This week’s issue reports on the Escambia County Commission District 4 race where Democrat Myra Van Hoose faces Republican incumbent Robert Bender. Van Hoose has spent $39,676 of the $49,365 that she has raised, according to Escambiavotes.com. Bender, who last had to face a challenger in the GOP primary, has spent $25,698 of the $72,400 that he has raised.
Jeremy Morrison covered the race for us. He found that Van Hoose’s campaign is focusing on the 401(a) retirement plan that the Escambia Clerk Pam Childers has refused to write checks for since January. She told Morrison, “I think that the dollar amount is irresponsible. To be a commissioner and say, ‘It’s not illegal as far as I know, so I’ll take it, even though it’s too much,’ it’s clear that greed and self-enrichment are the motivating force instead of putting the best interest of the community forward.”
Bender points out Van Hoose’s party affiliation in a district in which Democrats make up less than 30% of the voters. He said, “It just talks a little bit to our beliefs and how we view the government and maybe where we are on certain issues.”
Both candidates rebutted the statements. The article will go live at 11 a.m. on Inweekly.net. Tomorrow I will interview both candidates on WCOA.
I did something I haven’t done in a really long time this morning and listened to Andrew McKay’s podcasts, the interviews with Commissioner Bender and Myra Van Hoose . My primary reason for tuning in was the growing noise about her campaign’s active disinformation on the 401a local option–which is just so disappointing.
But beyond her either not understanding or not representing honestly the 401a (hello, it’s not a 50k a year lifetime pension but a one-time payout that SAVES taxpayers money in the long run), I about fell out of my chair to hear Ms. Van Hoose stump for the roundabout!
What. On. EARTH. She starts the interview complaining about wasted money, and lands on a fricking unworkable roundabout on Pensacola Beach that nobody but the hoteliers ever wanted to begin with?
I spent two years fighting that mess and watching 600K of taxpyer money get squandered with Grover crumbling on the second portion of the study, ever AFTER Volkert had to admit that my traffic stats off the Bob Sikes were right, yes the roundabout would fail early and often, and no there was no fix for it but if the County would like to fund them another wad of dough for an unworkable Emergency Action Plan for the many times it would fail, they’d be happy to gobble that money up, as well.
Thank GOODNESS Commissioner Bender had the good sense to stop that nonsense in its tracks, which has never been about anything more than slowing down the traffic and feeding frustrated cars to particular businesses (cough cough) rather than sitting in a jam. She talks about it as if it is merely “stalled out” and that Commissioner Bender hasn’t been successful in getting across the finish. Line. The project is DEAD, Ms. Van Hoose. While the hoteliers may never give up gnawing on that bone, everybody else moved on years ago.
This is the problem with candidates coming from a Downtown viewpoint. :( Anybody watching meetings the last couple of years can see that Commissioner Bender and I have hardly agreed on everything, and at times tensions have run very high between us at meetings. (In a nutshell, I felt he didn’t stand up to Edler’s toxic harassment enough, and that he let Gilley get away with too much crap…earth to ECW, who seemingly have never existed in a professional scenario in their collective lives, “she asked to be fired” is a polite way of saying she didn’t have the class and integrity to resign from a roll she was grossly failing at.)
For that reason, as with most of the races I was just sitting back watching, and was even interested in what a woman willing to run as a democrat in a republican district might bring to the table. Up until the last month or so, it was an either/or, and I was cordial to the idea of seeing what she could do, if she created a miracle and ousted a republican incumbent.
After hearing what has come out of that campaign–which is getting louder and louder with consolidation language :( –I’m sorry to say that, as much as this NPA would like to see some shift in the GOP stronghold here, her replacing Commissioner Bender sounds far more dangerous to the well-being of the County taxpayers than I had realized. I’d rather continue to agree to disagree with the current commissioner when the occasion arises, than have to worry about a newly elect commissioner dredging up the nightmare roundabout again (along with what other hotelier interests?) and politic for John Peacock. Just hell no.
Van Hoose says she wants to have a “Strong Mayor” county form of government but there is no such thing. See Section 125.84, Florida Statutes. If you’re going to say or write something as a candidate, you better have your ducks lined up. She seems more of a free spirit making stuff up as she goes along to include alleging that county commissioners vote to set their own salaries. It’s set by a state law formula, another state law that Van Hoose has not read. On that point, she complained about Bender’s salary but did not say that she would work for free or take a reduced salary if elected, as is expressly authorized by the same state law. Bender also claimed today that when he ran for office in 2018, he didn’t know that commissioners got lifetime pensions to go with their big fat salaries. That’s not believable. Van Hoose is overly fixated on the 401(a) issue to include on her billboards. She alleges that Bender is breaking the law. It remains for a court to decide if county commissioner can enroll in such a program. Even if the Clerk prevails, you can’t really blame Bender for selecting one of the three options presented to him by county staff. District 4 is 53% Republican but also 47% “Non-Republican” (Democrat, NPA, Other). Van Hoose could win if she focused on issues that matter to regular people. Where is Bender vulnerable? I haven’t checked but assume he voted to increase the property tax levy each year. That issue seems theoretical until you tell someone how many tens of millions it adds up to over four years. The BOCC often seems to not know why they voted to spend money. It always amazes me when one of them later claims they “did not know.” They should read the agenda item before voting but often do not. Escambia County also charges a special Law Enforcement or “Sheriff” property tax that is suspect. When I asked about it in 2014, no one working for the county could tell me what the money was used for. I doubt Sheriff Chip Simmons knows or cares. Van Hoose could also raise the issue of city property owners being taxed to pay for the Sheriff who does not patrol in Pensacola like in Century. When I looked into it in 2014, the amount was $13+ million. I discussed it with Amy Lovoy then with the county. It’s wrong but legal. Bender is vulnerable on the crime issue. Escambia County has had one of the highest per capita crime rates for years and #3 in 2020 for the last year the FDLE has released the data. Florida is one of only four states that has not released its 2021 data. Bender was not a good steward of the public’s money when the county had a chance to buy two needed fire ladders for a discount. Bender caved voting Yes in support of Barry’s motion to only buy one. If Bender had dug in and convinced Underhill to do the same, I think the board would have bought both. The oddest thing of all in the District 4 campaign is something Bender said to McKay this morning. When asked to explain why he voted to fire County Administrator Janet Gilley without explanation, Bender said that Gilley asked to be fired. What? That deserves a follow-up. If Gilley had really wanted to be fired, I doubt that she would have prepared such a detailed defense of her record presented to the BOCC and openly ignored.