Tallahassee has been ablaze with reports, social media posts and public statements regarding behind-the-scenes negotiations on the Florida State University/Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare partnership.
Outlets like the Tallahassee Democrat have reported on Grow Tallahassee’s Bugra Demirel of conducting polls some say are being used to influence public opinion. Emerging political blogs have published articles criticizing other political blog’s coverage of prominent officials. Rumors that a special tax district to fund part of it arose that had political figures including State Rep. Allison Tant criticizing online, accusing Grow Tallahassee of doing behind-the-scenes tactics including the push-poll. The conversation about that potential tax district was quickly snuffed out in a joint statement from Florida State University and TMH.
WFSU’s Tristan Wood spoke to both Rep. Tant and Demirel to get their perspectives on what has been going on, as well as what direction they think the TMH/FSU partnership should go in.