Cassie Boatwright, Escambia County’s director of facilities management, has announced that she is leaving the Gilley administration. Boatwright was hired in January 2020.
She came under fire when the Pensacola Bay Center went before the Board of County Commissioners for more money.
The board eventually voted to allocate an additional $250,000 of bed tax collections to help ASM Global operate the facility. Still, the commissioners wanted to know why the company hadn’t asked for CARES funds like its Osceola County venue had done.
Bay Center General Manager Cyndee Pennington told them that Boatwright instructed her not to request any CARES funds from the county because all the funds had been allocated. All the funds hadn’t been allocated.
County Administrator Janice Gilley didn’t come to Boatwright’s defense or try to explain why her facilities management director would tell Pennington there weren’t any funds available.
Sources inside the county have shared others are considering jumping ship – at a time when the county can’t even hire people to man the animal shelter.