Tallahassee City Manager Reese Goad is retiring after 26 years working for the city of Tallahassee. Goad’s retirement is effective September 30, or as soon as another city manager is hired.
During a press conference just hours after Goad's announcement, Mayor John Dailey praised Goad's work. He says he wants to start a search right away with plans to hire Goad’s replacement before the November elections. He's asking for the item to be brought up at the next commission meeting. Dailey says the experience of the current commission will help ensure a good selection process.
“With our collective wisdom, I have complete confidence that this commission will be able to select the next city manager," Dailey says. "To postpone to a new governing body where you have the potential of a new majority that has never had the opportunity to serve, I do not think serves this community well, and I think it’s short-sighted to actually suggest that.”
But Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, who has frequently butted heads with Goad, is pushing back on that idea. He wants to wait to hire Goad's replacement and thinks the new commission and new mayor should make the selection.
“If we look at allowing Reese Goad to oversee a selection process—someone who is known to conduct things in secret behind closed doors, who has had a very combative relationship with city commissioners, who routinely gets zero scoring reviews on his personal evaluations—if we let that type of manager oversee a hiring process, the idea that that process is done with integrity and that we’re looking for stability, I think is going to be questioned by the public,” Matlow says.
The makeup of the city commission will shift following the November elections. Dailey is not seeking another term as mayor. Matlow is one of four people running to fill that seat. And two other seats on the commission are up for grabs this fall.
