Escambia County Commission chairman Grover Robinson said on “Pensacola Speaks” yesterday that Escambia County staff is meeting with City of Pensacola staff to try to work out a resolution on the local option gas tax.
On Monday, Robinson sent a letter to Mayor Ashton Hayward asking him to accept the inter-local agreement that the BCC passed last month. He was not aware the commissioners had voted to pull that offer at the last board meeting when he was out of town.
“I hear from staff since then today that apparently they are meeting with city staff tomorrow to see if we can get that picked back up and get back to the original agreement that we had and the city can choose the streets,” said the commissioner.
“I would like to very much show (our citizens) that we can find a resolution on our own without going through an appeal without getting upset and having disagreements back and forth,” said Robinson. “I thought what we put on the table was a fairly good first offer. It got to it to 15.52 percent. Even though it was a little bit different in the way it went, I think overall it was good.”
The Escambia County Commission pulled back its offer after they were notified that the City of Pensacola had filed an appeal with Gov. Rick Scott. Since then, City Attorney Lysia Bowling has told the Pensacola City Council that it was solely her decision to file the appeal.
The commissioners had asked for a joint meeting with the city council, but city staff blocked that effort last week.
