Escambia County issued the following announcement on November 16.
At the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners Meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 16, the board reorganized to appoint a new chairman and vice chairman, with District 1 Commissioner Jeff Bergosh serving as the new chairman and District 2 Commissioner Doug Underhill as the vice chairman for the coming year.
Commissioner Bergosh said, "As I prepare to receive the gavel from outgoing chairman, Commissioner Robert Bender of District 4, I applaud the accomplishments and achievements of the last year that the board and staff of the county were able to realize under Chairman Bender’s steady leadership. From hurricane rebuilding to the difficulties of COVID-19 on our community, to beach traffic reduction to profound economic development victories at OLF 8 and the Pensacola Airport with ST Engineering—it was a challenging yet still productive year for Escambia County. As I take the gavel on November 16th, my goals are simple: I want to keep the positive momentum of the last six months moving forward, continue to foster better working relationships with our employees, bargaining groups and community partners, and work toward streamlining our budgeting process for 2022 and beyond. Additionally, I look forward to working with my peers on the board to provide our constituents, the taxpayers of Escambia County, maximum transparency and efficiency in all of our county operations as we work toward recruiting, training and deploying a dynamic and talented workforce to take our county into the future with competence and confidence."
District 4 Commissioner Robert Bender previously served as the chairman. Commissioner Bergosh was vice chair prior to his appointment as chair.
Commissioner Bender said, "I want to thank the commissioners for allowing me the opportunity to lead the board this past year. We continued to recover from Hurricane Sally, navigate through COVID-19, created and finalized a plan for OLF-8 and made great strides in Public Safety with pay increases and ordering new equipment. I look forward to a great year of leadership as Commissioner Bergosh takes control of the gavel, and I am able to continue to represent the citizens of District 4 and Escambia County."
This meeting can be viewed on the Escambia County YouTube channel. All commission meetings can also be viewed live on myescambia.com/ectv, channel 4/1004 on Cox, channel 98 for Spectrum and Mediacom (Pensacola Beach) subscribers and channel 99 for AT&T U-verse subscribers.
For more information, please contact the Escambia County Office of Community and Media Relations at 850-595-3476 or cmr@myescambia.com.
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