Incumbent Tallahassee City Commissioner Curtis Richardson and challenger Dot Inman-Johnson both participated in a candidate forum Wednesday.
The race is the most expensive local contest this cycle. Its stakes are high. An Inman-Johnson win would give the progressive faction at city hall a third vote, enough to make significant changes, including shaking up city management.
Hosted by WFSU Public Media, the Tallahassee Democrat, and the League of Women Voters of Tallahassee, the forum touched on dozens of topics. Here’s what the candidates had to say about some of those topics.
You can watch the full video of the hour-long forum here:
Campaign Finance
Richardson has received more than $100,000 in donations from local developers to his campaign account and political committees supporting him. Inman-Johnson has received more than $100,000 from political committees from California and Tennessee advocating for green energy.
Inman-Johnson said during the forum that Richardson’s donations could cloud his judgement.
“My opponent's campaign contributions come primarily from development interest, businesses that have current contracts with the City of Tallahassee, which I consider a conflict of interest, interest and a violation of ethics,” she said.
But Richardson said those who donate to him are not buying favors from him.
“I have a history of public office. I've taken contributions in the past, and all that anybody expects from Curtis Richardson is good government, that I will listen, that I will consider the issues and that I will make decisions that are in the best interest of this community. My background speaks for itself,” he said.
He said he believes Inman-Johnson’s out-of-state dollars will make her beholden to those interests. He also points out those donations were all given to One Tallahassee, a Political Committee run by City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow.
“There has to be something wrong with that, and I think that this community has to ask the question, what's going to be expected of a commissioner that's been funded by out-of-state interest like that,” he said.
Inman-Johnson responded that she got the money because she will be a good environmental advocate.
“I don't know of anything I as a citizen could give them, except being a good environmental advocate for our community, protecting our national natural resources and making sure we are doing things to ensure we have clean water, not polluted, clean air, and our natural resources,” she said.
City Management
The two candidates differed on their opinions about the city’s current management.
Richardson recently gave City Manager Reese Goad a perfect rating in his review. During the candidate forum, he said Goad has made sure the city is well run.
“The performance of staff over the last several months, when we've had natural disasters, and how we brought our city back in the services that we provided to our citizens, that's the evidence of the leadership that he has provided, and I think is due to keep his position,” he said.
Inman-Johnson disagreed. She said people have complained to her that Goad manages with fear and intimidation, and referenced comments from former City Attorney Cassandra Jackson after she stepped down after texts from city staff disparaging her were leaked.
“When I saw the way the city attorney, the former city attorney, Cassandra Jackson, was treated, pretty much driven out of city hall by the manager and his subordinate staff with the kind of environment they created for her, it made me very concerned and feel a lot of changes need to be made at City Hall,” she said.
Two of Inman-Johnson’s political allies, Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter, have given Goad failing annual reviews for several years and have made no secret that they would like to remove him. Inman-Johnson did not give a definitive answer about whether she would join those two in voting to oust him if elected, but Richardson believes she will.
“It's been clear that my colleagues, two of my colleagues on the commission, currently, have a disdain for our city manager and they don't have a good relationship, and I know that they would probably try to act to get rid of the city manager under that circumstance,” he said.
Undergrounding utilities
This year, a series of tornados and two hurricanes knocked out power in areas of Tallahassee for several days. This has prompted local conversations about speeding up the rate the city is undergrounding powerlines, including pursuing a program like a one-cent sales tax to raise the funds to do it
Richardson said it would be expensive and doesn’t think undergrounding would completely stop power outages because of required above-ground infrastructure. He believes conversations need to continue to determine whether the community would support it.
“It's a discussion that the community is going to have to have, and if we decide that we want to commit ourselves to that kind of expense to underground utilities, then we can possibly do a blueprint type sales tax increase to fund that,” he said.
Inman-Johnson said she thinks existing funding sources should be looked into before an extra tax is considered.
“In blueprint, we've added things. Things that weren't even included at first in the list of what should be covered with that tax. If we start planning and setting aside money in the capital improvements element, we can certainly take care of beginning the process of underground utilities,” she said.
3-2 Split and party affiliation
Currently, the city commission is split 3-2, with Richardson apart of the majority bloc containing Mayor John Dailey and Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox. Inman-Johnson is being supported by the minority bloc, consisting of Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter.
When asked, Richardson did not identify a single vote he has taken where he has broken that split and sided with the minority bloc. Inman-Johnson also failed to identify a single issue that she disagreed with the minority bloc on.
Both candidates are Democrats, but Inman-Johnson is an admitted progressive. Inman-Johnson’s campaign has attempted to paint Richardson as a Republican and has “democrat” on her campaign signs.
Richardson said party affiliation doesn’t matter for this seat.
“These are nonpartisan races. I have been a registered Democrat since 1974. I have voted Democrat. I have served as a Democrat elected official, but the City Commission seats are nonpartisan,” he said.
Inman-Johnson said she believes Richardson doesn’t bring all Democrats to the table in his work.
“The political party might not be important, but the issues are, and there are progressive issues where you are bringing people under the big tent and trying to deal with the needs of the people in your community. And Curtis doesn't do that,” she said.