Since the last attempt to consolidate city and county government failed to launch over a decade ago, we have heard repeated cries for a county mayor to run Escambia County.
The individual would be like Pensacola’s strong mayor, elected by all the voters and responsible for the county’s daily operations. The arguments made for handing all the power to one person are the same used to support Pensacola’s strong mayor. The county mayor would be accountable to the voters. The individual would develop a platform, run on that platform and be judged on the results every four years. The county mayor would control a $748.6 million budget and give Escambia County “leadership and vision.
What isn’t said is creating an all-powerful elected official gives the rich and powerful more control and cuts out the voters from having a seat at the table when big decisions are made. The Board of County Commissioners would become as impotent as the Pensacola City Council.
The wants of wealthy campaign contributors would supplant the needs of residents. A roundabout would have been built on Pensacola Beach, and a sprawling residential community permitted on Outlying Landing Field 8 in Beulah. Summer youth employment and community centers might not have been established in underserved neighborhoods.
Pensacola has elected three strong mayors with mixed results. With each election, there is a race to see who gets the mayor’s ear. Those favored receive favors in many instances. A county mayor would be no different.
What prompted me to write this column is Escambia County currently has one elected official attempting to run county government. County Clerk Pam Childers is using her role as county comptroller to dictate what happens, regardless of what the Board of County Commissioners approve in a public meeting.
The county commissioners wanted to repair the Escambia County Jail, the construction of which former County Administrator Janice Gilley botched. The county approved hiring an expert to assess the construction defects, but the work was delayed because Childers refused to pay the invoice for weeks. We almost had to cancel Foo Foo Fest because of the county clerk’s feud with Tourist Development County chair David Bear (read “The Buzz 9/19/24). And these are just tiny samples of how the clerk has attempted to paralyze county operations.
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To act as County Auditor is not the same thing as being a County Mayor, and this should be made clear, and I think this is an a sort of odd story to run at this time, I don’t understand the purpose, there is no County Mayor in Escambia County, and to be County Auditor does not make one Chief Executive, the current county auditor even once audited the executive committee of her own political party here locally, that is the authority of the county auditor