Events and Opinions

Santa Rosa County Needs Transparency in Government

Thus far this year the Pensacola News Journal (PNJ) has repeatedly pointed out unethical/illegal practices by our government officials. Some of these questionable practices follow:

PNJ 5/12/09 and 5/14/09 - These articles point out that the TEAM Santa Rosa Economic Development Council is being investigated by the State Attorney's Office for Sunshine Law and public records violations. According to the article, Pete Gandy, a former TEAM board member, helped draft a military consultant job description and Cindy Anderson, the TEAM Executive Director, suggested to Gandy in an email that the job description be buried on the TEAM's web site to limit the number of applicants. After helping to interview a candidate, Gandy withdrew from the hiring committee, offered himself for the job, and was chosen by the committee. Is this how we want our county officials to conduct business? Our County government is involved in this mess because the County contributes more than $500,000 per year to TEAM Santa Rosa. Where was the transparency in government when all of this was going on?

PNJ 7/09/09 - This article reports on Commissioner Gordon Goodin's failure to report a 2005 trip he made on developer Bill Pullum's plane to his private island. This trip has come to light now that Goodin, along with Commissioners Don Salter and Bob Cole, voted to purchase a land parcel for an industrial park for $3.2 million from Bill Pullum. The PNJ article doesn't mention the following questions, but they should have been asked before spending that kind of money. First, why does the County need another industrial park? Second, was due diligence completed on the value of the land, i.e., what does the County Appraiser say about the value of the land? Third, why did Goodin vote on this land purchase from a friend?

PNJ 9/1/09 - This article states that Commissioner Gordon Goodin could make as much as $275,000 from a S.R County Contract to Holly Dirt Co., which Goodin co-owns. Why does the PNJ have insight into these questionable situations going on in our County, while the County residents are kept in the dark? We need transparency in government!

As a start, to have transparency in our County government we should insist on the following:

1. Elected and appointed officials should fully disclose all of their business and financial holdings and relationships that could present a conflict of interest, and must agree to abstain from votes that affect their financial interests.
2. Elected board members should publicly explain their votes on major decisions.
3. Major policy decisions should always require a public hearing.
4. Public boards should ensure meaningful public input from the beginning and throughout any major decision making process.