Making Progress on Transition (Report)

Rick Outzen

12 months ago

The City of Pensacola published a progress report on how well it has implemented the Mayor’s Transition Team recommendations since November 2022, when Mayor D.C. Reeves took office.

At his Tuesday presser, Mayor Reeves said, “There were 91 recommendations, and we consider 80 of those as actionable…We have eight completed, and we’ve got 38 in progress.”
- - The Mayoral Transition Committee Report was created to help develop a deliberate strategic plan for the City of Pensacola.

Why this matters: Mayor Reeves and his leadership team have identified a priority list of the next 10 items.

Dig Deeper: The nine Completed Recommendations included creating an Economic Development Department, hiring a grant writer, and adding that professional to the “staffing matrix.”

The City was recently awarded grants for $12.4 million from Triumph and the state to relocate American Magic’s HQ to Pensacola.

The other Completed Items

Conduct a thorough, city-wide review of all policies and procedures.
Keep the weekly Mayoral Press Conference.
Partner with the Escambia County Housing Finance Authority.
Provide professional training on effective communication for all employees.
Review City Hall’s organizational structure.
There is currently minimal visibility of the performance of City departments available to the citizens. The implementation of a concise measurable performance dashboard on the City of Pensacola website would provide a valuable information source for both administrative officials as well as the general public to track the effectiveness and challenges of various City services.

Next Up | Transition Team Recommendations

A liaison should be hired to shepherd projects through the various departments who manage permitting.
Install traffic cameras at intersections with high crash totals, but are not designed in a way that allows for easy enforcement.
Plant more street trees! Create a strategic tree planting protocol that provides the citizens and the City with clear direction on how to navigate this difficult process so that we can get more trees in the ground in the city rights-of-way, where they provide the greatest benefit to the community.
Create an employee reward system for those who go above-and-beyond to help citizens.
Hold an annual staff workshop where city staff bring ideas, issues, and proposals to City Council for discussion and consideration.
Extend early child development services into the Parks and Recreation facilities.
Establish comprehensive capital management and funding structure.
Create a system to push resumes of veterans & military spouses looking for jobs in Pensacola to hiring managers.
Have a standard process for maintenance and upkeep of our city parks and facilities for citizens to be able to use.
311 system improvements.