Candidates for the Tallahassee City Commission Seat 2 participated in a forum Thursday hosted by WFSU Public Media, the Tallahassee Democrat, and the League of Women Voters of Tallahassee.<\/p>\n
Incumbent Commissioner Curtis Richardson and his challengers, former Tallahassee Mayor Dot Inman-Johnson, Bernard Stevens Jr. and Donna Nyack were all in attendance fielded questions from reporters for about an hour and a half.<\/p>\n
This was the first candidate forum Nyack attended. A new resident of Tallahassee, Nyack has received allegations of being a ghost candidate from the local democratic party and other sources.<\/p>\n
During the forum, she denied being a ghost candidate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m very real and very sincere, and I love people. I’m an advocate for people, and my 30 years of nursing, I believe, has qualified me very well for the role. And no, I have no ulterior motives, and I’m not a ghost candidate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a breakdown of what was said during the forum about some of the most pressing issues in Tallahassee. The full video of the candidate forum is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Police Station<\/b><\/p>\n The City of Tallahassee voted in April<\/a> to move forward with a new police station after its projected cost ballooned to $135 million. The original estimate was $46 million in 2018<\/p>\n The candidates were asked whether they were concerned about its skyrocketing price. Inman-Johnson, Stevens, and Nyack all said the project had grown too expensive. Inman-Johnson said the amount it went up was almost unheard of.<\/p>\n \u201cIt started out $40 million before Covid. It went up to $60 million after Covid, and now it stands at 135 million. I would have asked some serious questions about those negotiations, because I’ve never heard of a project that has already been negotiated having over a 100% change order,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Richardson, who has voted for the station at all stages, placed the blame for the rising cost on the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter Covid, we saw increases across the board in every aspect of our society. If you look at the blueprint projects, every single one of them, the 32 blueprint projects, the price has, in some instances, doubled, and that’s what’s happened to the site at the Northwood center,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Firefighter Contract<\/b><\/p>\n While the City of Tallahassee accepted a special magistrate\u2019s recommendation for the previous year\u2019s contract with the Tallahassee Firefighter\u2019s Union, the two sides are now fighting over what the special magistrate meant and the standoff for a longer three-year deal is still ongoing. The candidates blamed different sources for what was causing the bumpy negotiations.<\/p>\n Stevens said the standoff has taken way too long.<\/p>\n \u201cThe collective bargaining process is something that they decide to just drag along to put people out of work, have more firefighters quit. This is something that doesn’t take all day to fix,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Inman-Johnson blamed that standoff still happening on Richardson, saying he missed an executive session to give city management direction on how to handle negotiations and hasn\u2019t supported forcing a resolution at city meetings.<\/p>\n \u201cThe commissioner says he supports the firefighters, but when there was an executive session to for the City Commission to give the city manager guidance on what needed to be done, the Commissioner didn’t even show up for that executive session,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Richardson responded by saying it was not his place to interfere with the collective bargaining process that is outlined in state statute. He also gave his reasoning for not being at the session.<\/p>\n \u201cI had already been briefed on what would be talked about was in the building and it just, I just lost track of time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n To Richardson, the standoff has turned political.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this point, this has become political to influence the outcome of this election, there is no doubt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Inman-Johnson agreed, but believes its Richardson and other commissioners playing politics.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is political because there are three city commissioners who refuse to support treating firefighters the same as they do all other employees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Property Tax Increase<\/b><\/p>\n