John Peacock and friends have asked the Board of County Commissioners to create an Escambia County Charter Study Commission  to conduct a review of best practices in county governments within Florida and, if appropriate, develop a proposed charter for Escambia County.Â
Earlier this year, Inweekly advocated such a commission, but I no longer think the timing is right. Peacock has made it known that his  goal is to put the county under one elected  leader – a county mayor or county CEO.  I don’t like the idea of putting that much power into one person’s hands.
County operations – day-to-day efforts – are best in the hands of experienced, professional administrators, not politicians.
Under the draft proposal, the core committee will consist of:
The membership of the ECCSC may not exceed 25 persons. The members of the commission shall be appointed by (date), as follows:
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- The BOCC shall appoint five members. Each commissioner shall appoint one member who shall reside, work, or own property in the appointing commissioner’s district.
- The Mayor and the Town Council of the Town of Century shall appoint one member who shall be a resident of the Town of Century.
- The Mayor and City Council of the City of Pensacola shall appoint one member who shall be a resident of the City of Pensacola.Â
- The following organizations may each appoint one member to the commission:
– The Escambia County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
– Justice United Seeking Transformation in Pensacola
– Escambia County Taxpayer’s AssociationÂ
– The League of Women Voters of Pensacola Bay Area
– The Pensacola Young Professionals
– The Escambia County Farm Bureau
– The Home Builders Association of West Florida
– The President of the University of West Florida shall appoint one member who shall have expertise in local government matters.
– Escambia County Sheriff
– Escambia County Tax Collector
– Escambia County Property Appraiser
– Escambia County Clerk of the Court
– Escambia County Supervisor of Elections
– The Chief Judge of the First Judicial Circuit shall appoint two members who shall be members of the Florida Bar and have legal expertise in local government matters
– The Escambia County School Board may appoint one member by a majority vote of the board
– The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority shall appoint one member
– The President of Pensacola State College shall appoint one member.Â
– The Commanding Officer of NAS Pensacola shall appoint one member
– United Way of Escambia County shall appoint one member
Here is the draft given to the commissioners: Escambia County Charter Study Commission
It already looks like Marlette and Underhill facebook water carriers are starting it up yet again, depicting Childers as Wonderwoman and trying to make the board look bad. AGAIN,
I think the BOCC fired Gilley not so much because of the 401a discussion but probably about the false claim lawsuit she facilitated, plus not negotiating union contracts in a timely manner and going along with Underhill games in general. He is the root of the rot, His contract hypocrisy and social media warfare is damaging. They are like the energizer bunnies of negativity.
Some are still deceived,
It is exhausting.. One says, “charter ok but not consolidation”..Isn’t that the same thing.
All we can hope for at this juncture is the board says no and lets the usual suspects gnash their teeth.
Someone should ask Peacock if he supports a County Executive form of charter government in Santa Rosa County? If not, why does he think we need it in Escambia County? The problem is not the “form of government” in Escambia County because it works perfectly fine in Santa Rosa County, Okaloosa County, Walton County, etc. The problem is who we elect to the Escambia County Commission and how we do it.
We do not need a so call charter commission, this is just a fake way of doing away with minorities voting power in District 3. We only have one district that is made up of mostly minorities and most of them are Democrats. One only has to look east to Santa Rosa country to see how minorities and democrats have no voting power or elected individuals who are considered a Minority/or Democrat. This fake phoney smoke screen is just another type of down and dirty trick to reinstate good old BOYS “Jim Crow LAWS”” IN ORDER FOR THE FEW WHITE POWERFUL ELEIT TO REGAIN POWER. I am sure our current governor/ or trumps yes man has been in communication with Peecock and friends on how to destroy voting rights for those who are not WHITE……
What a bureaucratic hot mess.
The headline might just as well read “ATTN ESCAMBIA TAXPAYERS: Downtown is Coming for Your Money.”
The real question is, Where on the timeline do they pull the bait and switch on a combined charter?
Or will they accomplish that through all the water carriers they already have lined up to populate this behemoth committee. Which they are trying to add to the gigantic interlocking committees serving committees that are springing up everywhere (including the back room advisory committee that sits over the half dozen back room subcommittees for the back room Homeless Task Force).
Residents of the County better get ready for hundreds of thousands of dollars of propaganda pushing this through every avenue. The PNJ will have “Charter” as a category on their banner soon enough.