The Escambia County Consolidation Commission is less that 45 days away from its Jan. 15, 2010 deadline to report to the Northwest Florida legislative delegation. Prior to that meeting, if consolidation is to be proposed, it must also present its final report to the Pensacola City Council, Escambia County Commission and the Century Town Council. The City Council and County Commission only have one regular meeting in December and one more in January before the Jan. 15 deadline.
A November 10 Status Report has been released:
Constitutional Officers
1. Constitutional Officers (excluding the Sheriff) unaffected (not within consolidated government): The Property Appraiser, Tax Collector, Clerk of the Court, and Supervisor of Elections, should remain as independent constitutional officers. In other words, these official should not be included within the consolidated government.
Public Safety
2. Unified Law Enforcement: The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and the City of Pensacola’s Police Department should be merged into one law enforcement agency.
3. An elected Sheriff as the Chief Law Enforcement Officer: The Sheriff should remain an elected position over the consolidated law enforcement agency.
4. Non-partisan election for Sheriff: The Sheriff should be elected in a non-partisan election.
5. Unified Fire Departments: The Escambia County and City of Pensacola Fire Departments should be consolidated into a combined system of professional and volunteer firefighters.
6. Unified Communications: The Communication Centers (911, etc) for Law Enforcement and Fire should be combined.
Administrative Services
7. Unified Administrative Services: Under the consolidated government, all “structural impediments” to a full merger of the administrative services of the County and municipalities (i.e., Human Resources, Finance, Public Information, Information Technology, and Purchasing) can and should be merged.
Planning and Permitting
8. Unified Planning and Zoning: The County and City of Pensacola Planning and Zoning Departments should be consolidated.
9. Unified Permitting and Building Inspection: The County and City Permitting and Building Inspection departments should be consolidated.
10. Unified Code Enforcement: Code enforcement should be consolidated.
11. Code Enforcement Officers to be certified law enforcement officers: Code enforcement officer in this area should be certified law enforcement officers under the Sheriff.
Utilities
12. One Utility Authority: All utilities services in Escambia County and the City of Pensacola should be consolidated under a single utility authority. The utilities operating under this Utility Authority would include the services of: Natural Gas, Water, Waste Water and Solid Waste Management.
13. Utility Authority Governing Board: The Utility Authority should be governed by a board of 7 members. Board composition should exist with five of the members being elected in the same manner as the present ECUA Board; one member should be appointed by consolidated government’s Council; and, the remaining member should be appointed by the elected Mayor.
14. Powers and Duties of the Utility Authority Governing Board: Similar to the consolidated government’s Council, the Utility Authority Governing Board should not be involved in directing the day-to-day activities of the Utility Authority. The day-to-day activities should be the responsibility of the Executive Director. The primary responsibility of the Board responsibilities will be to select and oversee the performance of the Executive Director, approve the budget and set major organizational policy. The members of the Board should meet once each month in a public forum to conduct the official business of the Utilities Authority.
15. Utility Authority Executive Director: There should be created a position of Executive Director of the Utilities Authority. The Executive Director should be selected and confirmed by the governing Board of the Utilities Authority. Serving at the pleasure of the Board, the Executive Director should be removed only by a majority vote of the Board.
16. Powers and Duties of the Executive Director: If necessary, the Consolidation Charter may describe the position(s) as follows:
• Powers and Duties of the Executive Director of the Utility Authority: There shall be an Executive Director of the Utilities Authority who shall serve as the professional manager of the Public Utilities under the authority of the Board of Directors. The Executive Director shall be appointed and hired by the Utilities Authority Board and shall be responsible to the Board for the day-to-day management and operation of the utilities. The Executive Director shall have sole authority to appoint, suspend, or remove all department directors, employees, and administrative officers of the Utilities Authority.
Roads
17. Unified Roads Department: The County and City Road Departments should be combined.
Parks and Recreation
18. Unified Parks and Recreation Department: There should be a consolidated Parks and Recreation department. This department would include Area Parks, Community Sports, Ball Fields, Community Centers, Osceola Golf Course, Libraries, the Civic Center, the Saenger Theatre and the Maritime Park.
Existing Special Districts and Authorities
19. Special Districts and Authorities: Existing special districts and authorities should be left “as is” under the consolidation plan.
Economic Development
20. Economic Development: (two choices): The Special Advisory Committee on Economic Development recommended that economic development under the consolidated government should continue with the private sector effort led by the Chamber of Commerce while modifying the public sector driven PEDC to take on additional roles and responsibilities similar to the Economic Development Commission in Jacksonville, Florida. The choice for the Commission is whether or not to specify this recommendation in the plan by making specific reference to an Economic Development Commission.
a. No specificity in the plan: The economic development plan should be left to the discretion of the new consolidated government; or,
b. Specify in the plan: The plan should make provision for an Economic Development Commission with the details of that commission to be left to ordinance by the council.
Office of General Counsel
21. Office of General Counsel: There should be an Office of General Counsel to help resolve legal disputes between the different elements of the consolidated government (including its independent agencies).
Taxing and Service Districts
22. Separate Taxing and Service Districts: Under a consolidated government, there should be separate taxing districts with taxation proportionate to services provided.
Existing Debt and Pension Obligations
23. Restrictions on existing debt obligations: The existing liabilities of the City (pension plans, Maritime Park, etc) should remain with the boundaries of the present city. More specifically, the repayment of debt service should be restricted to the same funding source or property which is subject to taxation for repayment to the source or property from which such debt service would be paid had consolidation not taken place and before the effective date of the Charter.
24. Pension Obligations: Current employees should be able to continue in their existing plans but future employees should be under the retirement system adopted by the Council.
Office of Budget Analyst
25. Office of Budget Analyst: An Office of Budget Analyst as an Independent Department whose role is to advise and inform the Council on fiscal matters should be included in the Plan.
Form of Government
26. Mayor-Council: The consolidated government should be a mayor-council form of government.
a. The mayor should be elected on an at-large, non-partisan basis.
b. Limits should be placed on the mayor’s office in order to assure that the power of that office is not abused. The exact nature of these limits will be determined at the Commission’s December meeting.
c. The consolidated government should mandate a professional city manager. The exact duties/responsibilities of this position and any limits on the mayor’s ability to hire and fire this professional manager will be determined at the Commission’s December meeting.
27. Council-Manager: The consolidated government should be a council-manager form of government.
a. The exact nature of this form of government will be left for future vote at the Commission’s December meeting.
Council Composition
This issue will be discussed and voted upon at the December meeting.