No one but those two-dozen or so souls in Tallahassee knows exactly what federal officials are looking at when it comes to contracts and expenses at Pensacola City Hall and Mayor Ashton Hayward’s dealings with friends and supporters.

Grand jury proceedings are secret.

City officials will not release copies of the documents the U.S. Attorney in Tallahassee has asked for after conferring with Florida Attorney General’s Office, saying grand jury subpoenas and records prepared for the grand jury’s use are exempt from public records until they become part of a case file maintained by the clerk of court, said Jane Ballard, the city’s public records coordinator.

The best hint we have so far is a box of documents and white, three-ring binders at the State Attorney’s Office at the M.C. Blanchard Judicial Building.

That box contains the paper trail that former Pensacola City Councilwoman Maren DeWeese believes shows something was amiss at City Hall. It also contains the city’s response to those allegations.

Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille says “based on our review, we did not find sufficient facts for criminal charges” in any of the numerous matters DeWeese raised.

The questions about contracts awarded to Jerry Pate Design have gained the most traction in the public eye. Pate is a high-profile name and a supporter of the mayor.

The documents in the big box show that Jerry Pate Design handled “quality assurance” for Admiral Mason Park’s stormwater treatment feature. The project won an excellence award from the Florida Stormwater Association in 2012.

That “quality assurance” aspect surfaces again in the Main Street project, where Jerry Pate Design was the middle of three bidders at $56,000. Hatch Mott McDonald was the low bidder at $46,334.

An email from then mayoral Chief of Staff John Asmar to city purchasing manager George Maiberger (copied to former city administrator Bill Reynolds and Hayward) on Nov. 17, 2011, says Hayward approved the selection of Pate Design for the Main Street project based on their “excellent service” on the Admiral Mason Park project and their performance at the Community Maritime Park site, (where the company also performed work.)

The city purchasing rules allow for contracts to be awarded if they are “deemed by the mayor to be in the best interest of the city.”

Jerry Pate Design, and its predecessor company Jerry Pate Turf and Supply Inc. have done business with the city since 2006, records show. In 2010, Jerry Pate Turf and Supply was paid $157,512.66 by the city.

Hayward took office in 2011. That year, both Pate companies were paid $121,202.68. In 2012, both were paid $127,261.59, which includes work on Main Street improvements, Bayfront Parkway landscaping improvements and Maritime Park maintenance.

The federal grand jury may be presented with these documents or others. The scope of their investigation is not public.

Local prosecutors reviewed that big box of documents and found no evidence of a crime.

What the big box does show is that those who would do business with the city -- be they friends of the mayor or not -- ought to expect an increased level of scrutiny along with those contracts.

The big box shows that every meal, every trip, every email leaves a trace. And that as surely as that receipt exists, there exists someone who will ask to see it.

Anyone who seeks public office in Pensacola needs to remember that, as does anyone who seeks to do business with any of our local governments.

What colors the way many people will view this -- or any other big box of documents -- is the troubling, twisty history of public officials and their influence in this community.

A community where people with “strong personalities” may follow the letter of the law but seem ambivalent about the spirit of it.

A community of the soccer complex and collard pots, of credit card bills at adult entertainment clubs and property deals for recreational projects that just so happen to include friends of folks.

Our local governmental institutions have a lot of baggage. We can’t afford to add even another carry-on item to that load.

City records subpoena

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Eggers of the Northern District of Florida subpoenaed records regarding:

-- The Main Street Rehabilitation Project bid in November 2011. Requested are bid sheets, committee memorandums, City Council reports, city engineering reports, change orders, payment requests and all e-mails concerning the project.

-- Copies of requests for investment bids from Jan. 1, 2010 to Jan. 1, 2013, including but not limited to RFI requests disseminated on or about Nov. 1, 2011 and Feb. 7, 2012, by Pam Childers, (now Escambia Clerk of Court, who at that time worked in the city finance department).

-- Copies of all records pertaining to agreements between the City and Jerry Pate Design dated for  “Main Street Improvements Projects from Baylen to Clubbs” between the city and the firm; one dated March 20, 2012, for “Bayfront Parkway landscape improvements”; a “Landscape Architecture Agreement for Main Street (from Spring to Reus) dated April 4, 2012; a landscape architecture agreement for Main Street from Baylen to Spring, also dated April 4. The subpoena asks for requests for bids, bid sheets, selection of contractor documents, e-mails pertaining to the bids and contractor selection, internal memos about those projects and copies of payments.

-- Copies of all records related to a request for qualifications property insurance issued on or about Feb. 9, 2012.

-- Copies of records of expenses incurred by Mayor Ashton Hayward or then Chief of Staff John Asmar related to travel expenses and requests for reimbursement.

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