by Jeremy Morrison
During his weekly presser Monday, Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson addressed accusations that he has any involvement in the legal happenings of a recently arrested homeless advocate.
He also unpacked a sprawling email back-and-forth between he and Mel Pino, the citizen making the accusations in question, in which she questions if the mayor wants to “bring another homeless war downtown” and Robinson wonders aloud if perhaps the area homeless have dialed up their aggressive behavior due to politics.
Michael Kimbrel, active in several organizations that serve the homeless community, including serving as the director of the Alfred Washburn Center, recently had charges filed against him by the Downtown Improvement Board, with the DIB asserting that Kimbrel broke the lock of a portable toilet used for the downtown market to allow a homeless woman to use the facility. In her email — addressed to the press, as well as public officials — Pino asks if the mayor had anything to do with Kimbrel’s arrest or if he was currently pressuring the DIB to pursue the charges.
“I don’t think it’s the mayor’s position to persecute people,” Robinson said Monday, stressing that he wasn’t involving himself.
From there, the mayor explained comments he had made in an email sent out on Friday, in which he appeared to imply that the local homeless community could be becoming more of an issue for officials due to Kimbrel’s arrest: “There certainly has been a lot of calls since Mike Kimberl, homeless advocate, was arrested. I don’t know that the two are related or if simply coincidence. It is very likely that this could continue through the election process.”
“We had the arrest; over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen stuff happening,” Robinson clarified in the presser. “I don’t know what it is. It could be the weather, it could be a lot of things, but it does correspond with that time period.”
Following the morning presser, the mayor sent out a follow-up clarification in an email: “At no time have I ever blamed Michael Kimberl for the increase in homeless interactions. I responded to a citizen asking about the aggressive increase in homeless on her property over the last two weeks which happens to exactly coincide with a time period after Micheal Kimberl’s arrest.”
He added, “I don’t know what has made the homeless more aggressive in the last two weeks but I know that some are very angry about it.”
Mayor Robinson also spoke about what he had described in an email as character assassination, referring to Pino’s assertions; specifically, the mayor had made a connection between the inability to compromise politically with the Jan. 6 insurrection and maybe an eventual escalation: “If people are so willing to assassinate your character with impunity, it is only a matter of time before they are willing to simply take the next step.”
“Clearly, there are people that will go to all cost to write these kind of emails, to suggest these kinds of things, to do character assassinations — they’re will to do all of that,” Robinson said at the presser.
“That’s particularly scary to me. I think it should be scary to you, the press. I think it should be scary to the citizens and the voters, but that’s unfortunately the world we live in.
He continued, “We’ve got a lot of people who just want what they want and they will pursue it to any winning conclusion.”
For her part, Pino picked apart each of the mayor’s emails, line by line, inserting her own comments in response to each. Her response to Robinson’s character assassination comment was pretty representative of the general tone.
“I don’t have to assassinate your character, as your are proud of waving your intolerance and bullying like a flag, and it is widely noted and scorned,” Pino wrote.
“And … it was only a matter of time before you’d be clutching at this Doug Underhill stalking point. Get with the program, Grover. He was calling Dianne Krummel and I ANTIFA and terrorists almost three years ago. You’re late to the party.”
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Last night after 10 p.m., Councilwoman Sherri Myer jumped into the fray with an email.
Dear all, I agree with Mayor Robinson on this point, “An informed public is the best chance democracy has”. By way of his email to all of us, he has informed the public that we have a mayor who does not understand the First Amendment rights of citizens to criticize their government.
Ms. Pino is just a private citizen and has the right to express her views even if public officials do not agree with her. She is entitled to her views without government officials sending out warning emails about her.
We have a mayor who unfortunately refers to citizens he doesn’t like as subversive and implies they are insurrectionists. This is a sad day for the First Amendment. –Sherri Myers
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Mayor Grover Robinson responded this a.m.:
When the question was asked why did I write something about the election process, please see Exhibit 1 below. In less than 24 hours, we see how a simple email from a mayor to a citizen comes into the hands of a candidate supporter to stir innuendo. Please remember Ms. Pino was a Council regular soon after Councilwoman Myers initiated the I-110 encampment moratorium. Since that time Ms. Pino has continued to do the bidding of people by claiming the administration sends police to harasses and jail homeless.
Thank God for the First Amendment Councilwoman Myers (I guess fighting allowing citizens to express their beliefs in yard signs has not worked that well-First Amendment) so the PJN can do a story to highlight what is really happening with the homeless efforts in our community. Per the accurate story, PPD is not arresting homeless they are helping our efforts with the strike team of the Coalition to Reduce Homelessness by working to find them shelter and services. This is the same system that I have been explaining to Ms. Hjelle. I will admit it is not the fastest but it is the most effective way to help homeless and remove conflict with neighborhoods and citizens.
After the press conference yesterday, I met with Ms. Johnson, Mr. Whibbs and Mr. Powell in advance of their new campaign this week to discuss how we can be more effective. As article stated, we are moving people off the streets and they are grateful for our efforts. If we can get more funding to add transitional housing to the mix as WEAR highlighted last week we might actually help homeless, help neighborhoods and help our small business community with a workable system proven in other communities.
If we can stay on task of the program and not the politics we can do great things. Again thank you First Amendment for the opportunity to have public discussion to highlight the success our program is having and the people who are trying to manipulated the conversation to disrupt it.
Grover