COURTS
Judge Orders Childers to Explain Why She Won’t Pay Two Charities the County Already Approved
First Tee Gulf Coast and Warrington Emergency Aid Center cleared the first legal hurdle in their fight over a combined $7,000 in commission-approved funding that the Clerk refused to release.
A circuit judge has given Clerk of Courts Pam Childers 20 days to explain why she shouldn’t be ordered to pay two Pensacola nonprofits money the Escambia County Commission already approved for them.
- Details: Judge William Stone signed an Alternative Writ of Mandamus on June 25 in the case Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association, Inc. (First Tee Gulf Coast) and Warrington Emergency Aid Center v. Pam Childers, Case No. 2026-CA-624. The order doesn’t decide who’s right. It clears the plaintiffs’ mandamus claim past the first legal gate and puts the burden on Childers to justify, in writing, why the court shouldn’t force her hand.
This ruling goes straight at Childers’s authority to withhold Community Support Fund Program payments that the Commission has already voted to approve.
“If the complaint is facially sufficient, the court then issues an alternative writ of mandamus, which the plaintiff must serve in the manner prescribed by law.—Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.630(d)(2)
What Stone Actually Ruled
Under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.630(d)(2), once a complaint states a legally sufficient claim on its face, the judge must issue the writ. Judge Stone’s two-page order does two things:
- Directs the plaintiffs to formally serve the writ on Childers
- Gives Childers 20 days from service to show cause why the court shouldn’t grant the relief sought in Count I of the complaint
That’s it. No money has changed hands. No finding has been made against Childers. If her response doesn’t satisfy the court, the next step would be a peremptory writ — the enforceable order that actually compels payment.
The Money at Stake
The dollar amounts are modest. First Tee Gulf Coast is owed $4,500, appropriated by the Commission across three 2025 meetings, for scholarships allowing at-risk youth to attend its golf-based youth development program. Warrington Emergency Aid Center is owed $2,500, approved in October 2025, to stock its food pantry for Pensacola families.
Both organizations submitted the paperwork the Community Support Fund Program requires and documented the expenses the Commission already signed off on. According to the complaint, Childers never disputes that part. Her objection is something else entirely.
- Earlier this week, Childers offered to settle the lawsuits for $50 each.
Count I: Why the Complaint Says This Is Mandamus, Not Discretion
Count I — the only count Stone’s writ reaches — rests on a single argument: issuing these payments is a ministerial duty, not a judgment call Childers gets to make.
The complaint walks through the chain of authority. The Commission has home-rule power under Fla. Stat. § 125.01 to fund recreational, educational, and welfare programs. Once the Commission votes to appropriate money to a specific recipient, the complaint argues, the Clerk’s role under Fla. Stat. § 125.17 is to “keep their minutes and accounts” and act as the Commission’s accountant — not to relitigate whether the spending was wise. Read 246771410 Complaint.
Childers’s own pre-audit authority exists under Fla. Stat. § 129.09, which the complaint concedes, but it’s narrow. She can refuse a payment only if it:
- Exceeds what’s allowed by law or county ordinance
- Constitutes an illegal charge against the county
- Isn’t authorized by law or county ordinance
The complaint’s position is that none of those three boxes is checked here, and that Childers has instead substituted her own opinion about what counts as a sufficient “public purpose” — a determination the complaint says belongs to the elected Commission, not the Clerk.
The disparate-treatment angle: The complaint doesn’t stop at First Tee and WEAC. It lists roughly two dozen other organizations and school teams the Clerk’s office paid out under the same program during the same stretch—from AMI Kids to American Legion to the Pensacola Humane Society, arguing Childers kept cutting checks for similar requests while holding back these two.
- Childers, represented by Codey Leigh and Edward Fleming, now has to respond within 20 days of being served. She can either comply, or file a response arguing why the mandamus shouldn’t issue.
Read 251244744 Amended Final Judgment.