Milton council selects local Salter Company for commercial real estate services in 6–1 vote

The Milton City Council voted 6–1 on Feb. 10 to award its commercial real estate services contract to the local Salter Company, a decision council members said balanced staff recommendations, scoring sheets and a desire to support a hometown firm.

Councilmember Farrow moved to approve Salter Company; the motion was seconded and passed with Councilman McKee voting no. Mayor Heather Lindsay announced the tally and invited the Salter representative to introduce himself after the vote.

“Congratulations, sir,” Mayor Lindsay said after the vote, and Mr. Salter addressed the council briefly, saying he looked forward to working with the city and leveraging local knowledge. During the discussion, several council members argued for local preference: “We need to bring it home,” a resident supporting Salter told the council from the audience, and other members noted Salter’s long presence in Milton.

Opponents pointed to the evaluation materials: one councilmember said the score sheet favored a different firm in Pensacola, and questioned relying solely on that single scoring factor; another said the four finalist firms were comparable. “When you have four companies that are qualified, I would rather take our home company,” one councilmember said in debate.

Votes at a glance: the council unanimously approved a motion to waive fees for the Barnes car show and amend the funding source to discretionary funds so city staff could cover owed event fees; it also unanimously approved a 90-day extension of current Community Improvement Board (CIB) member terms to allow time to redraft ordinance language.

The Salter representative thanked the council and said he appreciated the hometown support. The council did not set a public contract amount during the meeting; staff will complete final contract documents and return to the council as required.

The council adjourned its discussion of procurement items and proceeded to other business.