Atmore’s Mayor, Three Council Members Face No Election Opposition
July 20, 2016
Atmore’s mayor and three incumbent council members are headed back into office for another term, while one incumbent council member faces opposition and a fifth is not seek re-election.
Qualifying ended Tuesday for Atmore’s municipal elections.
Four people are seeing the District 2 council seat held by Cornell Torrence, who did not qualify to seek another term. Hopefuls to replace him are Michael Arnold, Johnnie Jones, Russell Robinson and Jerome Webster.
Incumbent council member Chris Harrison will face Sandra Gray for the District 5 council seat.
Mayor Jim Staff, District 1 Councilman Web Nall, District 3 Councilman Chris Walker and District 4 Councilwoman Susan Smith are running without opposition and will return to office next term.
“I appreciate the people standing behind me and I look forward to the next four years serving the public,” Staff told NorthEscambia.com Tuesday night.
Pictured: Atmore Mayor Jim Staff, seen speaking to a crowd of Amtrak supporters last February, will serve another four years. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Putnam Breakfast Services Up Big Helping Of Politics
July 20, 2016
[CLEVELAND, OH] Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam hosted a “Florida Grown Breakfast” for the state’s Republican National Convention delegates Tuesday and sought to highlight some of the products he oversees.
But political futures and hot-button issues got most of the attention.
While the immediate focus at the convention is furthering real-estate mogul Donald Trump’s presidential bid in 2016, other political ambitions are often served or advanced during the four-day gathering held once every four years.
Former Republican Congressman Allen West addressed the largest elephant in the room when he stepped to the podium for the opening prayer. West began by talking about how Putnam got him an opportunity to speak before the U.S. House GOP caucus when West was considering a run for Congress.
“I want to tell you right now, when you decide to run for governor, I’ll be right there supporting you,” West told Putnam, setting off applause from the crowd.
Putnam is the front-runner for the GOP nomination for governor in 2018, when Gov. Rick Scott is forced out of office by term limits.
If, of course, Putnam runs.
After the breakfast, Putnam dodged a question about whether he would run, saying instead that he’s “having a ball as commissioner of agriculture.” But Putnam left little doubt he was considering a bid for governor.
“Florida’s a special place, and it’s special to me,” he said. “I’m a fifth-generation Floridian. I’m honored to have the ability to serve the state that I love and where I’m raising my family. We’ll have some decisions to make after this election.”
Putnam is hardly the only GOP official weighing his future. Scott is reportedly thinking about a campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in 2018. And potential down-ballot candidates are also starting to consider what to do.
Outgoing House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said Tuesday he would make a decision “over the next several months” about what his future in public office might be — with one likely option being a run to replace Putnam. Crisafulli comes from a family with deep roots in the state’s citrus industry.
For now, Crisafulli said he’s looking to finish his administrative duties as speaker before leaving office in November.
“I’ll have that opportunity to go home and speak more with my family about it,” he said of a future run. “There’s no secret that the commissioner of agriculture position is something that I’ve taken some interest in just because of my family background and history.”
But talk of political futures wasn’t the only thing that joined orange juice on the menu. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who lives in Florida and ran for the GOP presidential nomination this year, gave a speech aimed straight at the party loyalists gathered at the breakfast.
Carson slammed attacks on Trump that suggest the businessman’s outspoken style has gone too far. Carson labeled those complaints as part of a case of “political correctness” run amok. And he suggested those who believe in Islamic Sharia law have no place in America.
“If they want Sharia, then they need to stay in a country where Sharia is the law,” he said. “They do not need to bring Sharia into this country. Now, some people say that that’s being bigoted and that’s being Islamophobic — no. That’s being logical. That’s having common sense.”
Carson also criticized a push for greater rights for transgender people, comparing it to someone who read a book or watched a movie about Afghanistan and then decided to say they were from the area.
“For thousands of years, mankind has known what a man is and what a woman is,” he said. “And now, all of a sudden we don’t know.”
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who is seen as a potential presidential contender in 2020, spoke to the breakfast on several topics, including national security issues that dominated the convention Monday night.
Cotton blasted the Obama administration’s nuclear pact with Iran, which the White House says will limit the theocracy’s drive for a nuclear weapon but critics argue is too weak.
“If you want to know the future of Iran and their nuclear program, just look to North Korea,” Cotton said. “Because the last time a Clinton was in the White House, cut the same kind of deal with North Korea, and it took them only 12 years until they detonated a nuclear weapon.”
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Pictured: Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam held a Fresh from Florida breakfast in Cleveland Tuesday mornng for state’s Republican National Convention delegates. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Authorities Searching For Escaped Teen In Escambia County
July 20, 2016
Authorities are searching for a teen male who escaped from police Tuesday afternoon while be transported to a juvenile correctional facility.
Jajuan Millender managed to escape from a Pensacola Police officer about 1:40 p.m. as he was being taken inside the Department of Juvenile Justice on St. Mary Avenue. He was last seen wearing a red shirt and gray underwear but no pants or shoes.
Millender is described as a black male, about five feet, 10 inches tall and weighing 140 pounds.
He is wanted on multiple charges, including battery on a law enforcement officer, grand theft of a vehicle, resisting with violence and escape.
Anyone with information on Millender’s whereabouts is asked to call the Pensacola Police Department at (850) 435-1900 or their local law enforcement agency.
Lowery Marks 10 Years As Panhandle Equine Rescue President
July 20, 2016
Tuesday, Panhandle Equine Rescue celebrated 10 years under the leadership of Diane Lowery of Cantonment as the group’s president.
The only horse rescue in Escambia County, Panhandle Equine Rescue was founded in 2005 by a small group of concerned citizens with a mission to rescue, rehabilitate and provide adoption services for abused, neglected and abandoned equines. PER is authorized by the court system to investigate equine cruelty in Escambia County.
“I am honored that God has called me to do this. I’m hoping it is a long chapter of my life. And I appreciate everyone who stands behind and supports me. Without all of you this rescue would not have gone this far. Everyone plays a part and brings a certain something to the table and it all comes together to make this work. I am hoping that we can save many more lives in the future,” Lowery said.
For more information on Panhandle Equine Rescue, visit www.panhandleequinerescue.org.
Video: Ernest Ward’s Deputy Gill Named State SRO Of The Year
July 19, 2016
The school resource officer at Ernest Ward Middle School, Senior Deputy Ronnie Gill, was named Florida’s School Resource Officer of the Year by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
For more, click here for an earlier story.
The following video, produced by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, takes a look at Deputy Gill:
If you do not see the video above, it is because your home, work or school firewall is blocking YouTube videos.
Firefighters Save Cantonment Home
July 19, 2016
Quick work by Escambia Fire Rescue limited the damage from a Cantonment house fire Tuesday morning.
The Cantonment and Ensley stations of Escambia Fire Rescue arrived to a working fire in the home in the 1800 block of Peaches Lane just before 7:30 a.m.. They were able to swiftly knock the fire down and save the remainder of the home.
There were no injuries reported. There was not immediate word on the cause of the fire.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Ernest Ward’s Ronnie Gill Named Florida SRO Of The Year; Escambia SRO Unit Also Honored
July 19, 2016
Senior Deputy Ronnie Gill, school resource officer at Ernest Ward Middle School, has been name the top SRO in Florida, and the Escambia County’s SRO Unit has been named the best in the state.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Florida Association of School Resource Officers Monday named Gill the 2016 School Resource Officer of the Year. Gill is a 14-year veteran of the office.
For a video featuring Gill, click here.
“Deputy Gill goes above and beyond to not only ensure the safety of students at the school he serves, but to also provide guidance to the youth in his community,” said Bondi. “Resource officers play a vital role in the lives of students on a daily basis, and I am honored to name Deputy Gill the 2016 School Resource Officer of the Year.”
Attorney General Bondi and FASRO present the School Resource Officer of the Year award annually to a Florida officer who demonstrates dedication and tireless work ethic to enhance the lives of the students they serve.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office SRO unit was honored as the “Unit of the Year” by Bondi and the FASRO.
The awards were presented Monday at a Sheriff’s Youth Camp in Naples, FL.
In 1985, the Attorney General’s Office developed the first 40-hour Basic Training Course adopted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to train school resource officers with the basic knowledge and skills necessary to implement crime prevention programming in a school setting. Together, the Attorney General’s Office, the Florida Association of School Resource Officers, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Department of Education jointly provided a number of trainings throughout the years to develop effective prevention programs and strategies for students and campuses. Each year, applications for the School Resource Officer of the Year are submitted to the Attorney General’s Office for review.
Pictured top: Senior Deputy Ronnie Gill (center) from Ernest Ward Middle School was named the School Resource Officer of the Year by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Pictured inset: Gill’s award and certificate. Pictured below: The Escambia County SRO Unit was named “Unit of the Year” in Florida. Pictured second below: Gill and his children, Tyler and Haley. Pictured third down: Gill and his granddaughter. Pictured fourth down: Gill at a youth camp. Pictured bottom: Gill at this year’s youth camp. Photos for NorthEscambia.co, click to enlarge.
Century’s Mayor: ‘I Violated The Law’ With Work On Private Road
July 19, 2016
Century Mayor Freddie McCall told his town council Monday night that he may have broken the law with work he had performed on a private road in the town. But questions remain as to the actual status of the road and if the mayor really broke the law.
McCall said that about six to eight months ago, he had a load of dirt dumped into washed out areas on Ashford Alley, a dirt roadway off Jefferson Avenue.
“I made a mistake and dumped a load of dirt,” McCall said. “I violated the law before.”
Recently, a resident approached McCall and requested additional maintenance on the road. He said recent research found that Century does not have a deeded right-of-way or easement on Ashford Alley according to Escambia County Property Appraiser records.
Monday night he asked the town council to consider acquiring an easement and making repairs to Ashford Alley, a process that he said will cost about $1,000.
The mayor said the town may already have a valid claim to an easement because the town had previously maintained the road for several years, and the town has been paying for a street light for 15 or more years on Ashford Alley. Florida law allows a city to assert ownership of certain rights-0f-way under Florida law if the city has maintained the road for more than seven years.
The Century Town Council agreed to have their attorney research the issue and report back.
McCall said two families live on Ashford Alley.
Pictured above: Ashford Alley. Pictured below: Century Mayor Freddie McCall addresses the Century Town Council Monday night. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
FWC Law Enforcement Report
July 19, 2016
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekly period ending July 14 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
Officers Manning and Allgood arrested a subject on a warrant for failure to appear in court on a recent fisheries case. Earlier this summer, Officer Allgood arrested the subject for interfering with an FWC officer. The individual threw red snapper out of the boat when Officer Allgood attempted to check his catch. This was the second time the individual was charged with the same violation this year.
Lieutenant Hahr was working enhanced patrol in the Perdido River Wildlife Management Area (WMA) when he observed a truck drive off of the road and enter a muddy area. The driver intentionally spun the vehicle’s tires and created deep ruts in the mud. The driver was charged with damaging state lands with a motor vehicle.
Officers Manning and Allgood patrolled federal waters this week. Together they documented 21 federal violations. Some of the cases included possession of red snapper and triggerfish during closed season, failure to land king mackerel in whole condition, and possession of undersized and over-the-bag limit of vermillion snapper.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
Officer Lewis was on patrol in the Blackwater River WMA at a primitive campsite when he observed 11 juveniles on a sandbar. He approached the group and could smell cannabis amongst the group. He observed that one of the subjects in the group appeared to have recently smoked cannabis. The subject admitted to smoking cannabis and removed a glass smoking pipe containing cannabis residue and a clear plastic baggy containing cannabis. Officer Lewis cited the juvenile with possession of cannabis not more than 20 grams and possession of drug paraphernalia.
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.
Frustrated Police, Black Leaders Seek Answers After Shootings
July 19, 2016
In the aftermath of fatal attacks on police in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La., black leaders say Florida — which has a long and ugly history of racism — has reached a race-relations crossroads.
Meanwhile, one sheriff says the African-American community needs to “mature” as law enforcement officials seek to keep a lid on the violence that has erupted in other states.
Race relations in Florida, where lynchings of black men were once almost commonplace, have reached a low point as a result of a growing distrust — and outright fear — of law enforcement officers, black leaders told The News Service of Florida in a series of telephone interviews Monday.
The tension is fed by videos documenting black men sitting in their cars or crossing the street — some of them unarmed — being shot dead by police across the country.
“I have not seen the kind of anger and agitation and unrest and paranoia and frustration across the board that I see now,” the Rev. R.B. Holmes, pastor of Tallahassee’s Bethel Missionary Baptist Church said.
Florida sheriffs are reaching out to leaders in the black community while also taking additional measures to beef up protection for their own.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, a former state representative who was a Miami-Dade County police officer during race riots that engulfed urban Miami in 1980, said he is exploring the purchase of “tactical rifles” for all of his deputies and holding training sessions with local businesses and schools, if requested.
Snyder met recently with a dozen black leaders, will hold a town hall meeting later in the week in a largely African-American neighborhood and is taking to social media to address concerns, he said.
But he also blamed black activists for contributing to the tension.
“I could be politically correct and say yes, we have to continue the dialogue, which we do, which I’m doing. But the African-American community must mature and deal with the reality that they have too many young black males that are aggressive and hateful and racist themselves who are consistently making the lives of the average deputy or police officer untenable. And that’s a fact,” Snyder said.
Snyder echoed the frustration of other law enforcement officers who feel they’ve been painted with the same brush as a handful of rogue cops caught on camera but who don’t represent the actions of the vast majority of nearly 1 million men and women policing the streets around the nation.
While much of the focus has been on the growing dissatisfaction of people being policed, Snyder’s comments represent what may also be a tipping point for those on the other side of the thin blue line.
“If they continue shoving cameras into our faces and calling us names and agitating and trying to create anarchy in their neighborhoods, they may end up winning the day, but the people are not going to be happy with what they get,” he said.
Many law enforcement officials, including Snyder, are looking to spiritual leaders like Holmes to help keep the situation in Florida from exploding.
“I’ve talked with many spiritual leaders across the country, in the state and city about a need to continue to call for strategic ways to strengthen police and community relations,” Holmes said.
Black pastors are organizing a “Solidarity Sunday” to show support for law enforcement and to “encourage the community to not turn on police officers but to turn to them with a spirit of love, unity and respect,” Holmes said.
But Dale Landry, vice president of the Florida branch of the NAACP, said black leaders are tired of being called upon by white officials to quell possible unrest.
“It starts to get ugly when that’s the only time you’re invited to the party, when they flash the ‘black man’ light,” Landry said, using the Batman superhero phone as an analogy.
Landry said there is “a malignancy of fear spreading among black people” about the police. He speaks about calls from mothers concerned about what might happen to their adult sons — some with sons of their own — when they travel to work or to the store.
“People have no faith anymore,” Landry, a retired law enforcement officer, said. “Right now, no lives matter in police hands.”
Landry is pushing a local referendum to create a citizens’ review board to oversee policing in Leon County and is urging other communities to pass similar initiatives.
Holmes advocates for broad-based advances — including better schools, doing away with predatory lending and making it easier for ex-felons to get jobs — to counter the despair in some urban communities.
“There is a feeling of hopeless, and when a person feels hopeless, they will ambush anyone, police, politicians, parents principals, whatever,” the pastor said.
Florida was ranked number one in police killings of unarmed individuals last year, according to Umi Selah, the mission director for the Dream Defenders, a black rights organization that pre-dates the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
“So if you’re looking for a place where this is to happen, you can, with a reasonable amount of certainty, think that Florida will be amongst those places like something like that occurs and people don’t react in a calm peaceful way to it,” said Selah, whose group coalesced after the death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman near Orlando in 2012.
While his group does not advocate violence, Selah said the country’s foundation is rooted in violence.
“The chickens are coming home to roost,” he said. “With the amount of video evidence that we have, the amount of information that has been released that was redacted, you see very clearly the level of violence instigated by this country. So there should be no confusion about the fact that now people find the only solution in violence.”
But Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said he does not believe the state is at a tipping point.
“There’s a saying that perception’s reality. Whether people are actually being treated in a certain way is different than whether they are, but if there is a perception on their part, then that’s a problem. That needs to be dealt with,” he said. “Law enforcement needs to do the best job we can, and in some cases a better job, about being transparent and about helping people to understand what we do, how we do it, why we do it.”
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings, who serves as the head of the Florida Sheriffs Association, said the Black Lives Matter movement — which some blame for violence against police — is “not going away.”
At the same time, Demings, who is black, said the majority of African Americans support law enforcement in their communities.
He urged both sides to “tone down the rhetoric” and strengthen the relationships between law enforcement and other members of the community, including clergy.
“We’ll get through this time just like we always have,” Demings said. “A respect for honest differences is a healthy sign of process. …When we get to know each other, we can break down some of those stereotypes. I believe the overwhelming majority of people want to resolve the conflicts, if they care about their community.”
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida