In a surprising development at the April 3 Escambia County Commission meeting, County Clerk Pam Childers announced she would temporarily halt approvals for commissioner discretionary fund expenditures pending a review of their constitutionality and public purpose.
“It’s come up through the years seeing more on the agenda for churches,” Childers announced. “I’ve been doing research. I planned on having a report ready for May, so I’m just putting you on notice that starting tonight, I’m holding all discretionary fund requests until my review is complete.”
Background: Escambia County commissioners each receive $50,000 annually in discretionary funds as part of the county budget. These funds, classified as “aids to private organizations,” have historically been used to support various community initiatives at each commissioner’s discretion. The Pensacola City Council has a similar program, which began during the Ashton Hayward administration.
‘Constitutional’ Concerns
Childers cited Article VII of the Florida Constitution, which requires county expenditures to serve a “lawful county public purpose.” She questioned whether this requirement was being met with current discretionary spending practices.
- “The public purpose for discretionary expenditures is not obvious when you allocate to private galas, picnics, benefits, church revival, school, softball teams, and golf tournaments,” Childers stated during the meeting.
She expressed particular concern about expenditures to religious organizations, noting specific prohibitions in the Florida Constitution. Section 3 of Article 1 of the Florida Constitution states:
- “No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.”
Florida’s Precedent of Religious Funding
While the Clerk insinuated that her review is in sync with the state DOGE initiatives, Childers is out of step with public policy at the state level. Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons has broadly used his Law Enforcement Trust (LEF) funds to support various community groups and events.
- Note: The Clerk also stated: “LET funds are similar, and that is also on my list to review.”
JEWISH SCHOOL SECURITY: Florida has several examples of tax dollars aiding sectarian institutions. In the 2024-2025 state budget, Governor Ron DeSantis announced $20 million for securing Jewish day schools amidst rising antisemitism following the Israel-Hamas war. Lawmakers have proposed another $20 million for the 2025-2026 fiscal year to secure Jewish day schools and preschools. This funding covers professional security guards, transportation safety, and facility hardening measures to protect against antisemitic attacks.
VOUCHERS FOR CHURCH-RUN SCHOOLS: Florida’s expansive school voucher program allows taxpayer money to fund private school tuition, including religious schools. This program has significantly increased enrollment in religious schools such as Catholic, Christian, and Jewish institutions across the state. For example, Mount Dora Christian Academy, a Church of Christ-rooted school, receives about half of its $10 million tuition revenue through state scholarships.
Commissioner May’s Response
The announcement caught commissioners off guard, particularly Commissioner Lumon May, who questioned why this issue was only being raised now after a decade-long practice.
“It is certainly alarming and disappointing that we’ve done it for 10 years, and at this point now, we’re beginning to do a review?” May said.
May also defended the community value of many discretionary fund expenditures, asking rhetorically, “Is it not a common good to feed people? Is it not a common good to buy hamburgers and hot dogs for children in the inner-city that don’t have food to eat?”
Next Steps
While Childers did not completely rule out future discretionary spending, she indicated that commissioners would need to clearly articulate the public purpose served by each expenditure going forward. She didn’t want to discuss her decision, only make her announcement.
“I’m not really here tonight to have a conversation with you,” Childers said. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m reviewing it. There are things that have come to light that I think we should consider, and I would like to consider that together.”
She continued, “I do look at the Florida Constitution when it talks about religion. So if you’re doing contributions to churches for their picnics or something they’re having, I think that’s a violation. And so, I thought we might start having that conversation now, but I will do my review. I will do a report. I would like to talk to you about this and continue the discussion.”
- The Clerk did not say that she had discussed with the Florida Attorney General whether any violations had occurred.
County Attorney Alison Rogers agreed to work with the budget department and clerk’s office to develop better documentation procedures to help commissioners document their discretionary spending decisions.
Chair Mike Kohler requested that the clerk give county staff time to develop a policy response before fully implementing the hold on discretionary funds.
Why This Matters
This development could significantly impact how county commissioners support community organizations and initiatives in their districts. Many small nonprofit organizations and community events have come to rely on these discretionary funds as a source of support.
The commission is expected to revisit this issue in May when Childers completes her “review” and presents her “findings.”
BIGGER IMPLICATIONS: Will a religious litmus test be added to all programs tied to religious institutions? Surely, Childers isn’t solely directing this at the Black community and Commissioner Lumon May.
How will Childers’ “review” impact the Escambia Children’s Trust and its out-of-school program funding to faith-based programs at the Epps Christian Center, SALT Ministry and New World Believers?
All non-departmental funding should receive strict scrutiny to include when the BCC approves the expenditure of Law Enforcement Trust Fund monies such as for a champagne brunch at the Portofino Island Resort. Private requests for public money are often cryptic at best and with no apparent independent county staff analysis to include no assessment of how the same group spent prior county dollars. (I blame the county administrator for the lack of oversight. That’s part of that job.) When the representative of a group does actually appear at a BCC meeting, they often appear to be coached, and very openly on a too close personal first-name basis with the commissioner advocating for the expenditure. Years back, I recall Commissioner Robinson once raising a valid concern and for his effort Commissioner Robertson scolded him taking offense that he would seem to be impugning the character of his pals applauded as “Fine People.” One interesting aspect that I several times raised with the city council over the years is the outside agency “game” of asking multiple governments for money, sometimes for the exact same project, with each government not knowing about the requests to other government, or to private parties. Each request from an outside agency should include a copy of their most recent Form 990 and an assessment of how they have spent or misspent past dollars. It would also be useful to verify that the group actually has corporate existence. The city council once approved giving money to a group that was not actually a non-profit and with the address given as belonging to a motel room. Another time, I pointed out that a group given $50,000 had been administratively dissolved by the state two years prior for lack of an annual report. No one had checked. The head of the group sent out a shotgun e-mail calling me a “racist” for telling the city council information he (a black man) had to know was true but did not want the city to know. By the way, it is Commissioner May who often very belatedly expressed exasperation that money was spent or misspent in a way he did not anticipate. I have several times gone back to review specific agenda items finding them mostly devoid of detail and noting that the commissioners barely if at all discussed the request as if they are too busy to do so. I have for years said that the BCC should have an independent citizens board to scrutinize all outside agency requests and make its recommendation to the “County Administrator.” That would take out the politics of it.
Melissa, Not to take away from this story , but the origin of LOST 4 discrepancy is what I questioned when I was the Stormwater Engineering Manager. I was told to prepare a 11 year priority project lists for budget with $7.5M/year for drainage CIP, with fairly equal distribution between districts, based upon the SWAT list. After LOST 4 was voted to continue by the people, I was instructed to cut my budget back to $4M annually with 5 commissioners. I don’t recall Commissioner discretionary LOST funds prior to 2018. Need less to say, I was very vocal at the time; maybe that’s one of the reasons I don’t work for ESC anymore…
What about the annual $1M discretionary funds from Local Option Sales Tax 4 voted in 2018 to fund Capital Improvement Projects?
How much of those discretionary funds were spent on drainage infrastructure? You may ask why I ask these questions. Well that’s a whole another story, if you are interested?