Two ECUA incumbents face challengers

There are three seats up for grabs on the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority board, this year: the offices of ECUA Districts 1, 3 and 5. Two of the incumbents in those races face challengers and a third is running unopposed.

Most of the candidates say while ECUA is making good progress, more can be done to improve the local government body’s water, wastewater and sanitation services to Escambia County and the city of Pensacola.

ECUA District 1

Republican incumbent Vicki Haynes Campbell is running for reelection as ECUA’s District 1 representative. Campbell says her No. 1 priority is safe, clean water. She’s also proud of the work the board has accomplished over the years including changing ECUA’s fleet of vehicles to run on natural gas. There are over 70 natural gas-powered vehicles in their fleet and 50 are refuse trucks.

She said the board members also put a lot of time and effort into planning a new state-of-the-art transfer station. Currently, Escambia County does not have a transfer station, which is a central location for refuse trucks to dump garbage instead of taking it directly to the landfill, which is more costly and leaves less time for garbage trucks to do their primary job, collecting trash.

Candidate Q&A: Vicki Campbell for ECUA Board Member District 1

Candidate Q&A: James “Jim” Faxlanger for Emerald Coast Utilities Authority, District 1

Most importantly, Campbell says she is especially proud that ECUA won its bellwether lawsuit last year against 3M and other companies that sold products with cancer causing chemicals like PFOA and PFOS, which have made their way into the water supply. She said the money ECUA will receive from the lawsuit will pay for and maintain the expensive carbon filters, called GAC filters, installed on local wells to clean the pollution.

"Putting those GAC filters on your wells will eliminate the PFOA and PFOS,” Campbell said. “I think that's probably the best thing that we've done since I came on board. We're going to get probably $30 (million) to $50 million later this year to help pay for those filters and not take that money out of the people's pocket. The GAC filters and then the lawsuit to recover the money from 3M for those filters, that, to me, was pretty exciting.”

Campbell’s opponent in the ECUA District 1 race is Republican candidate James Faxlanger . He is a retired Navy master chief with 27 years of military service and also served as a health care administrator at Santa Rosa Medical Center. Faxlanger has a master's degree in business administration and serves as the president of the Deerfoot Estates Homeowners Association, a position he has held for 7 years.

Faxlanger said he is seeking the office because he believes change is necessary due to board members serving multiple terms in office, while rates and fees rise higher than the cost of living, “without measurable positive returns.” Faxlanger says his wealth of team building experience make him qualified for the position.

He says his primary goals will be to maintain high quality of water and improve the utility’s fiscal performance without affecting service.

“The big thing that I hear on the streets is customer service and if you look at all the rate increases that they've done and the actual fees that they've tagged on, they've exceeded CPI by a significant amount,” Faxlanger said. “I would put some financial accountability into it, work on customer service and keep the quality of water there and I know I have the qualities to do that.”

Campbell says Escambia County’s water is cheaper than most other counties in the state, but the fees are necessary to pay for service and improvements because there is no other funding mechanism for the utility. Where other Florida counties fund their water utilities through Municipal Services Benefit Units, Campbell says ECUA must use fees to fund projects like capital improvement, sewer improvement and the transfer station which she says are sorely needed by the public.

ECUA District 3

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In the race for ECUA District 3 incumbent Larry D. Williams, a Democrat, is facing challenger Chase Anderson “Andy” Romagnano, also a Democrat.

Williams, a second-generation resident of the Wedgewood community and retired U.S. Navy veteran, first ran for the ECUA District 3 seat after becoming involved in the fight to clean up landfills polluting his Pensacola neighborhood. He was elected in 2020 and says he is very proud of his and the board’s accomplishments during that time.

Candidate Q&A: Larry Williams for Emerald Coast Utilities Authority District 3

Candidate Q&A: Chase Anderson “Andy” Romagnano for Emerald Coast Utilities Authority District 3

Those accomplishments include naming a water tank after the late Elvin McCorvey, the former ECUA representative for District 3, and tackling turning septic tanks to a gravity drain sewer system in Brownsville, a project that Williams and county leaders say will revitalize the infrastructure in that area.

“Public investments precede private dollars,” Williams said. “Once we get our septic to sewer infrastructure in the Brownsville area, you'll start to see that area grow tremendously. We have other areas throughout District 3 that we would like to do that in, but the biggest thing going forward is we have made ourselves available to our constituents.”

Williams said besides expanding septic to sewer infrastructure throughout Escambia County, he would also like to see minority women provided with opportunities to work as engineers at ECUA, as well as receive ECUA contracts. If reelected, Williams said those will be among his goals and he wants to keep his campaign promise of continuing to work together with his constituents.

His opponent, Chase Anderson “Andy” Romagnano , filed to run for numerous county offices but says he is running for ECUA District 3 because he wants to lower customers' bills while still improving service and strengthening the utility.

Romagnano also wants to see ECUA implement a countywide recycling program, as well as build waste to energy plants and generate electricity from garbage, freeing up land currently dedicated to landfills.

“ECUA is an elected board, where those served by it have a chance to vote for members representing their district, unlike many utility systems in the country, so that the customers have greater accountable for utility service with ECUA than in systems where it is appointed members or is just a department of some other government agency rather than the independent special district that ECUA is,” Romagnano said. “The most important thing is ensuring revenue for ECUA, and I believe there are ways to do this without raising rates or taxes and this is what my campaign is all about.”

Romagnano believes he is qualified based on his family’s longtime history on the Gulf Coast and numerous books he has authored about Mobile and Pensacola. He lists his address as the Alfred Washburn Center, a nonprofit that serves people who experiencing homelessness.

ECUA District 5

Incumbent Kevin Stephens, a Republican, is running unopposed and will automatically retain his seat representing District 5.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Two ECUA incumbents face challengers