Residents show up, speak out at District 3 Town Hall

A couple hundred citizens packed the Brownsville Assembly of God Reception Hall Tuesday night to be heard by their elected officials and community leaders on a myriad of issues from job training and crime to activities for youth and dilapidating, abandoned schools in their neighborhoods.

The panel brought together for the District 3 Town Hall hosted by Escambia County Commission Chairman Lumon May included: Quint Studer, founder of Studer Group and co-owner of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, representing the business community; Escambia County School District Superintendent Malcolm Thomas; Supervisor of Elections David Stafford; Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan; Rev. LuTimothy May, pastor of Friendship Baptist, and Rev. Lonnie Wesley, pastor of Greater Little Rock Baptist Church, both representing faith-based organizations; Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward; and U.S. District Court Chief Judge Casey Rogers.

The enthusiastic crowd submitted 73 questions. While the panel did not have enough time to answer them all during the meeting, Commissioner May said they would be submitted to the appropriate official who would then respond to the District 3 citizen.

A few testy questions centered around the use of closed schools for youth activities and the eyesores that many have become in District 3 neighborhoods.

Josh Womack, of the Harvesters Neighborhood Watch in the Cantonment area, asked why Superintendent Thomas and the school board refused to work with the community in 2012 on turning the old Ransom Middle School into a center for youth. He pointed out no community center exists in the area. “We are trying to do a youth center. Our kids don’t have anything. They have to come to Pensacola.”

Thomas said he didn’t recall anything about Womack’s proposal to use Ransom for the community. In answer to another question from a Montclair mother, Thomas did promise the school partner with agencies to provide summer youth activities for children. “We are happy to partner with someone who wants to help our students.”

Mayor Hayward in answer to a question on summer activities for youth pointed out that Pensacola has 93 parks, while Philadelphia has 98. Woodlawn Heights was recently built and a community center at Legion Field is getting ready to open. “The city goes above and beyond to make sure we have opportunities for our children.”

Walter Wallace told Superintendent Thomas that the abandoned schools are “a drag on the city when they sit there for 15 to 20 years. It’s a drag on my pocketbook because they’re not paying property taxes.”

Thomas assured him that the school district is taking action on all the properties, including demolishing the former 4-acre J. Lee Pickens School where revitalization efforts have failed since at least 2001. Thomas said the only place left to sell or take some other action on is the former school system headquarters on Garden Street.

Michael Allen, a local electrical contractor and Pensacola State College instructor, asked the panel for more trade school or vocational training. rMayor Hayward talked about meeting with the top employers in the city about brainstorming creative ways to create more workforce training.

Meanwhile, Commissioner May pointed out the county recently approved a $2 million request for proposals on providing workforce training and approved another $1.8 million to create incubators. “There is no excuse for 30 percent unemployment in Brownsville and 6 percent in Florida,” May said.

Thomas mentioned that the school district has 61 academies that teach different skills from engineering to teaching. In addition, its George Stone Technical Center, which provides training for adults, plans to have an aircraft maintenance and repair program next school year.

“I’m not one who perpetuates that you can’t be successful unless you go to college,” Thomas said. “I see (students) who have real skill and can make a lot more money than a college grad. It’s OK if you want to be a plumber.”

Studer was asked about his commitment to diversity in the workforce and revealed that in contracts with his businesses he requires 80 percent of jobs go to Escambia residents and that 30-40 percent be African-American. He said he got the idea from Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cincinnati and said more can be done locally.

“It’s just built in my DNA. I grew up in Chicago and a very integrated school. I don’t know any different. When you give people an opportunity, you can make a difference in their lives. I would like to see other employers and see other government entities do what we do and put certain clauses in their contracts.”

Katrina Ramos wanted to know more about the recently created Civil Citation Program to give students who are first time offenders an alternative to being arrested in schools for crimes.

Sheriff Morgan reported 189 youth had participated in the program with 105 cases successfully completed and 59 cases currently active. “It doesn’t benefit us to incarcerate people,” Morgan said.

Sheriff Morgan responded to District 3 citizen Michael Jackson’s question about holding parents accountable for delinquent children. Morgan said a study found 73 percent of people in the Escambia County jail had two things in common—they lacked a high school education and a father in the home. “My staff gets tired of me saying we need to work the right end of the problem. The right end of the problem is parenting.”

The loudest cheers from the crowd that brought some to their feet came from a closing statement by Rev. LuTimothy May, who reminded the crowd that government can’t solve every problem they have.

“Government doesn’t have all the answers,” Rev. May said. “They are not prepared or adequately apt to deal with a mother who watched all of her children get buried for a senseless shooting. But (government) does have a role to play. They can sit on our shoulders and we can make sure the job is done. I just need their resources.”

He continued: “We (blacks) have not been given equity in the job hiring process. We just have to have honest conversations and not be afraid of the truth coming out. If you see individuals fighting for your community, don’t let them fight alone.”