‘Escambia County’ Archives
ECSO retiree charged with larceny
by Sean Boone A 32-year veteran of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office has been accused of stealing more than $100,000 in department funds. Catherine Lister, who retired on Jan. 29 from the [...]
Evers shares wisdom. No really, that’s what it says
Press Release: Tallahassee- Representative Greg Evers took a breather this morning from committee meetings to offer his own experience and wisdom to Florida’s next generation of civic-minded [...]
School has other buyers for Brownsville
From the PNJ article on the canceled sale of Brownsville Middle School: "Norm Ross, deputy superintendent, said the School District has received some other inquiries from potential buyers." [...]
Brownsville Middle School deal is off
Friendship Missionary Baptist Church has withdrawn its offer for Brownsville Middle School after Superintendent of Schools Malcolm Thomas refused to extend the due diligence period beyond 30 days or [...]
Consolidation fails to get council approval
The Pensacola City Council vote, 5-4, against telling the state legislative delegation that they support placing the proposed consolidation plan on the ballot next November. Mike Wiggins, John [...]
Page has phone records
Jamie Page has a solid investigative piece in Sunday’s daily paper. Through public records requests, Page got the cell phone records and message logs from the Escambia Commissioners. There are [...]
County Purchasing Procedures
Test To be sure that I was being fair to Comm. Valentino, I spent time yesterday with Escambia County Purchasing Chief Claudia Simmons to understand the competitive sealed bid process. Comm. [...]
UWF will have its offer before CMPA
The University of West Florida offer appears to be very similar to one being discussed by the master developer and university during the holidays. The master developer had already offered to reduce [...]
Videos on Maplewood bid
Here are the comments from the different commissioners on the motion to reverse the re-bid of the Maplewood drainage project: KEVIN WHITE: GROVER ROBINSON: GENE VALENTINO: WILSON [...]
There was no error by Roads
Through a public records request, I have the bids made by Gulf Equipment and Roads Inc on the Maplewood drainage project. As you would expect, the two companies have differences on several items - [...]
County Purchasing Rules are clear
Escambia County has a set of general terms and conditions for all its sealed bids (Read). The Maplewood drainage project request for bids clearly states on page 14 that these terms and conditions are [...]
Roads Inc awarded $1.94 million last half ‘09
Roads, Inc has done very well with Escambia County since June 2009 7/23 Awarded Molino Road Resurfacing $858,713.50 and Saufley Field Road Resurfacing $433,836 8/15 Innerarity Point MSBU [...]
Valentino backtracks…too little, too late?
Escambia Commissioner Gene Valentino has a problem. He can't get his stories straight, according to the PNJ. We know that he met with Cody Rawson of Roads, Inc in November 2009 in his [...]
Roads wanted to protest its own bid, no really
Here is the video of Russell Weaver of Roads Inc. The heart of his argument is that Roads Inc's protest of its own bid "broke new ground." ..."I don't know how to follow the rules if I'm not told [...]
Did Valentino solicit campaign contributions from his office?
The Florida Statutes state it is illegal for an elected official to solicit campaign contributions from his government office. PNJ reporter Jamie Page reports on his blog that Comm. Gene Valentino [...]
Why the county has sealed bids
Why is the sealed bid process so sacred? Because Escambia County has a history of backroom deals and preferential treatment for certain contractors. It wasn’t that long ago when four county [...]
Proposed new county bid process
1. Open bids 2. Ask - "Did anybody make a mistake?" 3. Ask - "Can anybody beat the lowest bid?" 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until everyone answers "No" or the federal grant monies dry up. Or we [...]
Roads, Inc Circus has second act today
The Escambia County Commission will meet again today. Reportedly Comm. Kevin White will make a motion to reconsider the rebidding of the Maplewoods drainage project. The Associated General [...]
Another one of Cody’s tricks
That's what local contractors are telling the IN about Roads, Inc. convincing the Escambia County Commission to rebid the Maplewoods drainage project. Few doubt there was any mistake in the bid made [...]
Bid integrity
There are four hot topics being discussed around town: Malcolm Thomas and the Brownsville Middle School fiasco Consolidation - what will happen next? Victor Steen case - $10 million lawsuit [...]
