Dispatchers and call center staff were pulled off the job after the county racked up more than $380,000 in unpaid invoices, and Clerk Pam Childers wasn’t cutting the checks.
Blue Arbor is a staffing service that provides workers, primarily dispatchers and call center staff, to Escambia County Area Transit (ECAT). That was the arrangement until last week.
Last Wednesday, Blue Arbor workers received notice that all temporary assignments through Blue Arbor at ECAT were suspended effective Thursday, August 20, 2026. The decision was attributed to an “issue with Blue Arbor customer account” specifically related to ECAT.
The notification explicitly stated the suspension was not a reflection of employee performance but was a direct result of administrative issues between Blue Arbor and the county.
- Our sources told us the problem was that Escambia County hadn’t paid Blue Arbor to the tune of more than $380,000.
Friday morning, I asked the county what was going on and got this reply after lunch from Andie Gibson, the county’s public information manager:
“Escambia County is aware of issues with Blue Arbor payments from ECAT. They are being addressed, and we expect to have Blue Arbor employees returning to work by the end of the month. There have been no significant impacts to ECAT’s operations.”
I went back to my sources and found out County Clerk Pam Childers had stopped cutting checks to Blue Arbor. ECAT may have overspent its budget.
Paratransit Problem?
The issue may trace back to ECAT’s paratransit service. Paratransit is a specialized transportation service designed for people who can’t use standard fixed-route public buses because of a disability.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that paratransit be offered by any public transit agency that runs regular bus routes, such as ECAT.
The Paratransit Backstory
Last September, Clerk Pam Childers’ financial review found paratransit through ITL Solutions cost the county $4.35 million in FY2024. The per-trip, 24/7 service payment structure with ITL was the primary cost driver.
- Both Childers and County Administrator Wes Moreno’s team floated bringing the service in-house via the county’s FlexTransit program instead.
Rather than terminate, the commissioners voted to give Moreno more time to renegotiate with ITL Solutions for two reasons:
- Rider testimony praising ITL Solution’s reliability and personal service, and
- The county wasn’t positioned to take over the work itself by Sept. 30.
Moreno never negotiated a new agreement, and the county took over paratransit in late December.
Reprieve?
At 4:20 p.m. Friday afternoon, Gibson sent me another email:
“All Blue Arbor invoices have been submitted to the clerk’s office for payment, and Blue Arbor has instructed all employees to return to work.”
As Visit Pensacola, Foo Foo Fest and others promoting our area to attract tourists know, submitting invoices to Childers doesn’t mean she will pay them.
Stay tuned. This is a developing story.
When county department staff is discussed during meetings are they only talking about county employees or do the numbers include contract employees like those working for Blue Arbor? Is that a way to hide the real size of county government? During the library board’s March meeting there was mention of “Blue Arbor” during discussion about the FY27 budget. After the meeting I spoke with a very senior library employee who told me that the library is very dependent on Blue Arbor staffing. Might be interesting if the public knew how many county employees work for each county department “and” also the number of contract employees supporting that same department.