The Ultimate Insider Has Spoken

"Sheriff-elect David Morgan has put the brakes on a $22.7 million land purchase.


On Dec. 18, Escambia County and Pensacola Junior College are scheduled to close on a purchase of 684 acres of land, which was to become a regional training facility for police, fire and emergency management personnel. It was to include a state-of-the-art gun-firing range.

Sheriff Ron McNesby had supported the county putting aside an $11 million gift to PJC for the project, and it was matched by PJC through a state grant.

“Because of the county’s gift, the county sheriff has a right to say what is done there,” said attorney Thomas J. Gilliam Jr., representing PJC in the land deal.

However, Morgan recently told County Administrator Bob McLaughlin “he felt his resources as the new sheriff could be better spent in other ways and that he does not believe in the merits of the project,” McLaughlin said this morning.

So county commissioners this morning voted 3 to 1 — with Grover C. Robinson IV opposed and Chairman Marie Young absent — to cancel the project and get the county’s money back. The $11 million state grant would go back to the state.

The action is pending a meeting McLaughlin plans to have with Morgan on Dec. 15, in which some commissioners hope Morgan will change his mind.

If the county delays the process of closing on Dec. 18, it will cost the county $200,000. That’s why commissioners beleived it was best to cancel it, pending Morgan possibly changing his mind.

“I cannot in good conscience support a $200,000 penalty on the county,” said Commissioner Gene Valentino, who motioned to cancel the project.

Morgan will be sworn in as sheriff on Jan. 6."

I thought his platform was based on training and professionalism? I guess when you are dumb enough to make David Craig a member of your admin so he can blab ECSO politics all over town and to the media you might make a mistake or few!! To bad many people waisted their vote on a man who won't be able to get anything done cause very few honest people in local law enforcement support him or have any faith in his abilities. The "Chair Force" does not make police officers, they make security guards.