While the report commends Morgan for his efforts to reform the facility, DOJ found the jail woefully understaffed which have made the jail unsafe for prisoners and detention deputies. The report found prisoner-on-prisoner assaults a common occurrence and stated it was caused “primarily because of a shortage of correctional staff.”

In April, Sheriff Morgan requested nearly 100 more correctional personnel in his 2013-2014 budget. The daily newspaper, Interim County Administrator George Touart and Commission Chairman Gene Valentino blasted the sheriff for doing so. PNJ columnist Shannon Nickinson called Morgan’s budget “outrageous.”

The DOJ report that was emailed on Tuesday afternoon to Sheriff Morgan and Touart shows that the sheriff’s budget request for the jail may need to be increased, not cut.

The DOJ report supports the March 2011 staffing study commissioned by the county commission, which also recommended more personnel. The report was never released to the public, because county staff refused to pay the final invoice. When Morgan’s budget was released, county staff tried to insinuate that the 2011 data was out-of-date and no longer relevant.

DOJ found those numbers very relevant and demonstrated how the lack of detention and mental health personnel led to unsafe conditions at the jail.

The report also found:

• Jail leadership fails to appropriately monitor and track prisoner-on-prisoner violence and staff-on-prisoner uses of force;
• The “decades-long practice” of segregating black prisoners into black-only housing units was discriminatory and fuels racial tensions;
• Jail does not afford prisoners timely and adequate access to appropriately skilled mental health care professionals;
• Jail fails to provide appropriate medications to mentally ill prisoners;
• Cites statistics that the mental health program at the Jail is inadequate. “The dearth of mental health professionals led to excessive risks to prisoners’ safety.”

“While the conditions at the Escambia County Jail have improved significantly in recent years, serious problems remain, and we have reasonable cause to believe the Jail continues to routinely violate the constitutional rights of prisoners.”

To remedy the situation, DOJ states that the jail officials “must take reasonable steps to protect prisoners from physical violence and to provide humane conditions of confinement.”

Staffing and supervision levels must be adequate to protect prisoners from violence, video surveillance in critical housing units must be increased and prisoner violence must be monitored and tracked.

The mental health program needs to also be improved with better access to skilled mental health professionals and adequate mental health treatment. Better protections against prisoner suicide need to be implemented.

Sheriff Morgan and the Escambia County Commission have 49 days to reach an agreement with the Department of Justice on how it will correct the staffing and other issues at the county jail. Otherwise the Attorney General may initiate a lawsuit.

“We would prefer, however, to resolve all matters by continuing to work cooperatively with you and are confident that we will be able to do so in this case,” wrote the DOJ in the report’s conclusion.

Read the report: ECJ FL (signed pdf) 5 21 2013

The Bylaws Committee approved an attendance policy for the CMPA board, as well as its committees. If members miss three meetings in a row, or five total during a year, they may now be removed unless the chairman of the board deems the absences acceptable.

Councilman Larry B. Johnson, also a CMPA member, started the attendance discussion. He said that the threshold would give members “motivation to be here.”

CMPA Executive Director Ed Spears tallied up what the policy would have meant during the past year: six members would have been cut in 2012, while one would have been cut thus far this year, with “a couple of others on the verge.”

“Councilman, you would be removed for missing five meetings,” Spears noted.
“I would totally accept that,” Johnson replied.

Motions that failed to gain traction today involved the composition of the CMPA. There were efforts to reduce the size of the board, as well as an effort to grant the board the power to appoint some of its own members.

Johnson, who is a proponent of trimming the size of not only the CMPA, but also the Pensacola City Council, suggested reducing the park board to nine members by September 30. He said members of the city council should individually select the the CMPA members.

CMPA member Dr. Jimmy Jones called that possibility “an open can of worms.” Fellow member Mark Taylor described it as “too harsh, too quick of a change.”

“That motion has the potential to truly turn this board upside down,” Taylor said.

The reduction failed on a 3-5 vote. Instead, the board reaffirmed the 12-member status outlined in its bylaws; this move served to clean up a recent expansion to 14 members made by the city council but never formalized in the bylaws, and will be accomplished as terms expire.

CMPA member Ann Hill offered up the unsuccessful motion to allow the park board to select some of its own members. Currently the city council appoints all members; Hill wanted the CMPA to appoint 49 percent of the membership.

Due to requirements associated with New Market Tax Credits, the CMPA must be an instrumentality of the city. Hill suggested that if the city council appointed 50-plus-1 percent of the board—with the remaining appointments falling to the CMPA—the tax credits would not be jeopardized.

City Attorney Jim Messer advised that the board seek legal advice before going that direction. The motion failed 3-5.

They conveniently overlook the under-performance of the city’s Neighborhood Services that was awarded last March the contract to run the park.

In its proposal, Neighborhood Services projected revenue of $285,000 from concerts, rentals, parking, kiosk sales and misc. sales at the park. It also told the CMPA board that it would need a first-year subsidy of $256,054 but “we expect the first-year subsidy to decrease over the contract period.” Read 030512 COW CMPA.

A year later, the CMPA revenues are woefully lacking. Concert revenue is only $2877, far below the projected $100,000; rentals $31,613 instead of $60,000; Kiosk sales a dismal $1,745 not the projected $25,000; and Misc. Sales $880, not $50,000. Read CMPA 2013 1ST QTR.

The only revenue ahead of projections is the one that Neighborhood Services has nothing to do with but collects off of others’ events—-Parking. They estimated last year the revenue would be $50,000. It’s over $214,130 since last spring.

Had the Neighborhood Services did as it was contracted to do—-book concerts and rentals and create kiosk and other misc. sales—the Maritime Park would need almost $200,000 less in subsidies from the taxpayers.

Clearly the financial problems are due as much as, if not more, to the failures of Neighborhood Services to deliver on its commitments than the politics of the CMPA board and Pensacola City Council.

The CMPA should fire Neighborhood Services and contract directly with SMG.

The Pensacola City Council voted to approve an ordinance to the city code that would prohibit aggressive panhandling in downtown Pensacola at its Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday.

Councilwoman Sherri F. Meyers, District 2, expressed serious concern about the ordinance and was the only council member to vote against it. Meyers proposed a motion to table the ordinance until more documentation could be made available showing proof of the need for the ordinance. The motion also asked for the mayor to provide a reason “why the (downtown area) is provided a higher level of protection against aggressive panhandling than any other are of the city, including the city’s primary business core.”

“We do not have the facts, we do not have the studies, we do not have the police reports,” Meyers said. “And I find it highly offensive and highly disturbing that this ordinance gives a level of protection to the CRA district that other areas of the City of Pensacola do not have.”

There were mixed feelings about the ordinance among audience members. Deb Corbin, one year resident of Pensacola, said the ordinance is necessary to the safety and security of Pensacola residents.

“Many times these people are criminals and/or homeless people in need of medical attention, sometimes mental,” she said. “I don’t have those credentials to make that distinction.”

Richard Ponner, staff member at the Alfred-Washburn Center of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, said he felt the ordinance would make the job of volunteers much more difficult.

“We are the only day canter for homeless to take showers, to do laundry, to receive non-perishable foods and other services,” he said. “My concern is that nothing has been placed in this ordinance to have an advisory
group or to counterbalance the impact of the enforcement of the ordinance.”

The council also voted to approve an Acceptable Use Policy for city technology. The policy applies to all equipment owned or leased by the City of Pensacola and forbids the use of such equipment to view or distribute copyrighted material, send or view harassing, defamatory or discriminatory material. The use of social media on city-owned equipment is also forbidden in the policy.

Editor’s note: Earlier this year, City PIO Derek Cosson admitted that he and his girlfriend had used city wifi to anonymously bash council members and others opposed to Mayor Hayward’s policies–from late August 2012 to January 2013. City Administrator Bill Reynolds said Cosson would not be punished because he claimed the PIO was following orders. Later an email was released to the IN from former Chief of Staff John Asmar, dated late 2011, instructing Travis Peterson and Cosson to correct information on the “blogs.” Peterson never posted anonymously to this blog from city wifi. Cosson didn’t do it until over six months after the email. Asmar told the IN that he never told Cosson to post anonymously and the PIO’s posts were in violation of the city code of ethics.

Teri Levin’s appointment to the Downtown Improvement Board was also approved by the council. Levin will finish the remainder of her son, Evan Levin’s, term which expires on June 30, 2014. A 34-year-resident of Pensacola, Levin and her late husband, Allen Levin, developed Tristan Towers, Emerald Isle, Verandas, Portofino Resort and Beach Club Resort.

The council will hold its regular meeting Thursday evening at 5:30.

The first three proposals—addressing ‘camping,’ various activities in public restrooms and public urination and defecation, respectively—have already survived a first reading. This fourth proposal lags behind because council wanted more time to consider it.

In an email this morning, Councilwoman Sherri Myers has suggested tabling the proposal. She is requesting additional information from the city administration.

Myers runs down the requests in her email:

Request the Mayor provide to council the following information.
For the year May 2012 to May 2013, documentation from the City of Pensacola Police Department calls and responses to the downtown area regarding persons who engaged in the acts described in the proposed ordinance.  Produce a summary of the dispatch calls, incident reports and any other data which will document the need for the Panhandling ordinance.

For the same period, the number of calls regarding nuisance, noise, disorderly conduct, public drunkenness, or any other criminal conduct in the downtown, Palafox area.

Request from Mr. Reynolds, as the Mayor’s “designee”, the studies the ordinance refers to in paragraph (d) (e) (f).  Request any similar studies that have been conducted on the City of Pensacola.
Request from the Pensacola Police Department any documentation regarding the “criminal activities” Mr. Reynolds says he has witnessed the including any documentation regarding an alleged event occurring on December 10, 2012 and set forth in a letter to the Mayor and attached in a December 26th e-mail from Mr. Reynolds to Council.
Proof that specific streets in the downtown CRA area meet the federal or state definition of “Arterial roadway” as set forth in the ordinance as to the amount of traffic volume, long trip length and high operating speed.  Ask the Mayor’s office to provide council with a list of streets in the City of Pensacola that meet the definition.
Request from the Mayor why the CRA district is provided a higher level of protection from “aggressive panhandling” that any other area of the City including the city’s primary business core (Uptown).
Request the Mayor’s office identify with specificity as regards Sec. 6 (d) which roads in the CRA district are “arterial roads”.
Request the Mayor’s office provide a list of all resources for homeless persons.
Request the Mayor’s office provide detail plans for improving and funding resources for the homeless in the City limits.

The city council meets for its Committee of the Whole today at 3:15 p.m at Pensacola City Council. The first three ‘homeless’ ordinances receive a second, and final reading Thursday.

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The daily newspaper has a post on its home page with the wrong phone number. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has the correct information on its Facebook page:

The phone number listed in an article was incorrect, and is NOT a 24-hour working number. Citizens should call 850.436.9630 or 850.436.9620 should they have any new information to report. The number to the mobile command center is 850-207-5498 should you or your group wish to assist with the search efforts. Thank you again.

The local ABC affiliate ran a piece on Owen last night, but failed to give any ECSO contact information or show a photo of the boy. The anchor did give the dispatch number after the segment aired.

Owen was last seen Friday afternoon on Perdido Key Drive in the vicinity of the Needle Rush condos. He was wearing a red and blue striped shirt and brown sweat pants. He has short blondish brown hair, brown eyes and is small for his age (4 ft. tall, weight 45 pounds).

To help with the search, the Sheriff’s Office has partnered with to announce our partnership Florida Marine Patrol, U.S. Navy, Civil Air Patrol, Escambia Search and Rescue, U.S. Coast Guard, the Klaas Foundation, the Navy and Escambia County Fire Departments and the Search Rescue units from Orange Beach, Mobile, Baldwin County and Bay counties.

They are still searching.

The report has two recommendations not included in the draft that city circulated back in February. Oliver recommends that the CMPA board be replaced with the City Council or CRA (which are the same people) or have the CMPA report directly to Mayor Hayward or City Administrator Bill Reynolds.

“Currently there is no one governing body responsible for decision making,” writes Oliver.

The second recommendation is to make one person accountable for all activities at the park. He suggests that person be the mayor or city administrator.

These two recommendations are in line with what Mayor Ashton Hayward told supporters at 5 1/2 Bar what he wanted earlier this year – so Hayward and Reynolds should be pleased.

The one recommendation that they won’t like is Oliver writing that a Request for Qualifications should be issued for the operation of the park for non-baseball days. The city has chosen to privately negotiation with SMG, the company which handles the Pensacola Bay Center and Saenger Theater, even though the CMPA board had voted to issue the request.

Read FinalOliver

Let’s compare the crime stats for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office for 2012 and 2011. The 5.9 increase in crime is tied  primarily to increases in burglary (556) and  Aggravated Assault (236).

However, the ECSO’s percentage of cleared cases is the highest since 2005:

The City of Pensacola had a huge jump in murders in 2012–which more than tripled. Burglaries and Aggravated Assaults are also up.

Pensacola’s seven murders are the most since the city began reporting its crime stats to FDLE in 2001:

When you compare the crime rates of the county with the city (per 100,000 people), Pensacola has a bigger problem:

Recommendation for the daily: It’s best to look at all the statistics before using them.

Today, May 16, one lane is closed on the Pensacola Beach Boulevard bridge until the foot of the roadway approaching the toll plaza and three toll plaza lanes are open to motorists.

Tomorrow, Friday, May 17, all bridge and toll plaza lanes will reopen to traffic at 12 p.m. throughout the weekend.

These traffic shifts are in conjunction with the various enhancement projects the Escambia County Public Works Department has begun.  More than $430,000 in roadway improvements has been designed to improve traffic flow and address safety concerns for pedestrians.

For the latest updates regarding this project, follow @MyPensacolaBch, @MyECdistrict4 and @MyEscambia on Twitter.

“We’re glad you’re here,” CMPA member John Merting told the Becks this afternoon. “We’re glad you’re moving forward.”

The Becks plan to build a mixed-use development at the Community Maritime Park. The project—which entails retail, office space and residential—will be the park’s second development, following Wahoos-owner Quint Studer’s planned office complex.

Using the Studer deal as a template for negotiations, the CMPA, along with representatives from Mayor Ashton Hayward’s office and the Pensacola City Council, hashed out the proposed lease last week. The Becks agreed to up the proposed annual lease fee from the original $39,700 to $46,222.

“I thought it went really well,” said Justin Beck.

CMPA Executive Director Ed Spears described the negotiations as “speedy, open, honest.” He advised the trustees to recommend the lease’s approval, pending amendments made by the city council.

“That’s a little scary, to say they could change anything they want,” said CMPA member Mark Taylor.

“We could go around in circles for months if we don’t do that,” Spears said.

Also during today’s CMPA meeting, board members received an update from Kim Carmody, of the city’s Neighborhood Services, on activities slated for the park. The park board has contracted with the city to manage the facility.

Carmody reported that the park would be hosting multiple events in the coming months, such as the Listen Local concert series. She said the calendar is filling up.

Carmody also said that the city is still in the process of negotiating with a management company to take the reins at the park. She declined to reveal the company’s name prior to inking a deal.

“Hopefully we’ll have something signed and ready to roll next time I talk to you,” Carmody said. “We’ve met with them on several occasions—they’re very excited, we’re very excited.”

The CMPA previously voted to have a request for proposals (RFP) conducted in an effort to find a management company for the park. That RFP was never followed through on.

“We opted out of the RFP for various reasons,” Carmody said, explaining that the company currently being negotiated with already has a footprint in the area and will also be able to offer alternative venues during rain events.

Members expressed concerns about the board’s direction being circumvented. They discussed again requesting that the city conduct an RFP process.

“As our agent, if we told you to go ahead and do an RFP,” asked CMPA Treasurer Jim Reeves, “you’d be pretty excited about that?”

“Oh, skippy-yes,” replied Carmody.

Both Carmody and Spears contended that it was within the city’s power to contract out their management duties to another entity. The director said that the city was not negotiating a new contract—which he said would be illegal—but rather expanding an existing contract.

“We’ve done the research, we have not done anything that is illegal, unethical,” said Carmody. “Nothing is being done that is shady, that’s wrong.”

Pensacola City Councilwoman Sherri Myers challenged the city’s position that the management company’s name could be withheld from the public. She asserted that the matter was subject to sunshine laws and made a verbal public records request for the information.

“When you ask for the name of this company that the city is negotiating with, you have a right to know,” Myers told the CMPA board.

While not technically revealing the company’s name, Spears did tell the board that there was only one venue-management company operating in the area—SMG, which manages the Saenger Theater for the city, as well as the Pensacola Bay Center for Escambia County.

Merting, who also serves as head of the CMPA’s Operations and Audit Committee, told his fellow board members that it was likely a waste of time to continue the RFP discussion—“that ship has sailed, that’s water under the bridge, coulda, shoulda, woulda”—but also relayed a message to city staff via Carmody.

“We feel like mushrooms—we’re fed B.S. and we’re kept in the dark, and that’s not very beneficial,” Merting told her. “All we can do is vote and pass motions and if the people that we work with thumb their noses at us, that’s what they’re going to do.”

John Johnson, the homeless coalition’s executive director, said yesterday that the city arranged for the presentation a few weeks ago. He was unaware the proposed ordinances were also on the May 6 agenda.

“I did not know,” Johnson said.

The director also said that the coalition had not been contacted, had not been asked for input, regarding the ordinances.

“It probably would have had a better outcome if not only myself, but other homeless providers, were contacted,” Johnson said.

Mayor Ashton Hayward recently put several ordinances on council’s table that critics claim “criminalize homelessness.” If approved, the ordinances will prohibit activities such as ‘camping,’ washing in public restrooms, public defecation and ‘aggressive solicitation, begging or panhandling.’ The administration contends the ordinances are necessary to “promote the aesthetics, sanitation, public health and safety of its citizens.”

“This will definitely impact the homeless population,” Johnson said yesterday, taking a break from the coalition’s annual meeting.

Johnson’s presentation to the city council painted a portrait of a growing homeless population coupled with dwindling resources and scarce services. Particularly alarming were statistics concerning families with children, as well as veterans.

Following Johnson’s presentation, Reynolds described to council “the proactive steps we’re going to start moving forward with.”  The administrator explained that the city would be exploring additional funding sources with its federal lobbyist and also collaborating with EscaRosa on the “little outreach piece that they’re working on.”

“That’s something that we’ve never done before, that is a piece that has been missing from what we do,” Reynolds said, explaining that the city would work to “educate” the homeless about available services. “We’re going to facilitate that at the city level—to educate, and try make sure that those we can identify here in the city of Pensacola fully understand what’s available. Because even if someone is not willing to go that day, they may have an opportunity where something goes wrong or they’re not happy at some point in the existence that they’re living and they say, ‘you know, I remember a program. I remember a program that somebody told me about one day when I was under the bridge and I think I want to do something about that at this point.’ So, we’re going to start putting something together in that respect.”

Council President P.C. Wu described this development as “very good news.”

“Because it shows the city taking a proactive approach to solving a very difficult problem,” the president said.

City Public Information Officer Derek Cosson later explained that the education would take place when a police officer “makes contact with someone regarding a potential violation of one of these ordinances.”

“The officer will educate the individual on available help,” Cosson wrote in an email.

Johnson said that he understands both sides of the debate.

“The homeless can present a problem for local businesses, I do understand that—many folks don’t want to be harassed or asked for money,” the coalition director said. “On the other hand, I do understand it from the perspective of the homeless.”

Johnson said that if the ordinances are passed, it will effectively prohibit homelessness in the city and push the population outside its boundaries.

“If that becomes law, then I’d want the homeless population to abide by the law,” he said. “But then we have to find the solutions.”

To that end, Johnson appeared optimistic about a homeless task force initiated by the city council in light of the proposed ordinances. Councilwoman Jewel Cannada-Wynn has tapped the coalition director to sit on that task force.

“I want to work with the council in whatever way I can to find solutions,” Johnson said.

Whatever the solutions—the director offers up a ‘tent city’ as an example—they will inevitably involve costs. The same can be said of the ordinances.

“If the ordinances pass, it’s going to cost dollars,” Johnson said, rattling off the math involved with possibly incarcerating homeless people. “Sixty percent have some sort of issue—mental, physical—you factor that in to going to jail, the cost, if it’s exaggerated by these factors, can be substantial.”

Three of the four proposed ordinances are scheduled for a final reading, and probable passage, May 23. Council will begin discussing the fourth—addressing ‘aggressive’ panhandling—during Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

- For more on the city’s proposed ordinances, read this week’s print edition of the Independent News; available at inweekly.net later today, and on the streets tomorrow.

Commissioners,

Please be aware that today Judge Nobles granted summary judgment for the remaining Gibbs defendants, Marie Young and Grover Robinson. This means that the lawsuit is effectively decided in the defendants??? favor, although the possibility of appeal remains. I don’t expect the final written order from Judge Nobles for at least a couple weeks. As you are likely aware, the County has been covering the legal expenses for the defendants. If you have any questions about this email, you are free to contact me but be aware I was not present at the hearing as the defendants each had their own counsel.

Please do not respond to this email.

Alison

“Nothing but conversation is changing hands,” said CMPA Treasurer Jim Reeves, “and we really should have some recourse if they default.”

Justin and Greg Beck are currently in negotiations over a lease for parcel parcel one at the Community Maritime Park. They are hoping to build a mixed-use development, which will feature their company’s offices on the second floor, with retail below and residential above.

The CMPA, thePensacola City Council and Mayor Ashton Hayward have appointed representatives to negotiate with the Becks. The only other post-ballpark development at the CMP—Quint Studer’s planned office complex—is being used as a template for the negotiations.

CMPA Executive Director Ed Spears noted that a letter of credit was discussed during last week’s negotiating session, but that aspect was “deleted by their attorney.” CMPA Chairman Collier Merrill—the park board’s representative in the negotiations—said that the Becks were offering verbal assurances.

“It doesn’t survive a car crash,” Reeves said. “A letter of credit does.”

“They’re reasonable people,” agreed Committee Chairman John Merting. “I think they can see the bind that we’re in.”

Although they did not have a quorum, the committee took a 4-0 straw vote to forward the lease to the CMPA. Member Fred Gunter recused himself from the straw vote, citing his involvement in bringing the park board a competing offer for parcel one last month.

The lease the CMPA will be looking at calls for the property company to pay $46,222 in annual rent. This is up from the originally proposed $39,700.

“We pushed’em,” Merrill said. “We were quite frankly pushing them to bid against themselves.”

The proposed lease with the Becks goes to the main CMPA board tomorrow. The meeting begins as 1:30 p.m. at Pensacola City Hall.

Also discussed during Monday’s committee meeting, was the CMPA’s deficit. Reeves noted that once the park property began generating bills from the property appraiser’s office, the “deficit will be greater than we ever imagined” with “some tax bills to pay with nobody to pay’em but the city, when you get right down to it.”

Merrill said that he had met recently with Mayor Hayward and Escambia County Property Appraiser Chris Jones. The chairman forecasted “some number south of a hundred [thousand] if they tax the whole thing.”

“We had a good meeting with Chris Jones,” Merrill said. “But he’s gonna come with something, his hands are tied as far as what can be taxed.”

The Tampa Bay Times reports that the Florida House kept its own health insurance premiums staggeringly low. House members will pay just $8.34 a month for state-subsidized health care next year, or $30 a month to cover their entire family.

Ironically, Florida House Republicans last month loudly and proudly rejected billions of dollars in federal money that would have provided health insurance to 1 million poor Floridians.

Read more.

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Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, joins Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, who pre-filed to run for the seat in November.

Read more.

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