It’s both perplexing and disturbing that ECUA board member Dale Perkins tried to do an end run around the consolidation effort and get the Emerald Coast Utility Authority excluded from the study.
1) ECUA could not have moved the Main Street Sewage Treatment Plant without funds from both the City of Pensacola ($19 million) and Escambia County ($7 million) – so there already is a precedent for the bodies to work together.
2)Perkins did not present his objections at any public meetings on consolidation. He did not discuss his issues at the ECUA board meeting.
3) The ECUA board did not give me the authority to speak on their behalf.
4)His district may have some of the strongest supporters of consolidation.