This morning on WCOA, I talked with Mayor-Elect D.C. Reeves and Tim Kinsella about the mayoral transition team.
3 thoughts on “Reeves, Kinsella discuss mayoral transition team [podcasts]”
Comments are closed.
I'm your huckleberry
This morning on WCOA, I talked with Mayor-Elect D.C. Reeves and Tim Kinsella about the mayoral transition team.
Comments are closed.
Great post, CJ. The City has been having lots of bizarre Sunshine ideas the past few years. Whether it’s technically Sunshine or no, it’s not a great look to just announce that it won’t be. Way to set a standard of transparency…which shouldn’t be at all surprising to anyone aware of what fueled his campaign to begin with. A not unreasonable prediction is that transparency across the board will go downhill now, especially with the various task forces and other pseudo-government ventures.
Just one quibble: Butch Hansen? Seriously–why? So he can inform people how to bitch on ECW about how corrupt and what profligate spenders the BOCC and City Council are, then run around and bang a tin cup on the podium to beg for money while lying about fundraising efforts?
No thanks. And I don’t know if he is involved in that horrible design on the bathroom/everything room for the Veteran’s Park…thing looks like a machine shed, and it’s hard to believe that it’s high enough in a flood plain. Whether it meets the standard, it’s most likely gonna flood at some point. Never have been convinced of Mr. Hansen’s fiscal genius yet. He sure couldn’t come up with the finances for his Chappie James project, other than just demanding taxpayer money. Funny how quickly the fiscal hawkishness goes out the door when it’s one of their own pet projects.
Kinsella has a pleasant Irish lilt and sounds intelligent, Reeves sounds a little clueless and say, “you know” too much. If they wanted to sit and chat, why would they announce they want to meet out of the sunshine? Grab a Guinness and go to dinner, raise a glass or two.
A story coming out in Sunday’s PNJ reports that Reeves’ transition team is not going to operate under Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Law. State law does require a mayoral transition team to operate in the Sunshine. Robinson’s team did, at least in theory, maybe. There is a Florida Attorney General’s Advisory Legal Opinion on that specific issue. Jim Little reports that Reeves’ effort can and will be semi-transparent because he will not yet have taken office. That seems a distinction without difference. Reeves like Robinson is now subject to Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Law. Both transition teams will be doing the same “thing” and according the Reeves organized much the same. Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Manual does address the issues both of an “officer elect” and “a transition process.” The manual expressly refers to five specific state officers but I suspect it may be read to apply to all “officers elect” to include their transition team and process. I think that Reeves should ask the State Attorney for her opinion. She will ask the Florida Attorney General and we will know. The alternative is that a city voter like me will file a written complaint with the State Attorney and then she’ll will likely ask the Florida Attorney general anyway. As for Captain Kinsella, will he be serving as chair of Reeves’ transition team in his official capacity as Director of the Center for Leadership at UWF (doing two full-time jobs at once) or will he be taking a leave of absence? As a non-city resident with no known knowledge of municipal government or ours in particular (I hope he at least knows that NAS Pensacola is not “in” the City of Pensacola), its hard to see that he will be anything more than a ceremonial figurehead chairman. It’ll all be over before he knows what is going on. I’d have picked Butch Hansen. The 2019 transition team was mostly non-city residents who knew little to nothing about the city or its government. It showed. Mr. Studer did admit that their work was of limited real value citing the member’s “lack of specific in-depth knowledge of city operations and operational history.” Councilwoman Sherri Myers met with most of the 2019 transition team members and was shocked by their ignorance. Reeves blew it in 2019. In truth, we’re missing an opportunity now to do this right for once. Rather than look at city government as “pillars” – in the military we would dismissively call them “stovepipes of excellence” – we need to look at the city as a whole. The city is not competing with Greenville, Ashville, Charleston or Savanah but with Perdido Key, Beulah, Cantonment (where the City Administrator and Police Chief live), Ferry Pass, Pace (where about half of the PPD may live), Milton, Navarre and Gulf Breeze. Reeves wants to shift the city’s commercial center from Cordova Mall/Sacred Heart to downtown. He said so. He wants also to “thicken the city” converting open space into dense developments. He said so. (That’s why so many real estate developers gave him so many $1,000 campaign contributions. Chad Henderson gave him $4,000.) What we need is a joint Mayor/Council team of appointees to conduct a no-holds barred – “Open Kimono” (Kinsella knows what that means) – review and air all of city hall’s stinky dirty laundry out in the open. Yes, some heads might (and should) roll but that’s long overdue