Accountability
Commissioners pressed County Administrator Wes Moreno on why a contractor with a signed contract was sent home, and then overruled him.
- Once again, Commissioner Steven Barry defended Moreno, saying his area, District 5, took little damage from Hurricane Isaias. Barry believed the county administrator made the correct decision to only go with two contractors located in his district.
The Escambia County Commission voted 3-1 Thursday morning to add AshBritt to the county’s hurricane debris collection effort. Commissioner Steven Barry cast the lone no vote. Commissioner Lumon May was absent.
- Commissioner Mike Kohler made the motion, and it was seconded by Commissioner Steve Stroberger. The vote reverses the county administrator’s decision last Saturday to rescind AshBritt’s Notice to Proceed.
AshBritt: “We were ready to go on Sunday”
Matt Gerdin, a senior vice president for AshBritt, told commissioners the company has held a county disaster debris contract for 22 years and worked Hurricanes Ivan, Dennis and Sally. He said the county issued the Notice to Proceed last Friday and AshBritt began mobilizing. On Saturday, the notice was rescinded.
“I had trucks literally four hours out that we turned around.”
Gerdin said AshBritt hauled more than 120,000 cubic yards in the first four days after Sally and cleared the county’s 3.7 million cubic yards in less than two months. He said the company’s trucks sat idle while county operations did not take off until Tuesday.
- The CEO’s account. AshBritt CEO Brittany Perkins Castillo said she spoke with Moreno once, on Saturday, and asked whether he was directing staff to change the plan. “He communicated yes,” she said. She told commissioners AshBritt would already have moved more than 2,500 truckloads and could finish the job in 60 days with its trucks still in the area.
“It’s concerning to me that a contractor that doesn’t have an active contract was stood down with a company that has been here with resources for the county for over 22 years.”
- Perkins pointed out that Roads Inc. had no active contract because it was sold to C.W. Roberts Contracting, which is why the assignment was on Thursday’s agenda. She said she was not advocating against any other company and had no problem with all three working.
Who is Brittany Perkins Castillo?
She is the AshBritt CEO and an owner of the company. According to AshBritt’s website, Prior to joining AshBritt in 2016, Brittany was an attorney, managed a law practice in Austin, Texas, and was a program manager in Doha, Qatar. She holds a Juris Doctor from The University of Texas School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University.
- Brittany is known as a vocal advocate for women in business and frequently speaks about increasing and supporting women in the government contracting and emergency management fields. She launched WTFem.org, a repository for resources to help advance women in the emergency management field. Brittany was also appointed to the FEMA National Advisory Council, which advises the FEMA Administrator on all aspects of emergency management. Brittany is Chair of the Pace Center for Girls Board of Trustees, a member of the board of directors of the AshBritt Foundation, 4Girls Foundation, Dress for Success Palm Beaches, and on the Board of Counselors for Equal Justice Works. Brittany’s work as CEO was profiled in Forbes.
In 2023, Brittany launched a children’s activity book, Kids can be Hero Helpers, and the initiative Stronger than the Storm, both focused on helping children understand, plan for, and recover from disaster events. Brittany facilitates workshops on this topic at national conferences and has distributed more than 5,000 books to cities and counties across the United States and Caribbean. In April 2024, Brittany and Stronger than the Storm launched Henry and the Hurricane, a reading book that teaches hurricane facts and preparedness with children.
She has been featured by Forbes and has served on FEMA’s National Advisory Council.
- It’s safe to say she over-matched Moreno and Barry.
Moreno: Estimate was one-third of Sally
Moreno said the initial debris estimate from the county’s consultant, Thompson Engineering, was about a third of Sally’s, and that drove his decision to use two contractors instead of three. He said he preferred contractors who know county staff and the FEMA process.
- He told commissioners the county started picking up debris Monday afternoon, the fastest mobilization in its history. He said the county has 65 units in the field, will have more than 100 by Friday, and has 15 to 20 bucket trucks on the way.
Asked about the three to four month timeline that county officials gave the media, Moreno called it an “ultra conservative estimate.”
The numbers don’t match.
- AshBritt: its road surveys put debris at more than 2 million cubic yards and possibly 3 million
- Moreno: his figure comes from Thompson Engineering and is about a third of Sally’s 3.7 million
- Kohler: said Moreno had earlier told him 1.3 million and asked which number is right. Moreno said he was not agreeing to 3 million
- Start date: Gerdin said county operations began Tuesday. Moreno said crews were picking up debris Monday afternoon.
Commissioners press Moreno
Kohler asked who ordered the Notice to Proceed and who rescinded it. Moreno said the sanitation director issued the notice, and that after the updated estimate came in, “I made a decision.”
- Kohler then asked whether all nine contractors received a Notice to Proceed. Moreno said no. Only AshBritt, Panhandle Paving & Grading and C.W. Roberts Contracting did.
“I’m struggling with what would hurt us to add them.”
Moreno answered that adding AshBritt would not hurt, but would require modifying the existing contracts because “somebody’s going to give up area.” He agreed it would mean more trucks on the road.
- Kohler said he had no stake in the contractors and cared only about getting the county back to normal. “Spread it around,” he said.
The chair weighs in. Commissioner Ashlee Hofberger, who chairs the board, noted the procurement blackout and said she would stay out of how the work is divided. But she said District 4 is “a wreck,” with roughly one of every five trees down in East Hill, and the county needs to take all the help it can get.
Barry: Not countywide
Barry, the lone dissent, challenged Hofberger’s damage assessment. He said the north end saw less than a quarter of Sally’s impact in trees down and roads blocked, and that he was able to travel every road he tried by 11 a.m. Saturday. After Sally, he said, it took 36 hours.
- Before the vote he raised the “huge discrepancies” in debris estimates from the county’s paid consultants. Kohler said it still didn’t matter to him.
What happens next
After the AshBritt vote, the AshBritt CEO clarified that the original item already added a contractor, so the county is now splitting the zones three ways instead of two. The commission then voted 4-0 to approve the original item assigning Roads Inc.’s contract to C.W. Roberts.
- The bottom line. The commission put AshBritt back to work, but several questions remain. How will the zones be divided? Which debris estimate is right? Why did the county pull the notice from a contractor whose plan, by every account, had worked in Sally? I will keep asking.