Florida State Rep. Alex Andrade has sent a letter to the Pensacola City Council, urging members to take a more active role in shaping the city’s legislative agenda ahead of the upcoming Florida Legislature sessions.
Rep. Andrade emphasized the importance of council input and ratification when it comes to official priorities presented to the state legislature. The District 2 lawmaker highlighted a concerning trend where the elected city council appears to have been sidelined from the legislative priority-setting process.
A Historical Perspective
Andrade wrote that under former Mayor Robinson’s administration, the City Council was regularly consulted and involved in forming the city’s legislative priorities. During that period, the city successfully secured passage of two local bills and obtained millions in funding for various projects, all with council approval and involvement.
What’s changed: In 2023 and 2024, Andrade helped secure state funding for several major Pensacola projects, including ShotSpotter technology, improvements to Pensacola International Airport, Bay Bluffs Park, and remediation of the old Baptist Hospital property. He assumed the Pensacola City Council had been informed and involved in these requests, only to discover during the last legislative session that council members had been excluded from the process.
The Call for Accountability
“As the policymakers and appropriators for the City, I believe you have an obligation to assert yourselves in this decision-making process,” Andrade wrote to council members. He questioned how the city can maintain any coherent position on policy or funding requests without input from those who set local policy in Pensacola.
“If you have never met with or heard from your lobbyists, I’d encourage you to do so at your earliest convenience,” he pointed out. “Unlike all other staff and contract employees of the city, your lobbyists’ work depends on understanding the legislative and funding objectives of the city. You cannot guarantee they are effectively doing their jobs if you have never relayed to them the city’s official policy and funding objectives. Gatekeeping access to your lobbyists only diminishes their ability to accurately advocate for the city in the manner you, as the city’s policymakers, believe is appropriate.”
Andrade expressed concerns that the lobbying efforts may not align with the council’s priorities.
With the 2026 legislative session approaching, Rep. Andrade announced his office is accepting appropriation funding requests until December 26th. He expressed his willingness to continue working alongside the City Council as partners in serving the people they were elected to represent.
