There are three big items up for discussion during today’s committee meetings of the Pensacola City Council: billing non-profits for parades, compensation and benefit study, and amending the inter-local agreement with ECUA over demolishing the Main St. sewage plant.
The last item has attracted the ire of Council member Maren DeWeese. On her blog, DeWeese remind us that: “In 2007, the CRA entered into an agreement with ECUA to provide $19.5 million over a number of years to fund the portion of the wastewater treatment plant within the CRA. In his memo to Council, then City Manager Tom Bonfield expressly stated that under the agreement the City had no obligation to pay any amounts toward this agreement. The 2007 agreement stated that if CRA TIF funds were insufficient to cover the annual ECUA obligation (AFTER PAYMENT OF THE MARITIME PARK BONDS) then the amount due in that year would merely roll over to a year that additional TIF funds were available.”
City Finance Director Dick Barker wants to modify these provisions and instead use general fund dollars to pay the debt, if CRA funds aren’t sufficient.
Why? In lean budget times, the Council should be happy that the prior council reached such an agreement that delays any payment until the CRA has the funds.
DeWeese believes the staff is trying to obligate funds so that her Pensacola Promise plan won’t get serious consideration.
Read her blog.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Barker, Barker, Barker
After all, tomorrow is another day.
I wouldn’t count on him to count the pennies in my piggy bank.
The inadequately educated are represented in full display at the council and the commission. They were hatched and raised in an environment of intellectual darkness and political corruption, and they withdraw, shreaking, from the light of common sense.
BTW, where’s the FEMA funds for relocation of the sewage treatment plant?
DeWeese has tried repeatedly to get it on the agenda, but City Manager Al Coby has refused to do so. It is set to be discussed at the goals workshop.
why is Barker willing to subject the city to such great financial risk?
heck – the city can’t even afford to put on parades, how in the heck are they going to fund college tuition for local students?
This council can’t seem to work together. They’re all proposing different plans, hoping to get on channel 3 & the front page of the PNJ so they can run for state-wide office. They open their mouths before they have the facts. Why didn’t DeWeese put this idea on the council agenda so it could be decided whether they wanted to use city funds to pay for college expenses for city residents?
Joe, you think it’s pie-in-the-sky?
You may be correct, ’cause this is the City of Can’t
I’d like to see her idea get a fair shake in front of the council, even though I think it’s extremely pie-in-the-sky. If we can’t afford our pension obligations today, then how will the council of 20 years from now deal with thousands of HS kids who were promised free tuition? Will her proposal include a similar clause to absolve the city’s funding obligation in lean budget times?
[...] also commentary from Mark O’Brien and Rick Outzen on Ms. DeWeese’s [...]