Reeves: Bay Center Interlocal Agreement Was Never Meant to Surprise the County

Public records show the city distributed a document to the Pensacola City Council identical to one it had shared with the county attorney’s office weeks earlier. The mayor says that was never meant to bullrush anyone, and that the agreement isn’t legally necessary in the first place.

Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves was asked Wednesday about public records showing his administration had reached an understanding with the Escambia County attorney’s office and county administration on an interlocal agreement covering the Pensacola Bay Center, only for county officials to later react with surprise when the city moved forward.

• The document the city administrator distributed on June 17 was identical to the version given to city council, records show.

“We weren’t trying to bullrush anybody. We weren’t trying to surprise anybody. We didn’t know there was a surprise to be had. We were just following kind of the timeline we had all worked through.”

Reeves said he pulled the agreement as soon as he understood it had caught the county commissioners off guard, even though the city believed both sides had agreed to the final draft.

Why the City Wanted an Agreement It Says It Didn’t Need

Reeves made a point of clarifying that the interlocal agreement carries no legal weight. “Technically or legally speaking, there is no legal need to have this agreement,” he said, adding that nothing in it obligates the city or the county to do anything.

The purpose, Reeves said, was optics for potential contractors and design firms bidding on the Bay Center project. 

• The agreement was proposed as a set of “guardrails” at an April meeting
• It was intended as a front-facing document for vendors, contractors and owner’s reps
• Reeves said it was meant to show the city and county are “arm in arm” heading into the project
• He said nothing in the agreement is legally binding on either government

What Happens Next

Reeves said he doesn’t believe the confusion signals a breakdown between the city and county. “I don’t get the feeling from the five county commissioners that there’s an unwillingness to work together at this point.”

• He said the ball is now in the county’s court on how to proceed, whether that means the county produces its own version of the document, the city and county swap roles on who drafts it, or the two governments simply move forward without a formal agreement at all.

“If they want to give us a document they’re good with, and we want to do it the inverse way, I’m fine with that. Or if we just end up moving on without it, if that’s the best path forward, then we’ll consider that.”

Reeves also floated a broader idea for managing the project going forward: Combining city and county economic development staff into a joint team to oversee the Bay Center project, arguing the effort may be too big for any single elected body to manage day-to-day. He framed it as an early-stage idea rather than a formal proposal.