The Killearn Homes Association recently endorsed a controversial proposal by Steve Stewart, a right-wing radio talk show host, to district Tallahassee. The proposal, presented by Stewart at a recent Special Meeting of the Killearn Homes Association Board, aims to divide the city into districts and create between two and fourteen additional City Commission seats, while simultaneously eliminating people’s right to vote in the vast majority of city elections.
“I think there will be, well, I know the Killearn Homeowners Association took a position and they, they will get their position out,” Stewart said on his radio show Thursday. Stewart did not mention that he himself advocated for the Killearn Homes Association to endorse his proposal. Stewart was listed as the guest speaker on the special board meeting agenda obtained by Our Tallahassee. The February 15th agenda lists only two items, Stewart’s guest appearance, and an item under new business titled “District Representation Among the City Commission.” Stewart, a self described “journalist” alluded to the possibility that more predominately white neighborhoods may come out in support of his proposal to divide Tallahassee.
“I would think that other homeowner associations would be interested in saying, well, wait a minute, why are they doing this?” Stewart said on his radio show Thursday. “And if you look at the Northeast and you look to the East, I mean, you start looking at the Canopy Development, which is growing out to outside of Capitol Circle, which is going to be in the city. Start looking at Falls Chase. I think, I’m pretty sure Falls Chase, which is out Buck Lake Road behind Costco is in the city,” Stewart said. Falls Chase is not in the city limits.
The districting plan would necessitate renovations to City Hall’s fourth floor to accommodate the additional politicians created under the proposal. The city would also incur the cost of new commissioner’s aide salaries, commissioners salaries, discretionary expense accounts, healthcare and employee benefits on a recurring annual basis.
Other notable public backers of Stewart’s proposal include the Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida Evan Power, lobbyist and former staffer for Republicans Jared Willis, as well as Preston Scott, a conservative talk radio show host.
The Charter Review Committee has already rejected expanding the commission in an 8-2 vote, citing the financial implications and the significant change to city governance. Stewart said on Thursday’s Preston Scott Show that he hopes that City Commissioners will consider the districting proposal despite the Charter Review Committee rejecting expanding the commission.
Willis, a former board member of Grow Tallahassee, was one of the two votes on the Charter Review Committee in support of expanding the city commission. The other committee member to vote yes was Bugra Demirel, the treasurer of Grow Tallahassee who recently received $1.8 million dollars in Blueprint sales tax dollars. Willis expressed an interest in returning to the topic of the districting at another date, which was met with boos from the audience.
“You lost, sweetie,” said Serenity Williams, the Chair of the Leon County Young Democrats from the audience.
Evan Power, the Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, recently told the Tallahassee Democrat that the Leon County Republican Party supported the move, and that it would create an opportunity for Republicans and “varied opinions that our city desperately, desperately needs.”
Stewart’s proposal has sparked criticisms about its impact on governance, representation, and the financial burden on taxpayers, with many, including the Leon County Democratic Party, opposing the initiative.
“Expanding the commission and districting Tallahassee voters would be an expensive, divisive waste of time,” said John Hedrick, a former Leon County Democratic Party Chair and current state committeeman.
The final decision rests with the City Commission, which will consider the Charter Review Committee’s recommendations before voting to send any proposed changes to the ballot. The districting proposal, if successful, would be the largest change to how Tallahassee elects its city government in over a hundred years.
9 Responses
“ varied opinions that our city desperately, desperately needs”. No Even Power, what you really can’t stand is the fact that we are a blue dot in a red sea and as republicans have shown over and over again, if you can’t win , you cheat.
If you want to be surrounded by your varied varied opinions, move to Sarasota
Could republicans please leave our little dot of blue alone?
And what happened to my previous comment?
What is wrong with this picture? Why isn’t Evan Power being held accountable for failing to get Republicans elected in Tallahassee? I think they need to start there first. Democrats must be celebrating at the news of Evan Power becoming their republican state chair of the GOP.
City Hall has been hit with an ethics complaint against the city manager for misusing funds. It seems the city manager is paying Steve Stewart to run a smear campaign against political adversaries (at the mayor’s direction). These payments serve no public purpose and is a misuse of tax dollars. Let’s see how effective the ethics board will be in addressing corruption at City Hall?
Also, the ethics board is one of the issues that the city manager has dropped the ball on and failing to bring back to the city commissioners to fill vacancies that have been left long open and overdue to be filled.
Candidate David Wamsley dropped out of the Tallahassee City Commission race this week. Who was he recruited by? Was he recruited by the mayor and the city manager? Mr. Wamsley’s, toxic entry into the race was forever archived by his April venomous attacks against his opponent when speaking at the April City Commission meetings.
Wamsley dropped out of the race stating family obligations, however, there may be more to the story. During his toxic venomous tirade, when speaking at the City Commission meeting in April, he held up a copy of the Tallahassee Reports publication stating it was a credible publication. Since that tirade, I believe Wamsley discovered that he had been bamboozled by the mayor and city manager. Tallahassee Reports is not a credible publication as the publisher has a sweetheart deal with the city manager and raking in funds, whereby, Steve Stewart, the publisher reciprocates by writing propaganda for the city manager and mayor.
This misuse of taxpayer funds was reported to the ethics board and perhaps Wamsley didn’t want any part of the city manager’s misuse of taxpayer funds. And there you have it.
Information has emerged showing the City Manager, Reese Goad, took a deeper dive into misusing taxpayer dollars and possibly criminal negligence. It has been confirmed that Steve Stewart is receiving funds from the City Manager (to print propaganda against two City Commissioners). The two City Commissioners have consistently questioned the city manager’s performance and special interests.
The City Manager is “funding” a publication Tallahassee Reports and it’s publisher. Steve Stewart.
Recently, two citizens have emerged publicly attempting to portray Tallahassee Reports as a credible conservative media source while failing to disclose the publication and publisher receives funds from the City Manager as a funding source. This is a misuse of taxpayer dollars as it serves no public purpose to taxpayers.
A citizen who was affected by the flooding on April 11th spoke at an April City Commission meeting. The City Manager said he would look into it. The citizen swiftly received a letter from the City Risk Management Department stating an investigation was done and finds that the city is not at fault in any way.
That is not true. The city completed no such investigation and when a professional engineer asked for the city to provide a copy of the investigation, who conducted the investigation, and any calculations made to make their determination the risk management employee said he was forwarding the request to the proper departments to provide that information. Yet, they have not responded to the civil engineer’s request for the information. Why? BECAUSE THE CITY DID NO SUCH INVESTIGATION.
However, the civil engineer did an investigation and found that there are design flaws with the city-owned stormwater pond that failed and flooded the citizen’s home. Also, the civil engineer determined there were no stormwater models in the files. Not only were there design flaws, there are no storm water models done for that pond in the files, and the city took no actions to correct the problem so it never happens again. This could have fatal consequences for the homeowners in the path of the stormwater facility behind their home if there should be a future occurrence.
The city is self-insured and I would think there would be some kind of a rule, regulation or law that prohibits the city from denying a claim that is based on false information analogous to a cover-up.
The city manager is desperate to keep his job so he is misusing taxpayer dollars to fund Tallahassee Reports in attempting to portray this publication as a credible media source. TALLAHASSEE REPORTS NEVER QUESTIONS FIASCO AFTER FIASCO BY THE CITY MANAGER.
It also shows where the city manager’s focus is at — not the safety of the citizens or fiscal responsibility, but on misguided political agendas misusing taxpayer dollars to advance them and covering up dangerous situations, failing to be accountable, and failing to make corrections to city-owned stormwater ponds leaving citizens vulnerable to a dangerous situation.
The misuse of taxpayer dollars has corrupted Steve Stewart and City Manager Reese Goad where it may have accelerated from a misguided political agenda into the criminal realm.
Did the City Manager steal the $1 million from the city to fund his misguided political agendas?
6/24/2024 – Steve Stewart, publisher at Tallahassee Reports shut down comments on the Brent Pichard opinion article. Mr. Stewart is also removing comments that don’t align with the City Manager’s agenda. Comments are removed that are not Pro Curtis Richardson and a question regarding the sewage spills was removed..
Taxpayers are paying for Steve Stewart to forward the city manager’s narrative. The city manager will be out of a job. If Curtis Richardson is voted out. Taxpayers should not have to pay for Steve Stewart to personally control the city manager’s narrative.
It’s official! There is a cover-up in play at City Hall by City Manager Reese Goad.
A citizen had a home flooded in the April 11th storm event. It was due to a city-owned stormwater facility behind their home that belonged to another neighborhood.
The homeowner requested monetary reimbursement for damages. The homeowner also spoke at a city commission meeting in April.
The city manager on camera at the City Commission meeting insured her he would look into the matter. The affected homeowner swiftly received a claim denial.
A former citiy stormwater professional engineer looked into the matter. The city stated there was an investigation done and they found the pond to be working and they have no responsibility. The city also stated that they had done an investigation into the matter. The engineer asked to see the investigation report and the city refuses to provide one now saying that is privileged information. The city did say they would direct the engineer’s inquiry to the proper departments so they could furnish the information based on the city having no liability.
No department has responded to the engineer (because no one wants to make a false report. They did no investigation or if they did they found that they they could be liable).
The engineer studied the calculations and the files and determined that the city-owned stormwater facility was not functioning, had a design flaw, and basically uses this citizen’s backyard as a spillway.
If the city can be so egregious in saying investigations were done when they weren’t and denying claims…It goes to a more critical level of them taking no action to correct the problem so it doesn’t happened again. If it happens again, there could be fatalities involved.
The city-owned storm water facility originally may have been under a county permit and later moved to the city. Here is an interesting facet that may be a coincidence… Living in the neighborhood with faulty stormwater pond was a County Planner who is now the Assistant City Manager. May or may not be relevant. There seem to be a lot of missing documentation, calculations, and reports that are usually found in a stormwater facility file.
Updates to follow….
Steve Stewart implements comment policy for Tallahassee Reports. If he followed his own policy he should remove himself from being able to comment. Mr. Stewart would remove comments that would give information about sewage spills or question Waste Pro. He would allow vulgar attacks and personal attacks on those who were exposing Curtis Richardson and the Mayor in their complacency and cover-ups regarding sewage spills. There is a pay to play operation, at the taxpayers expense, going on at the publication of Tallahassee Reports which removes all credibility.