April 30, 2021
Escambia County has self-reported a Sunshine Law violation by the library board to the State Attorney’s Office.
For now, prosecutors won’t take any action against four members of the West Florida Public Libraries Board of Governance for a meeting they held Monday in Century.
“We are not taking any action at this point, but there clearly was an apparent violation,”Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille told NorthEscambia.com Thursday afternoon.
The meeting was advertised for the Main Library downtown, not Century. Florida’s Sunshine Law requires that adequate public notice be given for public meetings, including time and the correct location. When NorthEscambia.com notified the board of the discrepancy in the legal notice, the board continued the meeting for a short period of time. And that, according to the State Attorney’s Office, is where they went wrong.
April 26, 2021
Escambia County working for force people out of a home in Century.
The property a 511 Hecker Road escheated to the county in January, becoming county property after taxes were not paid for seven years.
The total amount owed as of January was $22,516.71, according to Escambia County Tax Collector Scott Lunsford. The taxes were owed by joint property owners Shawanda Newton, Latoya Redmond, Lalita Simpson, Earwin Newton and Amber Redmond, according to the tax deed.
Lunsford said no one ever purchased a tax certificate on the property to give them claim to the property, so it escheated to Escambia County. That zeroed out the taxes due.
Escambia County s long legal battle with the former District 1 medical examiner is finally over.
The Escambia County Commission on Thursday evening approved a settlement deal with former Medical Examiner Andrea Minyard that will result in the county receiving $71,610.
The complex settlement arrangement involves two separate lawsuits.
The first part of the agreement calls for all four counties that make up the District 1 medical examiner Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton paying Minyard $51,692 for her claim against the four counties alleging unfair pay.
The second part of the settlement calls for Minyard to take those funds and pay Escambia County $71,610 over a lawsuit involving unaccounted cremation fees and the use of county-funded equipment for non-medical examiner business with her company Gulf Coast Autopsy Physicians.
Escambia County may be the next party to file a lawsuit against Skanska over its runaway barges during Hurricane Sally.
The Escambia County Commission on Thursday night unanimously approved retaining the partnership of the three law firms of Levin Papantonio Rafferty; Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz; and Beggs & Lane to pursue all civil remedies to recover the damages the county suffered from the loss of the Pensacola Bay Bridge.
Mark Bartlett, risk manager for the county, told the commission they were still in talks with the insurance group representing Skanska. In our last conversation last week, I told them that we will not miss any deadlines for filing any proper paperwork in court, and we will not jeopardize our legal avenues, Bartlett said. With that being said, I also expressed a desire to have an ongoing and transparent dialogue with them to see if we can come up with a solution to try not to go through the cumbersome court process.