In August 2015, a troubling incident in Pensacola exposed the delicate balance between government authority and citizen rights, raising serious questions about how local officials should handle public engagement.
The controversy centered on then-City Administrator Eric Olson’s decision to contact the employer of neighborhood association president—a move that has sparked outrage and divided the city council.
The Incident
Melanie Nichols, president of the North Hill Preservation Association and a Navy contractor, sent emails to Pensacola city officials from her work email account regarding local government matters. These weren’t threatening messages or inappropriate communications—they were routine inquiries about zoning issues, parking problems, and community concerns that any engaged citizen might raise.
Rather than responding directly to Nichols or asking her to use a personal email account, Olson took the extraordinary step of calling her supervisor at the Naval Air Station.
His justification? He claimed he was simply alerting another government agency about an employee using work email for non-work purposes.
But Inweekly, PNJ and the public saw it as an attempt to intimidate a vocal community activist by threatening her livelihood.
The Public Response
The reaction was swift and fierce. Citizens packed city council meetings, calling Olson’s actions “chilling,” “beyond the pale,” and “heinous.” Even Council President Andy Terhaar described it as “an egregious error in judgment.”
Barbara Petersen from the First Amendment Foundation was particularly harsh in her assessment, stating that calling a citizen’s employer over public records requests was “entirely inappropriate” and could have a “chilling effect” on constitutional rights to access government information.
A Divided Council
When the city council voted on a no-confidence measure against Olson, the result was a telling 4-4 split. Four council members—Charles Bare, Sherri Myers, Charles Wingate, and Brian Spencer—supported the rebuke, while four others—Larry Johnson, PC Wu, Jewel Cannada-Wynn
and Andy Terhaar— stood by the administrator.
Councilman Charles Bare provided a detailed list of reasons for his lack of confidence, citing Olson’s inexperience, his failure to understand public service, and his apparent loyalty to federal policy over citizen concerns. Most damning was Bare’s assertion that Olson’s actions violated the city’s own ethical standards and professional codes of conduct.
Olson kept his job until August 2018 when he stepped down and left with a nice severance package.
He also lied to us about recycling.