About us
our organization's roots
Envision Perdido was originally founded in 2008 by local advocates, including Vicki Campbell (now a local elected official), Tim and Kim Pyle, and Buford Lipscomb. Through this organization, local citizens began to explore the possibility of municipal incorporation and ultimately collaborated with local leaders on projects vital to our community’s growth. Their efforts led to significant community achievements, including the Southwest Escambia County Sports Complex, a Sheriff’s outpost, and the Perdido Key Visitor’s Center and Fire Station. Having secured these immediate wins for the community, the leadership moved on to other endeavors and left the topic of the town of Perdido to a future generation, should the need arise.
From that time to 2022, local citizens witnessed years of worrisome impacts from growth, which they felt warranted another look at localizing governance. Thus, in January of 2023, the We Are Perdido organization formed to continue this important work, taking things a step further as they formally researched municipal incorporation and produced the state-required draft charter and feasibility report. This report was successfully delivered in September of 2024 and the local delegation voted unanimously to support bringing it to Tallahassee.
By February of 2024, a larger board with fresh perspectives was formed, including one of the original 2008 Envision Perdido’s founding members. It became evident that the original vision of We Are Perdido was too focused on a single solution and would benefit from an expanded mission. As a result, the members of the organization agreed to broaden its scope to look for multiple solutions that could directly and immediately benefit the community. Today, the newly revitalized Envision Perdido is committed to balancing progress with local values, providing advocacy guided by the history of our founding efforts and focused on immediate solutions for our community’s challenges.
our leadership team
Dick Padlo
Board President
Dick is a former Air Force Base Commander, where he managed community services for 9,600 residents and supervised human resources, information systems, engineering services, environmental assessments, facility maintenance, and security operations for a workforce of 1,065. For the past thirteen years, Dick Padlo has served as an executive at several national and international nonprofits. He and his wife, Dedra, live in Perdido Bay Country Club Estates
Jim Fluhart
Treasurer
Jim is a retired senior communications industry executive with 40 years of experience at Verizon, Lucent, Belcore, and Unity Fiber. He has managed divisions with more than 1100 employees, holding full profit and loss responsibility. Jim served as Vice President, Vice President, and board member of multiple homeowner associations in Dallas, Denver, and Tampa. He is a golfer, avid sailor, chef, and grandfather-in-training.
Heather Meherg
Secretary
Born and raised in the Birmingham area, Heather grew up spending her summers along the shores of the Gulf Coast. Following high school, she pursued her dream of attending the University of Alabama. Upon graduating, Heather married and began sharing life’s adventures with her husband. They are happy to call Perdido their home and love spending as much time as possible on their boat or walking Johnson’s Beach.
Steve Brendtro
Spokesperson
Steve Brendtro grew up in South Dakota, helping his family run a global nonprofit for youth professionals. He first visited Pensacola in 1997, camping on Fort Pickens and first tested his lifeguard skills rescuing a friend from the Gulf. Twenty years later, Steve and his family relocated to Perdido. With a computer science degree and 25 years of business development experience, he contributes extensive research, and technical skills.
Buford Lipscomb
Director
Buford Lipscomb is retired Senior Pastor of Liberty Church and has served as International Director of multiple nonprofit organizations. He is a consultant and advisor to numerous organizations and was part of the Envision Perdido team that helped bring many positive changes to the Perdido community in the early 2000s. Now based out of Innerarity, Buford and his wife enjoy all Perdido has to offer with their kids and grandchildren, and still give back to the community.
Anthony Garcia
Director
Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, Anthony grew up in small communities within Jackson and Harris counties. He spent nearly a decade in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he began his architectural career. Anthony and his wife made Perdido Manor their home on Cummings Point five years ago, where he continues his architectural work with a firm in Fairhope, Alabama. Together, Anthony and his wife are raising their two children among the natural beauty of Northwest Florida and lower Alabama, steps away from Perdido Bay.
Mae Dean
Director
As a multi-generational resident of Escambia County and the Perdido area, Mae has served the community for years, both on and off Perdido Key. She began her nonprofit leadership on the board of our local Habitat for Humanity chapter. Continuing from there, she served for years on the board of directors of the nonprofit Perdido Key Association, including several years as President. Mae worked with community leaders to keep a casino off the Key and helped spearhead the multi-use path. Mae Dean helped facilitate public meetings for the Perdido Key Master Plans and has always been active and interested in working within the land development code to make the community a better place to live, for development and growth that makes sense to our local citizens.
Mickie Cameron
Director
Mickie grew up in Perdido, spending free time with friends in her “backyard,” the area now known as Big Lagoon State Park. Her family founded the well-known local business, Perdido Heating and Air. At age twenty, Mickey moved away, started a family, became a teacher, and raised her kids. Over the years, she’s been on many adventures with her husband, a retired US Marine and space shuttle pilot. Twenty years ago, Mickie decided it was time to come home to the place most dear to her, Perdido. As a resident of the Paradise Beach area, she is concerned about the health and longevity of the Perdido community and preserving its charm. She believes Perdido may better address these challenges directly as a town.
What is the Status of the Town of Perdido?
As the community of Perdido witnessed in the fall of 2024, allowing residents to vote on this type of issue is more complex than it would seem. We learned that for a variety of reasons the Florida Legislature has not considered any new municipal incorporation initiatives in the state since 2017. Any such future initiative would require a State House Representative to champion the effort and carry it through the legislative process, as well as support from other parts of the Florida House of Representatives. At this time we are not actively pursuing an incorporation initiative.
But as we discovered along the way, there are immediate needs in our community to which we can turn our attention. As an organization, we can help our community partner with elected leaders and other community organizations to find solutions to the challenges facing the Perdido community in a way that benefits the local residents.
Would you like to help bring meaningful impact to protect Perdido’s natural beauty and balance progress with the values and environmental stewardship for coming generations? Join us! Together we can bring this vision to reality.