After an awkward discussion without many specifics, Commissioner Steven Barry made the motion to conclude County Administrator Janice Gilley’s contract and to pay her severance in accordance with her contract.
The vote was 4-1, with Commissioner Doug Underhill in dissent.
Barry moved that Deputy Administrator Wes Moreno serve as the interim administrator. The BCC approved the motion, 4-1. Underhill dissented.
The #1 recommended person from the 2019 County Administrator search (Craig Coffey) is now in Okaloosa County. http://www.northescambia.com/2019/04/there-are-now-eight-candidates-in-the-running-for-escambia-county-administrator Here’s how Coffey’s departure and new job was reported over in Flagler County back in 2019. https://flaglerlive.com/146866/craig-coffey-okaloosa/ I read elsewhere that the key issue with a new Sheriff’s Office involved a lose-lose scenario for Coffey where the Flagler County BOCC and Sheriff wanted him to do something and a Judge had issued a court order telling him not to do it. Here’s Coffey’s write-up on the Okaloosa County website. http://www.co.okaloosa.fl.us/bcc/coffey#:~:text=Craig%20Coffey%20serves%20as%20the,of%20dollars%20in%20capital%20projects. The Okaloosa County website also includes an interesting document related to the Deputy County Administrator search. http://www.co.okaloosa.fl.us/sites/default/files/users/bccuser/DCA%20App%20Prospectus%2010-8-2020%20%282%29.pdf I can see why the Florida Association of County’s ranked this guy #1 out of 120 in 2019 for the Escambia County Administrator job. Okaloosa County ranked him #1 out of 142. It remains a big mystery why the Escambia County BOCC did not believe that Coffey was the best qualified to be our County Administrator.
Now if Commissioner Underhill would quit there might actually be hope for the county. He no longer has his cohort to scheme with, and he won’t have any help getting his legal fees paid now. He’ll really have to stop slandering people on Facebook now so he doesn’t get sued again. He votes no on everything and he’s completely ineffective now so he may as well resign.
If Underhill was for it, then it’s the right call.
Underhill is a negative grandstander and he works for Doug, not Escambia County citizens.
NorthEscambia.com has a good initial report on what happened: http://www.northescambia.com/2021/06/escambia-county-terminates-administrator-janice-gilley-effective-immediately