The debate over the “Ban the Box” proposal, put forth by Mayor Gillum, received an endorsement by the City Commission, but not before Mayor Andrew Gillum questioned the “sincerity” and “legitimacy” of the arguments put forth by fellow Commissioners against the proposal. The vote was 3-2 with Gillum, Commissioners Miller and Richardson voting to endorse […]
Tallahassee Reports has obtained documents that show Mayor Andrew Gillum is being paid by a group that is advocating for cities accross the United States to adopt “Ban the Box” policies. A debate began two weeks ago about Mayor Gillum’s controversial proposal to remove the criminal background questionnare from the City of Tallahassee’s employment application. […]
The city of Tallahassee has been wrestling for a way to prioritize sidewalk construction for the last couple of years. A mix of neighborhood politics, costs, and planning requirements come together to give elected officials, their constituents and city planning staff a headache over which neighborhoods get the next sidewalk project. Over the past 10 […]
One of the provisions of the ethics amendment, passed by two-thirds of City voters during the recent elections, limited campaign contributions to city candidates to $250 per person or business entity. Before the passage of the charter amendment, the limit was $1,000. The language in the charter amendment appears to put the effective date of […]
On November 5, 2014, the Quality of Life Target Issue Committee, which is chaired by Commissioner Nancy Miller and Commissioner Gil Ziffer, directed the consideration of the issue of whether the City of Tallahassee should file an amicus curiae, “friend of the court” brief, in the case of Mariama Monique Changamire Shaw v. Keiba Lynn […]
The Florida Bar has a conflict of interest rule which states a lawyer must not represent a client if the representation of one client will be directly adverse to another client. Maybe this rule needs to be applied to campaign consultants. In the recent primaries for the City Commission, the political consulting firm of Vancore-Jones […]
The local chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association (PBA) has announced two endorsements for the City Commission races. In the race for City Commission Seat 2, the PBA endorsed Curtis Richardson over Diana Oropallo. Commenting on the endorsement, Richardson told WCTV that “they feel that I will be willing to work with them as […]
The City Commission vote against the Ethics Advisory Panel (EAP) recommendation for an appointed Ethics Officer was bad enough. But to think the probable future Mayor of the City of Tallahassee could not see the wisdom put forth by the EAP is even more troubling. When the Tallahassee Democrat, Martha Barnett, the former President of […]
When we learned that the City Manager of Tallahassee awarded a contract to the highest bidder we started asking questions. What we found is a disturbing network of insiders that use the need for clean water to secure tax payer dollars to fund a program that after 8 years can provide no scientific evidence that […]
On Thursday, February 27, 2014, the Tallahassee Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) voted 6-1 to approve a property tax rebate in the amount of approximately $1.6 million to an out of town developer. The rebate will go to CA Student Living, a developer from Chicago, Illinois that is proposing to develop 444 College Avenue, a mixed-use […]