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Greater Pensacola Chamber 2020 Candidate QuestionnairePensacola City CouncilBusiness Climate / Regulations IssuesRate the regulatory climate for business in Pensacola. Is it Good/Fair/Bad? Explain. I would rate the regulatory climate for business in Pensacola as good.My explanation for this level of confidence is because we have been working to raise the Civic IQ through CivicCon lectures, stakeholder group meetings, town halls and other formats of citizen education and government engagement. It has not only been greater learning for private citizens, it has also been very helpful to our elected officials and appointed leaders.Provide any examples of how regulations have affected the life of city residents or businesses in a positive or negative way.I read recently that according to Florida West, over the past five years, new and expanding businesses have invested millions of dollars in the greater Pensacola Region. It’s companies like Navy Federal Credit Union, GE Wind Energy, Ascend Performance Materials, AppRiver, Custom Control Solutions, and L3 Communications, among others. Florida West does an excellent job marketing for us. They promote that the Pensacola Region offers a cost-effective alternative to many other competitive business locations. Pensacola has recently been ranked in the Forbes Top 100 cities for cost of doing business. The costs are just more affordable than in many other regions. This will continue to attract new businesses if we elect the right candidates to public office. As a business owner, I understand that businesses need certainty, predictability and efficiency in government regulations. The state’s regulatory agencies and local governments provide quicker, less costly and more predictable permitting processes for significant economic development projects without reducing environmental standards. The City of Pensacola offers a free, weekly one-stop development review meeting, with no application or fee required.The challenge with potential outdated codes and regulations for the City of Pensacola is if they are seen by some elected officials and leaders as a permanent set of policies, it can setback enthusiasm and bottom-line investment options for private investors too. This can cripple progress. I would represent that in order to have the most effective codes, regulations and policies, it’s highly preferable to set or change policies that fit into the City of Pensacola’s plans for supportive growth and development. These changes must be accelerated to support continuous progress for our city and county. Through it all, enforcement is key to the success of everyone.Name the top 3 specific city ordinances/regulations you would like to see eliminated. Explain why they should be eliminated.While I am confident that there are several city ordinances that I would like to see eliminated, this question deserves a more comprehensive study and review in order to be fair in my recommendations. With respect to specific regulations, I would support immediately repealing all current regulations for parking within the City of Pensacola. It’s absolutely necessary that we learn from our city-wide failure in this area. I would recommend that future parking regulations be made in close consultation with our city business leaders and city residents. I would not support outside management of city parking lots at this time. Further, I would support immediately suspending all current licensing of private parking lots within the City of Pensacola. Additionally, I would support a moratorium that prohibits ANY licensing of private parking lots within the City of Pensacola. This will be no quick fix. The citizens of Pensacola and Escambia County have been treated unfairly with respect to current parking regulations. What can the city do to facilitate a more livable downtown environment that also attracts and caters to the interests of visitors? The City of Pensacola can do much to facilitate a more livable downtown environment that also attracts and caters to the interests of visitors. Some of the more well-known areas and interests include walkability, bikeability, multi-modal transportation, multi-mixed-use housing, especially for students and young professionals. We need robust downtown satellite college campus classes and continuing education options that promotes accommodating needs of our future leaders. We must seek and find a way to ensure a varied stock of affordable housing inventory with nearby amenities for all downtown students and young professionals. A historical, busy, thriving, interesting, and fun downtown will attract visitors near and far.At some point, the City of Pensacola and Escambia County must deal with the deteriorating issue of panhandling. We know that panhandling is not the same as homelessness and it’s a paramount challenge. If panhandlers are not homeless, we must address this matter. The amount of authentic poverty and homelessness in our community just breaks my heart. The resolution to this growing problem will become even greater post COVID-19. It will take all of us to find a working resolution that will always be with us.5.What is your strategy to leverage the county’s interest in regards to state and federal funding opportunities? It’s no secret that Escambia County has more funding than the City of Pensacola simply because of size. I would advocate for quarterly meetings by city and county elected officials to share new and changing ways we can collaborate together to make a greater case for state and federal funding opportunities. We share many common interests and needs throughout Escambia County. This type of collaboration must have a plan of action with measurable outcomes to secure funding. It’s also vital to have strong and positive relationships with our state and federal delegations. A specific way to begin would be to review any areas of duplication or overlap in current services and funding. Through it all, we need citizen input and ways to offer feedback. Economic Development IssuesWhat role should city government take in attracting new businesses to the city? Our city government must work continuously to make our city attractive and engaging with potential new businesses by offering incentives for investing private dollars in our community. The City of Pensacola is doing an excellent job in attracting new businesses to our area. This reality is in part because we have a strong Pensacola Chamber of Commerce, the Minority Chamber of Commerce, and Visit Pensacola who help lead the way with leadership and expertise. The bar has been raised even further since we were recognized as a Strong Town. We can also not underestimate our success with private investors like Quint and Rishy Studer among others who have given so much back to our community which helps to bridge the gap in funding. Our quality of life is an integral part of our ability to help new businesses. As a retirement destination, we have no shortage of expertise to support new ventures for local business leaders.Which industries should the City of Pensacola concentrate its business development/growth efforts? Be specific.Although we are a short distance from Pensacola Beach, we can never let our focus lapse from promoting the tourism of our beautiful beaches. This is the key to success for Escambia County and the City of Pensacola. The City of Pensacola must continue to accelerate ways for residents and visitors to gain access to our waterfront for recreation and leisure. This will make our area a magnet for even greater tourism which in turn increases our revenue. We must be open to expanding our interests in things for locals and visitors to do while they are visiting us. We also must seek and find ways to help people discover our current amenities by giving multiple options for transportation such as scooter and bike rentals in the city and sports rentals on the waterfront. There are other industries that we must pursue including robotics and cyber security.What should the city do with excess properties that it owns? Which properties should take priority? Do you believe certain city parks could be considered excess property?The number one consideration for excess properties in the coming years should be for affordable housing. This can be the best viable option to enhance current options toward making home ownership more affordable. This may also indicate the need for a land swap to accommodate the right private investors. There are nearly zero private investors who will build affordable housing in our area, it’s simply cost prohibitive without incentives. Great organizations like Habitat for Humanity cannot do it alone. We need many options on the table, not just excess properties. I absolutely love our city parks and very much recognize that our community has come to appreciate having nearly 100 of them. With so many parks, they can sometimes become a financial burden for the city to maintain or update for greater use. Think about it, when was the last time you saw a water irrigation system running at a city park. Currently all city parks are maintained by outside contractors. As a city, we need to assess all of our costs for upkeep and maintaining current services and amenities. The option to declare some city parks excess property must remain on the table.What is your vision for Pensacola’s waterfront properties (i.e. Port of Pensacola, Community Maritime Park, Bruce Beach, Bayview Park)?It has been a refreshing year relative to revenue at the Port of Pensacola. The port is a vital part of our city. The challenge now and in the future will be what specific industries are most appropriate at the port. We must ensure that we do not compromise our downtown quality of life and business climate for the sake of port revenue. As was recently discussed at a Pensacola City Council meeting, noise, smell, and tractor trailer traffic can be the most basic offenders. We must do due diligence for any potential tenant and industry.Bayview Park is a bit of a unique setting in comparison to other local city parks. The Bayview Resource Center, which is under construction, is designed to be an active and highly social building that also reinforces the importance of Bayou Texar as a natural asset. There will also be space for storage for kayak and rowing sculls to provide a home for paddle sports and non-motorized water activities. Bayview Park has tremendous waterfront views, picnic areas, tennis courts, children’s playground and soon to be a new large event space for the community. Bayview Park is for all to enjoy.Bruce Beach is home of the newly open waterfront kayak and paddleboard launch. It includes park benches, shaded picnic tables, and a sandy beach. It’s a great place to access the downtown waterfront. This is a big change in comparison to recent years of being overgrown and hidden from the public view. Today’s Bruce Beach is quite different from the 1950’s era of segregation when it became a beloved public place that black residents would utilize for serenity and relaxation. Bruce Beach was then a vibrant gathering place and was once home to the city’s only municipal pool. There is a lot of black history and stories to be told during this period. There were good and bad stories although it’s important history lessons for all of us. Ideally, those stories need a means to be told on site at Bruce Beach. Some residents feel this would be a great opportunity to house an educational building and museum on the property.Tourism is an integral part of Pensacola’s economy. What are the top 3 ways that the city can add value for the Pensacola business community with respect to rebuilding tourism and nurturing a positive tourist experience in Pensacola post COVID-19?I have given a lot of consideration and comments regarding tourism in previous questions. I would not want to duplicate those efforts here. The City of Pensacola will undoubtedly face significant revenue shortfalls because of the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic. In the current climate of the pandemic raging across many of our other states, we must be seen as a responsible community protecting public health throughout this crisis. Make no mistake, it is a crisis for Pensacola. We do not want to be seen as a city who disregards this crisis by making foolish decisions that leaves distain among our own residents. I believe the City of Pensacola can add value for the Pensacola business community by leaning forward to reach our greater potential by letting business leaders lead on the front lines with us because they will fight to survive. We are very fortunate that we have some reserve funds that will help us along the way. City leaders need to be very creative to help business owners bare the burden of this crisis.What is your vision for the various commerce parks or potential sites throughout our community?As reported by Florida West, Pensacola International Airport (PNS) Commerce Park, owned and operated by the City of Pensacola, is located at the largest airport between New Orleans and the Tampa Bay Region of Florida. PNS spans 1,400 acres with 350+ acres available for development. There are also 35 developable acres available with immediate airfield access. I would have to say that this is my favorite from other options. The convenience and access set it apart for me. It’s more expensive although it’s just perfect for the right tenants. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, what do you believe the city did well and what could they have done better? Please be specific. The City of Pensacola did well to partnership with local hospitals and the Department of Health to keep citizens informed and up to date through the media on the current infection statistics throughout this pandemic. The city was a leader in making testing accessible to any citizen who needed to be tested. The City of Pensacola and Escambia County were in partnership through much of this pandemic and even later were able to increase resources through the State of Florida. I think the City of Pensacola could have given more consistent rules and guidelines for the necessity of opening or closing of businesses for public health reasons. Operations / Infrastructure IssuesWhat do you consider to be the number one infrastructure concern for the City of Pensacola going forward, and how do you propose to address that concern? I cannot settle for just one infrastructure concern. Although in the spirit of the question, I would say that flooding is our biggest current and future challenge. We have very deteriorating, outdated infrastructure. We must stop paving over old underground infrastructure problems. We need to fix the problem correctly the first time. Street lights and sidewalks are at the top of my list too.Do you believe the city allocates sufficient resources for infrastructure projects? How would you prioritize these projects and fund them?No, the City of Pensacola does not allocate sufficient resources for infrastructure projects. We need to ensure that we have more consistency of addressing infrastructure issues by district.Do you see any overlap or duplication of services between the county and the city? If so, what services, and how could these services be consolidated?I think we need to administer a full assessment of overlap and duplication of services between the city and county. I would take a serious look at waste water management, recycling, and Pensacola Energy.There have been a number of joint government meetings over the past few years. What is your opinion of these meetings? What types of cooperative meetings would you like to see moving forward?I do not believe that recent joint government meetings have been very significant. It seems to be a fairly limited discussion that leads to little concrete action. I have given my further thoughts in previous questions.What would you change about the relationship between the Mayor’s Office and City Council (i.e. should the Mayor attend all city council meetings, etc.)? This is a very interesting question that always draws a lot of public comment. I will simply say there is a tremendous difference in leadership styles of our last two mayors. My experience over the last two years has been quite refreshing. Although the mayor is not a member of the Pensacola City Council, attendance should always happen unless there is a planned absence.What would your Five-Year Plan for the City of Pensacola look like?I currently do not have a Five-Year Plan for the City of Pensacola. In fact, there is no such plan available for even one year on the City of Pensacola website. However, upon election, I would deem that the newly constituted Pensacola City Council could have a public workshop to reach a consensus plan.What are your plans to increase affordable housing opportunities for city residents? As you may know, one Pensacola City Council member has a goal to complete 500 houses in 5 years. I don’t know that this is possible especially with the recent reporting from the Housing Task Force regarding affordability. We must seek and find multiple options and incentives to expand affordability. I would highly support making an incentive package for members of the Pensacola Police Department, Pensacola Fire, teachers, and even city government workers who appreciate the appeal and convenience of living within the City of Pensacola. Even with such incentives, it leaves much more work and resources to support citizens with other occupations. I have much more to say about this issue on my social media. ................
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