Pensacola Councilwoman Sherri Myers looks to 'leave no one behind' as she runs for mayor

Pensacola City Councilwoman Sherri Myers is the latest candidate to join the Pensacola mayor's race.

Myers filed as a candidate March 15 and told the News Journal this week that she is building her campaign to "leave no one behind" in the city.

"I decided that this race needs to be about issues, and I don't see it being about issues," Myers said. "So that's why I decided to get into the race."

Myers is currently the longest-serving active council member as she was elected to the council in 2010, and her final term on the council ends in November. Under the city charter, council members are limited to three, four-year terms.

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That experience has given Myers a first-hand look at the implementation of the "strong mayor" form of government that went into effect at the same time she joined the City Council.

Myers said if she's elected, she'll be looking to give the council a bigger role in the city government.

"I'm not going to be a person who's highly invested in keeping this kind of very centralized and almost dictatorial power that the mayor has under our charter," Myers said.

Myers is not the longest-service council member running for mayor in 2022. Former council member Jewel Cannada-Wynn, who served from 2004-2010 and again from 2012-2020, holds that title. Cannada-Wynn's campaign has raised more than $12,000 so far.

Five other candidates are also vying for the seat.

Pensacola businessman D.C. Reeves has raised more than $238,000 for his campaign. Former Escambia County Sheriff's Office Deputy Steven Sharp has raised more than $13,000. Security worker James Hilburn has raised more than $3,400. Pensacola resident Tim Horton has raised $1,000.

Myers has long been a critic of the way the city operates and what she says is neglect for the northern parts of the city. She even proposed the north end should leave the city because it wasn't seeing enough benefits.

Myers' campaign looks to correct those issues and address many she's long advocated for, including making city government more open, establishing an ethics ordinance, focusing on neighborhoods that have been neglected by the city and finding creative ways to grow the population of the city.

Myers grew up in the 1950s in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, in public housing, and that experience drove her toward activism. Myers went to college at David Lipscomb College in Nashville and became an advocate in the city, fighting for better housing.

In 1969, she joined a group of other women to organize one of the nation's first rape crisis centers and went to Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C., to obtain a law degree so she could represent battered women in court.

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Myers continued using her law degree to help people, including running a free legal clinic in Nashville and later working at Legal Service of Northwest Florida, where she worked on environmental issues. She also worked on behalf of people with disabilities at the Pensacola's Center for Independent Living.

"How I grew up influences everything I'm about and my approach to government," Myers said. "That's why my theme is no one left behind."

Myers said the slow population growth of the city will hurt it in the future and pointed out the city is in direct competition with the county for shares of sales and gas tax revenues, which are divided between the two local governments based on a share of the population.

"If we continue to lose our percentage, we will continue to lose millions of dollars," Myers said. "And so we have to make that money up somewhere."

Myers pointed to CivicCon speaker Ellen Dunham-Jones and her "retrofitting suburbia" talk in October 2021 as a way to creatively grow the city by coming up with creative ways to build new multi-family affordable housing in the suburban north end of the city.

"These are ideal places for building affordable housing, and the reason I prefer these areas to actually downtown is because downtown is not affordable for low-income people," Myers said.

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Building housing closer to where people shop and work would cut down on the need for cars and improve that area of the city, she said.

Myers added one of her main focuses will be improving the equity the city provides residents and employees.

"That's the bedrock of my campaign, is leaving no one behind, and so the issue of equity, fairness and justice is what my campaign is trying to achieve," Myers said.

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Councilwoman Sherri Myers joins mayor race; eyes growth, equity