A candidate forum hosted Monday by Tallahassee’s A.L.E.R.T. and NAACP chapters was the closest you could get to bare-knuckle boxing in local Tallahassee politics.
The six candidates for the Tallahassee City Commission Seats 1 and 2 traded personal barbs throughout the over two-hour event at Watson Temple Church. Supporters didn’t hold back their cheers and jeers. At one point, several political operatives from opposing sides started yelling at each other in the pews. After one audience member told them “not in the house of God,” they took it outside to have a louder screaming match.
The forum showcased the temperature of this particularly contentious election cycle for the city. Both incumbents running for reelection are defending their seats from challenges being supported by some of their fellow commissioners.
Commissioner Curtis Richardson is fielding challenges from Dot Inman-Johnson, a former Tallahassee Mayor who has the support of the minority faction at City Hall consisting of Commissioners Jack Porter and Jeremy Matlow. Porter herself is facing Pastor Rudy Ferguson, who has received an endorsement from Mayor John Dailey.
But those aren’t the only candidates in those races who attended the candidate forum. Local political gadfly and Richardson challenger Bernard Stevens was there. Porter challenger and FAMU administrator Louis Dilbert also participated.
The only registered candidate not in attendance was Donna Nyack, making this the second straight candidate forum she has missed. That has not quelled questions from some that she may be running as a ghost candidate, which she has previously denied.
At the forum, all of the candidates answered questions from a moderator. They were given additional time to respond when another candidate talked about them during their answer. Here’s a breakdown of what the candidates who did attend said on five of the most discussed topics during the forum:
Firefighters contract standoff
While the City of Tallahassee has accepted a special magistrate’s recommendation recently to end the standoff between the city and the firefighter’s union, negotiations are still ongoing for a longer three-year deal. Those negotiations came up during the forum, with Inman-Johnson mentioning that the union has decided to endorse her over Richardson.
“What I promise you is that the firefighters as public safety officers will be treated as well as the police officers,” she said.
Richardson responded that he was a supporter of firefighters and has received their support at other points in his career. He has referred to those previous endorsements frequently over the past several months, often when he has been criticized by members of the public and the union at commission meetings and other events for not advocating stronger for the firefighters.
“Firefighters the state and local have endorsed me at every point in my elected career, and I’ve supported them. I advocated for the fire station on the south side, and just signed the paperwork for a $27 million bond issue to pay for the construction of that fire station. So that’s what I have focused on, is making our community safe and to do away with the violence that we’re seeing in our communities,” he said.
Police and Crime
Several questions asked during the event were focused on how to deal with Tallahassee’s violent crime rate.
Almost every candidate expressed that addressing the root causes of crime, like poverty and education discrepancies, is required. However, candidates disagreed with what role police should play in addressing those root causes.
Porter argued that law enforcement is best at solving crime and stopping ongoing crime, not preventing it.
“Our law enforcement officers are not social workers. They are not counselors. And we should be supporting people who can do that, while supporting our law enforcement officers to do what it is that they are trained to do and want to do,” she said.
Ferguson said law enforcement work on preventing crime is essential and accused Porter of wanting to defund law enforcement. The local police unions have endorsed Ferguson and Richardson.
“Working along with law enforcement is essential. You can’t pick one of our essential services to bring up and the other one to bring down. Defunding law enforcement may be applicable in Ms. Porter’s neighborhood, but certainly not in ours,” he said.
Affordable Housing
Another round of questions focused on a proposal by Porter to use Blueprint funding to help build affordable housing. That proposal failed to move forward last month.
When asked about the proposal, Porter defended it. While Ferguson said he believed the need for affordable housing is important, he didn’t make clear in his answer whether he would have supported the idea.
Dilbert said explicitly that he would have supported it.
“Knowing that homelessness is increasing, and to be quite frank, some people who are in the middle class are close to standing in line at the Kearney center, and we don’t want to talk about that,” he said.
Richardson, who was absent during the Blueprint meeting where the affordable housing issue was voted on, said using Blueprint funding for that reason was outside the scope of the purpose of Blueprint and would have taken too long.
“If Blueprint had approved that, it would have been 10 years before that money would have been available for affordable housing. 10 years,” he said.
Inman-Johnson criticized Richardson for that stance, arguing Richardson’s support for $27 million dollars to renovations to FSU’s Doak Campbell stadium in 2022 from Blueprint also wasn’t in the original intention for Blueprint.
Tax Increase
Inman-Johnson also criticized Richardson for his support of a recent8.5% tax increase to property taxes for this year’s budget.
“(The) 8.5% tax increase on the citizens of this community was an unnecessary move, and the incumbent had three opportunities in budget workshops to do the right thing and vote against it. He didn’t,” she said.
Richardson defended what he called a moderate increase, saying the $10 million in additional revenue will go to the Tallahassee Police Department to help deal with crime in the community.
“I have done all that I can to address that, and that’s what we’ve done in this modest tax increase that only 30% of property owners in this community will be impacted by” he said.
Attacks and Decorum
Aside from the commotion and disruptions caused by the audience, Ferguson and Porter traded incendiary attacks throughout the evening. While the other spoke, both candidates often rolled their eyes, looked away, or muttered stuff under their breath.
Ferguson on several occasions accused Porter of avoiding the Black community in Tallahassee while in office and breaking promises. When Porter challenged him to provide specific examples, he did not.
“Our commissioner has only shown in the black community now because she needs votes. This is so important. For years she’s been absent. MIA. In fact, no one had seen her. She was there in the Griffin Heights neighborhood simply to put her signs out, and I believe she’s got people working to put her signs out in the Black community,” he said.
Porter retaliated by pointing out several times that much of Ferguson’s campaign fundraising so far has come from local businesses and special interests.
“Developer backed interests, special interests, the kinds of people here today who are getting the money that is on the backs of the taxpayers, like you and me. That is the difference between me and my opponent,” she said.
Ferguson defended himself by saying he is taking money from anyone willing to support him, but he is not making political promises to donors.
The contentious atmosphere prompted one of the final questions asked to be about the importance of decorum and collegiality towards colleagues on the commission. Dilbert said he would demand decorum and respect for people he disagrees with, even from his supporters.
“If people that support me come and they’re calling my colleagues names and they’re attacking them, I’m going to respectfully, have to tell them to calm down and maintain respect as well, whether you’re against me or you for me,” he said.
Most of the candidates said they can have proper decorum in office, although Richardson admitted it can be challenging with Porter and Matlow backing an opponent against him.
“I have a problem with that. It makes it difficult for me to work in that kind of condition. But we continue to get things done,” he said.
The elections for Tallahassee City Commission Seat 1 and 2 will be held on Aug. 20th. If no candidate gets above 50% support, then the two top vote getters in each race will compete in a runoff during the Nov. 5 general election.
