Here are the latest rumors floating around Tallahassee, Pensacola City Hall and Escambia County Administrative Complex:
Kevin Brown, legislative assistant to State Sen. Doug Broxson, is expected to pre-file for Escambia County Commission District 2 seat as a Republican in July. Â The current commissioner, Doug Underhill, has announced he won’t seek a third term.
Sen. Broxson is rumored to be the new chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. And former County Administrator Janice Gilley is slotted to replace Brown on Broxson’s staff.
Former City Council President Jewel Cannada-Wynn is expected to jump into the Pensacola mayor’s race. Mayor Grover Robinson has announced he won’t run in 2022.
Longtime Assistant County Attorney Charles Peppler may move to the city of Pensacola  and replace City Attorney Susan Woolf who will become legal counsel for UWF in August.
“Former City Council President Jewel Cannada-Wynn is expected to jump into the Pensacola mayor’s race.” At least she’s a city resident and eligible to be a candidate. Of the four candidates currently in the race, three (James Hilburn, Timothy Horton and Andy Romagnano) are “not” city residents. The City Charter approved by city voters requires that a candidate must be a city resident to be a candidate (the first listed requirement). It is a mystery how any of the three were allowed to become candidates for any elected office in the city. [Something similar happened in the 2020 election when a non-city resident successfully filed to be a candidate for the District 7 seat but then later dropped out.] The deadline to meet the city resident requirement to be eligible to qualify as a a candidate in the 2020 city election was June 17. That was last week. The City Charter further provides, “The City Clerk shall be the judge of qualifications for candidates for the positions of Mayor and City Council.” City Clerk Ericka Burnett should instruct the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections Office that Hillburn, Horton and Romagnano are not eligible to run for an elected office of the city in 2022. That would leave David Morgan and Cannada-Wynn as the only two candidates for now. One of the current mayoral candidates (Romangano) is “also” running for the State Representative District 2 seat. Is that legal? As a historical footnote, on December 10, 2008, the Charter Review Commission (CRC) debated a an amendment to a motion with the amendment being to allow City of Gulf Breeze voters who owned property in the City of Pensacola to qualify as a candidate to be the Mayor of Pensacola. The motion was made by Bob Holmes, “And that contemplation that I have is that you have someone who has a nice home in Gulf Breeze, who established a rental property here and runs for city council.” He meant “mayor” as the motion then being debated was only about the mayor. There was a debate and vote with Holmes, Jim Reeves, Ed Ranelli and Crystal Spencer all voting YES in support of allowing Gulf Breeze residents who owned property in the City of Pensacola to be the Mayor. Thankfully, the other five CRC members present voted NO. There was also a debate about how long you would have to be a city resident to qualify as a candidate for mayor. Ranelli wanted it to be only six-months to accommodate Gulf Breeze residents and non-city residents. The mayoral residency issue vote was 5-4 in support of a one-year residency requirement with Ranelli, Holmes, Reeves and Spencer voting NO wanting it to be only six months. The meeting minutes were then falsified to leave out any mention of Holmes wanting Gulf Breeze residents to be being eligible to run for mayor. City Clerk Burnett was tasked to prepare the meeting minutes but later told me that she just let Chairwoman Spencer write whatever she wanted in the meeting minutes. This is why the meeting minutes were fictional. A better idea is that all city commissions like the CRC and Districting Commission should always be documented by a certified court reporter. This was done for the 2011 Districting Commission with its misconduct documented word-for-word.
OMGeeee!! Who’s on first?