Booker T. Washington High School is celebrating its girls’ basketball team winning the Class 5A state championship. The team edged Blanche Ely 56–54 to bring a state title back to Pensacola for the first time in 26 years.
Escambia County should have been more fully included in the celebration if not for Escambia Clerk Pam Childers refusing to cut a $1,000 check that the Board of County Commissioners had authorized to support the program. Childers denied the payment because her position was that the disbursement did not have “a clearly identified and concrete purpose as the primary objective purpose.”
Commissioner Lumon May made the request in November.
- He stated, “Booker T. Washington Girls’ Basketball Team serves a direct and identifiable county public purpose of supporting the holistic development of young women and strengthens community connections through athletics; promoting the health, safety, and social and economic wellbeing of the youth in Escambia County.”
The commissioner agreed it served a public purpose and voted unanimously in favor of the request.
American Legion Check Blocked, Too
Last summer, several county commissioners expressed their frustrations concerning the discretionary funds after Childers refused to cut a $500 check to reimburse the American Legion Post 33 for sending two teens to the Boys State program at Florida State University, even though full board approved the expenditure.
Outlier: Commissioner Kohler said Childers’ restrictive approach to community support funding has made Escambia County “a complete and utter outlier” compared to other Florida counties. Commissioner Steven Barry questioned the distinction between “public purpose” and “county public purpose,” calling it a “made-up difference.”
Board Decision: County Attorney Alison Rogers stated that determining public purpose is fundamentally a legislative decision for the commission, not an administrative one for the clerk’s office.
- “What serves the public purpose is not the counsel to the clerk’s decision to make,” Rogers stated. “You guys are the ones who are supposed to decide what serves a public purpose, and you have very broad discretion to make that legislative finding.”
Childers has ignored the County Attorney’s legal opinion and continues to refuse to cut checks.
City of Pensacola Disburses Checks
Meanwhile, the Pensacola City Council continues to approve its members’ discretionary funding allocations.
On March 12, the council approved:
- Councilman Charles Bare’s request for $1,000 for the Pensacola Humane Society.
- Council President Allison Patton’s requests for $500 for the Pensacola Historic Society and $500 for the Studer Community Institute.
- Councilwoman Teniade Broughton’s request for $500 for the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Pensacola Chapter.
Resolution
Childers has not provided the Board of County Commissioners with any information on how Florida’s 66 other counties deal with discretionary funds for community support. Yet we hear that Commissioners Steve Stroberger and Ashlee Hofberger are pushing to drop the community support funds from the budget, based solely on the Clerk’s position.
- County staff should conduct research and present a report on every Florida county and how each county clerk handles such disbursement.
Let facts drive the resolution.