City Administrator Eric Olson

Pensacola City Council opened the door to a vote of no-confidence in City Administrator Eric Olson on Monday night.

By a vote of 6-2, council moved the issue to the Thursday meeting agenda.

Councilman Charles Bare, who brought the no-confidence vote in Olson to the table, knows the vote is largely ceremonial. As city administrator, Olson is appointed by the mayor alone.

“I think we need to have a discussion about this behavior,” Bare said. “I think the constituents need to have that conversation too.”

Criticism of City Administrator Eric Olson has swelled after he contacted the supervisor of neighborhood association president Melanie Nichols regarding her use of her military-hosted work email address to contact city officials in the course of her citizen advocacy.

Councilman Brian Spencer noted that agenda review meetings don’t typically include the degree of discussion that happened on the Olson issue, but he favored moving the issue forward to the Thursday meeting.

“By not passing it, we are not providing the forum for the public to comment,” Spencer said. “I do think that the mayor has responsibility and the opportunity to listen to the public. He has the opportunity to hear us as a governing body. He has the ability to remain autonomous in his decision-making, but I hope this Thursday night we have a conversation that the mayor can take under advisement.”

Councilwoman Sherri Myers echoed his sentiment.

“I think Councilman Spencer hit the nail on the head with this one,” Myers said. “It’s about giving the people the opportunity to speak.”

Myers also said that she believes Nichols’ free speech rights were violated by Olson’s action.

“That is unacceptable,” Myers said. “I think Mr. Olson already knows we don’t have confidence in him given what has happened here.”

Councilmen Andy Terhaar and Larry Johnson did not favor moving the no-confidence vote forward to the Thursday meeting.

“I do think Mr Olson made a mistake,” Terhaar said. “I’m not going to support a no-confidence vote. This is not a pattern of behavior.”

Johnson indicated he thought the discussion that took place Monday afternoon was enough to get the message across.

“The public is out here. I see the mayor in the audience. I believe he is hearing this,” Johnson said. “I believe the mayor’s hearing us loud and clear.”

Councilwoman Jewel Cannada-Wynn asked if Hayward had dealt with this issue “since it is under his authority,” but she received no clear answer at Monday’s meeting.

Olson took the opportunity to speak on his own behalf. He recapped his managerial experience as a Naval officer, his dedication to public service and his desire to make Pensacola a better community.

“I think that certainly the perception of my action has overtaken the facts. There are elements of this that some of us will never know,” Olson said. “Knowing that is the perception in the community, that I took an action targeting a citizen, is something that is completely out of my character.

“For the people who know me and the job that I’ve done, to think that I would do that is troubling to me, because it’s not my character and would never want anybody to believe that I would do that.

“I would not want Mrs. Nichols to believe I went out of my way to stop her from participating,” Olson said. “The last thing I want to do is to give this city, the city council, the mayor, a black eye. I sincerely apologize to all of you if that’s the perception if that’s the feedback you’ve gotten.

“I think the city is moving in positive direction. I think that’s what people should know. I think when that is not the headline, we all pay a price.”

Cannada-Wynn noted that she has known Nichols for more than 10 years, and like many in the audience, praised Nichols for her passion for her neighborhood and her community.

“You wish every citizen had that type of passion,” Cannada-Wynn said. “I feel Mr. Olson is a man of integrity as well. I have gone to him with issues of disparity of treatment with economic issues, and he has been upset about it, and said, ‘it will not happen under my watch’

“I think Mr. Olson suffers from naivete. His decisions are made in a vacuum; they are not political. In city administration, everything is political. His background (in the military) does not offer him the type of experience in political government that would have shown him this is not the best way to have done this.

“I think that he made a mistake, that he did not do this well…. I also feel there should be some avenue in which the Mayor deals with this issue. The responsibility for listening to citizens on this issue belongs with the mayor.”

But as Councilman P.C. WU noted, “the part that troubles me the most is not seeing what other people are seeing” in this situation. "The message to me was a very chilling one."

Councilman Gerald Wingate was blunt.

“I’m having a problem with the statement that Melanie was not targeted when she had to go sit with her boss and her boss’ boss and talk about this,” he said.

Nichols for her part remains upset about the issue and the precedent she said she fears it sets.

"It's just so upsetting," she said. "They really had to go to a lot of trouble to do this. Now all feel like we’ve got a target on our backs if we complain. I’ve got every faith in the world that it will get better. (Right now) it’s a mess down there."