Another long night for city council

City Council considers EDATE, getting matching tattoos

by Jeremy Morrison

With the progression of a $50 million downtown development potentially on the line, the Pensacola City Council decided Wednesday to grant a 10-year property tax exemption tied to an expiring state program in the hopes that the move will prove legit.

“The big question is going to be what the attorney general is going to say,” said Council President Charles Bare.

Quint and Rishy Studer’s Daily Convo, LLC. has begun work on a multi-use project on the former site of the Pensacola News Journal in downtown. The company has been working toward securing an EDATE, which would provide more than $2 million in property tax savings over a 10-year period and is available because the project is located in a Florida Enterprise Zone.

However, the state is allowing the Florida Enterprise Zone Act to sunset at year’s end. The council, as well as Escambia County Property Appraiser Chris Jones, is waiting to hear from Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi about whether an EDATE for the project can be squeezed in under the wire.

“I think this is really just we’re-gonna-try-it-and-see-if-it-works, and ultimately I think it’s a gamble,” Bare said, adding that he recognized the issue was an “emotional” one for some council members.

During the first reading last month of a potential ordinance giving the Studers’ EDATE approval, council members expressed support for the project — which Studer has said is tied to the tax exemption — and said it is needed to continue downtown’s revitalization. Members continued that theme Wednesday, rationalizing that if the AG came out against the EDATE their efforts would be moot, but if the move was legit it would need to be taken in order to secure the exemption before the sunset.

“If we’re wrong, then we’ll get overturned,” said Councilman P.C. Wu, “but I see it as too valuable from too many angles not to pursue.”

The only member to come out strongly against granting the EDATE was Councilwoman Sherri Myers. She argued that the move wasn’t legal and criticized the state and local handling of the Enterprise Zone program in general, calling it “a fiction, if not a fraud.”

“I believe it is an absolutely fabulous project,” Myers said, “however I do not believe they qualify for an EDATE.”

Bare also said he though the move would be problematic: “I think you’re kind of in a pinch, I’ll just say right now.”

If Daily Convo obtains an EDATE it would take effect beginning next year, two years prior to the project’s completion. That means Studer would sit on the EDATE — realizing no savings — until 2018.

“So, you’re actually cutting yourself out of a couple of —,” Bare began.

“That’s correct,” confirmed Daily Convo CEO Andrew Rothfedder. “Eight years is better than zero.”

Rothfedder, as well as attorney Robert Emmanuel, urged the council to support the EDATE and acknowledged that the effort was “not a sure-thing” and that it was possible the attorney general could issue a “harsh opinion.”

Council ended up passing the EDATE ordinance for Daily Convo 6-1, with Myers dissenting and Councilman Larry B. Johnson absent.

During its more than five-hour meeting Wednesday, the city council also hit a number of other items.

The council initiated the formation of a Climate Change Task Force, which will be charged with assessing how climate change will impact Pensacola and how the city can best deal with such impacts.

“I think it is way past time that the city have a Climate Task Force,” said Myers, who has been pushing for such a panel. “We are a coastal town.”

Several council members, as well as members of the public and environmental activists, spoke in support of the task force. They talked about how the board could dig into issues such as stormwater control.

Council Vice President Brian Spencer said that he was familiar with similar local boards throughout Colorado, saying they’d been successful in passing ordinances limiting idling time for transport trucks. Councilwoman Jewel Cannada-Wynn said she hoped the task
force would look at the local health impact of climate change.

Bare said he would like to see other local governments, such as Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, also get involved with such efforts.

“I think this needs to be a bigger vision,” the president said, calling the problem a “regional issue.”

The council approved the formation of the task force unanimously.

Council also approved made a couple of amendments to the city’s Land Development Code. It green-lighted tattoo parlors and studios for area zoned R-NC, or residential neighborhood commercial, and beauty and barber shops for areas designated R-2, residential office.

“I think it would be a great show of unity if all the council members went and got a tattoo,” joked Bare.

The council also fulfilled a request from Mayor Ashton Hayward to discuss determining its staffing needs by January. The conversation, coming late in the evening, was tidy.

“I think we need staff,” Councilman Andy Terhaar deadpanned.

Cannada-Wynn agreed, saying she’d spoken with the council executive about the matter and expected to hear from him in the future.

There were also a few things council didn’t hit. Items on the agendas that were snubbed or not ready for prime time.

Members choose to hold off on creating a registry for lobbyists. The move would have required individuals being paid to push a particular agenda with the city to pay a $25 fee and register as a lobbyist.

“We all know we are approached by people who have a financial interest in the workings of government,” Myers said.

Though generally supportive — “I’m trying hard to support this,” said Cannada-Wynn — several council members expressed concern about what exactly constituted a lobbyist. Was someone from a local arts organization approaching the city about securing funding a lobbyist, for example? Myers conceded that perhaps the proposal was “too broad.”

“So, what I’m going to do is pull it and work on it,” she said.

Also pulled was an item dealing with the contract of council consultant Al Coby. The council was set to look at extending the attorney’s contract on a month-to-month basis through February.

“It’s about a $15,000 decision for us if we decide to keep Mr. Coby on for a couple of months and at this point I’m not comfortable with that,” explained Bare, pulling the item from the agenda.
A possible workshop aimed at further hammering out the years-long effort to realize a city ordinance governing food trucks was also punted off the radar.

“I think we came pretty close to getting a food truck ordinance the last time, but people still had some changes they wanted to make,” said Councilman Gerald Wingate, pushing for the workshop.

The sticking point on the food truck ordinance revolves around how the mobile units will be handled in the downtown area, specifically the notion of a buffer zone protecting brick-and-mortar establishments.

“I’m not sure that a workshop will do it,” said Bare, noting that council had “been down this road before.”

Councilman Terhaar said he wasn’t interested in a workshop, but would like to see a previous version of the ordinance that incorporated the buffer zone. He conceded that perhaps the city was destined to walk away from the food truck quandary.

“If it doesn’t pass, maybe food trucks will never get passed and we’ll just move on,” Terhaar said.