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Century Council Questions Mayor’s Airline Ticket Purchases; Commissioner Disagrees With Answer
December 19, 2018
Members of the Century Town Council are questioning the mayor’s purchase of airline tickets, and an Escambia County Commissioner is disagreeing with the mayor’s explanation.
A bill list presented to the council showed the purchase of multiple airline tickets totaling about $1,600. Council President Ann Brooks questioned the charges and the mayor’s authority to make the purchases because he has a $200 spending limit under the town charter.
Mayor Henry Hawkins said the tickets were purchased for “economic development” and to bring “some folks” to Century to discuss a potential business in the town.
Hawkins said he received permission from Commissioner Steven Barry to buy the airline tickets with reimbursement by the county. Escambia County committed $105,000 for economic development in the Century area this fiscal year. Proposals for the money are presented to Barry who in turn seeks approval of the entire commission at a regular meeting. So far, the commission has approved only $24,500 to the University of West Florida Haas Center for a market analysis [read more].
But Barry said Tuesday he never even spoke to the mayor about the purchase of airline tickets.
“Unfortunately, I have not had any conversation with anyone related to the use of the Escambia County dollars allocated for economic development in the Town of Century, other than the formal request the town submitted and the county approved for the implementation of the first phase of the Haas Center study,” Barry said in a statement to NorthEscambia.com. “Based on my commitment to our board, I need to bring any additional expenditures of those dollars to one of our board meetings for approval.”
The following charges to airlines or travel services appear on the bill list presented to the town council Monday night:
- American Airlines $501.40
- Delta Air Lines $366.90
- Expedia $560.92
- Frontier Airlines $214.90
Pictured: Century Mayor Henry Hawkins listens to a council discussion Monday night. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
38 Responses to “Century Council Questions Mayor’s Airline Ticket Purchases; Commissioner Disagrees With Answer”
@grand locust
Absolutely. If the shoe fits. Foolish, unorganized, dishonest, inept.. to name a few more.
Grand Locust,
There is much wisdom in what you wrote.
M in Bratt,
You also have a point that bad character can undo what would otherwise be good or good character make good what might otherwise be bad.
Now, if we could just fix stupid…
David for better thinking
@Grand Locust; If it’s not a total “Lack of Character” with some of these people, What is it? If nobody points out the reprehensible way they try to do business, How will it ever get corrected? Or do you want to continue doing business as usual until the Town is completely bankrupt?
Attacking people is not going to solve the structural problems, which repeatedly cause people to look foolish and dishonest. First, the structural problem with Century is the idea that their personnel can bring economic development and their marketing will work. The economy of scale is stupid. All the nonsense this year on setting up the slush fund district for economic development is a huge structural problem that these folks keep flushing good money after bad. With what they have spent on this nonsense over the last three years could have allowed a grant to every homeowner along the 29 corridor of $1,000 for exterior painting using kids off for the summer. All economic development should be done at the county level where Century assets can be inventoried and available for marketing through the county. Using the money to improve the city rather than airline tickets. You can talk about folks character all day long, but the simple fact is that some very stupid people have set up horrible models for economic development which are structurally going to lead to the same problems over and over.
Helloooo! RULE #1 in doing business: GET IT IN WRITING
If the mayor had indeed requested approval to spend taxpayer funds for economic development travel expenses, there should–at the very least–have been an email sent to the appropriate person requesting that, and a reply with the approval.
Where do y’all get these people to run local government?
Absolute? Absolutely!
The President of the Council needs to file a formal complaint with the state of Florida, Ethics, State attorney, compel the delegates in Tallahassee, Mike Hill, Doug Broxson , Alex Andrade,. To perform a full investogation. Commissioner Barry please make some phone calls. If not you ALL part of the problem, knowing it has been going on yet enabling it to continue.
Battle of Athens, Tennessee-August 1-2, 1946. Learn from history or be doomed to repeat it.
They have openings in Prichard for people like the Mayor..they have filed for bankruptcy 2 times already..he would fit right in.
Just get them all out of office and start over again with all new people problems solved
We need a recall! This mayor sat in the council meeting Monday and told 3 or 4 different stories. He is not good for the City and needs to go!! Step down Mr. Mayor. We want our town back!!
It took me a while to respond of this, I had to wait for my plane to land. What is this mayor doing? Does anyone know if they publish a “how to use my brain for dummies book?” They would make great gifts to give for the holiday. Always get approval and it in writing when dealing with funding and allowances. Even if Steve Barry told him to do so, he’s not taking the hit for this at all.
Maybe now Hawkins will stop fighting against Ann Brooks and start working with her. At least she knows how to cover her tracks and edit the records and books to make all transactions look clean, even if it incolaves loans and a free buildings. Stay tuned for this one too.
You all seem to think that the Honorable Mayor doesn’t know what he’s doing. He has continuously duped the Town Council and Citizens since he took office. He has been very dubious with purchase after purchase, and his record keeping brings much to question. I think what he does is intentional, and it is up to the Town Council to hold him in check. But wait, some of the Town Council’s dealings with the Town are dubious at best, and they can’t afford to start asking many questions or the Mayor could find their records too. The State Attorney General, or the First District State Attorney need to do a top to bottom investigation of this whole mess and hopefully clean that rat nest out.
Century just needs to be dissolved. There’s no police or fire dept, so what’s the point of having a “town”?
So, when are we starting the petition to impeach? I will literally PAY to sign!
100.361 Municipal recall . What is Century waiting for ?
There are so many unqualified personal running that town and the citizens wonder why the town is in the mess it’s in. Why not put people in office that have some knowledge of running a town, oh wait, don’t think there is such a thing there. I thought the head honcho is a pastor as well, surly he wouldn’t fib about the tickets.
To truly appreciate Century, one needs to fly over it.
Why is Escambia county committed to 105,000 dollars for economic development for Century. Everything they get up there seems to be squandered on useless nothing.
Let Mr Hawkins pay for the tickets out of his salary and maybe he will quit lying and resign.
The only thing that would make this more ridiculous would be to have mud wrestling on Saturday night in city hall.
ooooooopsssss!!!
Lot’s of good, honest, hard working people in Century. Too bad none of them hold any jobs in the City government.
I agree he should pay for the tickets because he didn’t get approval to get them. That should stop him from further purchases.
Century is a mess!
The questions Hawkins needs to answer are:
Who were the tickets for?
What was the purpose?
Why did Hawkins lie about receiving permission from Commissioner Barry?
Greenwood Mississippi all over again.
His arrogance runeth over. Impeach!
NO THEY STAYED WITH HIM AND HE WAS KIND ENOUGH TO LOAN THEM HIS CITY CAR!!!!!!!!!!
He needs to pay for the ticket, since he did not get pre approval.
Can i flight someone here to look at Century and maybe open a business, then get reimbursement?????
“To Century to discuss a potential business in the town.”
They only discussed , WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TELEPHONE??
Century. LOL
…..and the hits just keep on coming!!!! You CANNOT make all this up! Century City council and the mayor….what a source of entertainment! For entertainment purposes, the score is 8.6! For running he town of Century, the score is 2.3!
Wait!! So he flew them first class? (Insert sarcasm) no submission of hotel bills? Rental car?
Why doesn’t Century sell itself to be on one of those real-life drama shows? I would love to watch weekly episodes of this travesty unfold. Oh wait, nevermind, there’s already a show called RIDICULOUSNESS!!
Drain the swamp!!!!!! Until then; the cycle continues.
Here we go again. Time to get that old Race Card out.
It’s pretty obvious the mayor is in way over his head at managing a city government. When is the next election? This mess needs to end.
Wow, it’s going to be interesting when we find out who these people were, when they traveled, and where they came from. I hope these findings will be published, because as fun as it is to read the speculation, I’m sure the facts will be far more entertaining.
No prearranged approval? Bill reimbursement DENIED! Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but you’re on the hook for the unauthorized expenditures. By the way, just when can the town’s people vote this guy out of office?
Has anybody noticed that his nose is growing? If public money was used to buy airline tickets, the public has a right to know who was on the plane, and what business they had with Century. Five tickets, from five different locations sounds more like a family reunion than a business deal. But it could be that his family is going to invest in Century, if Century will only give them a loan.
Corruption, malfeasance and a pathological liar. The Mayor stated he spoke to Commissioner Barry but Barry denies it just as the Mayor said the meeting notes were stolen but miraculously were found. When is the SAO going to investigate and charge the Mayor with theft and corruption by an elected official?
Please get this man out of office !!!!