I spoke last night to the Seville Rotary, Pensacola’s newest Rotary club and the only one that meets in the evenings. The club meets at Seville Quarter on Tuesday and has about 65 charter members, according to Jay Overman. The members are primarily young professionals and I wish them well.
The title of my speech was “How we got into the mess and how we’re getting out of it.” I walked through the past eight or nine years.
1999 – End of a decade that saw steady growth and stable leadership at City and County level. Strong representation in Tallahassee – W.D. Childers, Jerry Maygarden, Buzz Ritchie, DeeDee Ritchie. We had SpringFest, Pensacola Open, First Night Pensacola
2000 -W.D. Childers & Terry Smith are elected to BOCC. McNesby is new sheriff.
2001 – 9/11 tragedy
2002 – Four commissioners indicted, removed from office. County has caretaker commissioners.
2003 – First Trillium Park referendum fails.
2004 – County Charter referendum fails. Hurricane Ivan hits – all incumbents are re-elected.
2005 – Community Maritime Park concept is discussed. Deaths in the jail – taser abuse lead to lawsuits against ECSO.
2006-CMP passes. Health study is released saying the Escambia County has health stats similar to a Third World country.
2007-Access Escambia fails to pass 1/2 sales tax for health care for the uninsured. IN publishes a database with all the salaries of all local government employees. Real Estate market starts its decline.
2008-Tax Watch publishes report of how property tax revenues have nearly doubled in 10 years. City spends almost as much on pension as it collects in property taxes. Commissioner Mike Whitehead and Sheriff Ron McNesby lose in the Republican primary. Santa Rosa County has two commissioner kicked out. Pensacola City Council gets a new mayor and four new members.
Now we are in the “creative tension” stage. We elected good people and now are focused on the changing the structure of local government and how we do economic development. The bureaucracies are resisting the changes, but change will happen.
Note: If you interested in joining Rotary, contact Jay Overman – jay@oemedia.com.