Jerralds: Hawthorne is ‘pissing in the wind’ and ‘full of shenanigans’

Despite a request by Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce Chairman George Hawthorne, the Pensacola City Council did not address Councilman John Jerralds’ recent efforts to reassess the chamber’s purpose.

“That’s not city business,” Jerralds said, after leaving the city council’s Committee of the Whole meeting yesterday afternoon.

Hawthorne had requested that the city council weigh in on a March 16 incident during which Jerralds called the police to have the chairman removed from a meeting the councilman had called in order to discuss the future of the GCAACC. Hawthorne had learned of the meeting through the media.

After waiting through a lengthy public comment period on an unrelated matter during the committee meeting, Hawthorne left. The chamber chairman had earlier said he planned on filing a complaint with the State Attorney’s Office in response to Jerralds having him tossed from the meeting.

“He’s trying to make something out of nothing,” Jerralds said as he left the committee meeting. “What he needs to do is get the chamber up and running.”

The councilman said that Hawthorne had managed the chamber into “piss-poor shape” and described the chairman’s efforts with the State Attorney’s Office as “pissing in the wind.”

Hawthorne could not be reached for comment following yesterday’s council meeting.

Though he did not elaborate, Jerralds said that Hawthorne was “full of shenanigans.”

“He bounces around all over town,” the councilman said as he headed out of city hall. “I don’t operate that way.”