The Pensacola News Journal reports today on a closed-door meeting called by Escambia County Commission Chairman Mike Kohler for county and city staff to discuss the proposed “Chappie” James Memorial with the foundation established to raise funds and build it.
- Kohler only invited PNJ to the meeting, and based on the PNJ article, no one from the Tourist Development Council attended, even though the TDC must approve the use of any bed tax dollars.
BACKGROUND: We reported on the approaching deadline for this project in December – “‘Chappie’ James Memorial on Hold.”
In May 2022, the Gen. Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. Memorial Foundation unveiled renderings for a memorial plaza. The rendering included a 10-foot bronze statue of the general, a restored F-4 Phantom II fighter jet from the Vietnam era and an 80-foot flagpole with a giant American flag. The plaza would be completed by the end of 2022, and a dedication ceremony would occur in early 2023. However, as 2024 comes to a close, the plaza remains merely a rendering, and an agreement between the Foundation and the City of Pensacola has an expiration date.
The Pensacola City Council voted in favor of allocating $150,000 to the Foundation’s memorial fund in December 2021. Overall, the City has allocated $250,000 to the project, with the other $100,000 coming from local option sales tax funds.
The city council granted the Foundation exclusive rights to construct the plaza and associated installations on a portion of Wayside Park, but the stewardship agreement between the two sides automatically terminates on June 30, 2025, “unless the Foundation has provided documentation in a form acceptable to the City evidencing the full funding required for construction of the Plaza and Associated Installations.” The agreement further requires the Foundation to provide funding for at least three years of anticipated maintenance, repair and upkeep.
SHOW US THE MONEY: The General Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr. Memorial Foundation has no financial data on its website. We don’t know how much has been raised and from where. We don’t know how much has been spent.
- In December, we were told the group needed $750,000 to complete the project. The PNJ now reports that $1 million is needed from the TDC. The foundation says the estimated total project cost is $2.3 million, and it has raised $1.3 million. Shouldn’t we have more evidence that these numbers are grounded in fact?
BYPASS TDC? Kohler said he wants the Escambia County Commission to approve $1 million for the project regardless of how the TDC votes today, according to the PNJ. If I had been at the meeting, I would have asked if the commission has the power to bypass the TDC and unilaterally spend bed tax dollars. Reporters from other media outlets would have had their share of questions.
CITY OF PENSACOLA
At today’s press conference, I asked Mayor Reeves if the city has seen any financial data from the foundation.
“I have not, but what I would say, I know within our agreement language, we have some understanding of them having to have the funding to do what they need to do for the validity of the agreement,” he said. “We have stop gaps in place in terms of not starting a project that can’t get funded on city property.”
The mayor said he would be open to extending the June 30 deadline “because we certainly didn’t suspect to be here in February, 2025, still talking about it.” He added, “Rick, I think there’s lots of nonprofits interact with the city where we’re not necessarily getting their monthly financials or anything like that.”
I replied, “Well, not all nonprofits are asking for a million dollars.”
“Yeah, well, they’ve asked us for $250,000. and we’ve granted it,” Mayor Reeves said. “But what I would tell you is I feel like the financial control of making sure that the project can be completed is hardwired within our stewardship agreement with them so that we would not see a construction commence somewhere where there isn’t the funding. So there would be some type of proof of funds that would be coming to us before construction would begin.”
