The Pensacola City Council contemplated last month extending the current least of the city’s airport food concessions vendor, Varona’s, for the time necessary for Mayor Ashton Hayward to issue new RFP and make another recommendation to the council. City Attorney Jim Messer asked for an outside opinion on whether the city council had the authority to do so.
Since the city attorney has interpreted his job as being the attorney for primarily the executive branch of Pensacola city government, Messer felt an independent attorney was needed to issue the opinion.
Who did the city choose? Robert Larkin of Allen, Norton & Blue, the attorney who handles the labor negotiations for Mayor Hayward.That political maneuver by the mayor’s office aside, Larkin found an ordinance regarding airport leases.
On Friday, Feb. 7, the city council was sent Larkin’s opinion — they don’t have the authority to extend the lease. The mayor must specifically authorize any lease in writing. Larkin stopped short of saying that the mayor could enter into leases without council approval or whether the council can enter into other contracts, outside of the airport, without the mayor’s approval.
It would appear the future of airport food concessions is at a stand-still. Mayor Hayward needs to figure out a way to work with the council. I’m hearing that he will try a short-term fix by signing vendors to temporary leases. However those lease, too, must be approved by the city council.
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I was told by one city source that Allen Norton & Blue was paid last year over $300,000 by the city. I will put in a public records request for the total. The City continues to drag out our requests (we have two that are a month old), but I will publish the info when the mayor’s staff releases it.