Bill Won’t Be Filed To Allow Perdido To Join Century and Pensacola As Escambia County’s Municipalities

November 27, 2023

A push to incorporate Perdido as Escambia County’ third city has hit a a major roadblock.

State Representative Alex Andrade announced Monday that he will not be filing a local bill to place the question of Perdido’s incorporation on the ballot  in 2024.

“I will not be filing a local bill to the place the questions of incorporation on the ballot this Session,” Andrade said. “After reviewing We Are Perdido’s feasibility study in depth, and consulting with the Florida Department of Revenue and Florida House staff members, we determined the significant changes would be required to the proposal. Because, at this stage, these changes would need to be made by a single legislator instead of residents of the affected area, I have made the decision to not file and sponsor the bill.

“I have informed We Are Perdido of the decision, and encouraged them to spend this next year engaging in additional due diligence and public outreach if they decide to pursue this initiative in the future,” the state representative continued.

There are currently two municipalities in Escambia County — the cities of Century and Pensacola.

During an October legislative delegation meeting., Andrade, Sen. Doug Broxson and State Rep Michelle Salzman decided to put the issue of incorporation on the ballot in 2024.

Comments

10 Responses to “Bill Won’t Be Filed To Allow Perdido To Join Century and Pensacola As Escambia County’s Municipalities”

  1. Paul Neely on December 12th, 2023 7:55 am

    I live in the boundary for the proposed Perdido City. We don’t want more government, but less. We don’t trust the backers of this proposal. It smells like developers, builders, and big money investors. We were not notified of the meetings that took place in October. We feel this was intentional because a vast majority of the affected residents DO NOT WANT THIS. We are organizing the affected developments to fight this. Think about it. Do you really trust these people when they say there will be no new taxes? How many times have we heard that in the past.

  2. Bryan Bethea on December 1st, 2023 9:35 am

    Pensacola and Escambia County need to do what Jacksonville, Nashville, Lexington KY, Louisville, Athens GA, Columbus GA, and many others have done. Consolidate city and county government. Eliminate the unnecessary layer of government, centralize services to remove redundancies and inefficiencies. I hear often from conservatives that government should run like a business. Well, one basic principle of any business is to drive efficiency through elimination of duplicate processes and resources. Government should be the same. The consolidated City/County government of Pensacola/Escambia would have a great model to look to in Jacksonville. The rural areas in Duval County have a fair voice on the City Council and get better services than they would have had consolidation not happened.

  3. John Connor on November 29th, 2023 4:13 pm

    So a county with a population of 330k only has two incorporated cities totaling a population of 64k between the both of them. So this has created a situation where Escambia County is over stretched on police, fire and Ems services. This is also why Escambia County has the highest crime rate in Florida meanwhile Pensacola has one of the lowest crimes rates. It does not take a master degree to figure out why that is. All of you cry about paying more in taxes under City control but then cry when the Sheriff takes 2 hrs to get to you. Or your house burns down because the Escambia Volunteer Fire Dept took to long. I understand Century relies on Escsmbia but Perdido City would have the tax base to have its own fire, police and ems services.

  4. Not You on November 29th, 2023 12:33 pm

    As a resident of Innerarity Point I want nothing to do with Perdido Key.

  5. Greg Stewart on November 29th, 2023 11:04 am

    Those of us against this incorporation have known all along that the analysis probably can’t support the case. We went to one of the public events at a local church where they had a video conference with an analyst from South Florida who made some high level comments about the feasibility of the business case. But when he said it could be run with 5 people I left the building. Laughter prevented a quick exit. Andrada used the word “honest” in his comments to a local news rag with regards to the analysis. What is the opposite of honest? Lie or dishonest. If they decide to be honest going forward, then share with us who is funding this effort. Want to make some bets that the Chamber of Commerce and other business folks are working on making this happen to benefit their businesses? Its not about the citizens. With respect to Century, some one needs to shut that clown show down. What a disgrace.

  6. beachbum on November 28th, 2023 4:44 pm

    well at least PERDIDO KEY has a real beach and real income, not a bottomless sinkhole like century with no income and clowns like the mayor and city council

  7. Tim on November 28th, 2023 2:39 pm

    From the very beginning, this whole idea of Perdido becoming a city was being pushed from outside money. The people living on Perdido Key had their pet projects and they wanted everyone on the north side of the intracoastal waterway to pay for it. The we are Perdido will probably wait a non presidential election year and try it again. I say no to Perdido ever becoming a city.’

  8. bob c. on November 28th, 2023 12:57 pm

    @ Not Again
    EXACTLY….Century needs to be investigated and every rock overturned to find out how it manages to clunk along from disaster to dumpster fire with no obvious concern from our legislature representatives. It is like a huge street drain sucking in any and all monies wasted there and nothing productive for the Citizens of Century.
    No need for a richie-rich bunch of folks dipping into out tax bucket too.
    Also, many who are property owners of condos in Perdido are Not Residents here and many do not even live in Florida….

  9. SueB on November 28th, 2023 10:34 am

    STOP PERDIDO CITY. Citizens do research the cost to incorporate. Should Andrade, Sen. Doug Broxson and State Rep Michelle Salzman decided to put the issue of incorporation on any yearly ballot . . . remember who voted them to repesent the people and vote them out.

  10. Not again on November 28th, 2023 9:10 am

    I wonder if Andrade, Salzman, and Broxson, along with the Florida Department of Revenue and Florida House staff members, would consider doing a viability study of the Town of Century.