Escambia’s Board of County Commissioners is set to discuss the possibility of joining a lawsuit filed by two local nonprofits against Escambia County Clerk of Court and Comptroller Pam Childers challenging her authority to block the board’s discretionary spending of taxpayer dollars, but it’s unclear which side the county would be on if it joins.
The attorney for the two nonprofit organizations, Alex Andrade, is suing Childers for withholding $7,000 in county discretionary funds. He wants to amend his lawsuit to include Escambia County as a defendant to “avoid delaying resolution” of the litigation.
However, Childers is pushing back on the request to add county commissioners to the suit because it “burdens the county with additional costs.”
Escambia County District 2 Commissioner Mike Kohler, who made the discretionary funding requests for the two nonprofits that are now suing Childers, asked that the board discuss the issue of possibly joining the lawsuit at the county’s June 17 meeting, which starts at 5:30 p.m. at 221 Palafox Place.
In the past, he has publicly criticized Childers’ decision to withhold discretionary funds, saying it’s an issue of authority and not just accounting.
His request to add the issue to the agenda does not make clear whether the county would join the suit as a defendant or a plaintiff.
“At the request of Commissioner Kohler, that the Board discuss and consider participating in the case of Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association, Inc. and Warrington Emergency Aid Center, Incorporated vs Pam Childers, Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller for Escambia County,” says the agenda item, which was added late on June 16.
Andrade, who is also the state House representative for District 2, sent an email to Childers’ attorneys on June 12 requesting consent to amend the complaint and add the county commission as a party.
The email was obtained through a public records request.
Andrade said he made the request to avoid delaying a resolution “of a significant point in your motion to dismiss until August.”
Administrative Judge William Stone scheduled an online hearing on Childers’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit for Aug. 19 at 2 p.m.
“If you don’t consent, could you please confirm that in response to this email so I can include it in a certificate that we conferenced on the issue?” Andrade wrote. “I’d likely file a motion to amend to join them by the end of next week instead. It would just, again, create a delay to ultimate resolution.”
The clerk’s position in legal motions is that the two nonprofit organizations do not have legal standing to pursue the county funds, but county commissioners are an “indispensable party” to the litigation and as such have the legal standing to sue for the money.
Escambia Clerk of Court General Counsel Codey Leigh replied that the clerk does not consent to adding commissioners to the lawsuit.
“Because plaintiffs lack standing…any amendment adding the County would be futile, and doing so before the Court resolves the standing issue burdens the County with additional costs. The Clerk therefore does not consent,” Leigh said.
“Thanks for confirming ya’lls position! I’ll make sure to note that in the motion,” Andrade responded.
Why the nonprofits are suing Childers
The Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association (First Tee) and Warrington Emergency Aid Center (WEAC) want the court to order Childers to release the money commissioners approved for them, and to reject her attempt to throw out their lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, Andrade claims Childers unlawfully withheld $4,500 earmarked for youth golf programs run by First Tee and $2,500 approved to reimburse food pantry expenses for WEAC.
Childers says it’s her job to ensure the use of discretionary funds meets a “county purpose,” and she does not believe these requests do because neither nonprofit has a contract with the county to provide for a “fundraiser party” or a food drive that “by their own admission, excludes all residents of the county not residing in Pensacola.”
She argues that the nonprofits’ lawsuit should be thrown out primarily because they have no legal right to sue her and because she has a duty to protect taxpayer money from what she views as unconstitutional “donations” that serve as “slush funds” to curry political favor.
Future of discretionary funds may be at stake
The lawsuit could result in the elimination of the commissioners’ spending authority because it forces a definitive judicial ruling on whether their entire, $250,000-a-year discretionary spending “program” is fundamentally illegal.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare how county money must be managed and whether Childers has the authority to make the call over how commissioners can spend discretionary funds.
In her motion, Childers says it’s not a “program,” and that because the plaintiffs are asking the court to evaluate the legality of the commission’s entire discretionary funding system, “this litigation could render an entire segment of the Commission’s spending unlawful.”
If the judge agrees with Childers’ defense, the legal mechanism the commissioners use to distribute these individual allowances would be dismantled.
Escambia County’s history with hefty legal bills
Escambia County has often been mired in legal battles in recent years.
Since 2021, the county has agreed to more than $9 million in settlements.
Much of that cost is connected to lawsuits over Escambia County’s EMS training and fraud scandal involving a multimillion-dollar settlement with former Escambia County Medical Director Dr. Rayme Edler, as well as litigation and public battles over the leaked texts of former Escambia County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh.
At the time, several commissioners spoke publicly about avoiding costly lawsuits when possible, including Kohler.
In 2025, Kohler met with the clerk, and legal staff to discuss the possibility of pursing legal fees from Bergosh to cover some of the county’s litigation costs, including about $40,000 that the county was ordered to pay over its lost SLAPP lawsuit seeking the return of Bergosh’s leaked text messages.
The decision was made not to pursue recouping the fees.
The county also lost costly litigation against the clerk when the board sued her for halting payments into the county’s 401(a) annuity program for participating commissioners.
The board sued to force her to process the funds, but Judge Stone ultimately ruled in Childers’ favor, declaring the local retirement plan unlawful for elected officials.
The same issue of the clerk’s authority over spending was raised in the county’s local retirement case, and Stone, who is also hearing the nonprofits’ case on discretionary funding, ruled that the clerk properly exercised discretion in ceasing to make payments, even though the county argued she didn’t have discretion to withhold payment.
Kohler, along with commissioners Steven Barry, Lumon May and Steve Stroberger, has not commented on the county possibly participating in the nonprofits’ lawsuit.
District 4 Commissioner Ashlee Hofberger says she “would in no way support pursuing frivolous litigation” because she doesn’t believe the county should require homeowners to pay property taxes and give those tax dollars away to charities.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Another Escambia County board lawsuit against Clerk Pam Childers?
Reporting by Mollye Barrows, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mollye Barrows, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
