Meet the candidates: Tallahassee voters have choices for City Commission
Meet the candidates: Tallahassee voters have choices for City Commission
Multiple candidates are running for two City Commission seats up for election this year. Learn more about each candidate's issues and experience.
Two Tallahassee City Commission seats are up for election — Seat 1 and Seat 2 — and multiple candidates are running in each race.
Election Day is on Tuesday, Aug. 20. If none of the candidates receive 50% of the ballots cast plus one vote, the two candidates with the most votes in each race will compete in a runoff election on Tuesday, Nov. 5. The races are nonpartisan.
Seat 1
Three candidates have qualified to have their names on the ballot for City Commission Seat 1. They include: Jaqueline “Jack” Porter, Rudy Ferguson and Louis Dilbert.
Jacqueline “Jack” Porter
Jacqueline “Jack” Porter has served on the City Commission since 2020 and is running a grassroots campaign for a second four-year term in office.
If reelected, she wants to continue working on reforms to root out the “dysfunction at City Hall,” Porter said. “That includes misguided planning practices, misguided budget priorities.”
Porter says the city should invest more in social services, low-income and affordable housing, walkability, infrastructure and solutions to reduce gun violence.
Additionally, she wants to see change in the city’s executive leadership, Porter explained. “We need a new city manager.”
Porter and City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow have pushed back against controversial policies that the other members on the City Commission have supported, including a recent property tax increase and large subsidies for private developers.
“We know that we're not going to win every fight, but we also know that we're representing what the majority wants and what the public interest is in Tallahassee.”
A couple of years ago, Porter helped lead the fight against a decision by the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency Board, which is made up of county and city commissioners, to spend $27 million for repairs to Florida State University’s Doak Campbell Stadium. “Although that passed, the public was made aware that this was happening in a way I don't think they would have without my advocacy and the advocacy of many of my colleagues.”
In her view, some of the biggest issues facing the city are gun violence, the affordable housing crisis and the need for smart growth management, Porter said.
But the biggest underlying issue facing the city is “whether we're going to be a city that's led by the public interest or a few special interest groups in town that have run this city for far too long,” she said. “If we can't get that right, then we are not going to be able to move forward on any other issue.”
In the short-term, she wants the City Commission to support pay raises for all firefighters, Porter said. The city has failed to negotiate a contract with the local firefighters’ union, which has been asking for higher wages since last March.
“This could be resolved so quickly,” she said. “We did it for our police officers and we can do it for our firefighters.”
The starting salary for firefighters is $44,177. Porter says she believes their annual salary should start at $60,000, which is more than what the union has requested. “I think that is what we should do if we want to pay them a fair wage and undo some of the damage that we’ve done to our department by putting them through this ordeal.”
In addition to serving on the City Commission, Porter has two master’s degrees from Florida State University — one in urban and regional planning and another in public policy and administration.
Porter has received endorsements from Tallahassee Professional Firefighters, the local firefighters’ union; Big Bend AFL-CIO, which represents local labor unions across a wide range of sectors; the Leon County Young Democrats; Leon County Commissioner David O’Keefe; former Tallahassee City Commissioner Debbie Lightsey; former Leon County Commissioner Bob Rackleff; and others.
Rudolph “Rudy” Ferguson, Sr.
Rudolph “Rudy” Ferguson, Sr., a pastor at New Birth Tabernacle of Praise in Tallahassee, is running for local elected office for the second time in a row. In 2022, he campaigned for a seat on the Leon County Commission. Ferguson has never held public office.
“I have grown tired and weary of depending on individuals and their promises,” Ferguson said. “My primary focus for running for office is to continue my servant leadership of what I already do in my community in Griffin Heights.”
Ferguson says the most important issues facing the city are gun violence, homelessness, as well as the the need for more affordable housing and better paying jobs. “When jobs go up, guns will go down.”
But to create more jobs, the city should become “a little more business-friendly,” he said.
Gun violence has increased in the city in recent years. Between 2018 and 2021, there was an 83% increase in violent crimes committed with guns, according to a report from the National Institute of Criminal Justice Reform. Police data compiled by the Tallahassee Democrat shows there have been 36 shootings so far this year, killing 15 people and injuring 28.
Ferguson says he’s spent decades working on the issue, giving him a first-hand look at the problem.
Under former Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, Ferguson served on the board of the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute for Nonviolence and traveled the U.S. and across the state as its sole youth representative. Later in his career, Ferguson worked on the Tallahassee Urban League as its Youth Services Director. He’s also served as chairman of the Tallahassee Police Department’s Citizens Advisory Council, on the Leon County Sheriff’s Citizens Advisory Council and other local boards that seek to address the issue of gun violence.
In his view, more social services isn’t the solution, he said. “We have a plethora of social services here in Tallahassee that I'm personally aware of that are working, they just need a little more help.”
Instead, he believes creating better paying jobs for people who live in high-crime neighborhoods is the best solution, but there’s “no quick fix,” Ferguson said. “If we can help our young people who are in our most vulnerable communities with a better paying job and things of that nature, I believe we can get there.”
When asked about the Blueprint board’s controversial decision to spend $27 million on repairs to FSU’s Doak Campbell Stadium, he said he doesn’t know how he would’ve voted. “I don't have all the particulars in front of me,” Ferguson said. “Whatever decision that was made by those commissioners at that time, they had something in front of them, that the public just didn't have, or we just didn't understand.”
Ferguson has received endorsements from Mayor John Dailey; City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox; former Congressman Al Lawson; former state Sen. Bill Montford; the Big Bend Chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, the local police union, and others.
Louis Dilbert
Louis Dilbert is the director of Military and Veteran Affairs and leads the TRIO Educational Opportunity Center at Florida A&M University. Dilbert has never before sought elected office.
“I’m probably like this mystery candidate,” Dilbert said. “I’m OK with that.”
Despite his limited experience in politics, he has a lot of ideas for solving many of the problems facing the city, Dilbert said.
“I’m open-minded,” he said. “I've always been a Democrat. But I can't say I'm the representative of the people if they have a conservative voice on something and I ignore them.”
Dilbert says the most important issues facing the city are homelessness, affordable housing, gun violence among young people and inequitable business development.
“Certain sides of town are getting more and more growth, while other sides of town are becoming more desolate,” he explained. “The Southside of town is continuing to lose business, and we need a structured plan to redevelop that area.”
Dilbert says he would push for a new Southside and Frenchtown business development plan if he’s elected to the city commission.
“It really pains me to see that some businesses that have been there for a while are leaving,” he said. “For example, CVS was there, but now they're being replaced by a liquor store. And that's not helping anybody in that community to get healthier or to be able to feed their children.”
To address homelessness, he believes the city should partner with faith-based organizations to lessen some of the housing costs and prioritize vulnerable populations in need of shelter, Dilbert said.
“I get very concerned when those vulnerable populations are left in the street with very little resources,” he said. “If we open up another homeless shelter, I would say that [it] would be catered to a specialized population, our veterans, persons with disabilities, women and children.”
To help reduce gun violence, he would support more mental-health services and programs to help rehabilitate juvenile youth and provide them with mentorship and job-training programs.
Dilbert has received an endorsement from former Leon County School Board Member Georgia “Joy” Bowen.
Seat 2
Four candidates will appear on the ballot for Tallahassee City Commission Seat 2. They include: Curtis Richardson, Dot Inman-Johnson, Bernard Stevens Jr. and Donna Nyack.
Curtis Richardson
Mayor Pro Tem Curtis Richardson has served on the City Commission since 2014 and is seeking a third four-year term in office.
“I am running on my record of service to this community, not only in an elected position, but service generally to the residents of the city.”
Richardson says the most important issues facing the city are affordable housing, the economy and violent crime.
“We certainly want to continue working with law enforcement and community agencies to address that issue in our community.”
On the issue of affordable housing, he helped bring about the development of two low-income apartment complexes on the city’s Southside — Columbia Gardens at South City and Magnolia Gardens, Richardson said.
“It was because of my efforts to get this part of town into the CRA district that we were able to get Magnolia Gardens done,” Richardson said, referring to the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which funds projects on the city’s Southside and in the downtown area. “I will continue to work on that.”
When it comes to jobs, he’s worked to bring private industry to the city, Richardson said. That includes “sixteen hundred jobs at Amazon,” he said. “Danfoss Turbocor just announced several thousand jobs at their facility.”
“We have put a lot of money into small minority- and women-owned businesses,” he said. “Those are some of the things that I feel real good about that we've accomplished during my time on the commission.”
Richardson and his family live on the city’s South Side, a fact that he’s shared with many people to demonstrate his commitment to the area. “I really wanted to live there because we wanted to make sure that the same kinds of resources that were dispersed to other parts of our community came to the South Side and other predominantly-black neighborhoods.”
In addition to serving two-and-a-half terms on the City Commission, Richardson served eight years in the Florida House of Representatives, six years on the Leon County School Board. Richardson has also worked as a school psychologist in Gadsden County.
Richardson has received endorsements from Mayor John Dailey; City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox; former Congressman Al Lawson; Rev. Julius Harrison McAllister, Jr., pastor of Bethel AME Church; Cheryl Collier Brown, former vice president of the Leon Classroom Teachers’ Association; DJ Demp; the Big Bend Chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, the local police union; and others.
Dorothy “Dot” Inman-Johnson
Former Mayor Dorothy “Dot” Inman-Johnson is running a grassroots campaign for City Commission after taking time away from serving in elected office.
“I think a lot of people were feeling like I was, that the City Commission is heading in the wrong direction, and they wanted new leadership.”
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Inman-Johnson served two terms on the City Commission. “Many people approached me and asked me to please run again.”
“I felt I needed to do it,” Inman-Johnson said. “I felt it would take someone who brought the kind of experience I bring to the position and already had a base of support to be able to challenge an incumbent city commissioner and have a chance at success.”
Inman-Johnson says poverty is driving many of the problems facing the city, including homelessness, the need for more affordable housing and crime.
Nearly a quarter of Tallahassee’s residents are living in poverty, U.S. Census data shows. That’s almost double the statewide poverty rate, which is nearly 13%. “It’s embarrassing,” Inman-Johnson said. “And it is harmful to people who are living in that condition.”
Inman-Johnson has taken issue with the how the City Commission’s managed taxpayer dollars, such as increasing spending on a new police station from $40 million to $135 million. “I have never heard of a development project where you have a change order that's more than double the original price.”
She’s also spoken out against the City Commission’s recent decision to increase the city’s property tax rate by 8.5%.
“It is impossible for you not to know it's going to impact people who can least afford it because landlords who are renting their property are going to have to pass on that cost to the people who are renting,” she said. “There are so many elderly and low-income families in this community on very, very limited incomes. They can’t afford those increases.”
Inman-Johnson has also criticized the city commission’s failure to negotiate a fair contract with the local firefighters’ union.
In addition to serving as mayor, Inman-Johnson has published four books, worked as an art teacher at Florida State University High School and served as executive director of the Capitol Area Community Action Agency, providing advocacy and services to low-income residents in eight counties across the Big Bend region.
Inman-Johnson has received endorsements from City Commissioner Jeremey Matlow; former City Commissioner Deborah Lightsey; former City Commissioner Kent Spriggs; Rev. Derek Steele, the son of Rev. C.K. Steele; Tallahassee Professional Firefighters, the local firefighters union; the Leon County Democratic Environmental Caucus; the Tallahassee Young Democrats and others.
Bernard Stevens Jr.
Bernard Stevens Jr., who’s an Uber driver and fast food restaurant manager, is running for elected office for the first time.
“It is evident our community desires change and transparency,” said Stevens, who regularly speaks at City Commission meetings during the public comment period.
Stevens says he believes the most important issues facing the city are wasteful spending, the need for road improvements and the mistreatment of city employees.
“City employees are treated unfairly, discriminated upon, terminated for standing up to the malfeasance from the city manager,” Stevens said. “I am not pleased.”
Stevens says he’s referring to the firing of police officers, firefighters and other employees, including the city’s former Human Resources Director Ellen Blair. She was let go last year after recommending that the city terminate a police officer who failed a drug test. The Tallahassee Democrat reported that the officer kept his job, but Blair was let go without notice.
“We need new leadership,” Stevens said during a recent Capital Conservatives’ candidates’ forum, where he called for a new city manager and a new police chief. “We need everybody in our city leadership to change. If you continue with the same people in the same position, you are asking for the same outcome.”
At the recent candidates’ forum, he criticized the City Commission’s failure to meaningfully address gun violence in the community. “We have still had shootings, we have still had break-ins, we have still had gang violence — we continue to have those same problems that we've been having.”
Stevens says he grew up on the South Side, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. “I had to endure so much in my life that you probably wouldn’t understand,” he said during the forum.
Donna Nyack
Donna Nyack, who’s never held elected office, is a registered nurse in California.
Nyack registered to vote as a Republican in Leon County in December and filed to run for City Commission in late May, a couple of weeks before the candidate qualifying period began this month.
Earlier this month, she declined to speak about her candidacy with this reporter and hasn’t responded to multiple follow-up interview requests. She also hasn’t appeared at any candidates’ forums.
Leon County GOP Chairman Evan Power told The Panhandle Press that he hasn’t met her, and David Ramba, a state committeeman for the local Republican Party, said that he doesn’t know her.
Nyack’s lack of campaign activity has raised concerns that she’s a “ghost candidate,” someone who files to run for elected office to take away votes from another candidate in an effort to help a third candidate win an election.
Earlier this month, The Panhandle Press was the first news outlet to publish an article about her candidacy and concerns that she’s not a serious candidate.
This story has been updated to include additional endorsements for Dot Inman-Johnson and Curtis Richardson.