Children's Trust has no deal w/City or County for CRA funds

Five months ago, Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said he wanted an interlocal agreement with the Escambia Children’s Trust regarding $1.8 million in City Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) funds, with a particular focus on addressing the children’s needs within city limits. As of today, there is no agreement, and the Trust has not set up a contingent liability to safeguard the funds.

BACKGROUND: In September, the mayor said he saw an opportunity for a collaboration among the city, Escambia County School District and Escambia Children’s Trust to invest resources in Title I schools. His plan included the city letting the Trust keep $1.8 million owed in CRA dollars and about $500,000 annually, but only if the funds are spent as established in a yet-to-be-drafted Memorandum of Understanding. Read “The CRA vs. Children’s Trist Conundrum.”

“There’s a better partnership here for us to say, ‘Here are these dollars,’ and that we go to the Trust and the school district and say, ‘This is exactly, surgically, what we want done with these millions of dollars to help educational outcomes within your schools,’” Reeves said. “We just got to work out the details of what those dollars will be and what they’ll go to.”

FAST FORWARD: At his press conference yesterday, Mayor Reeves revealed he has been extensively researching the community’s needs, including visits to all of the city’s 100% economically disadvantaged schools to gather feedback from teachers and principals. However, his recent attendance at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., has shifted his attention to what he describes as “the immense issue of childcare” affecting the city.

“Childcare is kind of like housing – we need it at every level, not just for folks who can’t afford it. There’s folks who can afford it who can’t find somewhere,” Reeves explained. He cited alarming statistics from the Florida Chamber showing that the state lost $5.4 billion last year due to parents being unable to work because of childcare issues. Furthermore, 15% of Florida parents with young children have left the workforce in the last six months, with 46% of those expecting to be out for at least a year.

The mayor emphasized that the childcare crisis affects multiple aspects of the community, from education to quality of life and workforce development. “We’ve got engineers and doctors and architects at home. They can’t find a place for their two kids,” Reeves noted. He added that for some families, it has become “more financially responsible to stay home than it is to have that skilled worker out filling a job for our community.”

To address these challenges, Reeves plans to convene a summit of experts to discuss how to best utilize available funds to address childcare availability within city limits. This initiative will inform the development of the interlocal agreement with the Children’s Trust.

TRUST WAITING ON CITY: While the mayor was holding his press conference, the Escambia Children’s Trust board met two blocks west in the county commission chambers. The Trust’s latest financial statements were presented to the board.

When asked about the CRA liabilities to the city and county, Director of Finance Tammy Abrams reported, “On our balance sheet, we have a contingent liability to the county for $690,684. That is due to the invoice they sent us for the 2021 and 2022 CRA taxes. We have not paid those due to them being so far behind invoicing us and looking at other legal issues.”

She explained why the financial statements don’t list the past Pensacola CRA taxes. “The city never has sent us an invoice yet, so we don’t have an exact dollar amount that we would owe the city. So there was no contingent liability recorded for them. But they are in our current year budget for $500,000 and the county’s in our current year budget for $480,000.”

During Executive Director Lindsey Cannon’s report, Board member Stephanie White talked about establishing an agreement with Escambia County for the CRA funds similar to “what we do with the city and how we are doing the community partnership schools.” Cannon pointed out that the Trust doesn’t have an interlocal agreement with the city.

“Well, we haven’t done it in our local agreement with the city,” said Cannon. “They are looking at different projects. They’re trying to determine what they really would like to do, but two of the city schools are being funded for the Healthy Schools Escambia.”

PNJ REPORTING QUESTIONED: Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May serves on the Trust board. He expressed concern over how unfairly the Pensacola News Journal has treated the county commission regarding the CRA issue compared to the City of Pensacola, which still doesn’t have an interlocal agreement.

“The politics of this is that the county is doing something (asking for CRA dollars to be returned) that the city’s not, and there hasn’t even been an agreement between this Trust and the city at this point. And so there’s not an agreement between the county,” May said. “People love to say, well, the county, county, county, that’s just untrue. I mean, they can write what they want to write, but we haven’t resolved it. The mayor’s having a press conversation, but the city hasn’t resolved theirs.”

He continued, “They (Pensacola News Journal) write that the county is holding back money. No one’s talked about how we (Trust) haven’t resolved it with the city. So I think in tandem, we should resolve the city and the county at the same time. And the end resort, it’s all taxpayer dollars that we’re hoping to go to benefit the lives of children.”

POSSIBLE FUNDING PROBLEM The Trust’s projected Operating Account Balance, $1,982,372.02, barely covers the $1.8 million that Mayor Reeves wants to spend on childcare or other programs benefiting Pensacola’s children.

When questioned about concerns that the Trust might obligate the CRA funds before reaching an agreement, Reeves expressed confidence in the collaborative process. “There’s got to be some trust and understanding between us coming up with something that makes sense.”

Note: If I had known that Lindsey Cannon was insinuating with her board that the funds spent for Healthy Schools Escambia might be within the spirit of the mayor’s wishes, I would have been more specific in my questions.

While acknowledging that the city could have claimed the funds outright before the fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, Reeves emphasized his commitment to finding a solution that “meets the mission of the trust” while focusing specifically on needs within the city of Pensacola.

The mayor’s goal is to ensure the funds are used in a way that adheres to both the Trust’s mission and the voters’ intentions while maintaining a “hyperfocus on the city.”

Mayor Reeves stated that he had a mutual understanding with the Trust that the funds would be spent as directed by the city, even though there was no explicit verbal commitment from the Trust regarding fund allocation.

“I would think we have a clear understanding that what we’re working on together collaboratively is an effort to spend those dollars. And that’s why I would certainly be shocked if their plan was to work with us and then, on the side, spend the money that we’re talking about working together.”

He warned that any unilateral spending decisions of the CRA funds by the Trust “would certainly change our trajectory.”

Daily Outtakes: Children’s Trust has no agreement with City or County for CRA dollars

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