TALLAHASSEE — Three out of the four candidates for City Commission Seat 1 see this race as a competition between the common man and a career politician. They paint a picture of the incumbent, Scott Maddox, as being out of touch, arrogant, and part of the crony culture they see controlling a city commission lacking […]
Recently, internal documents from the Open Society non-profit headed by billionaire George Soros have been released to the public by anonymous hackers and provided in a searchable database. TR’s search of the documents reveal, that in May of this year the Open Society group applauded Mayor Andrew Gillum’s decision to welcome Syrian refugees to the […]
Six months into 2016, the City of Tallahassee released crime statistics that show violent crime decreased by 13.4% when compared to the first six months of 2015, while property crime increased. In year over year comparisons of violent crime incidents for the first six months, murders decreased from 8 to 4, rapes decreased from 119 […]
Jeff Burlew, who the Tallahassee Democrat labels as their community watchdog reporter, recently wrote a story about political advertising in the upcoming elections and predicted that City Commissioner Scott Maddox will easily win his race. Burlew, referring to Maddox, wrote “He’s facing three challengers with little name recognition or chance of winning.” Ironically, in writing that […]
The race for City Commission seat 2 is heating up. Today at the Florida Press Center, Steven Hougland, who is running against current City Commissioner Curtis Richardson, revealed that his opponent accepted $750 in campaign contributions from a city vendor on the same day the City Commission voted to extend the vendor’s contract. The vote […]
The two candidates for City Commission Seat 2 see Tallahassee and the problems it faces very differently. Incumbent Curtis Richardson thinks Tallahassee is one of the state’s best run cities and wants to keep it on its current path. Opponent Steven Hougland thinks Tallahassee’s path is unsustainable, that the level of crime, taxes and spending […]
TR has learned that State Attorney Willie Meggs is investigating the pension payment calculation of former City Commissioner Debbie Lightsey. TR reported about the issue in March. Since then the City’s Independent Ethic’s Board took up a complaint but decided not to move forward because the complaint failed “to state a violation of the City’s Ethic […]
Tallahassee Reports has learned that City Manager Rick Fernandez counted the salary from a position that had not been filled since 2014 as savings to justify the raises he gave to a select group of executive managers. Last week, City Manager Rick Fernandez went before City Commissioners to explain the 5-digit raises that resulted in […]
In an interview today with Tom Flanigan on WFSU’s Perspectives show, challenger Steven Hougland traded jabs with incumbent City Commissioner Curtis Richardson over the recent executive pay raises given out at City Hall. In the discussion about the raises, which in some cases were between $30,000 and $50,000, Hougland said Commissioner Richardson should have asked […]
City Manager Rick Fernandez put on the performance of his life last week. And Mayor Gillum and the City Commissioners gave him the equivalent of a “group hug.” Over the last two weeks, Fernandez has faced criticism in the local media and on the message boards over the 5-digit raises that put some city employees at […]