Atwater Exits CFO Job Worth Nearly $2.6 Million
June 29, 2017
Florida’s outgoing chief financial officer is leaving the Cabinet position more than $1 million richer than when he first campaigned for the statewide job.
Jeff Atwater, who exits Friday for a job at Florida Atlantic University with more than a year remaining in his term as CFO, posted a net worth of nearly $2.6 million as of Dec. 31, 2016, according to a financial disclosure report posted this week on the Florida Commission on Ethics’ website.
When he first ran for the statewide office in 2010, his estimated net worth stood at almost $1.6 million.
Among the biggest changes for the former banker from North Palm Beach since then was trading in the longtime family home for waterfront property in the same neighborhood in 2014.
In 2014, Atwater reported the value of the former family home as $345,065, up from its appraised value of $267,000 during the 2010 campaign. The new homestead — with a two-car garage, pool and its own dock — was valued at $750,000 when purchased in 2014. In the latest report, the home was appraised at $909,000.
Atwater, a Senate president before seeking the statewide office, said he earned roughly $128,161 last year from his state job and another $37,562 in deferred payments from Bank of America, the bank that took over his former employer, Barnett Bank.
Atwater also has more than $1.2 million tied to a Northern Trust IRA account, according to his latest report.
Next week, he will begin work as a vice president at Boca Raton-based FAU, managing finances and economic development.
Replacing Atwater will be former Public Service Commissioner Jimmy Patronis, who was appointed to the job on Monday by Gov. Rick Scott.
As a member of the commission since 2015, Patronis — a family restaurateur from Panama City who resigned as a utility regulator on Sunday — wasn’t required to list his personal net worth or the estimated values of his personal holdings in his disclosures.
But in his final year as a member of the Florida House, Patronis’ financial disclosure listed a net worth of nearly $5.8 million as of Dec. 31, 2013.
At that time, interests tied to the family partnership that owns the landmark Capt. Anderson’s Restaurant in Panama City were collectively worth about $4.5 million. Meanwhile, property he personally owns in Panama City, Lynn Haven, Washington County, Panama City Beach and Tallahassee were then collectively valued at just over $1.1 million.
Atwater is the second member of the current Cabinet to submit a financial disclosure for the current year. Attorney General Pam Bondi reported a net worth of $1.7 million as of Dec. 31, 2016.
Annual reports for Gov. Rick Scott and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, a candidate for governor in 2018, have yet to be submitted.
The reports are due July 3.
Instrument Petting Zoo At The Library Summer Reading Program
June 29, 2017
The Pensacola Symphony Orchestra presented their Instrument Petting Zoo Wednesday morning during the Summer Reading Program at the Century Branch Library. Participants had an opportunity to learn about different instruments and try their hand at playing several. The Orchestra will present their program again Thursday at 11 a.m. at the Molino Branch Library and 3 p.m. at the Tryon Branch Library.
Photos by August Whorff for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Byrneville Elementary Installs New Security Window
June 29, 2017
Byrneville Elementary School recently installed a new security window. The shatter-resistant glass provides a first line of defense between any problem that might arise in the school lobby and the main office. The cost of the window was about $930. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Sunday’s Child Announces Winners Of $128,500 In Grant Awards
June 29, 2017
After a rigorous review process, five Pensacola Bay Area non-profits have been awarded $128,500 in grant awards from Sunday’s Child, a Pensacola Bay Area nonprofit that promotes LGBT acceptance and inclusion.
The awards were announced after a live vote at the Pensacola philanthropic organization’s third annual membership meeting held Sunday at Pensacola’s Community Maritime Park.
The organizations that are recipients of $25,700 each are Manna Food Pantries, Independence for the Blind, Friends of Escambia County Animal Shelter, Pensacola United Methodist Community Ministries, and the Children’s Home Society of Florida.
Launched in 2014, Sunday’s Child is made up of members that donate $1,000 annually, which goes toward grant awards determined by the votes of members. The group places an emphasis on grants to nonprofit organizations and initiatives that place value on diversity, inclusion, and equality in the Pensacola Bay Area of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
“Leading change and acceptance of others is our main mission,” said Dr. Chuck Presti, founder and outgoing president of Sunday’s Child. “With the award this year of $128,500 in grants to five deserving non-profits, we’ve shown just how much the citizens of the Pensacola Bay Area care about diversity in their communities.”
The five grants will go directly to the nonprofit recipients, funding a broad range of projects and activities. Manna’s winning proposal will fund the development and construction of a climate-controlled dry room within the organization’s new headquarters and distribution facility. The room will be large enough to allow space for repackaging bulk items as well as storage for more than 30 pallets of dry food that is distributed weekly to nearly 900 families in the Pensacola Bay Area.
Independence for the Blind, the only nonprofit entirely devoted to educating the blind and visually impaired in Northwest Florida, will utilize grant dollars to build their SOAR (Safe Outdoor Area for Recreation) project. The project will span a half-acre and will be developed into a safe, appropriate place for blind children, teens, and adults to engage in physical activity. Included within the project is the purchasing of custom sports equipment for blind youth, a new watering system, recreational facilities, and three new raised garden beds.
Friends of the Escambia County Animal Shelter will purchase a transport van to allow the support organization to transport animals from over-capacity local animal shelters to areas of the country less burdened with pet overpopulation. The transport will connect to the established Puppy Pipeline in Hoover, Alabama, where pets are professionally transported to no-kill shelters in other locations where there is a high demand for adoptable pets.
Pensacola United Methodist Community Ministries will benefit from the purchase of a new state-of-the-art walk-in refrigeration unit to assist in the charity’s mission to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of people suffering from hunger within Pensacola’s Brownsville community and the Pensacola Bay Area. The new unit will greatly reduce food spoilage and will expand the efficiencies of more than 20,000 hot meals annually at their Brownsville facility.
With their grant dollars, the Children’s Home Society of Florida will be able to expand their services to care for the thousands of children in the Pensacola Bay Area who are malnourished and alone. Their project will support securing host homes for runaway and homeless youth, including those who have behavior challenges, identify as LGBT, are pregnant, parenting, or human trafficking victims. The project will support a recruiter to participate in outreach and innovative marketing strategies to recruit, secure, and train host families willing to parent homeless youth. Sunday’s Child funding will also provide direct street outreach to area youth.
“Our goal with the award of these grants is to promote a community that embraces diversity, especially among LGBT citizens,” said Drew Buchanan, vice president of Sunday’s Child. “Each non-profit awarded grants today has proven they are being proactive in promoting diversity and embracing inclusiveness within their organizations and the communities they serve.”
Funding for the charitable grants comes from $1,000 contributions from individual and ensemble group memberships. Sunday’s Child has grown to more than 150 members since its founding and with this year’s awards, the organization will have awarded more than $230,000 to Pensacola Bay Area non-profits since 2015.
State Line Manhunt Ends With Suspects In Custody
June 28, 2017
An early Wednesday morning manhunt involving officers from two states ended with two car burglary suspects headed to jail.
The Escambia County (AL) Sheriff’s Office became involved in a vehicle chase along Highway 31 in Nokomis during the 3 o’clock hour. The suspect, identified as 19-year old Eric John Williams, ran his car into a ditch alongside Highway 31 at James Road, about a mile north of the Alabama/Florida state line. Williams ran from the scene on foot, prompting the manhunt. Another passenger in the vehicle, Bryson Williams, 18, was taken into custody.
Law enforcement officers from Alabama and Florida surrounded the area, including James Road, Deere Creek Road and Pineville Road in Alabama and Jones Road, North Pineville Road and Jakes Road in Florida.
Williams was taken into custody just after 6 a.m. Both Williams subjects were wanted in connection with car burglaries and thefts. Eric Williams is expected to face additional charges for fleeing from deputies Wednesday morning.
Further details have not yet been released.
Century Man Charged With Attacking Pregnant Girlfriend
June 28, 2017
A Century man is facing multiple felony charges after allegedly attacking his pregnant girlfriend.
Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to Hatties Boulevard in Century where they were advised that McCants had attacked his pregnant girlfriend before fleeing in a vehicle. The victim told deputies that McCants began to hit her with an open hand before punching her in the face. She picked up her cellphone in order to call 911, but he grabbed it and broke it by throwing it to the ground. She said McCants continued to slap and punch her before placing his hand over her month and nose, making it difficult to breathe.
Deputies located McCants at a residence on Old Flomaton Raod. As soon they made contact with him, McCants began to physically resist arrest, an ECSO report states.
The victim told deputies that she has been living with McCants for a year and a half, and McCants was with her at the hospital in June when she learned that she was a pregnant with his child.
McCants was charged with aggravated battery offender should have known the victim was pregnant, domestic battery by strangulation, tampering with a victim (preventing a 911 call), resisting a law enforcement officer with violence, petit theif and criminal mischief.
McCants remained in the Escambia County Jail Wednesday with bond set at $27,866.
FWC Law Enforcement Report
June 28, 2017
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekly period ending June 22 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
(No report received from Escambia County.)
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
Officer Ramos was on vessel patrol in the Santa Rosa Sound and conducted a boating safety and resource inspection on a vessel he saw returning from offshore fishing. The officer discovered that the individuals had harvested regulated fish species that included six red snapper, three of which appeared to be under the legal 16‑inch size limit. Officer Ramos asked the boat operator how they measured their fish. The operator showed the officer a homemade ruler he constructed using tape. Officer Ramos showed the individual that his homemade tape ruler was an inch short compared to a certified metal ruler. The three, undersized snapper measured 15 inches each. The operator was cited accordingly.
Officer Ramos received information from a resident that an individual on a boat was harvesting oysters in a closed area in Blackwater Bay. After gathering details from the complainant, Officer Ramos saw the individual in an area closed for the harvesting of oysters. A boating safety and resource inspection was conducted and the individual admitted he was intentionally smashing oysters and their attached mollusks to attract fish that he could catch with fishing poles. The man received one boating safety warning and was charged for harvesting oysters in a prohibited area.
This report represents some events the FWC handled over the past week; however, it does not include all actions taken by the Division of Law Enforcement. Information provided by FWC.
NorthEscambia.com photo.
Ancient Forest Uncovered In The Gulf Of Mexico
June 28, 2017
The Underwater Forest, a new documentary by journalist Ben Raines and produced by This is Alabama, details the discovery and exploration of an ancient cypress forest found 60 feet underwater in the Gulf of Mexico, due south of Gulf Shores.
The forest dates to an ice age more than 60,000 years ago, when sea levels were about 400 feet lower than they are today. Scientist believe the forest was uncovered by Hurricane Ivan.
Watch the video (28 mins) below, or click here for YouTube.
Robinson: Pensacola Should Find Way To Keep Cross
June 28, 2017
by Escambia County Commissioner Grover Robinson
Do we practice what we preach? We hold ourselves as Americans out to acknowledge that we are open and tolerant and founded on principals of freedom. We drape ourselves in the Bill of Rights to protect the things we want but do we truly protect those things we don’t like.
Recently, Pensacola has found itself at the center of a national debate related to a cross which has stood for more than 60 years in Bayview Park. While the arguments have focused on who is right, they should have been focused what kind of community do we want to create?
The very beginning of European settlements in what is now known as the United States is centered on religious freedom and tolerance, just look at the Pilgrims, Rhode Island, Maryland and Pennsylvania. However, in each of those settlements, it would have totally been expected that symbols could and would have been displayed.
While I firmly and steadfastly support the religious freedom and the prohibition of a national religion in our Bill of Rights, a cross is not the establishment of a religion. It is a symbol related to a religion. There are symbols to religion and other principals throughout our public buildings and parks in Pensacola, much less than places like Washington DC that is totally created on symbols.
Supposedly we now have to remove a symbol because one person was offended. This is a misapplication of the law. No symbol is universally liked. Let’s take the most popular symbol in NW Florida, the Blue Angels on the Escambia County seal. While I know the Blues are love here, I know in less than 3 hours, I could find 4 people who are offended by that symbol, the same number who filed suit against the cross.
This brings us to the real question, how tolerant are we and what is the community we want to create?
While Christianity is a majority now, its history has not always been that way. At times, Christian symbols have had to vary to prevent its believers from persecution. Yes, the US judiciary now has joined some of the best autocratic Caesars, like Nero, Caligula and Diocletian, who have disallowed Christian symbols.
My point is no symbol, religious, national, ethnic or cultural, is universally liked, but they are all important to the people that are represented by them. No one says anyone has to like a symbol. The only thing that should be embraced for us to create the unique and great country our founders
envisioned is that we should tolerate the symbols of others. We are a better community when we do that and we are more likely to find unity in respect than in division.
We have real problems in Pensacola and the United States. Removing symbols that mean something to people in our community does nothing to help us find solutions or unity. Instead it creates division and distrust that makes solutions harder to find. Whether business or politics, I have never had a problem working with anyone who is represented by a different symbol than me. However, if someone can not respect the symbols that represent me, then that severs our ability to move forward together in relationship.
I don’t need you to think the way I do or to come from the same background or believe the same things as me for us to be friends and work together. All I need is for you to respect me and tolerate my symbols as I will do for you. That is what lies at the heart of the Bill of Rights, respect, and that is what has been lost in Washington DC and in our judicial rulings.
If we truly believe in tolerance and diversity, then the cross should stay. Otherwise, are we really as open and tolerant and supportive of freedom as we say? I support the cross staying and I hope Pensacola will find a way to ensure it does for we are better when we respect than when we remove.
Florida Democrats On Offensive Over Health Care Fight
June 28, 2017
Even as the U.S. Senate delayed a planned procedural vote Tuesday on a controversial Republican plan to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, the proposal was roiling Florida’s political landscape ahead of the 2018 elections.
Democrats running for the Senate and in the state’s governor’s race hammered away at the GOP, suggesting that they saw a chance to go on the offensive over an issue that has dogged them for years. Republicans running in the marquee contests, meanwhile, seemed to be doing everything they could to take a definitive stand on the legislation.
At the heart of the controversy is a bill that, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, would lead to 22 million fewer Americans having health insurance in 2026 than would be the case under current law.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., unveiled the bill last week as part of the GOP’s longstanding promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. McConnell and other GOP leaders had hoped to advance the bill with a key vote Wednesday, but pulled the plug after it became clear the move would fail.
By then, Democrats were already blasting away at Republican candidates in Florida over the measure, underscoring changes in Medicaid spending and the reductions in tax credits for some low-income workers. The attacks suggested Democrats now see Obamacare, which had generally hurt the party since 2010 but has recently increased in popularity, as a net positive.
Former Congresswoman Gwen Graham, a Democrat who’s running for governor, labeled the Republican bill “heartless” as she delivered more than 4,000 petitions against “Trumpcare,” named for President Donald Trump, to the Florida Capitol office of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
Graham also blasted term-limited Republican Gov. Rick Scott for not agreeing to Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, and expressed hope that the GOP bill wouldn’t pass.
“But if that does happen, then we’re going to need an even better governor here in Florida,” she said. “The one we’ve had … should not be able to sleep at night.”
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, one of Graham’s opponents for the Democratic nomination, called for an amendment to the Florida Constitution that would recognize health care as “a fundamental right of all Floridians.”
“There is a public trust for the government to care for its citizens, and our state can no longer be ambiguous about that moral obligation,” Gillum said in a statement issued by his campaign. “When healthcare is under attack in Washington, we’re going to lean into the challenge of healthcare in the Sunshine State and live our values.”
Highlighting the potential differences that exist even within the party, Graham was equivocal Tuesday when asked whether she would support such an amendment, stressing her support for a public option in the state.
“I think health care is a right,” she said. “But I want to make sure the way we go about it is doable.”
Winter Park businessman Chris King, the third declared Democratic candidate for governor, didn’t comment publicly on the bill Tuesday, but has in the past criticized a previous version passed by the House and attacked Scott and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam for not taking a stance on the bill.
Putnam is the only major, declared Republican candidate for governor in 2018. A spokeswoman said Tuesday that Putnam’s campaign had no comment about his position on the bill.
American Bridge, a Democratic campaign organization, said Monday that Putnam was “complicit” in the federal legislation.
“If Adam Putnam wants to be governor, he should come out and propose a plan of his own instead of hiding behind this disaster of a bill that gives tax breaks to the wealthiest few at the expense of Floridians’ health,” said Lizzy Price, a spokeswoman for the group.
Scott spent Tuesday in Washington, D.C., lobbying federal officials on the legislation while dancing around questions about his position during television appearances.
“I think it’s very important to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Scott told business channel CNBC when asked whether he would vote for the bill. “I’m up here as a governor. I don’t have a vote. I’m up here as a governor trying to make sure the bill is good for Florida families. I know the bill is a work in progress.”
That didn’t stop U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat likely to face a re-election challenge from Scott next year, from trying to tie his would-be opponent to the bill.
“Rick Scott is supporting and urging Republican senators to vote for a bill that makes huge cuts to Medicaid, takes coverage away from 22 million people and allows insurance companies to hike rates for older Americans,” Nelson said in a statement issued by his office. “If he really cared about the people of Florida, he’d be doing the exact opposite of what he’s doing now.”
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida