I reported this last night: Water mains have broken at Tyron branch and airport concourse. Someone forgot to protect pipes.
WKRG had reported Pensacola Airport officials had a mess on their hands yesterday when a fire sprinkler malfunctioned unleashing gallons of water into the concourse. Flooding was a huge problem from gate 3 all the way to gate 10. When News 5 spoke with the air service and marketing manager of the airport Wednesday afternoon, officials were working on a plan to get the situation under control. It’s unclear what caused the sprinkler to malfunction, according to WKRG.
A Hayward supporter emailed me about the original post attacking me for “sour grapes”. Let’s talk about why Mayor Hayward should be held accountable for city operations.
1) The 2009 charter made the mayor the chief executive officer of the City of Pensacola. He can hire and fire any city employee, is responsible for all city operations and systems and presents an annual budget to make those operations and systems function properly. The CEO is also accountable for all this. It was why we call Hayward a “strong mayor.”
New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C. have strong mayors. When things go wrong in those cities, the media and public look to the mayors for answers. It is New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray who are criticized for their cities’ problems, who hold press conferences to explain issues and field questions, and who find solutions.
So holding Mayor Ashton Hayward accountable for the problems at the city airport would be considered fair game in any other city. We all knew this freeze was coming. Hayward should have at his Monday morning staff meeting asked all his department heads whether they were ready for it. He should have had City Administrator Colleen Castille follow up with them.
2) The mayor cut the budget of the Pensacola International Airport by $4 million.(See 2014 Airport budget) Did those cuts impact the maintenance of the sprinkler system at the airport? A very fair question for the mayor, especially considering how important he has said the facility is to the city.
Hayward said in his 2013 State of the City address: “The City of Pensacola has incredible assets. Pensacola International Airport is the City’s greatest Economic Development engine.”
Has the mayor made sure that “engine” has been properly maintained? Maybe Hayward will appear before the Pensacola City Council tonight and fill in them and the citizens on what happened at the airport and reassure them that he has adequate funding to maintain the airport–Bill de Blasio, Rahm Emanuel and Vincent Gray would.
There are no “sour grapes” at the Independent News. Maybe our expectations for a “strong mayor” are higher than others.