Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves has backed off his early position that the $1.8 million the Escambia Children’s Trust (ECT) owes the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) would be used to launch his Childcare Initiative. He may let ECT keep the funds for an agreement that allows future ECT to go towards his initiative.
Wanting an MOU
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.
“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.”
Shift to Childcare
After attending a U.S. Conference of Mayors in February, the mayor shifted his attention to what he describes as “the immense issue of childcare” affecting the city.
- He 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.”
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.”
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.
- On May 8, Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves announced his upcoming childcare summit, which is connected to his new childcare initiative.
More Diplomatic Path
At his press conference yesterday, he said he wanted to chart a diplomatic path in his negotiations with ECT over CRA funding, prioritizing collaboration and children’s services over the confrontational approach taken by county officials.
- “Fighting over [the funds] is not something that I think is in the benefit of the citizens of the City of Pensacola or the Trust, and I don’t think it helps our kids,” Reeves stated. “I’m going to be looking for a collaborative solution to maximize the value and do it in a way that makes sense for all parties.”
Background: This cooperative stance comes as the Escambia County Commission has escalated tensions with the Children’s Trust, going so far as to discuss putting the voter-approved entity back on the ballot in 2026, potentially ending it before its 10-year mandate expires.
- During a contentious hour-long debate, Commission Chair Mike Kohler questioned whether voters still support the tax-funded Trust and pushed for reclaiming the CRA funds from ECT and using them for infrastructure projects like security cameras and streetlights. Trust leadership insisted that these funds must directly benefit children through programming rather than infrastructure.
Focusing on Education and Childcare
Mayor Reeves has made it clear that his priority is addressing educational challenges through investments in childcare access and services.
“I feel like our goal here is to have people want to live here,” Reeves explained. “What we both know from living here a long, long time is the biggest hindrance to economic development, and the biggest hindrance to people wanting to live here is that they go to Santa Rosa County or somewhere else because of education.”
Reeves continued, “We see the numbers of the issues that we have at getting kids ready for kindergarten. We have such a large hill to climb here from a service standpoint that it’s never deterred me off of the idea that we can certainly find something harmonious that the Trust would normally support.”
- While the county has pressed for a resolution of disputed CRA funds from 2021-2022, the mayor is taking a more measured approach. He is waiting for a May 28 summit meeting with experts to determine the best path forward.
When asked whether he expects to direct the CRA monies dating back to 2021 toward his initiatives or if he would give those funds up, Reeves rejected this binary choice. “It may be some combination,” he responded. “We may look at… We really need to see what happens on May 28 to decide exactly what’s going to be asked.”
Rather than demanding all funds be directed in a specific way, Reeves remains open to various solutions. “I could see the city making a sole source request… to say, ‘Well, okay, we have this childcare initiative. We’ll use future monies and have a sole source request.’ I think that’s a possibility.”
- Reality Check: The forging of $1.8 million in CRA funds has not been brought before the Pensacola City Council, which also serves as the CRA.
If DC wants to fall down and capitulate while perhaps thinking that he can masquerade it as a “strong” proxy war against the BCC, that’s the City voters’ business.
As a taxpayer of Escambia County, I don’t want to see another damn dime of this special interest fiasco being siphoned away from impoverished kids in desperate need of MANY more things than a bunch of salary for the provider friends of the ECT board.
Mike Kohler is, and has been, 100%, absolutely, completely, and totally spot-on in his assessment of this agency’s squandering of resources–and “squander” is my word, as the chairman has actually been amazingly diplomatic to my mind, given the smug, self-satisfied, and downright catty manner in which the BCC has been approached by the executive director and Downtown satellites like the everlasting Northrup. When Lindsay Cannon flashes out with “I’m here now,” she makes it loud and clear that it amuses her that fact is of little comfort to many people beyond the ones depositing those salary and benefits checks. Oh, and let’s not forget the consultants.
Those of us who *didn’t* vote for this nightmare–and publicly urged others not to–knew *exactly* where the thing was headed, and it has delivered to an epic degree of callous disregard and uselessness. Just put the thing back on the ballot for the citizens to vote it out of here.
Chairman Kohler: if it does get to the point of sending it back to the voters early, rather than the County being convinced by the mayor to play nice for scraps so he can have his boutique daycare (above and beyond the money the City has already been awarded by the luminaries on the ECT, contrary to the big fat nothing they awarded the County), this time make sure that the language isn’t written for the benefit of the patrons who set this hot mess up. Let’s not have a redo of checking the box yes or no on “Do you love children, especially these Black and Brown children, you know, the ones you’ve seen in our promotional materials and on the billboards claiming we’re going to teach them all to swim?” Enough is enough.