TMH, City Triage Turns Political

Matlow Renews Attacks on City Manager Amid TMH Discussion

It appears that information gathered during a private meeting – related to the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (TMH) issue – was intentionally shared with City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow who then used the information to publicly scold city manager Reese Goad during a recent city commission meeting.

The private meeting, which took place on Monday April 14th, included officials from TMH, the City, and FSU. TMH called for the meeting to advance discussions related to a change in the governance structure currently in place between TMH and the City and to address issues related to a hospital project in Panama City Beach.

After the Monday meeting, during the April 16th Wednesday city commission meeting when the TMH issue was being discussed, Matlow criticized Goad’s comments made in the meeting as reported by local media.

Matlow was upset that Goad had told TMH that the governance structure requested by TMH would probably not be approved by the city commission given the current legal issues that were unresolved.

Then Matlow asked Goad if there were comments made during the TMH meeting that were political in nature and related to “threats against your commissioners.”

Goad refused to speak to Matlow’s inquiry.

Matlow pressed the issue and asked the city attorney – who was present at the private meeting – if such a discussion took place. City Attorney Towman confirmed there was a discussion of a political nature.

Matlow ended the discussion by addressing Goad, “I find it wholly inappropriate that political conversations that represent the city in political capacities while negotiating for the city in a public position. I am going to leave it at that.”

There were no media reports about comments related to “political threats”. How did Matlow know what was said during the TMH, FSU, and COT meeting?

Matlow’s Alignment with TMH

Since the beginning of the debate over the future relationship between TMH and the City of Tallahassee, media reports have noted that Matlow’s support of TMH has aligned him with individuals that have previous financially backed his opponents during contentious elections.

As during previous election campaigns, Matlow’s approach during this debate has been to attack Mayor Dailey and City Manager Reese Goad. In addition to the recent confrontation with Goad, Matlow previously accused Mayor Dailey of engineering a “hostile takeover” of the hospital with FSU. On Facebook, Matlow wrote “While commissioners and the hospital were kept in the dark, I learned this week that Mayor Dailey met with FSU weeks ago with a plan to ‘deliver the hospital for Florida State.”

This approach was consistent with TMH’s response to the City’s initial agenda item related to TMH’s request for a change in the governance structure.

For example, during a public event last month, Ed Murray, immediate past chairman of TMH’s Board of Directors who’s been on the board for nine years, said the city’s approach felt like a “hostile takeover.” “We were blindsided by the agenda item,” said Murray.

Meeting Attendees

According to media reports, the April 14th Monday meeting included Reese Goad, City Attorney Amy Toman, Assistant City Attorney Kristen McRae and Thomas Whitley, director of operations and innovation.

The FSU attendees included President McCullough, Kyle Clark, senior vice president for finance and administration, Carolyn Egan, vice president for legal affairs and general counsel, and Stacey Patterson, vice president for research.

TMH’s attendees were Mark O’Bryant, Sally Bradshaw, board member Beth Corum, and hospital attorneys Murray Moore Jr. and Gerald Bryant, both shareholders with the Pennington law firm.

While the identity of the person who caused the information to reach Matlow is not known, it would be logical to assume the person attended the meeting.

And beyond the substance of the comments shared by Matlow at the city commission meeting, the fact that high level officials responsible for resolving a complicated issue cannot rely on confidentiality when discussing sensitive topics is surely to have an impact on future negotiations.