Tallahassee City Commission Meeting Briefs: July 13, 2022

Tallahassee City Commission Meeting Briefs: July 13, 2022

Provided below are news briefs from the July 13, 2022 Tallahassee City Commission meeting.

The City of Tallahassee Commission approved the recommendation for adjusting a lobbyist registration fee. Before the city meeting, the annual fee for Tallahassee was $25.00. During the meeting, the commissioners unanimously approved a $500 yearly fee for a lobbyist to register.
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Elected officials approved lobbyist bans after felony convictions involving, but not limited to, bribery, theft, and honest services fraud. The City of Tallahassee set the penalty as a ten-year ban. The motion passed in a 5-0 vote; however, Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox argued the ban should be for a more extended period, at least 20 years.
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The commission approved the Special Events Committee’s recommendations for co-sponsored events for FY 2023-24. The events will be designated co-sponsored events with 84% of the costs of city services provided in-kind. However, the New Year’s Eve and the Sundown Concert Series will be 100%. Some events approved include Kidsfest, Frenchtown Risings, and Springtime Tallahassee. The vote was approved 3-2, with Commissioners Williams-Cox and Richardson in dissent.
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Landus J. Anderson was appointed to the vacant Planning Commission seat for a three-year term ending on June 30, 2025. The Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Commission is responsible for comprehensive area-wide planning within the City of Tallahassee and Leon County.
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The city appointed John Kirk and Nathan Newton to two vacant seats on the Audit Committee. The Audit Committee serves in the advisory capacity to the city commission on issues presented to the committee relating to the oversight or audit activities of the City of Tallahassee.
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City officials awarded a three-year term contract with Quality Traffic Data, LLC. City staff estimates the total value of the proposed three-year contract to be $278,250 or $92,750 annually. In addition, because this program also benefits Leon county, the county will reimburse the city approximately $12,000 per year for traffic counts collected outside the city limits.
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The commission heard an update on the city’s progress with EV readiness. Additionally, the city authorized staff to pursue technical amendments in the Florida Building Code to accelerate EV readiness in all new construction. The city can implement ordinances and policies to promote EV readiness and adoption through regulation, such as changing zoning regulations.
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In a 5-0 vote, elected officials approved the Landon Hills inclusionary housing agreement. They supported the density bonus as an incentive to construct inclusionary housing units in the Landon Hills subdivision. The deal will increase the number of affordable units for moderate-income homebuyers.
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The city commission also approved the negotiations with Aero Center Tallahassee and Flightline Development Corporation for the lease and development of Airport property to accommodate a proposed Fixed Base Operator business.
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Lastly, elected city officials voted for and unanimously approved the 2023 budget for the City of Tallahassee. There was a great deal of discussion and numerous public speakers who were against the budget allocations. Tentatively, the FY23 millage rate will remain at 4.1 for the seventh year.

11 Responses to "Tallahassee City Commission Meeting Briefs: July 13, 2022"

  1. “Between Scott Maddox’s lobbyist/campaign manager running Bellamy’s campaign and developer middlemen running Dianne’s, hard to keep up with all the establishment puppetry!”

    All 3 recipients of the bundled contributions contributor Ghazvini.

    Gro Tallahassee/Ghazvini/Vancore-Jones got a spanking last election. So they replaced their PR hacks with the former employee of Scott Maddox.

    Williams-Cox Dailey, and Bellamy riding shotgun are going to crash into the wall sooner or later when they wake up and find out that their Doak vote will be their demise.

    Ghazvini gets his Sky Box upgraded and the trade is children don’t have sidewalks to walk on, houses to live in, or food to eat. Crime is out of control and they have failed to bring the crime rate down.

    Voters have had enough.

  2. More desperate electioneering from the dais by DWC.

    Dianne told her supporters she was going to trade her reversal on Welaunee fiasco for something good on the south side… got bamboozled instead for a D.R. Horton urban service area expansion to subsidize more $300,000+ cookie-cutter houses in Woodville. Voted for the $27m Doak giveaway, stumping with Ghazvini $ “Grow Tallahassee,” now wants to pretend an interest in ethics.

    Between Scott Maddox’s lobbyist/campaign manager running Bellamy’s campaign and developer middlemen running Dianne’s, hard to keep up with all the establishment puppetry!

  3. “The deal will increase the number of affordable units for moderate-income home buyers.”

    I see you are using new words for this topic. BUT, I have the same Question no matter what words you use.

    1) What are you now saying is Affordable Units?
    2) What are you calling a Moderate Income?

  4. Who paid for the presently running TV ad featuring the Reverend RB Holmes?

    Coincidence that it coincides with local political candidates who have huge amount of funds in their campaign accounts funded by special interests?

  5. O/T

    Apparently, Attorney Ben Crump, has been retained by the family of Andrew Sundberg. Sundberg was an active shooter in Minneapolis who was killed by police. This is now international news with BLM doing their usual part and Ben Crump doing his part.

    I said previously that I do not want to live in Chicago. I would like to add, I do not want to live in Minneapolis either.

  6. The “Greenie-Grommers” have no thought out plans to change the country over to battery powered cars…only a goal. And the tired old man who thinks he was elected King only knows one thing…when Matlock comes on.

    Breitbart has reported the story how new batteries cost more than the car is worth. YouTube has reported the new Ford EV Truck has an 89 mile range when pulling a camper.

    Of course anyone with an IQ equal to that of plant life would have known to research any vehicle prior to purchase. And as a rule of thumb you never buy the first year of any new vehicle. And Ev vehicles are not much more than a novelty and are not practical.

    Of course Tallahasssee management doesn’t care. Just increase property taxes and buy all the electric buses you want. Who knows how horrible Plugs’ declaration of a “climate change emergency” will be. The declaration will reduce drilling for oil.

    The Greenie-groomers need to remember no EV aircraft or ships are available. It just amazes me the idiotic manner they chose to try and force everyone into buying a stupid EV.

    And Redstate reported on a 4 year old who grabbed his dad’s pistol and shot at a cop. And Democrats voters deserve all of the credit.

  7. This whole EV readiness project reminds me of the many partially constructed state highways in California. We’re going to be left with a bunch of unused and minimally used charging stations. Good grief.

  8. Just a few notes… if I may…

    1. $500 annual fee to lobby city politicians is laughable. A lobbyist will drop that on a diner and drinks with the politician they’re courting… more than that If the politician requests an “escort”.

    2. The EV nonsense is just that; nonsense. I’m surprised that the “equity” folks haven’t stepped in to rail against the inequity of it all. If we’re going to require developers to install costly EV charging stations at their proposed development, then why aren’t we requiring them to install gas pumps on the property as well?… you know, in the interest of “equity”. You may have missed the recent story of a father right here in Florida that bought his green-indoctrinated daughter a used 2014 Ford Focus EV. He paid $11k for the car. It ran fine for a couple of months, then just stopped. When he took it in for repair, it turns out it needed a new battery… the cost of that new save-the-whales battery?… $14K. $11K for the car, $14K for the battery that makes the greenies smile.

    3. Handing out density bonuses to build (inclusionary, affordable, low and moderate income housing) units is also laughable. Once they meet the very costly new EV requirements, that will eliminate the speculated lower costs of housing. As it stands, the inclusionary “affordable” units are few, and are typically built with the leftover scrap material and scratched and dented appliances. Oh, and placed near the back of the complex near the dumpster… but hey, anything to do our part in the demented belief that we insignificant carbon units can alter the evolutionary path of a plant by driving a Prius.

    4. Lastly, the Mayor and Commission ignored and dismissed the concerns of the citizens/taxpayers/voters questioning the budget and allocation… and unanimously supported the waste and misappropriations. And don’t be too quick to praise them for not raising the millage rate. Between the increase in property values (aka: property taxes) and raiding the Utilities fund to cover general fund spending… they haven’t had to raise the millage rate.

    … clueless is as clueless does… sir :-/

  9. The Ban for lobbyist is 10 Years, Cox wanted 20. Why not make for 10 Years for each count?

    If you are going to Amend the Building Codes and Zoning Regulations to make new Commercial install Charging Stations, is it safe to assume that the Businesses don’t have to pay the City a percentage of what they Charge to Charge?

    Why do you need to negotiate with Aero Center Tallahassee and Flightline Development Corporation for the lease and development of Airport property to accommodate a proposed Fixed Base Operator business. Isn’t the Property City Owned?

    With all of the New Housing with most Houses being $250K and UP and all the Student Housing with most Rents being $1,500 and UP and all the New Commercial Property being Developed, you should be able to lower the Millage rate, even just a little. And tell the CDC to stop wasting their Budget.

  10. It’s the people who can afford the $500.00 annual fee we really need to keep out of lobbying our elected Nannies.
    Raising the fee is counter productive if we are going for honesty in local government. But then again honesty is a quality our local elected Nannies are NOT looking for in a lobbiest.

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