Escambia County Commissioner Ashlee Hofbergers’s Pensacola Beach Gateway project continues to get roasted on social media. Last Friday, Hofberger released three options for residents to consider. Residents universally dislike each of them.
- Why? Hofberger fast-tracked the $1.4 million project without seeking public input. The local art community has protested not being allowed to submit their drawings. Others are upset that the project eliminated the family changing rooms, and some questioned the project’s necessity.
The commissioner should learn from how Mayor D.C. Reeves has approached community engagement. On the Eastside CRA Plan update, he didn’t do a survey with three options and give the public five days to respond. He held 23 meetings.
East Side Engagement: Rebuilding Trust Through Authentic Community Outreach
When Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves began updating the East Side Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) plan, he knew he faced deep community skepticism. The historically underserved area had been “studied to death and town hall to death,” but Reeves was determined to do something different.
- Rather than taking pushback personally, Reeves examined its origins. “I really tried to make it a goal that I never took that personally,” he explained. “There are deeper-rooted issues beyond Mayor Reeves’ tenure or the previous mayor’s tenure that are about the government maybe not doing what they said they were going to do.”
Instead of dismissing criticism, he acknowledged lived experiences that created distrust. “I couldn’t take offense to that because that’s lived experience for somebody to say, well, I’ve sat in city or town hall meetings for 30 years and they come and say this and don’t do that.”
A Different Approach
Traditional engagement might involve one City Hall meeting, document attendance, and moving forward. Reeves recognized this method was flawed for communities previously let down.
- “I’d rather have 23 meetings we’ve had so far at Holst Williams and where we not only know from an objective standpoint about what the community wants, but that we meet people where they are at different times when they work different hours,” the mayor explained.
This acknowledges that people have different schedules and comfort levels with civic engagement. Some residents can only attend Saturday meetings, others prefer mornings. Multiple opportunities dramatically expanded participation.
Building Trust Through Consistency
The mayor’s commitment stems from a broader philosophy about rebuilding government-community trust. “I’ve really tried to make it our mission that whether you agree with what we’re going to do, and then sometimes you may not agree with what we’re going to do, but that we do do what we say we’re going to do.”
“We never want to leave anybody’s opinion behind,” he added. “We can’t make people come to these meetings and listen, we’ll catch our fair share of flack on, ‘Well, why didn’t you tell us?’ And we’ve got to come back and say, ‘Well, we have had 23 meetings.'”
