Tallahassee Commissioners are a step closer to hiring a new city manager after Rick Fernandez agreed to step down from the job following a number of ethics accusations made against him. Commissioners approved a search process Wednesday. They are also moving forward with efforts to search for a new city attorney—a subject which drew extensive debate as commissioners considered widening the criteria in order to draw a larger number of applicants. Commissioner Scott Maddox said the change could pull in a new caliber of applicant.
“This is as if we have an application for a high school football coach and we disallowed NFL football coaches. So Bill Belichick wants to coach at Leon high and we say ‘nope, you have to have 8 years’ experience as a high school football coach so you can’t coach at Leon High,” Maddox said.
Meanwhile, other commissioners argue there’s no need to expand the search since a qualified internal candidate has already applied for the job. In the mean time, that candidate, Cassandra Jackson, has been named the interim city manager.
