance they can. Keep up the good work sheriff and you will get my vote again!
TaxWatch and the PNJ should be watching and commenting on the Escambia
County School District. This week (Tuesday) they (ECSD) INCREASED their budget by MORE than $130 million (1/4 billion $ increase over 2007-2008) AND increased
property taxes while continuing to LOSE STUDENTS and close schools. DUH!?!?!?
Sounds like the Sheriff got blindsided by an Attorney.
He meets with them.Makes agreements,sorts out everything and…. WHAMMO!
If ever there was a more unscrupulous group of people than Lawyers and Politicians, I’ve never heard of them.
Not to forget most politicians are in fact Lawyers….
When we allow Attorneys to dictate our public safety we are in for a world of hurt.
Fight on Sheriff. (and Thanks)
I was appaulled at the PNJ story yesterday. if I remember
correctly during the sheriff’s campaign, Sheriff Morgan recognized that our deputies were underpaid and underequipped and again he is keeping campaign promises!
I am so proud to have David Morgan as our sheriff. I appreciate him being a man of his word and a man of character, Obviously, he believes in standing up for his employees and treating them right …essential keys to keeping good people.