As a follow-up to Inweekly’s Rising Stars, Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons and I discuss the importance of keeping our local talent.
“I really like the idea of growing our own, of having people that are working in our community, that grew up in our community, that have family ties, that, as we talked about, love this community and want to make it a better place,” Sheriff Simmons said.
“Not that you can’t get a transplant that wants to make their new home better. I just think that it’s better they have a support system. Law enforcement is a difficult job, and you have bad days, and you have good days. And on those bad days, I want them to be able to come back home and call their uncle, aunt, mother, or father and not be far from them to have that support system here.”
I absolutely agree to praise someone when a job is well done. As someone who worked in management for many years, I always found that employees who were told when they were doing a good job, worked harder and were happier in their positions. A win win for everyone. They also were more receptive told about areas they could improve in or about a mistake they made. However, the writer of this article, failed to mention that the city spent an enormous amount of money on plans to replace the Bayfront Auditorium, which was destroyed during the hurricane. I bet the majority of Pensacola natives and visitors Have great memories and stories to tell about their experiences at the bayfront. Yes, it was old, yes, it needed work. The city of Pensacola owned the bayfront auditorium, as well as the Sanger theater downtown. A lot of money was spent to architects to draw up the plans to replace the bayfront auditorium. It would’ve been a great addition to our great city. The plans included indoor and outdoor events for all to enjoy. But it was not going to happen. We were told a wealthy businessman who lived downtown wanted the ballpark. I have nothing against but not everyone can enjoy the ballpark, the city promised things that they have not followed through with and probably never intended to do, in order for ballpark to be built. You see, I know about this, because I worked for the Saenger theatere, bayfront auditorium, and even the Civic Center as the box office manager for years. The Sanger theater and bayfront auditorium held events for everyone. We did not cater to one certain group and we did not discriminate against one any groups. I’m happy to say, it was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had, and a lot of it was due to the great people I worked with. It was a shame that the citizens of Escambia County did not get to vote on this topic. Only people that lived in the city limits were allowed to vote on whether or not the Pensacola Landmark would be rebuilt, bigger and better for everyone to enjoy. The people of Pensacola got a raw deal and don’t realize the tens of thousands of dollars that were wasted on plans that never materialized. I would love for a reporter to research this and find out the true story. Our great city. Not only lost revenue from what would’ve been a fun filled place in Pensacola that everyone could be proud of and everyone could enjoy. There would’ve been room for outdoor concerts and concerts, it would host hundreds of dances for seniors and high schoolers. There were plans for an outside picnic area. The list goes on and on sadly, Pensacola was the loser and someone with money that convinced the city council to build what HE wanted. He could afford to help ( buy) the votes of of the city council members. Don’t just take my word for it, do some research and tell the real story. The losers were the citizens of our great city.
In 2009/2010, then Assistant Police Chief Simmons served on the Special Advisory Committee for Public Safety of the 25-member Escambia County Consolidation Study Commission on which I served as one of two city appointees and as its secretary. Ken Bell was the chair and Rick Harper the vice-chair. We found no impediments to the consolidation of all public safety functions. I successfully asked us to put emergency medical services into our plan. In hindsight, we unwittingly failed to discuss emergency management. But our so-called “plan” was so bad that I voted against it. I thought that we should hedge our bet and be prepared to put forward some “functional” consolidation options. A majority led by Marcus Pointe resident John Peacock who really wanted to stick it to city taxpayers adopted an “all or nothing” scorched earth approach. In the end, we got burned. The local state legislative delegation deadlocked 2-2 and our plan died, thankfully. To make matters worse, the commission had voted to abolish itself out of existence prematurely as an ill-advised attempt to avoid having to address city, county or state legislative delegation feedback or pushback too. Hubris got the best of us. We missed a big opportunity to consolidate public safety functions with tremendous savings to taxpayers and almost certainly more efficient and effective services too. Bad on us.