Leon County’s Democratic Party hosted a town hall Thursday on the potential sale of Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare to Florida State University. The panel included City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, the only currently declared candidate for the 2026 Tallahassee mayoral race.
Leon Democratic Party Chair Ryan Ray, who is the aide to Matlow at city hall, MCed the event. The panel also consisted of three other elected officials, City Commissioner Jack Porter and Leon County Commissioners Bill Proctor and David O’Keefe. Those commissioners and Matlow have formed minority blocs on the city and county commissions.
In front of their audience, Matlow blasted the idea of a full-on hospital sale and accused city staff and Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey of working behind the scenes with FSU to sell it.
“What is happening is the mayor and the city manager are circumventing good government practices and trying to come up with a deal that they that they tie up with a bow to bring to the our City Commission to try to get three votes. We've had a city manager go as far to use leverage saying he has three votes and he's going to get what he wants,” he said.
Where any negotiations between FSU, TMH, and the city currently stand is unclear. All three organizations have remained tight-lipped about that. No new information was shared at the panel discussion. And no TMH issue is on the agenda for the next city commission meeting.
The panel was held while Matlow is the only declared candidate for the 2026 mayoral race. In previous elections, he and his allies messaged heavily against Blueprint funding to FSU’s Doak Campbell stadium, citing similar transparency concerns that he is voicing in the TMH sale.
In an interview, Matlow said the TMH sale issue has had him agreeing with people who opposed him in 2022. He hopes to win their support for Mayor this time around.
“What I'm hearing are people like, oh, we see it now. We see it now,” he said.
“I would like to earn everybody's support in my race for mayor, you know, I really think I'm uniquely qualified to gauge people's interests and what they want and make sure it's in the public interest, and then bring that together for the ultimate compromise for our community to move forward.”
For now, Matlow and his political ally Tallahassee Commissioner Jack Porter have both come out strongly against a sale. The other commissioners and the mayor have not come down explicitly on one side or the other. What will happen with TMH is still up in the air.