Candidates Eat Breakfast With Gophers

Local political candidates enjoyed breakfast and coffee at New World Landing with the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce’s Gopher Club this morning, before each was given a turn to speak before the group. Following breakfast, candidates from a handful of local races located their respective name cards in the chairs lined up across the stage. They took their seats and waited for the allotted two minutes apiece.

Escambia County School Superintendent Malcolm Thomas said he believed focus should be put on career academies in an effort to ready students for the job market. Property Appraiser Chris Jones spoke about how housing values will most likely continue to drop.

Steve Barry, candidate for the District 5 seat on the Escambia County Commission, told the breakfast crowd he’d rather increase the tax base than increase taxes. Wilson Robertson, the current chairman of the commission, talked about the county’s “healthy” financial status and the promise of BP money.

Two candidates for the commission’s District 3 seat participated in this morning’s forum. Both Hugh King and Lumon May replied to a question regarding how best their district might progress.

“We’ve got to have creation of jobs,” King said, suggesting that “a little less regulations” and “incentives” could spur economic development in the area.

May talked about addressing other areas of concern, such as education and crime.

“I think educational attainment and economic development intersect together,” May said, adding that the area’s crime could inhibit the ability to attract visitors and residents to the region— “people will not come here, businesses will not come here if we don’t look at crime.”

Pensacola City Council District 5 candidates John Jerralds (incumbent) and Gerald Wingate talked about economic development within the city. Jerralds spoke of the city’s planned economic development fund, and Wingate said all the appropriate local entities should be “on the same sheet of music” in their effort to grow the economy.

There were also a couple of candidates for the Escambia County Utilities Authority District 1 seat. Incumbent Elizabeth Susan Campbell talked about the possibility of incinerating trash as a source of energy for ECUA operations, while challenger Vicki Campbell said she would not vote to further increase rates.

Both of the ECUA candidates also answered an attendee’s question about their views on the use of fluoride in region’s water supply.

The incumbent said she thought fluoride was beneficial in products such as toothpaste.
“However, I question the benefit of us actually drinking it,” she said.

The challenger described herself as the only “pro-fluoride” candidate in the race. She said she was siding with dental and medical associations.

“If we take the fluoride out of the water it will set us back 60 years,” she said.

Both the ECUA and city council candidates were also asked about the utility authority’s property near Pensacola City Hall. The ECUA candidates said the property needed to fetch a decent price—“we don’t need to give it away”—and would be best used as a mixed-use development, while Councilman Jerralds referred to the property as “a jewel” with a “tremendous amount of potential.”