After lawsuit, Pam Childers defends her 'duty' to spend public money legally

The lawsuit over discretionary spending that’s driving Escambia County’s legal battle with Clerk of Court and Comptroller Pam Childers should be rejected by the court, according to the clerk, in part because she has an “independent duty” to determine the legality of county spending, not just the board.

The argument is part of the latest court filings in the case that’s being heard by Administrative Judge William Stone in Okaloosa County. Childers was sued by two nonprofits, Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association Inc. (First Tee Gulf Coast) and Warrington Emergency Aid Center (WEAC), over withholding $7,000 in public discretionary funds from Escambia County commissioners.

Stone issued an order on June 25 asking Childers to "show cause" within 20 days as to why the judge shouldn't grant the plaintiffs’ request for mandamus, or a court order that commands the clerk to pay them commissioner-approved money they say they are owed.

In response, Childers asked Stone to reject the lawsuit.

First Tee says Childers owes them $4,500 and WEAC says she owes them $2,500 in county funds because they were approved and committed to them by Escambia County’s Board of County Commissioners.

Childers denied payment because she says the events don’t serve a public purpose, because First Tee Gulf Coast wanted the money for a fundraiser party and WEAC wanted it for a food drive that only impacted one area and did not benefit people across the county.

The plaintiffs argue that Childers can’t make that determination and it’s up to commissioners decide what constitutes a county or public purpose.

That’s one of the reasons the board said they decided to join the lawsuit and sue the clerk in June because some commissioners say it’s their job to determine county purpose.

In her response to Stone’s order, Childers' team pushed back on that argument, saying that while it agrees county commissioners have a legal duty to review and approve spending before it happens, it rejects the idea that just because the commission has this duty, it wipes out the clerk's power to make the call.

Childers says she has a separate and independent responsibility to determine the legality of a proposed expenditure.

She asked Stone to reject the lawsuit for several reasons, including:

• The nonprofits misrepresented that their applications were approved by the commission, but Childers says the application “plaintiffs put before this Court … were not submitted to or voted on by the commission as represented.” 
• The county’s own resolution caps discretionary funding grants at $500, making the awards to the nonprofits unauthorized.
• Her role as clerk serves as an independent watchdog over county spending rather than “ministerial” or simply processing what the commission approves.

Escambia County Commissioner Mike Kohler petitioned the board to approve the funding requests for both nonprofits.

In her court filings, Childers said the nonprofits claim they submitted their applications to the commission with the information necessary for the board to ensure that a county public purpose would be served with the funds.

However, she says their applications were modified to show a use for public purpose after the board voted to approve them and Kohler's aide made edits to WEAC's application.

"More troubling is the applications Plaintiffs submit to this Court, and claim went before the Commission, were never actually before the Commission for approval," Childers' response read. "First Tee Gulf Coast and WEAC allege that to qualify they must submit applications to the Commission ... . For that to be true, the applications attached to the Amended Complaint would have had to be submitted to the Commission before it voted. Otherwise, the Commission had no factual basis to decide whether the proposed expenditures as part of the application served a county purpose." 

The nonprofits’ lawsuit argues that the funds do serve a public purpose by meeting community needs.

The plaintiffs' lawsuit says WEAC's food drive is meant to “ensure that no individual or family in Pensacola, FL goes hungry during times of crisis,” and First Tee Gulf Coast provides “scholarships for at risk youth to attend First Tee Gulf Coast Programming – an educational program that build[s] character and instills life-enhancing values through the game of golf.”

They say there is nothing in Florida law that allows a county clerk's pre-auditing function pursuant to supplant a county commission's duty to make a legislative finding that expenditures of county funds are for a county purpose.

Mollye Barrows is an award-winning investigative reporter for the Pensacola News Journal covering legal justice and government accountability matters.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: After lawsuit, Pam Childers defends her 'duty' to spend public money legally