Tallahassee and Leon County Commissioners gave their thoughts Thursday on the upcoming process to replace city management, the potential charter amendment that would give Leon County preemption over city ordinances and more during the Village Square’s 14th annual Tallahassee Town Hall at WFSU Studios.
Current Tallahassee City Manager Reese Goad announced last week he will be retiring later this year. An item is on the city commission agenda next week to hire a firm to begin a national search process for Goad’s replacement.
Commissioner Jeremy Matlow said during the town hall he wants a candidate being brought in nationally and think a final selection should be made after a new commission is elected.
“There's three folks on seats on the ballot this year, we could have an entirely new majority on the commission next year,” he said. “If enjoyed the three-two division that was stoked by the current city manager, I think putting one in place before the election makes sense. But if we want to bring our community back together, we can look at history. This is the exact same thing that happened when Reese was appointed eight years ago, and the results have not been good.”
Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox said she’s ready to move forward with hiring a new city manager under the current commission.
“I think that, again, politics and conversations have tainted some processes, but when we have a process in place, I believe we should use the process that we have, and I am ready to use the process that we have to be able to find the next best city manager for the City of Tallahassee,” she said.
Matlow is running in a contested Mayoral race after current Mayor John Dailey said he would not seek another term. Williams-Cox is also defending her seat against several challengers.
The Leon County/Tallahassee charter amendment issue has been a hotly contested one. It comes as the two government bodies have been fighting over issues such as the fire services fee.
Leon County Commissioner David O’Keefe said he thinks many of the disagreements stem from personalities on the commissions. He thinks a charter change isn’t needed. “I don't think we should be working on changing the structure of our government, because we have not yet resolved, or the voters have not yet resolved, getting out personalities or getting in personalities that will work together collectively,” he said.
Leon County Commissioner Carolyn Cummings didn’t say whether she supports the plan. But she did say she thinks voters should weigh in.
“It's not a situation where, in my opinion, the county is thrusting something down the throat of citizens saying it's our way or no way. We're saying you are the citizens you live here. You make a determination,” she said.
City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow said it makes sense that sometimes urban areas in the city need different rules from rural areas in the county.
“There's a lot of reasons why having a different set of regulations in the city where density is increased makes a lot more sense versus the liberties you might enjoy in a more rural area where you're not you're not really infringing on the liberties of your next door neighbor,”
You can watch the full two-hour livestream that touched on several pressing local issues here: