For more than two years, a City of Tallahassee employee working for Commissioner Jeremy Matlow anonymously posted hundreds of comments about City Hall, local political issues and candidates on Tallahassee Reports. A months-long TR investigation found that much of that activity occurred during weekday working hours — including dozens of comments during periods when City payroll records show the employee working his regular City schedule.
The employee is Ryan Ray, Matlow’s City Commission aide and a prominent figure in local Democratic politics.
Sources familiar with the local progressive political movement, an analysis of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and other records point to Ray as the person posting under the screen name “NE Moderate” during the period examined.
For years, political insiders had speculated about the identity of NE Moderate. TR’s investigation went beyond those suspicions. Among other findings, TR matched comments from IP addresses outside Tallahassee with periods when records independently placed Ray in those same areas.
The investigation also uncovered a striking timing pattern.
Of the 343 NE Moderate comments examined by TR, 225 — approximately 66% — were posted Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
TR then compared the comment timestamps with City payroll records for selected weeks of particularly heavy activity. Those records show numerous comments were posted during the span of Ray’s recorded City workdays.
One of the clearest examples occurred Aug. 9, 2022.
Ray’s City timecard shows that he clocked in at 8 a.m. and clocked out at 5 p.m. that day. NE Moderate posted at 8:32 a.m., followed by comments at 9:38, 9:58, 10:58, 11:02 and 11:50 a.m. Another appeared at 1:09 p.m.
Seven comments in less than five hours — all during the span of Ray’s recorded City workday.
Questions extend beyond Ray’s activity related to Tallahassee Reports.
Ray, as the head of the Leon County Democratic Party, has been responsible for political social-media activity related to the party which involves thousands of social media posts over the last two years. TR has begun comparing those timestamps with City payroll records and the NE Moderate comments. A preliminary review has identified days on which political social-media posts and anonymous Tallahassee Reports comments occurred during the same workday.
TR has asked Ray and Commissioner Matlow for comment.
The investigation now raises several questions: Was a taxpayer-funded City employee was engaging in political activity while on City time? What was Ray saying anonymously? Did NE Moderate advocate for or against candidates for public office? How much of the activity occurred while Ray was on duty? Did Commissioner Matlow know about the activity? Were City equipment, networks or other taxpayer-funded resources involved? And did any of the activity implicate City policies or Florida laws governing political activity by public employees?
And finally, was Ray’s activities part of a broader pattern in the progressive movement of using fake or undisclosed accounts and pages to influence public opinion without revealing who is behind them.
Florida law specifically provides that an employee of the state or a political subdivision “may not participate in any political campaign for an elective office while on duty.” The same law protects a public employee’s right to express political opinions and participate in campaigns during off-duty hours. Whether particular NE Moderate comments constitute prohibited campaign participation is a legal question TR is continuing to examine.
Those issues — including what NE Moderate said about candidates, what City policies and state law require, and what Commissioner Matlow knew about his aide’s activity — will be examined in subsequent installments of this series.
343 Comments Examined
TR reviewed 343 NE Moderate comments posted between December 2018 and June 2024 and analyzed the date and time associated with each comment. The results show a striking concentration during conventional working hours.
Of the 343 comments, 225 — 65.6% — were posted Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Another 80, or 23.3%, were posted on weekdays outside those hours, while 38, or 11.1%, were posted on weekends.
The concentration increased during 2023, when NE Moderate was most active. Of 191 comments that year, 139 — 72.8% — were posted between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.
Those numbers alone, however, could not establish that Ray was actually working when the comments appeared. Employees take vacations, use leave, work different schedules and take lunch breaks. TR therefore sought Ray’s City time records.
Timecards Compared With Comments
TR identified 14 weeks with some of the heaviest NE Moderate comment activity and obtained Ray’s City timecards for those periods. The records generally show Ray working an 8 a.m.-to-5 p.m. schedule, with eight hours credited for a normal workday.
TR then compared the timestamps of NE Moderate comments with Ray’s actual time records. During those 14 weeks, NE Moderate posted 130 comments. Of those, 94 were posted Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Three of the 94 occurred Jan. 18, 2024, when Ray’s timecard shows eight hours of personal leave rather than a normal workday.
That leaves 91 comments posted during the 8 a.m.-to-5 p.m. span on dates when Ray’s City timecard records him working. The City’s time records supplied to TR show the repeated 8 a.m.-5 p.m. work schedule during the periods examined.
There is an important qualification.
The timecards generally credit Ray with eight hours despite showing a nine-hour period between his 8 a.m. arrival and 5 p.m. departure. The records reviewed by TR do not identify the precise time of an unpaid meal period. For that reason, TR cannot establish that every one of the 91 comments was posted during compensated working time. But the frequency and timing of comments on several days make the activity difficult to attribute solely to a single lunch period.
Seven Comments in One Workday
Aug. 9, 2022, provides the clearest example.
Ray’s timecard records an 8 a.m.-to-5 p.m. workday.
NE Moderate posted at:
8:32 a.m.
9:38 a.m.
9:58 a.m.
10:58 a.m.
11:02 a.m.
11:50 a.m.
1:09 p.m.
The underlying comment records confirm the seven timestamps. The comments were spread across nearly five hours of Ray’s recorded workday. Other high-activity dates followed a similar pattern.
On Dec. 8, 2022, NE Moderate posted five comments between 8:57 a.m. and 3:12 p.m.
On Feb. 9, 2023, five comments appeared between 8:45 a.m. and 4:34 p.m.
On April 20, 2023, four comments were posted at 10:42 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 10:50 a.m. and 2:58 p.m.
On June 26, 2023, another four appeared at 9:43 a.m., 11:58 a.m., 2:09 p.m. and 2:32 p.m.
And on Sept. 21, 2023, NE Moderate posted at 8:58 a.m., 1:27 p.m. and 1:48 p.m.
The timecards reviewed by TR show Ray working his regular City schedule on those dates.
A Political Employee
Ray was not simply an anonymous City worker. He works directly for Commissioner Matlow and became chairman of the Leon County Democratic Executive Committee in December 2022. Contemporary reporting noted that Ray received support for the party position from the local progressive wing, including Matlow and Commissioner Jack Porter.
Ray’s political activities have generated controversy separate from the NE Moderate account. In 2024, City Commission candidate Rudy Ferguson filed a complaint with the Florida Democratic Party alleging that local party officials, including Ray, had taken sides in Ferguson’s race against Porter.
More recently, TR reported that Ray created the Florida New Signal website and that the site published material favorable to Matlow and other progressive candidates while criticizing their political opponents.
Those activities, standing alone, do not establish anything improper about the NE Moderate comments. Government employees retain political rights and can participate in politics on their own time.
The question raised by the newly obtained timecards is different.
What Was He Saying?
The data establish when NE Moderate was posting. They don’t answer what may be the more consequential question: What was a City Commission aide saying anonymously during those workday periods?
TR’s review found the account was not limited to debating taxes, crime, development or other public-policy questions. NE Moderate also commented on elected officials, political factions and candidates for office. In some instances, those comments appeared directly beneath stories about active election campaigns.
TR has identified workday comments praising certain City commissioners and criticizing others, including comments concerning candidates whose electoral success or defeat could alter the balance of power on the Tallahassee City Commission.
Those findings will be detailed in Part 2 of this investigation.
They also raise a separate question under Florida law.
State law protects the right of public employees to express political opinions and participate in political campaigns during their off-duty hours. But Florida law also contains a specific prohibition concerning government employees participating in campaigns while on duty.
Whether the NE Moderate activity crossed that line is a question TR will examine separately with the comments, time records and relevant Florida law.
There is another unanswered question.
What did Commissioner Jeremy Matlow know?
The records reviewed for this installment do not establish that Matlow knew Ray was operating the NE Moderate account, knew Ray was posting comments during his workday, or directed or encouraged any of the activity.
TR is seeking records and responses addressing those questions.
The distinction could be significant.
If Ray acted entirely on his own, the investigation presents one set of issues.
If City resources were used, or if others at City Hall knew about or participated in the activity, it could present another.
Coming in Part 2: What NE Moderate was saying — and which Tallahassee candidates the anonymous account supported and opposed.
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