Last month, Escambia County Clerk Pam Childers told the Board of County Commissioners that she would no longer pay for the 401(a) retirement plan because she felt it was “outside of the law.”
She gave them until the end of September to change the program.
Sources have shared the Childers didn’t follow through with her ultimatum and paid the invoice.
It would appear the clerk is saying the program is legal, which leaves the only issue being whether she has the power to reduce the payments to the vendor without the commissioners’ approval.
Stay tuned.
Performative politics are disgusting and totally in line with the history of Escambia County.
Pam Childers is not fit for office.
This has been one of the more ridiculous wastes of time, energy, and resources for personality politics that I’ve seen at the County.
Taxpayers should be incensed, but of course with the PNJ and ECW running their intentional disinformation game on it, they’ve fooled a whole lotta people into thinking Ms. Childers is a folk hero rather than a constitutional officer throwing a temper tantrum because she got cut off from her influence over the County budget that Janice Gilley never should have given her office to begin with. That, and throwing up a big smoke screen against the TDT audit taking place.
And it’s not like the TDT stuff is even that big a deal. If there’s something that needs to be adjusted with the administrative costs, so be it. It’s hardly an ECUA-size scandal.
Don’t like that the State allows these types of retirement plans? That’s a matter for our delegation and Tallahassee. Locally, every taxpayer should be hoping that our tax dollars don’t have to go to litigating this nonsense. The County doesn’t need an Oyster Bar fiasco on top of everything else that needs fixing.