Pensacola City Council:
The District 2 councilman says constituent service is his record, admits one vote was a mistake and warns that Amendment 3 could squeeze public safety.
Pensacola City Councilman Charles Bare is seeking another term in the November election against Sherry Myers, who held the seat for 12 years before she was term-limited out. He joined me on Rick’s Blog Live last Wednesday.
“It’s a team sport, it really is. So constituent service is where I focused.”
The candid answer. Bare said that as one of seven council members, it is hard to get anything accomplished without other votes. “There’s not anything I have directly done,” he said.
- His pitch is responsiveness: garbage complaints, law enforcement concerns and anything else a resident needs, with Bare as the “conduit” to answers.
The vote he would take back. Bare said he wishes he had stuck with his first vote on the project at Creighton Road and Tippin Avenue. It was pitched as an Aldi. After the Aldi went into the old Winn-Dixie location, the site was sold and became a Circle K.
- He voted no the first time, siding with citizens who showed up.
- He voted yes the second time.
- Many trees were lost, and he says a lot of residents are unhappy.
The curfew. Bare said he started out thinking the city needed a curfew. Then he talked to residents. “I’m not at a single person tell me we need a curfew,” he said. He wanted to support the police chief and the mayor but couldn’t.
When to push back on the mayor. Bare said the trigger is simple: when constituents don’t want to go where the mayor wants to go. He said he attends neighborhood association meetings and has knocked on more than 1,000 doors since early September.
- Amendment 3: If it passes and property taxes are cut, Bare said police and public safety could be kept but not expanded.
- Police presence: He praised the chief for meeting residents in the district and giving out his number.
- Sidewalks: Residents want them, but the repaving and sidewalk work tends to stay downtown.
- Trees: Bare said trees keep going in where they aren’t needed, and the city relies on a methodology rather than a tree canopy study. “To me that’s a problem.”
His closing case. Bare, an Army veteran, said service was instilled in him by his parents.
- “Answering the phone, responding to a text, all of those things, being the person that will listen to them and take action to help them. That is my core focus.”
