County government insiders expect the two rookie commissioners, Ashley Hofberger and Steve Stroberger, to make a move to terminate County Administrator Wes Moreno.
- Commissioner Hofberger has added to today’s agenda that the Board of County Commissioners discuss the County Administrator’s contract and vote to schedule the contract as an agenda item for the March 6 meeting.
The Board of County Commissioners has a three-year employment contract with its County Administrator. The contract expires August 17, 2025, unless terminated or extended by a majority vote of the Board of County Commissioners. Pursuant to §125.73(2), Fla. Stat. and Section 2-82(a) of the Escambia County Code of Ordinances, upon notice, the Board may take action on the contract.
MORENO’S RECORD
Wes Moreno has served as county administrator since June 2021, when Janice Gilley was terminated without ever putting together a county budget. His first six months were spent getting rid of the numerous incompetent and inexperienced department heads Gilley had hired.
- Under Moreno’s leadership, the county hit significant infrastructure milestones in FY 2023-24, completing $100 million in projects, including the Ashton Brosnaham Athletic Park Multi-Use Facility, Beulah Fire Station, Perdido Bay Boat Ramp, and Perdido Key Multi-Use Path. The county also made substantial progress on stormwater management, completing improvements at Eleven Mile Creek Basin, Surrey-Windsong, and Moreno Street.
In the past, the county has averaged 75 to 80 procurement solicitations annually. Moreno told me in December, “Now we’re running 135 to 140 solicitations and putting work out the door.”
PUPPETMASTER
County Clerk Pam Childers has been pushing for Moreno’s ouster. Under Gilley’s administration, the clerk’s office prepared the budget, at first in the county’s history.
Childer has tied up county operations by constantly raising the bar on documentation for disbursements. On Tuesday, the Tourist Development Council discussed the frustrations local groups involved in Foo Foo have had paying their vendors. The TDC has the clerk provide them with a checklist to smooth the constantly changing process.
TDC Chairman David Bear asked Childers and her staff to comment on the problem. Does anyone from the clerk’s office wish to address this with us? No. Nope. Well, I think, do we want to formally make a request that we have some sort of checklist of the expectation so that all of our outside agencies know exactly what it is they need to submit so that we can more timely, those folks can more timely get their reimbursements made?”
Commissioner Hofberger agreed to work with Childers on a checklist.
THIRD VOTE
Childers will need to get a third vote to have Moreno terminated. County Commission Chairman Mike Kohler would have to join the “Bergers.” Will he?
Who do they want to replace Moreno? The name being mentioned is Chief Deputy Sheriff Tommi Lyter.
Tommi Lyter, the thing is, if he is County Administrator then he simply is not a viable candidate for Sheriff in 2028 where everyone knows Chip cannot run for a third term.
Many believe, Lyter would like to be Sheriff, and I just have some concerns, why would Lyter want to throw away a chance to be Sheriff, to be part of an ill advised attempt to get rid of County Administrator Moreno.
Now it is true, I like WD Childers, suffered wrongful arrest for defending the right of ECUA to remain solvent through control of natural gas, the reason why you pay ever increasing utility bills is the prosecution of WD Childers, understand this, understand I was jailed in September because I want you to keep more of your paycheck.
But if Lyter is County Administration, he can’t be Sheriff.
If there is one thing that will not be tolerated…it is a contracted individual who is making progress toward the work which they were hired to do. Elected officials seem to be threatened by any source of performance and efficiency. Apparently it highlights the long standing preference for ‘stagnation as usual’ in government. But that’s just ‘my’ observation.
The only thing that I can see that could impede Commissioner Hofberger from quickly becoming one of the area’s smartest and most capable leaders is the people in the background who are taking advantage of her learning curve to push her in some wrong directions, directions that definitely aren’t aligned with her stated and, I believe, sincere goals of transparency, impartiality. and objectivity. She has already put her money where her mouth is several times from the dais and made strong, decisive actions that took a clear head in the moment and a lot of guts.
Unluckily for her would-be puppetmasters, she’s smarter than they are and quicker on her feet. What she lacks in experience she makes up for in being a damn quick study.
Unluckily for the public, not to mention County staff (God help them from certain outcomes), she’s clearly being pushed to bring this to a boil before she can completely see through the smoke and mirrors of the people attempting to play her. While they have succeeded in moments, I’ve witnessed her catch on to what has happened in real time more than once and reverse course when the light bulb goes on.
It just happened at the TDC on Tuesday night, when she quickly calculated that all the baloney she had been told in the background was just that, and bravely led a 1-8 vote to refuse to allocate the wrong money to a right cause.
When I saw this headline, it literally made me sick to my stomach. I’ll be watching and hoping that this will be the moment she breaks the chains of the people attempting to steal her light, and checks the box on their latest attempt to help Downtown coup the County by leading a discussion on NOT LETTING THEM DO IT.
It’s actually very unfair of the people who want to be her handlers to push her into this defining moment too early. She’s clearly tough enough to handle it. The question is whether she’ll assess by the facts evidencing Mr. Moreno’s turnaround of the County and lead according to those, or whether those dogs are barking loud enough to drown out her common sense.
I’m betting on the latter–that she made promises to put it on the agenda, and she’s delivering on the discussion, but that’s she’s tired of having her arm yanked already, and ready to do the right thing. I so hope I’m right.