At an ethics workshop held by the Tallahassee City Commission Monday morning, four out of five commissioners cast ceremonial votes of confidence for City Manager Reese Goad. The votes come after Commissioner Matlow published a letter expressing no confidence in Goad last week. Matlow is sticking to his original stance - causing a rift, at least in opinion, from the rest of the commission. He is now calling for Goad to resign.
“His actions on a range of issues – defense of a nepotism policy, a rigged investigation into the football ticket scandal, audit findings of careless record-keeping,” Matlow said, following the ceremonial vote. “Inconsistent hiring and firing practices, and not to mention litigation against him that accuses him personally of withholding public records.”
Matlow says he will also be calling for an audit of Goad’s office.
During the meeting, the board also adopted new standards for its ethics code, which include a ban on gifts, and added teeth for ethics violation penalties. The changes were largely based on recommendations from the City’s Independent Ethics Board.
Goad went on to defend his job performance after being called to resign by Matlow. Goad, who’s accused by Matlow of politicizing the office among other things, says he’s been productive in his role in tandem with the commission and city employees.
“This discussion certainly has made me reflect upon some of the things we’ve been able to achieve over the last year, because I think it is important to celebrate that success,” Goad said. “I’ll be honest with you, every time I try to write the list down of the things of the things we’ve done – in just a short year – I can’t get to the end of the list.”
Matlow questioned whether the city employees who spoke in support of Goad during the meeting, which was jam-packed with attendees, were coerced to be there. Mayor John Dailey pushed back on the idea, and Goad eventually answered saying he has “no doubt” those were the employees’ own words, and they were there by their own volition.
