Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Confusion, Data Center Doubts
Transcript
- Rick Outzen: Back, I'm Rick Alston. This is Rick's Blog Live. Thank you for watching. Listen, if you want to follow us, you can do it on YouTube, almost all the social media. Like, share, be a part of this. The show goes live every Friday for you to catch up on what's going on. So if you're watching on YouTube right now, you can watch the full show on Blab TV starting on Friday. So please be a part of all of this. This has been fun to do. I've got with me kin city councilman Charles Baer. Charles, thank you for coming on. City Councilman Charles Bare: Hey Rick, great. It's great to be on here. Thank you. Rick Outzen: You know, it with the we've known each other over the years. you've been on the c city council, run for office, several different offices. You now serve District 2 in the city council. A lot of issues have come up this summer. the one that's that's been on a lot of people's mind, at least the mayor's mind at the press conference today, is curfews. it was on the agenda. the council had a lot of questions about things they'd like to see changed. and in the end it was pulled off the agenda to give time to work it out. What were some of the things that concerned you about this? City Councilman Charles Bare: Yeah, you know, when the f th all this first happened and Fourth of July, I was in favor of a curfew. It was kind of a knee-jerk on my behalf as well, and so I I kind of felt like we needed to do something. So yes, I did I reached out to the mayor and said I was interested in working on ordinance, but then I started listening to people, listening to my family, listening to people in the community, and I've not had a single person tell me they want a curfew. and I don't think it's gonna solve the issue. I really think and I said this at our meeting. We need to have a workshop on this because clearly there were concerns on council about a number of issues and I think it would have really benefited us to have a council workshop to discuss it. Rick Outzen: Let's talk about that a little bit. What's the difference? Because this was the first reading of the ordinance that happened on the thirteenth, keep my date straight in my head. and and but what would be different if it was a work what's the difference between doing it in the meeting that y'all were in and doing it in a workshop? City Councilman Charles Bare: Well when you do it in workshop, it's pretty much open for anyone to say whatever they want. You know, and really it's it's designed to have more of a a free-thinking discussion, more brainstorming about what this ordinance should be. and clearly the mayor had an idea of what it should be, but instead of having the pressure of having to take a vote that night and the limitations of of that, of having that first reading, a workshop gives us time to delve into it more, get our staff engaged. And I think just give us an opportunity to discuss it more fully. Rick Outzen: Well it seemed you know, I think the consensus was to to have it did need more work. Yeah. In watching the meeting, I think Council President Patton listened to the room. Yeah. and I think th that was effective. What were some of the things that that you saw ideas that were brought up that should be considered? City Councilman Charles Bare: Well, I know and the mayor has mentioned this one, the twenty one versus eighteen. The state statute provides that the person can be eighteen, they're an adult. Rick Outzen: you're about the one the adult who can accompany City Councilman Charles Bare: Company. Yes, yes. And the fact is is that, you know, an eighteen year old is an adult, just like a twenty-one year old, and it's not necessarily more responsible if you're twenty-one. So that's definitely a concern. The chief kept talking about who he wants to protect with this ordinance. Not enforcement, he wanted to protect ten and twelve year olds. So why is it we're focused on seventeen and under? Maybe we should change it to under sixteen, people that can't drive. So I think there's some some concerns about that. There's concerns about what's gonna happen if someone who is the adult says they're in charge of all these kids and they're just gonna take their word for it. I mean, is that true? I mean and what if you find a st a child out there and you ask them if they have permission, are you gonna then have to call their parent and find out? I mean, we're gonna end up babysitting kids. I know that's not what the mayor wanted to do, but it is going to be babysitting children. Rick Outzen: Was there any concern about it being city wide? City Councilman Charles Bare: I didn't hear anything about that. I you know, I know that the focus has been downtown, but I think it's really hard to just carve out one part of the city and make it applicable there. I think it needs to be something that can be, you know, used citywide. And I'm not saying I'm supporting the curfew, but I feel like carving out just downtown is not the best way to do it. Rick Outzen: Mobile does that. Some other cities do that, but I can understand and and I think the mayor and when I've questioned him during the press conferences, that's been one of the things that he's brought up that it that the boundaries would be difficult, would make it harder to figure out are you on this in this block or that block, it what's downtown, what's you know, what's the Cordova part or mall area, how do you define it? Right. I can understand that. All right. Big another big issue that's come before the council this summer has been data centers. You've been a very outspoken critic of of data centers. Talk a little bit about that issue. Okay. City Councilman Charles Bare: I I just don't think in the city limits or in the county for that matter we need to have a data center. could be an AI data center. That's the main one we're talking about, is AI data centers. And I feel like what we did the moratorium gives us plenty of time to a year to study it, make sure we get it right when we go to change the land development code, make sure we take into account private property rights, the Bird Harris Act, all of those things that could affect, you know, our ability to enforce this. So And fifty megawatts to me is is so small compared to the thirty two hundred megawatt one they're putting in, you know, w I guess west of Savannah. So I feel like fifty megawatts covers just about everything. I don't think anyone's gonna build one that's less than that, you know, at this point. Rick Outzen: There right now that issue seems to be settled, although it's still it's a national issue. It's it's an issue that that's gonna be probably part of the governor's race. Data Byron Donald's has been has received some pretty good contributions from the AI companies. and I'm sure David Jolly will use that in his campaign against him. the I think the other challenge in looking at it is where we go from here as far as how are we gonna get the data to figure out what data centers are gonna be permissible because that's the part I keep seeing Charles it's missing is that everyone's there's a group that quietly wants does didn't want a moratorium, doesn't want a ban, but they haven't defined what a data center means to them. City Councilman Charles Bare: Right, right. I I I think that's a challenge. I think that's why I we've gone the moratorium route to give ourselves time to look at all sides of it and see, you know, is this truly a threat? You know, I I know that there's we're talking about water issues, environmental impacts, power, power grid, you know, and some of these bigger data centers, they're closed loop systems, they don't have as many impacts, you know. So the problem to me is that data centers don't produce a lot of jobs. They put a lot of strain on the, you know the resources and so until they find a way to deal with that, I I just don't think it's the right fit for us. Now I'm not saying we don't need data centers somewhere. That's the hard part, is because I think most of us use AI to some extent now, so there's gonna have to be data centers, you know, and it the question is where? Rick Outzen: Yeah, you also serve on the tourist development council. Yesterday they had a meeting. You got to chair the meeting. I watched it this morning. it is it David Baer, who's been on the board for a while, former chair, h has brought up that there's still problems with tourism partners getting paid. Fufu Fest, according to Mr. Bayer, is still sitting from last year waiting to get paid invoi get reimbursed from invoices. and it's impacting them as far as people doing things this year. I've I've I've I heard just recently that the night moves, which has been a fairly successful concert, that they're they're not gonna do it this year because of the funding issues, where they can get paid or not. how d how do you see this issue? City Councilman Charles Bare: It's very frustrating and we even the the group that came yesterday to present to us, African American Heritage Society, they even had concerns about the documentation they had to submit every month to the clerk's office. And you know, I have to do it with Keep Pen Skull Beautiful. We we get funding and we have to submit documents to the county, then they go to the clerk's office. Sometimes they delve deeper and have to get more information from us. We haven't had the issues with not getting paid, but a number of organizations have. You know, it this is a fight that's gonna end up I mean it's in the courts right now, I think, not necessarily with TDC money, but with the with the nonprofits. Right. And a lot of these are nonprofits, they're getting TDC money. So it's it's all kind of connected. And the county commissioner, the clerk need to work it out. I mean, they're the ones that appropriate the money. We TDC just recommends, they appropriate, and so they have to make sure all these people have signed contracts. You know, we sign a contract, keeping school beautiful, and when we sign that we expect to get paid and and it's it's not happening. And that's frustrating. Rick Outzen: Which is you're almost having to run a whole separate staff to to deal with stuff where no one's found any fraud. There hasn't been that hasn't been an issue. Right. which which makes it very, very difficult. We've got more on that on the blog. You can go to Rick's blog and check that story out. it's one that's still developing. we're we're coming up close to the break. Charles, I know you have been you've you're you're a really unique position on the council in that you have served under three mayors in this strong mayor of government. what are the what have you seen, you know, the the pluses and the minuses in strong mayor? City Councilman Charles Bare: Well, you know, it it kind of parallels the superintendent discussion. You know, do you want a group of legislators to pick the executive leadership or do you want someone to be elected? the challenge to me is that no matter who gets in that position, you know, that person, however they got elected, they now have incredible power in the in the city and a charter that gives them that power. The powers and duties are very empowering to the the mayor and giving them the ability to do things that without the council really having a lot of input and only needs a few votes on council and you can just set this agenda and go on about it. and so I I feel like it's still a work in progress. You know, the the council and the mayor need to have good communication. That's not really happening very well right now. And I think that's the source of a lot of the issues. It was with I think with Mayor Hayward, with Mayor Robinson. And it continues. It we talk about communication a lot, and it's important, and we just need to have more of it. Rick Outzen: Well, it the I think the council has done a better job of defining its role. Yes. O over the you know, over the years it was really the th that you know, the the first four years it was a lot of working out whose role's who and and how do you set the agenda for a council meeting, who gets to p present stuff, how d all those things, staff, whether the where the council could have staff or not. All those things have been worked out, which I think are it seems to be evolving properly. I mean it it it you know we're gosh what, we're sixteen years into this, so hopefully it has. But it is an amazing y some of the things that have been accomplished have been huge. the and I think for the most part what I see on the council is that y'all are working better together now than than past councils that we've had. City Councilman Charles Bare: I know I would agree with that. I know my first council I was on, it was not a lot of fun. We did not work well together. Well is so Rick Outzen: Okay, w well Charles, thank you so much for coming on. I I think it is you can follow the city council, city of Pensacola dot com. Their meetings are televised online and replayed on YouTube. You can see how they're doing. I try to cover as much of it as as I can. The Bayers press conferences are every Wednesday at ten o'clock unless something comes up. But it is a great way to follow what's going on in city government. All these issues are important. this dictates w the quality of life that we have. And we're very fortunate to have people like Charles and and the other council members who put up the give their time for this for not a whole lot of money and spend a whole lot of their time doing this. So it's a really it's not quite volunteer, but it's very close. We'll go ahead and take a break. We'll be right back. I'm Rick Allen. City Councilman Charles Bare: Yeah.