Sherri Myers wants to shake up the Pensacola mayor's office

Sherri Myers has not been afraid to shake things up since being elected to the City Council in 2010. Now, she is looking to shake up the mayor's office.

"I have a lot of concerns about the form of government we have," Myers said. "I think that's really and truly the most important issue facing the citizens of Pensacola. Because (under) this form of government, I have seen the excesses and abuses of it, and it's really scary. We have the strongest strong-mayor form of government, I believe, in the state of Florida."

Myers said if she's elected mayor, she will work to make the mayor's office more transparent than it is now, and she would push to make the mayor a sitting member of the council so the mayor could not lobby council members behind closed doors.

"The mayor only has to convince four council members to support or derail an issue, and that has been something that I have witnessed a lot," Myers said.

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Myers was involved in city politics before she won the election in 2010, helping form the Parker Circle Neighborhood Association, serving on the first Escambia County Mass Transit Advisory Committee and advocating for more accessibility access through her work with the Pensacola's Center for Independent Living.

Myers grew up in the 1950s in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, in public housing, and that experience drove her toward activism. Myers went to college at David Lipscomb College in Nashville and became an advocate in the city, fighting for better housing.

In 1969, she joined a group of other women to organize one of the nation's first rape crisis centers and went to Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C., to obtain a law degree so she could represent battered women in court.

Myers continued using her law degree to help people, including running a free legal clinic in Nashville and later working at Legal Service of Northwest Florida, where she worked on environmental issues.

Working with mayor's office

Meet Sherri Myers: Candidate, Pensacola mayor

During her time on City Council, Myers has often clashed with the mayor's office, believing it did not share enough information with City Council. Myers supported Grover Robinson in his run for mayor, but after four years Myers rarely speaks with Robinson, usually only at council meetings.

Despite tensions with the mayor's office, Myers praises the work of city staff, and the openness of city staff is a positive mark she credits to Robinson.

"If I'm elected mayor, I think I am going into that position with a great staff of people," Myers said. "We have very competent people who are assistant city administrators like Amy Lovoy and David Forte. They've just been incredible to work with, and I have a lot of access to them unlike under a previous administration when you had to go through the city administrator."

Myers said she believes the city needs to pass a "Whistleblower Protection Act" model after the state law that protects whistleblowers in government agencies from retribution.

"I think all employees should be able to without fear of retribution, let us know when there's fraud, waste, corruption, or things that should not be in our city government," Myers said.

Myers said she would attempt to pass such an act before she leaves the council in November, but if she is unsuccessful, it will be a top priority for her new administration.

Myers also said she would like to see a code of ethics created and an ethics board to enforce it modeled after Tallahassee's.

"They limit the amount a person can contribute to a campaign to $250 per election," Myers said. "That's incredible. Now, one of the big problems we have here is the huge amount of money one candidate has been able to amass. Listen, when Ashton Hayward ran the first time for mayor, and the second time, we thought it was a big deal when you raised $100,000. That's nothing. Now we're seeing that you have to be well connected financially to the rich, the powerful and the well connected to run for mayor."

The current limit for campaign contributions to city candidates is $1,000.

Equity for residents

Myers said the center of her administration would be to improve the equity of city government for all residents.

Myers noted that her District 2 has only received 1.3% of local option sales tax, with a large portion of that going to a $3 million project for sidewalks and drainage along Burgess Road that she fought for almost 11 years to get implemented.

Myers said all city streets should be safe and have streetlights.

"When we look at funding streetlights, we need to look at who's been getting them and who hasn't been getting them," Myers said. "That's the whole idea about equity."

Addressing homelessness is a huge and complex topic, Myers said, but one of the things she believes needs to be done is for the city to build more public bathroom spaces and make accommodations for people who may be living in their cars.

"What happens when people are homeless and living outside, they're using the bathroom outside," Myers said. "This has been a big issue on Carpenters Creek."

Myers said the city is using American Rescue Plan Act funds to address homelessness and now that the money is being distributed, there needs to be accountability for how it's being spent.

She said she is most worried about the population that may have special needs or disabilities and cannot access a typical homeless shelter.

"We need to be doing more collaboration with Escambia County and Santa Rosa County because we can't take care of all of the homeless in Escambia County," Myers said. "I don't agree with vilifying transients and people who are homeless."

Myers said she believes one way to reduce homelessness is to increase affordable housing. Myers said she believes the city should start buying land along the Ninth Avenue corridor, with a focus on buying unused parking lots and incentivizing developers to build low-income and workforce rental housing.

"If you concentrated on the Ninth Avenue corridor, people would have very good access to transportation, they could walk to hospitals, they could walk or stroll or ride or roll in a wheelchair to Walmart," Myers said. "We have so many stores along that Ninth Avenue corridor. … I want to build housing in communities and areas where people have easy access to the things that they need."

Myers said she would also put more funding into community policing and ensure the department has the resources to be able to police the entire city.

"We need more police officers throughout the rest of the city doing community policing," Myers said.

Myers also said she would increase access to the mayor's office.

"If I become mayor, I'm moving my office from the seventh floor to the second floor," Myers said. "I am going to be a mayor who is constantly engaged with the citizens. I will not be taking a plane and flying all over wherever. I believe the mayor should be (accessible), just like I have been for 12 years; I've held more City Council town halls than all of them put together. … I believe in being close to the people, and I have demonstrated that since I've been on City Council."

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Sherri Myers: Pensacola mayor candidate looks to shake up office