Tallahassee mayor-elect Jeremy Matlow will be sworn in Monday, Nov. 16, along with new commissioner PJ Perez and returning commissioner Dianne Williams Cox. They will join Commissioners Jack Porter and Curtis Richardson, whose seats were not up for election.
Matlow has been a commissioner for eight years. Now he gets to change seats and wield the gavel.
The reorganization ceremony will lead to a new Mayor Pro Tempore. That’s expected to be Porter. Despite being elected twice, she was never chosen to serve in that leadership role during Mayor John Dailey’s administration. Dailey chose not to seek reelection.
We cover a host of issues with Matlow on today’s Speaking Of.
Matlow is promising changes including some budget tightening, new efforts and cooperation with the Leon County Commission, and a review of the new city manager’s contract.
The current 3 to 2 voting split at City Hall is changing. Matlow and Porter have been on the losing end. Now, they are likely to be on the winning side with the departure of Dailey and the addition of Perez.
“Reform is coming,” Matlow says. “There's a mandate for change that the people of Tallahassee sent us to the City Commission to do. We expect to live up to that.”
Matlow has plans for multiple commission meetings in January. He says he wants to “learn the individual priorities of every commissioner, craft an agenda that's inclusive of all five, and make sure…what they want to see happen in our city is moving forward.”
He’s okay with more 3 - 2 votes.
“We don't have to agree on everything. But the way we've disagreed previously and the way power was wielded behind the mayor's gavel specifically has led to this climate in City Hall that's pretty much toxic,” Matlow says. “That's what we want to move away from.”
Matlow consistently butted heads with former City Manager Reese Goad, who retired in September. Matlow wanted the newly minted commission to hire Goad's replacement. Instead, Mayor Dailey moved for the outgoing commission to handle the job. They chose Karen Jumonville, who’s worked with the City for over 25 years.
“The outgoing city commission, I think, put her in a very difficult position, particularly with how they structured her contract. That will be a conversation the new city commission is going to have,” Matlow says. “You shouldn't make these types of decisions in these lame duck sessions."
Matlow is also unhappy about what he sees as developers having too much influence over City Hall.
“If you went to our last city commission meeting, you would see development agreements that were written completely by the developer's attorney with no changes made by our staff, no changes made by our city attorney's office, and put on the agenda for city commission approval. That's a problem,” Matlow says.
“When we see neighborhoods speak out for basic needs and investments in sidewalks or tree protections, they tend to be ignored. Our goal is to bring City Commission back to its rightful owners, which I think is the people of Tallahassee. That should be our number one focus,” Matlow says. “Not saying people aren't going to be able to develop. We want them to continue to do business in our community, but we're not going to roll out all of our resources to benefit them while our neighborhoods are left behind.”
Controversy over the fire fee paid by city and county residents is expected to get a new review.
County commissioners have been very harsh in criticizing the City over management of the fire services fund. If the two local governments can’t come to an agreement in the coming months, the County will be forced to create its own fire department instead of getting service from the City.
County leaders have said they are hopeful for renewed negotiations now that the elections are over.
“My goal is to sit down with the chairman of the county commission. Let's get numbers that we can both agree on, make sure it's fair, make sure bills are being billed appropriately to city residents and county residents, make sure we're building the new fire stations that need to be built,” Matlow says. “Then we can distribute the cost effectively and we can continue to serve the county residents with fire service. I think having two different fire services is crazy… We just need to have a better working relationship with the County.”
We cover much more in this conversation, like the City’s sale of TMH and the Capital City Country Club property, the City's 287 agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a possible restructuring of the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency.
Click LISTEN above to hear the full conversation.
