From Brian Spencer:
Dear Newly Elected Council Members,
Perhaps I can ask Al Coby to write a donation check to cover the cost for Congress for New Urbanism’s (CNU) subscription which features how to FIX broken cities and their suburban neighborhoods. CNU’s newsletter would be a valuable tool for city council members and planners.
Al appears to have much more discretionary money than me… especially after I pay my various property taxes which include the taxes due to the City of Pensacola. (sidebar: how many of PNJ’s 3/15/09 Sunday featured city executives live within the city’s limits?…. wouldn’t it be nice for their hefty salaries to be recycled back INTO our city?)
A new City Charter was needed years ago. The change to our Charter simply cannot happen soon enough. We are a broken city.
The lack of performance based merit is incredulous. I regret that this fiscal irresponsibility is being couched as improper in the context of today’s anemic economic climate. But, at least the current recession provided the springboard to expose what has long been a carefully guarded, time honored secret.
The financial mismanagement was equally dysfunctional and inexcusable when “times were good”… keep in mind that even during those times, our city’s growth performance in areas of redevelopment, new successful businesses, and private sector employment growth were still pitiful when compared to our peers.
While our neighboring counties were gaining population, growing personal income, attracting high wage businesses, and improving education, we continued to finish at or near the bottom rankings.
You were elected because many of us knew that this alarming problem was being not only ignored but fostered by long term council members that valued cozy relationships w/ senior city staff more than the survival of our city. Now – you have the difficult but necessary task of repairing it “and immediately”. The upcoming April workshop is truly “crisis management” due to the history of negligence that precedes you.
Our city’s former at-large council member – now our mayor, Mike Wiggins, — must show that he can wear a new badge of responsibility vs. popularity. In the long run, he will be more popular for endorsing the prescription that is often termed a “bitter pill”. I personally challenged Mike (during his campaign) to be a leader. While this may translate to slipping in a popularity ranking scored by city employees. Too many of Mike’s peers watched this level of municipal irresponsibility grow to an almost terminal stage.
Finally, I implore you to be proactive instead of reactive for the remainder of your term. Query: If the Pensacola News Journal had not made this a front page issue this Sunday, what leader would have emerged – whether within our city senior staff or within the city council — to deliver this critical issue to the public?
Respectfully submitted,
Brian Spencer
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