Sam Hall

Sam Hall
Occupation	Pensacola City Council District 2 Councilman
Spouse	Diana Hall
Children	James, Sam, Becca

Samuel Thornton Hall is a member of the Pensacola City Council. He was elected to serve as the representative for District 2 in November 2006. Sam is retired from the United States Coast Guard. He co-authored Threats and Challenges to Maritime Security 2020. He served as an Intelligence Anaylst (Eco-terrorism, Organized Crime) and Intelligence Watch Officer. He was a founding member of the Maritime Intelligence Fusion Center (PAC). He also worked as an Operations Chief in Alien Interdiction and Counter-narcotics.

Sam graduated with a Bachelors in Science from Murray State University in 1986. He pursued grduate studies at the University of West Florida and Joint Military Intelligence College.

Married 28 years to Diana, they have two sons, James Hall, Sam Hall, a daughter, Becca Hall, a daughter-in-law, Beth (married to James) a grandson Byron, and a granddaughter Lily.

Hall has pre-filed for re-election.

Blog

Hall maintains a blog at http://pensacolad2.blogspot.com which he uses to inform constituents of issues and comment on city business. Hall came under fire for a July 6, 2007 post on his blog that said, "The joke around town is, 'what is white, shaded, and sleeps three?' Answer: A city truck." He was referring to an apparent discrepancy between complaints he had received about a lack of maintenance at a Parker Circle park, which City of Pensacola officials blamed on budget cuts, and reports from his constituents that City employees spend much of their time sitting inside the vehicle instead of working.

Electoral history

Pensacola City Council, 2006 (Run-off)

This election was held November 28, 2006. Pensacola City Council races are non-partisan.

Accomplishments

Hall is one of several community forces who pushed for comprehensive charter review for the City of Pensacola. The City Charter had not undergone comprehensive review since it was adopted in 1931 by an action of the City Council. It had never been adopted by the electorate in Pensacola, which was a concern of the Pensacola Bay Area League of Women Voters (PBALWV). Moreover, the League of Women Voters cited flaws with provisions for citizen-led referenda that allowed the City of Pensacola's Attorney to interpret the provision at his or her convenience.

Hall failed to get a second the first two times he moved to adopt charter review but was successful the third time around getting not only a second but four votes total for charter review, which was two short of the required six. But, after the League joined with a movement proposing a strong mayor form of government to replace Pensacola's Council-Manager form, Hall was able to get all ten to vote with him to form a Charter Review Commission.

As noted above, Hall's blog got him into hot water with City employees over a joke he repeated in his weblog, but in the end it had quite a remarkable effect. Parker Circle's Neighborhood Association president wrote Hall to say that his neighborhood had been transformed from a "normal" neighborhood to an "envied" neighborhood, owing mostly to the attention paid to the neighborhood park by the City of Pensacola's Parks and Recreation Department. Ten homes went on the market and ten homes sold in Parker Cirle even in an extraordinarily slow housing market. The "tipping point" was the park.

Sam Hall	479	61.7%
Paul Young	297	38.3%

Pensacola City Council, 2006

This election was held November 7, 2006. Pensacola City Council races are non-partisan.

Paul Young	1,027	46.4%
Sam Hall	958	43.3%
Stephen Kolokouris	227	10.3%

As no candidates in this race garnered a majority of the vote, the top two candidates proceeded to a run-off election, held November 28, 2006.

External links

• City of Pensacola Councilmember site
• Councilman Hall's blog
• Councilman Hall's MySpace