I’ve made some calls to people familiar with Community Redevelopment Agencies and trust funds. What I’ve been told is that without a board approving the hiring of Doug Sale, the Panama City attorney that has been serving as the Pensacola CRA attorney since June, and and instructing Pratt to sign this contract, former CRA administrator Becky Bray and CRA chair Megan Pratt may be personally liable for his bills and have to reimburse the CRA trust funds (around $16K).
Pratt executed the contract with Sale’s firm without a board vote. It looks like Bray approved the firm’s invoices for payment.
Monday’s CRA board meeting will be very interesting as they try to iron out this mess. Sale will be there.