The recent revelation by the Tallahassee Democrat that in 2014 the City of Tallahassee began an investigation into allegations of bribery involving City Commissioner Scott Maddox was not the first sign of a pattern of behavior that would eventually lead to a federal indictment of Maddox and his associate, Paige Carter-Smith. Shortly after Maddox took […]
A Tallahassee Reports investigation of local government contracts with campaign consultants for current elected officials reveals that three consultants with campaign ties to all five current city commissioners have received approximately $395,000 in payments over the last two years. Tallahassee Reports could not find any campaign consultants for Leon County Commissioners receiving payments from Leon […]
Tallahassee Reports has learned that local public relations expert, campaign consultant, and lobbyist Gary Yordon has recently registered with the City of Tallahassee to represent the interests of city vendor Honeywell. The registration, which was filed on June 16, 2017, states that Yordon will be lobbying on energy and performance contracting issues for Honeywell. A […]
The City of Tallahassee was served with another federal subpoena by the US District Court dated September 6th, 2017. The subpoena asked for more information related to the FBI corruption investigation. However, even though City Commissioner Nancy Miller was made aware of the subpoena days after it arrived at city hall, the public was not informed […]
Local public relations expert, Tallahassee Democrat columnist, TV host, former Leon County Commissioner and political consultant, Gary Yordon, took to Facebook to defend his recent Democrat column entitled “We’re meeting our challenges with community pride.” In the article, Yordon describes an enchanted evening in Cascades Park and writes, “I thought to myself, if I was […]
Dr. Karen Rubin, the TAPP Progam Coordinator from 2012-2014, told TR that City Commissioner Nancy Miller directed city staff to take the steps needed to assure the TAPP program contract would be awarded to a business controlled by Paige Carter-Smith and affiliated with Gary Yordon. The City of Tallahassee Charter calls for the removal of […]
Tallahassee Reports has learned that Tallahassee Democrat columnist Gary Yordon is being paid by the Curtis Richardson Campaign. Mr. Richardson is seeking to retain his seat on the City Commission. On February 1, 2016 the Tallahassee Democrat reported that Gary Yordon “serves as a Florida correspondent for CNN and writes a column for Gannett newspapers.” On June 29, 2016, a reporter […]
Tallahassee Reports has learned the the Community Redevelopment Agency voted to sell a piece of property on Gaines Street to North American Properties (NAP), a past developer of projects on Gaines Street, without seeking competitive bids. North American Properties has previously been given Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) tax breaks to build student housing in the Gaines Street […]
Tallahassee Reports has learned that City Manager Anita Favors selected the highest bid to produce a Public Service Announcement (PSA) commercial for the Think About Personal Pollution (TAPP) program in 2012. A request for proposal (RFP) was sent to a number of interested parties. Only two responses were received by the City of Tallahassee. The […]
On October 14, 2013, the lobbyist for the Mckibbon Hotel Group (MHG), Gary Yordon, responded favorably to a request by City Manager Anita Favors to donate money to charitable organization she was representing. Just one week later, October 22, 2013, Mr.Yordon, received a personal notification via email at the direction of the City Manager Anita […]