by Jeremy Morrison, Inweekly
As Mayor D.C. Reeves began his weekly press conference Tuesday, he noted that the flag fronting Pensacola City Hall flew at half mast, as did flags around the state of Florida.
“Today marks three years,” Mayor Reeves said.
Three years ago, on Dec. 6, 2019, three military members were killed on Naval Air Station Pensacola when an aviation student from Saudi Arabia trained on the base shot and killed them. The shooter — who was later connected to al-Qaeda — was subsequently shot and killed by Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deputies. On the third anniversary of the attack, Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered flags around the state lowered to half-mast.
“Everybody in this community remembers where they were when they heard this news. I know I do,” Mayor Reeves said, noting the observance around the state. “It’s a very fitting tribute and something that has certainly scarred our community forever.”
Funding Affordable Housing
Next week, Mayor Reeves will ask Pensacola City Council members — sitting as the Community Redevelopment Area board — to commit nearly half a million dollars to realize an affordable housing project on a portion of what is currently Baptist Healthcare’s E and Moreno streets campus.
“At the end of the day, I think this is important because we all talk about the need for housing right now,” Reeves said. “We’re trying to turn that talk into some real action here.”
Reeves will ask the CRA to provide a Local Government Area of Opportunity (LGAO) and commit $460,000 to a project that entails the development of 102 units of affordable housing. The financial commitment is designed to show buy-in from a local government as Paces Foundation/Soho Housing — the not-for-profit developer Baptist is working with to develop this affordable housing project — applies for 9 percent Florida Housing Finance Corporation tax credit financing.
Committing finances to this potential project is something that former Mayor Grover Robinson was pushing for, and it appears that Mayor Reeves feels the same. Committing the funding, he said, will signal that the project has the full support of the municipal government.
“This is our effort to get this across the finish line,” Reeves said, explaining that even with the city’s commitment, landing the FHFC financing would not be a given. “There is no guarantee that this happens; this is very competitive statewide.”
If Paces/Soho can secure development funding — or otherwise come up with the necessary financing — this affordable housing project will significantly dent the city’s goal of creating 500 units of affordable housing within five years. The 102 rental units will be designated for varying income levels, all targeted towards people earning 80 percent of the Average Median Income level — about $43,300 — or less.
Separately, Paces/Soho is also working with Baptist to develop an additional affordable housing development, which represents more than a hundred units, targeted towards seniors. The city has already committed around $35,000 on this front as Paces tries for the less competitive 4 percent FHFC financing.
Recycling Reconsidered
After taking a break from recycling as the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority made repairs to its recycling facility, the city of Pensacola is now looking to tighten up its collection of residents’ recycling cans. In a recent meeting with the folks at ECUA, Mayor Reeves said he learned some pretty discouraging data.
“The reality is that the recycling picked up from the city of Pensacola sanitation customers is 45 percent contaminated,” Mayor Reeves said.
Calling the percentage “staggering,” Reeves explained that many city recycling customers seem unclear on what is allowed in their recycling cans. Cardboard, for instance, is good to go. But other items, such as plastic bags, aerosol cans or food, are not allowed in the recycling.
“When those go in one of our cans in the city, and then those go in the facility, then it’s contaminating, and it’s hurting our ability to recycle,” Reeves said.
The mayor said that the city would be trying to better inform its recycling customers about what items are and are not recyclable.
“You’ll see an effort from ECUA and the city of Pensacola jointly over these next few months to try to really make sure we educate everybody on what can and can’t be recycled,” Reeves said.
Juneteenth Recognition?
The city of Pensacola may be getting an additional recognized holiday. Mayor Reeves said he would propose that the city designate Juneteenth — the observance of the emancipation of slaves — as an official municipal holiday. The celebration of Juneteenth was recognized as a national holiday beginning in 2021.
“I believe it’ll be our thirteenth city holiday, and it obviously commemorates a significant time in our history and more than deserves its recognition,” Mayor Reeves said.
The Pensacola City Council will be asked to designate Juneteenth as a recognized holiday next week during their regular meeting.
State law gives state workers nine paid holidays. The City of Pensacola – specifically the Pensacola City Council so we know exactly where to pin the blame – passed a law giving city workers 12 paid holidays. If they amend the law to add Juneteenth, this will be city holiday #13. The irony, of course, is that no slaves were freed during the Civil War in Pensacola. On January 1, 1863, the effective date of the Emancipation Proclamation, Pensacola was under Union control. The Confederates had abandoned the place in May 1862. The Union later abandoned it too. I recall reading in a book about the Civil War that a Union Major wrote about the slaves in the city but said that he had no authorization to free them. So, to be clear, there’s no connection between the Emancipation Proclamation, Juneteenth (a day related to an event in Texas) and Pensacola. Juneteenth is just an excuse to have a party. If the nation wanted to celebrate a day of significance to slaves – slaves held by Whites, Blacks and Indians too – it would celebrate December 6, 1865 the day the 13th Amendment was ratified, then affirmed on December 18. Maybe call it “End of Slavery Day” to make it blinding clear what happened given that people no longer study history and certainly not a “communications major” like Reeves. On the agenda item, he reports that the impact of giving all 884 full-time employees a day off – and we don’t know how many other people on the city payroll in another status would get a day off too – is less than $10,000. How that can that be? How can everyone working for the city get paid to do no work for a day and the impact is described as less than $10,000? The city spends about $47 million for payroll. City employees work a 40-hour workweek. City staff should be able to come up with the true cost of giving all city employees another day off to party.