We, the undersigned eligible citizens/voters of Escambia County, object to the closure of the Escambia-Pensacola Human Relations Commission whose mission is the enforcement of FAIR HOUSING and EQUAL EMPLOYMENT.   The Escambia County Board of County Commissioners are not acting in the best interest of our community by closing this invaluable service.  Allowing “in-house” government means that only those “in-house” benefit.  An individual cannot truly exercise their concerns and allegations of discrimination, landlord-tenant issues, employment rights, and wage & hour issues by being centralized within a governmental agency.  We, the citizens want to be able to know that our concerns are going to be taken seriously and allegations investigated not just pushed around for statistical purposes to meet grant qualifications without providing those resources back into our community.  The EPHRC has represented this community in Fair Housing and Equal Employment concerns for 44 years.  If the doors are to be closed, then it should be because discrimination has been eradicated not because the County Commission wishes to institutionalize their discrimination.  If it hasn’t, then the work should continue under the EPHRC a neutral entity not under direct local governmental control.