Through a public record requests, the IN obtained the written budget priorities submitted by the Pensacola City Council members to Mayor Ashton Hayward. Only four council members, Ronald Townsend, John Jerralds, Megan Pratt and Sherri Myers, sent a list of priorities to the mayor.
Townsend focused on Legion Field, Westside Library, code enforcement and the neighborhoods in his district. Jerralds wrote about the equipment at Woodland Heights Park. Pratt wanted a multi-use trail between Bayou Blvd and 12th Ave.
Myers presented the mayor with over $3 million in budget requests: Uptown Pensacola marketing ($100,000), Sidewalks on Burgess and Sanders St. ($3 million), Tippin Park ADA upgrade ($100,000) and upgrade all other parks in District 2. Remember Myers is the council member who submitted over $1 million in budget cuts on Monday.
Since none of these items were brought up in the two days of budget workshops, I assume all these items have been addressed or the council members have changed their priorities.
Most noticeably absent from the information received by the paper are any budget priorities from the Council President Maren Deweese, who sent last Friday to the mayor’s office budget requests regarding Fire Station 3 and Fire Rescue Units that total over $2 million in budget increases.