Tallahassee City Attorney Cassandra Jackson has given notice of her intent to resign from the position of City Attorney effective November 24. She will continue to serve as an employee/consultant through June 1, 2024 – her planned retirement date – to ensure a smooth transition.
According to the proposed employment agreement, in her new position as a consultant, Jackson will report to the Interim or City Attorney.
An item added to the agenda for the November 8, 2023 city commission meeting seeks approval of a proposed amendment to the employment agreement between Ms. Jackson and the City to allow her to work until June 1, 2024.
Jackson released a statement addressing her decision:
“It has been the honor of my legal career of nearly 40 years to serve as Tallahassee’s City Attorney. Public service is one of the most admirable and rewarding of professions. I have served the public with the highest level of legal professionalism, knowledge and integrity throughout my career and will continue to do so. For personal reasons, I have requested that the City Commission amend my employment agreement to permit resignation as City Attorney and continued service in a legal advisory capacity until my planned retirement on June 1, 2024. City residents can be assured that I will leave the City of Tallahassee with a current legal staff that has extraordinary legal training and skill.”
Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey released a statement to WCTV, addressing Jackson’s intent to resign, saying she has served the citizens “extremely well.”
“I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Cassandra for the past 5 years,” said Dailey. “She has served the citizens of Tallahassee extremely well. Upon the news of her retirement, I am very appreciative of the time she is providing which gives us plenty of time to provide a smooth transition for hiring a new city attorney.”
The City Commission appointed Cassandra Jackson as City Attorney for the City of Tallahassee on February 28, 2018.
Jackson was one of three candidates interviewed for the job back in 2018.
Then City Commissioner Scott Maddox, who had originally voted against hiring her, renewed the call for a vote at a meeting in February, 2018 and the motion passed 4-1.
“When somebody works hard and are within the ranks, they shouldn’t be penalized for being within the ranks. What we should do is have an open and fair process and that’s what we did here. She had to compete with people from the outside and she rose to the top. And I’m proud to support her,” said City Commissioner Scott Maddox.
Tallahassee City Attorney Will Serve as Consultant Until “Planned Retirement” Date, June 2024 added by Steve Stewart on
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There is something that stinks at City Hall and it’s not the continued sewage spillage impacting our infrastructure, it’s the administration that runs the day-to-day operations of the city government.
Cassandra Jackson is one of the most respected attorneys and is well-respected by everyone at COT, except for the City Manager Reese Goad. He doesn’t respect her or her office. She is resigning because of the toxic environment that has been created. He and his staff who believe they are so much smarter than her, don’t side with her opinion. Over 99% of the time, he dismisses her opinion and lets his Assistant City Managers make the decisions. You have a City Attorney to protect you and provide guidance on many complex issues.
A deeper dive needs to take place on the managers and supervisors who have been forced to resign or were fired or ultimately resigned this year. There were a lot of good people who worked hard but because they weren’t part of the inner circle, they were forced out. One of those people include a high-ranking manager who was forced out because of this recent text scandal. On that note, one of the city’s core values is Customer Service is our Business. If any average employee was caught using their city phone and making disparaging comments about the public, they would be fired without cause. But why does the upper management think they can get around it? Because they can! They are protected by the corrupt city manager.
On a related note, why is that the TPD collective bargaining contract was signed in one meeting and the TFD contract has been dragged out with over 10 meetings and still no compromise? Is it because of politics, PBA is supported by Dailey, Williams-Cox and Richardson and TFD’s IAFF is supported by Matlow and Porter? In addition, is it also because the IAFF filed an ethics complaint against City Manager Goad? None of that should matter if we are made to believe that public safety is all that matters.
Finally, if TR really wants to uncover some of the truths at City Hall, find out about the inflated Strategic Innovation Department. What do they do? How many of their employees have been brought on by the department then farmed out to other departments to become supervisors with no experience? What’s the latest with the 2024 Strategic Plan, any updates? Do a deep dive into the new pay structure of retirees coming back into executive levels! Who is benefiting from it?
Finally, and I mean finally this time, how can Steve Stewart and TR provide “facts” and clear objectivity when they are receiving revenue as a vendor by the City and Blueprint and they are advertising on this site? Right now, I am looking at an ad to promote Blueprint and yesterday there was an ad to FlyTLH, the airport’s site.
This isn’t about the “election season,” it’s about uncovering the sad reality of how disillusioned many of us has become to the real truth.
David
You are missing the point.
She resigned for a Reason, what was her reason? ALSO, did the last City Attorney get to stay on as a Paid Consultant for 7 MONTHS? NO, so why is she allowed to?
Did the assistant city manager expose that the city attorney is giving pushback on, developer deals WHICH IS WHAT THE CITY ATTORNEY IS SUPPOSED TO DO regarding the Welaunee Heel development?
Again, it’s time for the state legislature to step in and remove the city manager and mayor as this city has gone totally corrupt with this city manager and mayor.
This should have been part of the article. I don’t know why TR left this out?
Suspicious that this information was left out of this article and TR has not published an expose from Terry Ryan on the sewage spill. The pieces of the puzzle are coming together and it doesn’t look good that there is a cover-up going on. TR can do better.
When Democrats go to extraordinary efforts to promote identity politics it degrades the performance of minorities. For example Biden nominated a black man to be Federal Aviation Administration Administrator even though he had zero aviation experience. Biden put a man who thinks he is a woman in as Health and Human Services Secretary. Biden put a small town mayor in charge of the Department of Transportation. Most people think Democrat Appointments are aimed at Identity Politics. I wouldn’t seek to work for a democrat government.
They need to clean house and Cassandra Jackson shouldn’t be the one leaving. Ms. Jackson has proven to be an honest, hardworking, conscientious, honorable city attorney. Let’s turn this around and send the city manager out the door with a few of his staff and keep Cassandra Jackson. PRAY!
There is something rotten in Denmark…
Death spiral of this city regime. Scott Maddox and Gillum installed Reese Goad who has raised our property taxes and overseen all this dysfunction and it’s time for him to go.