Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Proves Mayor D.C. Reeves Has Officials Wrapped

The Community Redevelopment Agency’s approval of a contract clearly manipulated by Mayor D.C. Reeves shows the city leader can do whatever he wants.

With only three locals speaking against the $600K contract with Bayou District, LLC for advertising services, it was ironically a native Louisiana civil attorney who moved to Pensacola to point out the lack of inclusion.

“I didn’t come here prepared to speak on this subject, but I’m here,” Mary Williams, a civil rights attorney, said.

(Photo: Mary Williams, City of Pensacola Video)

The East Hill resident said that, as a native from Louisiana, she is “concerned about the lack of diversity in the presence of this very important development and for consulting fees to come out of the West Side façade program, which I’ve been working with some of the people on the West Side.

"I come out of D.C. with a lot of redevelopment and housing experience, Williams said, adding she was also a commissioner who worked closely with developers and community," Williams said. “This has not been brought to the community, and I don’t think we should spend 600,000 dollars again when we could do this ourselves."

Williams said, “We can do this better; we need to reach out to the black community, which I see a lack of representation here.”

“I didn’t come for this,” Williams said. “This is ridiculous.”

Now that she thought about it, Williams noted there is obvious race discrimination, but also ageism.

“I meet with community seniors all the time; they don’t know about this,” Williams said, suggesting black churches need to be notified of the project.

Bottom line, the city does not need to spend $600K “to get the word out and find out what the community wants.”

“And we certainly don’t need someone from New Orleans,” Williams said.

Staff documents lay out the recommendation in simple terms, noting the CRA “recommends” Pensacola City Council offer a $695,000.00 contract to Bayou District Consulting, LLC,  for development advisory services regarding Baptist Hospital Legacy Campus redevelopment.

“Also, that the CRA authorize the Mayor to take the actions necessary to execute and administer this contract and complete the work, consistent with the contracting documents and the Mayor’s Executive Powers as granted in the City Charter,” according to staff documents.

A 114-page document, detailing all aspects of the project, also compares it to other successful projects, including Baltimore, Maryland; Santa Fe, Mexico; and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Within the 114-page document is a picture of Mayor D.C. Reeves and community members standing on a life-size map with a preface that reads “the year-long engagement process for the Hollice T. Williams Stormwater Park helped overcome decades of community distrust to help the City of Pensacola build public support for $25 million in stormwater and public park improvements.”

(Photo: Bayou District Presentation)

According to Mayor Reeves, the project “set the standard for what community engagement in our City should look like.”

(Photo: Mary Williams, City of Pensacola Video)Harper Cummings and Alfonso Sol reminded CRA officials of a prior protest against a project.  

(Photo: Harper Cummings, City of Pensacola Video)

“Everyone here remembers last December when dozens of residents spoke for two hours against Bayou District Consulting,” Cummings said. “We had signs that night that said, ‘No to Bayou District,' which everyone of us repeated in their public comment.”

"Everyone in the room knew that the vote was going to be a no by the end of the meeting, which must be why the mayor and his staff openly coached Councilwoman (Tenaide) Broughton to withdraw the proposal, explicitly so it could be brought back,” Cummings said.  “And here it is being brought back.”

Cummings said Mayor Reeves attempted to gaslight the group after the December meeting.

“We were not misled, or emotional; we were rejecting Bayou District because of their track record and the importance of this project,” Cummings said, reminding officials and the public that Reeves invited Jerry Bruce, principal of Bayou District, to a 2023 meeting about the Baptist site, where he was asked to present on Columbia Park.

“It was clear that Bayou District was selected long before a public process began,” Cummings said. “The mayor used city funds to bus local officials and power players to Columbia Park in 2024, over a year before the city put out its first request for contracts.”

“Before the city had made any request for proposals, Mayor Reeves had publicly called Columbia Park the model for Baptist site,” Cummings said, adding that the city’s own Request for Proposal says it is not seeking validation of a predetermined concept.

“Our objection is precisely that the predetermined outcome clearly does exist: the mayor had already chosen Bayou District with local leaders and brought the firm forward as the preferred vendor before genuine community input was ever sought,” Cummings said.

He continued.

“Now you are coming back to us with that same firm,” Cummings said, before asking, “then why in the proposal you’re considering today does it say that part of the community engagement process is going to be showing people in Pensacola virtual reality tours of Columbia Park.”

Sol followed, noting he is “also speaking against this contract in the same way that I spoke last December when we packed City Hall, and like Harper said, we spoke for two-and-a-half hours.

(Photo: Alfonso Sol, City of Pensacola Video)

“Each speech was three minutes, you guys do the math,” Sol said. “That’s more than 40, almost 50 people that went up there and spoke.”

That is not counting the people in the seats who didn’t speak, Sol added, saying, “This movement against Bayou District is to show where they actually stand when it comes to this company."

“We do not trust Bayou District,” Sol said. “They have a track record of displacing communities in Columbia Park.”

Bruce followed, saying the project goal is engagement with the community, the city, stakeholders, and “work on the feasibility of what’s possible.”

“We plan on many public engagements, individual meetings, and are glad to be with the folks that are here and spoke against us this evening,” Bruce said, adding there must be a cooperative process that engages with the neighborhood.

Well, Bruce, sounds like you're off to a rough start.

The CRA approved the contract 5-1, with Broughton voting no.