On Tuesday, Superintendent Jackie Pons spoke to about 60 members and guests of the the Northeast Business Association. During his thirty minute talk he discussed the financial status of the Leon County School District, a new Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) project that will save millions in transportation costs, and in response to a question from the […]
Tallahassee Reports has obtained a copy of the 140 page draft report of the electric rate case study that has been discussed over the last several months. The study is highly technical and full of detailed tables. Tallahassee Reports has reviewed the information, and what follows, is an attempt to take highly technical information and […]
Citizens empower elected officials when they defer their knowledge, wisdom and expertise to public servants, government staff and other special interest groups. Representative government is successful when the body represents the collective views of those that they stand for. But when one wavers by interjecting his or her own values and beliefs into the decisions […]
During 2011, the county commission will be taking another look at requiring more advanced septic tanks for southern Leon County. In my view, the proposal before the county commission to require performance based treatment systems (PBTS) probably is not what we need and it is certainly not what the property owners want. A performance based […]
“Perception is everything. If you commit a crime, you should pay a penalty—especially if you are a public servant.” State of Florida Senator Fasano said. The past few months we have read about controversy over elected officials making mistakes, or mistakes involving personal gains. Ethic’s issues of wrongdoings should be looked at with other actions […]
With a number of locally owned businesses struggling in this depressed economy, the rally cry from business owners and government officials is “buy local.” Shortly after the Mayor of Tallahassee started “buy local Saturday’s”, the City Commission adopted a local preference for city procurement with the goal of providing more business opportunities to locally owned […]
A Tallahassee Reports comparison of electric rates over the last three years shows COT electric rates have decreased more than any other of the seven utilities included in the comparison group. Using data from the Florida Municipal Electric Association for December, 2008, December 2009, and December 2010, Tallahassee Reports compared monthly residential rates for 1000 […]
After a year without bylaws, The City of Tallahassee Citizen Advisory Committee for Utilities codified their mission and elected a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman. The final result is that all 15 members will be appointed by the City Manager, Anita Favors-Thompson, and the committee will “act as an advisory board to the City Manager.” The head of […]
Last week Mayor Marks admitted that he made a mistake voting for a vendor he was being paid by without disclosing any of the specifics. The appropriate federal, state, and local officials will sort this out in due time.
However, one question that has not yet been answered is why was the project not put out for a competitive bid?
The Atlanta-based Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), the vendor that is paying Mayor John Marks approximately $20,000 a year and was included in a City of Tallahassee (COT) federal grant application, has had little luck in securing federal grant monies in the past. However, sources from inside the city tell Tallahassee Reports that one of […]