Exclusive: Former TEAM board members speak out

On a rainy morning, former board members of the now-defunct TEAM Santa Rosa sat down with the IN to discuss what they see as unfair coverage of public-private partnership that ran the economic development activities of Santa Rosa County for more than a decade. They were especially upset over how the former executive director, Cindy Anderson, was treated and were worried about the county taking over complete control of economic development.

The trio at the table was Ed Gray, III, who was heavily involved in the formation of TEAM Santa Rosa in 1992-93 after he finished his tenure as the mayor of Gulf Breeze; Dick Baker, developer and CFO for Habitat for Humanity, who hadn’t been involved with TEAM in two years; and John Griffing, who was involved in the selection of Anderson and served on the board until the mid-2000s.

“TEAM went through about five or six executive directors in its first ten years,” said Griffing. “Commissioner Don Salter asked if I would lead the recruitment process when Fred Duplantis resigned in April 2001.” Duplantis had served as the executive director for less than a year.

The selection committee was reluctant to hire another professional ED-type, according to Gray. “We had tried somebody whose life and career was economic development and didn’t work out well,” said Gray.

“There was also the issue of compensation,” said Griffing. He had surveyed similar organizations and found the salary range was $160,000-$165,000, which was more that TEAM could afford.

Anderson was an engineer for Escambia County at the time. “That was the W.D. Childers-era and county employees and department heads were leaving Escambia County government in droves,” said Baker. “Cindy knew the development process—permitting, infrastructure and site development. Her engineering background was a huge asset.”

“Cindy brought a holistic approach that we had not seen,” said Griffing. “TEAM stands for Tourism, Economic Development, Agriculture and Military. Before Cindy, the primary focus was on economic development and military. She took a team approach and looked at all four areas.”

“Cindy and TEAM get no credit for what has been accomplished for agriculture,” said Gray. “She brought the farmers on board, created Panhandle Fresh that taught local chefs and restaurants about Santa Rosa produce.”

Baker added, “Agriculture is important to culture and quality of life of Santa Rosa County and we wanted to keep it. Cindy worked to make sure the farmers stayed economically viable.”

Gray said that Anderson was successful in bringing jobs to the county because she would get all the county departments in a room and ask for their input to creat a checklist for the prospect.

The men said the Anderson could also be her own worse enemy in dealing with the one-on-one politics of the job. She clashed with Evon Emerson, who was the president/CEO of the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. She didn’t do a good job of walking the halls with the Santa Rosa County commissioners.

“If she had specific project, she was right there explaining the deal,” said Gray. “But she may have needed to do more of it when she didn’t have an agenda item.”

I asked them about allegations that Anderson and TEAM Santa Rosa failed to answer public record requests. It was those allegations that led to the county commissioners withdrawing its funding of the group, its dissolution and the resignation of Anderson.

“That’s an absolute lie,” said Gray. “We gave them whatever they asked for time and again. Cindy isn’t an accountant so at times she might not have pulled the exact spreadsheet or report that they wanted, but we never intentionally hide anything.”

The “they” are Jerry Couey, an offshore gas production worker, and Alan Isaacson, a minister. Couey and Issacson were honored earlier this year by the Florida First Amendment Foundation. The pair were inducted into the Sunshine Brigade, “a loosely-organized coalition of open government and citizen activists who have been chosen for membership because of their commitment to government oversight and holding government accountable for its actions.”

Gray wasn’t so kind. He called them, “Beavis and Butthead.”

“Beavis and Butthead weren’t going to be happy unless that got Cindy’s job,” said Gray, “even though she was doing what her board had instructed her to do.”

Gray admitted that he and other board members initially fought putting TEAM Santa Rosa County under the Sunshine Laws because of the sensitive nature of recruiting businesses to the county. He said that banker Tommy Tait resigned from the board because he believed it would hamper the effort.

“I fought it, too,” said Gray, “but after several heated meetings it was determined that we had to abide by it because we were heavily-funded by the county.”

Gray believed that Couey was driven by his opposition to Commissioner Don Salter and that he wanted to discredit Team and Salter.

When asked about the recent efforts to combined the economic development efforts of Santa Rosa and Escambia counties, the men laughed.

“We’ve been trying to do this for years…” said Baker.

Griffing injected, “Every time we got close, the commissioners stepped in and stopped it.”

They weren’t optimistic about the new Santa Rosa County Economic Alliance, fearing that it will become too political with the commissioners controlling the board.

“There is a real chance that they will lose the interest of the private-sector stakeholders,” said Gray. “Many will want to have nothing to do with it, if they are locked out of the decision process.”

After this interview: On Monday, July 9, Santa Rosa County Commissioner Lane Lynchard of Gulf Breeze proposed to his fellow commissioners to terminate the contract with the economic development organization formerly known as TEAM and immediately hire a Director of Economic Development as a county staff member who would report directly to the commission or the county administrator, or both.

The commission will consider his recommendation at its meeting today.