Author: Rick Outzen
Touart hole gets deeper
The PNJ has uncovered more on County Administrator George Touart and his business dealings with people who do business with Escambia County. Touart’s employee leasing…
Germ of an idea
After I realized that the Escambia Sheriff’s total budget was nearly $30 million more than the entire City of Pensacola budget, it became very apparent…
What is the ECSO budget
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office proposed budget for 2007-08 can not be found anywhere online. From the Escambia County website we can learn that from…
MOBy makes a good point
Today PNJ columnist Mark O’Brien makes a good point about city councilmen and county commissioners needing to be bold. I would push the point even…
INdaily has Volunteer Fire audit report
Duwayne Escobedo reports on the volunteer firefighters rebuttal to the Clerk’s audit of stipends. We actually have the pdf of the report. Read: Volunteer Fire…
County missed the ECAT bus
Our research is revealing more to the ECAT funding issue than what has been reported by the Escambia Board of County Commissioners. The City of…
Budget choices
Commissioner Mike Whitehead did make a bold move when he questioned whether reserves should be used for libraries and ECAT. It would have been very…
Need for charter
The funds for funding the libraries and ECAT are in the Escambia County Sheriff’s $75-$80 million budget, but because we don’t have a charter, the…
Battle of the bears
Yesterday’s meeting between the Pensacola City Council and the Escambia Board of County Commissioners was a battle of the bears – Commissioner Mike Whitehead and…
HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY REMAINING
From P.A Ucci – on the Pensacola City Council vote to pay $50,000 to prepare a special assessment plan to fund fire protection: “HAVE YOU…
Message to Elected Officials
From Jack Moran, Century: To the Pensacola City Council, This move (to give ECAT to Pensacola) by the county would be the kiss of death…
How to fund ECAT
Escambia County could easily cover ECAT’s budget shortfall if it would cut the number of secretaries, administrative assistants and aides in county government. Currently they…
State vs. County on cuts
It’s interesting to see how the state of Florida handles its budget cuts. Lawmakers are looking at cuts in the state’s airplanes ($1.5 million) and…
Get real, EC
The daily newspaper reports that Escambia County plans to trade Pensacola the Escambia County Area Transit system for the West Florida Public Library System. Get…
PNJ calls for Touart retirement
The daily newspaper has finally spoken on the Touart/Bauer land deal. Their position is that County Administrator George Touart should retire. The hard truth is…
Thank Buck for US 98
When Escambia County commissioners and the Pensacola city councilmen voted to take $65 million in state and federal funds that had has long been intended…
Highly political week ends
Here is the scorecard: City of Pensacola: No strong mayor, but will review charter. No to another industrial tenant to the Port of Pensacola –…
Touart survives
The Bauer Road deal got canceled. Touart may have his contract modified so that three votes on the BOCC can remove him from office. The…
PNJ offers no opinion of Touart/Land deal
The daily newspaper has devoted two days to the George Touart/Bauer Road land deal. Yet their editorial board has written no opinions on the issue….
Not first time for ethics policy
In January 2004, then-County Commissioner Janice Gilley brought up the idea of instituting such a code of ethics for county employees and an annual performance…
