Convicted criminal, Tim Eagan, tried to force the Pensacola City Council to listen to his grand plans for the Port of Pensacola by threatening a petition drive to rescind the council’s vote on the maritime park bonds. A quick look at the Clerk of Courts found over 50 charges for writing worthless checks, charge for grand theft auto and battery. In 2008, Eagan was convicted of petty theft, added to the convicted felon report and sentenced to 11 months, 29 days in the county jail.
City officials were concerned that the Eagan’s attempt to gather signatures for a petition to put the Community Maritime Park bonds on a referendum would cause the bond issurers to either delay the bonds or increase bond cost as much as $3 million as bondholders demand more protection from the petition. In effort to appease Eagan, Councilman Sam Hall met with him.
Hall negotiated on the behalf of the city an agreement that the city council would at least listen to Eagan’s billion-dollar development plan for the Port of Pensacola, an idea that Eagan believed that city staff had blocked. The city’s legal department actually drafted the agreement and both Hall and Eagan signed it.
Eagan then took his copy of the agreement to the Pensacola News Journal. WEAR TV and the State Attorney’s office. He claimed that he had been intimidated and pressured into signing the binding agreement.
It’s uncertain how Eagan’s actions will now impact the park bonds.