Many of the same players that supported the biggest backroom deal in the history of Pensacola—the reopening of the General Pension (Read General Pension Fiasco) have now manipulated the campaign finance laws to hide their biggest contributors. Mike Wiggins, Paul Young and Mike DeSorbo all voted for the pension deal that was based on flawed actuarial data and gave City Manager Ed Hinkle a huge pension and bumped the unfunded pension liability up to over $50 million by 2008. City Attorney Don Caton and his assistant John Fleming provided the legal advice (Read more).
Now the backroom crew is back and they have found a way to avoid telling the voters who is supporting No Boss Mayor while attacking their opponent. What they have done is legal, as was the costly pension change 10+ years ago, but is it fair and open?
These backroom dealers hid their deep pocket contributors by having Charlie Fairchild loan the campaign $3000 to cover signs, knowing that they had other checks coming to pay him back the day after the report was filed. They can now hide their contributors until the next report which is due November 20 – while spending thousands on mailers and automated phone calls.
All this is legal –as was how City Manager Ed Hinkle manipulated the pension board to get an additional $16K per year for his pension. No Boss Mayor tells us that they are against backroom deals. Yet they have no problem doing them when they benefit from them.
I wouldn’t even push this, except they are the ones, on November 2, who said that they wanted the voters know who is supporting each side. They haven’t told us who is really supporting them. Who repaid Charles Fairchild? Who are they hiding from the voters?
Backroom deals worked for them once. They are doing their best to make their backroom deals work again.