Today, Governor Rick Scott and the Administration Commission referred the City of Pensacola’s appeal concerning to the allocation of the Local Option Gas Tax to the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings.
You have to love the timing. See DOH letter.
In future reporting, perhaps Inweekly can pull altogether in one place this letter, the four enclosures referenced in the letter and tell us “the rest of the story.” I’m surprised that Bare’s letter is dated August 5 because I had thought the first the City Council heard about the appeal was during the August 8 Agenda Conference. The timing of the “Amended Appeal received November 22, 2016” makes me wonder if they waited until Spencer was Council President as he became that same day. I think it would be interesting to know if Bare provided the rest of the Council with a copy of his letter and if the Council received a copy of the “Amended Appeal” whatever that may be. As recently as the Rick’s Blog entry on January 5 about this issue, I don’t recall any mention of an Amended Appeal. It might be useful for someone to listen to City Attorney Bowling’s remarks about the appeal made during the August 8 Agenda Conference. My notes reflect that she said she acted exercising her own authority as City Attorney and not at the direction of the Mayor, and certainly not under the direction of the City Council. The fact that this soap opera continues to play out seems to reinforce the political impotence of the City Council. At a minimum, I would have thought that by now the City Council would have adopted a resolution formally notifying the Administration Commission that the appeal was a rogue action by the City Attorney.