Shining light on the good, bad and ugly of bureaucracy in Tallahassee

By Red Tape Florida 

Four months ago, Madam Sunshine looked into her crystal ball. Today, the City Commission made her prediction official. 

TALLAHASSEE — We hereby inform you that Madam Sunshine remains undefeated. 

Four months ago, Red Tape Florida’s Notary of Inevitable Outcomes peered into her crystal ball and told readers how Tallahassee’s national search for a new city manager would end. 

An internal candidate would get the job. 

More specifically, Deputy City Manager Karen Jumonville. 

On Wednesday, after a $30,000 national search, 37 applicants, a search firm, candidate screening, interviews, a public meet-and-greet and presentations before the City Commission, commissioners reached their decision. 

Karen Jumonville. 

Imagine our surprise. 

Actually, don’t. 

We’ve waited four months for this, so we’re going to take a thoroughly obnoxious victory lap. But the point of our May story wasn’t simply to play Carnac the Magnificent and guess the winner. 

It was that Tallahassee never should have rushed this decision in the first place. 

Three of the five seats on the Tallahassee City Commission are on the ballot this year. Voters are in the middle of deciding who they want running City Hall, and the new commission takes office after the November election.  

Yet the current commission decided it needed to choose the next city manager before voters finish choosing the next commission. 

We called it “Lame Duck Timing” in May. We wrote that rather than hand the decision to the incoming commission — “the one voters are about to elect in a change election” — the current commission was determined to conduct a nationwide search and make the hire first.  

That wasn’t just a philosophical objection. We argued that the timing would damage the search itself. 

Why would an accomplished city manager somewhere else uproot a family, leave a secure job and move to Tallahassee knowing that the commission doing the hiring could look very different almost immediately afterward?  

Four months later, we don’t need Madam Sunshine to answer that question. 

The City’s own search consultant did it for us. 

Renée Narloch told commissioners, during a process update, that some people her firm approached declined to apply, and that one of the reasons was the pending election and uncertainty about who would be sitting on the commission. Another reason: a belief that an internal candidate would prevail. 

In other words: The exact problem Madam Sunshine warned about actually happened.  

Here is exactly how she saw it in her all-knowing sphere: 

---

“I see city managers in Ohio and Oregon and places that end in -ville. Impressive people. Impressive resumes. I see them reading about Tallahassee. I see Google search results like ‘divided Tallahassee commission’ and ‘Palm Bay city manager fired.’ I see them quietly closing their browsers. I see them returning to their current jobs, where nobody is about to fire them.”  

She watches the inbox. It is not filling up the way one might hope.  

She does not appear surprised. 

---

By the way, please don’t fall for the idea that this was some sort of grass roots process. 

At Wednesday’s meeting where the commission voted to move forward with an offer to Jumonville, Commissioner Jack Porter also questioned just how much public involvement the process actually produced. She said Tuesday’s community gathering appeared to be “95 percent” City staff and noted that, even as of the night before, it wasn’t clear to the public that Wednesday morning’s meeting — where commissioners would actually make their choice — would include an opportunity for public comment.  

That’s a curious way to wrap up what the City had advertised as a process designed to give the public meaningful opportunities to engage with the finalists. 

And here’s where Madam Sunshine really earns her turban. 

We wrote in May: 

“What is left when serious external candidates self-select out? Internal candidates.” 

And then: 

“The best candidate was here all along!” 

That was May 5.  

Today, the best candidate was here all along. 

To be clear, this isn’t an argument that Jumonville is unqualified. She’s spent years in Tallahassee city government and has served as deputy city manager. If a commission elected with a fresh mandate considered a strong national field and concluded that Jumonville was the best person to lead the city, so be it. 

The problem is the process that produced her. 

There was no emergency requiring this commission to make a permanent hire before the election. Reese Goad is leaving Sept. 30. Tallahassee has multiple senior administrators capable of keeping the lights on for a matter of weeks. In May, we suggested appointing an interim manager and letting the newly elected commission make one of the most consequential decisions it will face.  

Instead, City Hall spent $30,000 to launch a nationwide search during an election, potential candidates apparently stayed away because of that election, and the outgoing commission rushed to make the selection anyway. 

And after all that? 

They hired the deputy city manager who was already sitting inside City Hall. 

As we wrote then: “Let’s be clear: What Mayor Dailey is proposing is not a national search. It is the performance of one.” 

So, yes, we’re going to enjoy this one. 

Madam Sunshine: 1. 

Nationwide search: 0. 

INVOICE 

Client: City of Tallahassee 
Service: Identification of next city manager 
Prediction delivered: May 5, 2026 
Result: Karen Jumonville 
National search fee: $30,000 
Madam Sunshine fee: $0 
Potential taxpayer savings: $30,000 

Payment is due upon receipt. 

Madam Sunshine accepts cash, check or public records produced without a $480 special service charge. 

September 2, 2026
By Red Tape Florida 

By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida 

TALLAHASSEE — Red Tape Florida has filed a series of public-records requests with the City of Tallahassee seeking information about taxpayer-funded vehicles provided to some of City Hall’s highest-ranking officials. 

We asked for the current vehicles purchased for Tallahassee Police Department leaders at the rank of major and above. 

No charge. 

We asked for the current vehicles provided to the city attorney, city clerk, inspector general and City Manager Reese Goad. 

No charge. 

Then we asked for the complete record of vehicles purchased for or by Goad since he became city manager. 

That’ll be $480. 

Which raises what seems like a pretty obvious question: 

Why this request? 

That discovery prompted us to take a broader look at vehicles provided to top City officials. 

The City produced records identifying the current vehicles for TPD majors and above without charging RTF. It produced records identifying the current vehicles for the city attorney, city clerk, inspector general and Goad without charging RTF. 

But when RTF asked for the history of vehicles purchased for Goad, the meter started running. 

After RTF questioned the $480 charge, the City provided an itemized estimate. 

According to the City, employees will need four hours to search Fleet Management records and other systems; three hours to retrieve, compile, sort and organize the records; another three hours to review them; two hours for redactions and preparation; and another hour for final review and production. 

And then there’s this: 

Two hours for “printing and scanning.” 

RTF requested the records electronically. 

Altogether, the City estimates 15 hours of work to produce the records. 

Florida’s public-records law allows governments to impose a “special service charge” when a request requires extensive use of information-technology resources or extensive clerical or supervisory assistance. The charge must be reasonable and based on the actual cost incurred. 

The City says this request qualifies. 

So here’s what we’re going to do. 

Red Tape Florida is going to pay the $480, get the records and tell you what they show. 

But if you’ve ever wondered how you can help support this kind of reporting, here’s one way. 

Either way, we’re paying the $480. 

Maybe there’s nothing particularly interesting in Goad’s vehicle history. 

But here’s what we know so far: 

Records for the Police Department brass? No charge. 

Records for four of City Hall’s top officials, including Goad? No charge. 

The history of vehicles taxpayers purchased for Goad? 

$480. 

We’re going to find out what’s in those records. 

And we’ll let you know what we find. 

September 2, 2026
By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida

As Danfoss’ Ricardo Schneider calls for a hard look at OEV, here’s what Red Tape Florida discovered about how the office is staffed. 

By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida 

A year ago, Ricardo Schneider — then president of Danfoss Turbocor, one of the few Tallahassee companies expanding at real scale — set a deadline: if the region didn’t land at least two new business commitments within 12 months, it would be a “community failure.” That deadline has now passed. No new businesses have been secured, and Schneider isn’t backing off.  

“I’m very disappointed with where we are today,” he told the Tallahassee Democrat in a Thursday story, adding it’s time for “a discussion about the future of OEV after the election.”  

“We are getting the same results,” he said. “We are doing the same things.” 

That’s a pointed call for scrutiny from someone who isn’t a political opponent of OEV — he’s the former head of the company local leaders have repeatedly held up as proof the strategy works.  

So Red Tape Florida reviewed OEV’s current public employee directory together with salary and personnel records obtained through public records requests to the City of Tallahassee and Leon County, to see exactly how the office charged with attracting new employers and investment is staffed. 

The staffing breakdown looks like this: of OEV’s 11 current employees, two hold positions specifically designated for business development — a Business Development Manager and a Business Development Intern. Four positions are specifically assigned to the Minority, Women and Small Business Enterprise program. Three are categorized under leadership and administration, and two under research, marketing and special projects. 

OEV Staff, Titles and Salaries 

Listed alphabetically by last name. Based on OEV’s public staff directory (titles) and salary and personnel records obtained via public records requests (annual salary). 

Name	Title	Category	Annual Salary
Keith Bowers	Director, Office of Economic Vitality	Leadership & Administration	$148,195.84
Jessica Grant	Administrative Specialist II	Leadership & Administration	$60,371.76
Darryl Jones	Deputy Director, Minority Women & Small Business Enterprise	MWSBE	$111,402.27
Sean Lewis	Special Projects Coordinator	Research, Marketing & Special Projects	$96,719.92
Dan Lucas	Business Intelligence Manager	Leadership & Administration	$102,827.11
Kadin Musco	Business Development Intern	Business Recruitment	$32,448.00
Dineta O’Hara	Business Development Manager	Business Recruitment	$100,782.15
LaTanya Raffington	Senior Manager, Minority Women & Small Business Enterprise	MWSBE	$90,941.71
Wilnick SaintCharles	Senior Coordinator, Minority Women & Small Business Enterprise	MWSBE	$78,000.00
Shanea Wilks	Senior Manager, Minority Women & Small Business Enterprise	MWSBE	$94,578.46
Maegen Wynn	Business Outreach & Marketing Coordinator	Research, Marketing & Special Projects	$63,999.94
Total (11 current employees)			$980,267.17

Note: A twelfth employee, Violeta Wall, appears in payroll records as a Blueprint Right-of-Way Assistant earning $64,786.42 annually. That position does not appear on OEV’s current public staff directory and is not included in the table above. Combined with the 11 current employees, total salaries across all 12 payroll records reach approximately $1,045,053.59. 

OEV employs one Business Development Manager and one Business Development Intern. Together, those two positions account for approximately $133,230 in annual salaries. 

By comparison, four employees work in the Minority, Women and Small Business Enterprise program. Their combined annual salaries total approximately $374,922, representing about 38 percent of the office’s current payroll. 

The remaining staff includes OEV Director Keith Bowers, Business Intelligence Manager Dan Lucas, Business Outreach and Marketing Coordinator Maegen Wynn, Special Projects Coordinator Sean Lewis and Administrative Specialist Jessica Grant. 

To be fair, Bowers surely spends a considerable amount of his time on recruitment, in addition to managing the entire OEV operation. But if Tallahassee-Leon taxpayers were under the impression that most of OEV’s staff positions are specifically dedicated to recruiting new industry to the region, the office’s own staff directory tells a different story. 

The MWSBE program certifies and assists minority-, women-, and small-business-owned firms seeking to compete for public contracts. That work is distinct from recruiting companies to relocate or expand into Tallahassee-Leon County. 

OEV’s staffing structure comes as the region faces real economic headwinds by the office’s own numbers. Resident employment has fallen from 163,592 in October 2024 to 154,743 as of the most recent reporting — a decline of 8,849, or 5.4 percent — and the unemployment rate stood at 5.0 percent in May 2026, up from the mid-3-percent range a year earlier. Population growth, initially reported by the U.S. Census as a decline in 2024, has since been revised to a bare 0.13 percent gain — essentially flat. 

Red Tape Florida has written extensively on these matters: 

• Leon County’s economy is in real distress 

• OEV’s abysmal 10-year track record 

• OEV’s 2025 scorecard: A goose egg 

• Skip Foster’s speech to Tiger Bay on the county’s economic distress and the reasons behind it. 

The purpose of this analysis is not to suggest that one function is important and others aren’t. OEV has responsibilities beyond recruiting new industry, including administration of the MWSBE program. But attracting new employers and investment is central to the agency’s economic development mission. 

The staffing records do, however, answer one factual question: of OEV’s 11 current employees, two hold positions specifically designated for business development, in a community where economic development wins are practically non-existent.  

Schneider, for his part, isn’t blaming any one person. He credited OEV Director Keith Bowers by name, saying Bowers is “pushing very hard.” But his larger criticism is unmistakable: “We are getting the same results. We are doing the same things.” 

OEV performs a number of functions assigned by the City and County. But staffing reflects priorities. Other OEV employees may participate in recruitment efforts as part of their broader responsibilities, but their listed positions are not specifically designated as business development — and of the two that are, one is an intern. Whether that’s the right allocation is ultimately a policy decision — one Schneider is now asking the community to have out loud. 

Taxpayers deserve to know how their economic development office is actually organized going into that conversation. 

August 13, 2026
By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida

By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida 

When Red Tape Florida asked the City of Tallahassee to show how its voluntary buyout program would save more than $8 million a year, the city’s response was remarkable: there was no spreadsheet, no financial model, and no position-by-position analysis supporting the claim. 

No methodology. No documented staffing plan. No record reconciling the promised savings with a salary budget that was still going up. 

Which made it all the more surprising when Red Tape Florida uncovered that Commissioner Jack Porter attempted to hire a new legislative aide — at the same salary as the departing aide, with comparable qualifications and consistent with what the City’s other commissioners pay their aides — only to discover City Finance had already reduced the budget for the position without consulting her. 

The city assumed – without communicating this assumption – that Porter would hire the replacement aide for approximately $13,400 less. When she didn’t, her office was expected to absorb the difference within its existing budget. 

The episode offers the clearest window yet into one of the questions Red Tape Florida has been asking for weeks: How, exactly, did City Hall calculate the savings from its Voluntary Separation Incentive (VSI) program? 

According to newly obtained emails, Porter’s longtime legislative aide, Terrie Hookfin, accepted the city’s buyout after earning an annual salary of $90,018, which is commensurate with the other four commissioners’ aides. Red Tape Florida independently confirmed that figure through the city’s VSI severance records. 

When Porter selected a replacement, she proposed paying the same salary — $90,018.38, matching Hookfin’s salary to the penny. Porter told Human Resources the new aide possessed qualifications comparable to Hookfin’s and should receive compensation consistent with the legislative aides serving the city’s other four commissioners. 

But finance had already made a different assumption. Instead of budgeting the position at its existing salary, the city reset it to what is called the Maximum Hire Rate, or MHR — an existing city compensation practice that generally establishes the highest salary at which a new employee may be hired without additional approval. In this case, Finance applied that existing practice as part of its FY27 budget assumptions, budgeting the position at approximately $76,600, more than $13,000 below the departing employee’s salary. 

“The FY27 budget assumption resetting the position to the Maximum Hire Rate did not reflect my intended compensation level for this position and was made without consultation with my office,” Porter wrote Assistant City Manager Abena Ojetayo in an email obtained by Red Tape Florida. 

New salary? That was news 

In an interview, Porter said she first learned of the reduced budget only after selecting her replacement — and that no one from finance or the City Manager’s Office ever asked whether she intended to refill the position at a lower salary before building that assumption into the budget. Had they asked, she said, they would have learned immediately that her intention was to maintain salary parity with the other commissioners’ aides. 

Porter also said the Commission received little discussion about the mechanics behind the city’s projected savings before approving the VSI program. Commissioners were told generally that savings would come from positions left vacant and others refilled at lower salaries, she said, but there was no discussion about budgeting specific vacant positions at the Maximum Hire Rate as part of the city’s projected savings or how those assumptions would affect elected officials and department directors responsible for making hiring decisions. 

Hookfin, who spent nearly nine years with the city — including assignments in Human Resources, Housing and Commissioner’s offices — corroborated Porter’s account. She said neither she nor Porter’s office was informed before she accepted the buyout that her position would revert to the Maximum Hire Rate or that her replacement would be budgeted at a substantially lower salary. 

“We learned about each new restriction only when it became another roadblock,” Hookfin said. 

Hookfin also said legislative aides have historically been paid at roughly comparable salaries because each commissioner employs a single aide performing essentially the same job. “When I left, aides were earning approximately $90,000,” she said. “Requiring Commissioner Porter’s new aide to earn significantly less than every other aide abandons that equity standard without warning or a legitimate operational reason.” 

HR, Finance not on same page 

Further complicating matters is that apparently one city department didn’t know what the other was doing. The City’s Human Resources had already approved posting the position with a salary range that included Hookfin’s existing salary. Only after Porter selected her replacement and attempted to complete the hiring process did Finance advise that the position had already been budgeted at the Maximum Hire Rate. In other words, one department approved advertising the position at approximately $90,000 while another had already budgeted it at roughly $76,600. Whether that disconnect reflects poor communication, poor planning or something else entirely, taxpayers deserve an explanation. 

Assistant City Manager Abena Ojetayo acknowledged the budget reduction in her response to Porter but defended it as routine. Resetting vacant positions to the Maximum Hire Rate, she wrote, is simply “standard for our budget planning.” 

That sentence may be the most important one in the entire email chain, because of what it says about the City’s response to Red Tape Florida’s public records requests. 

For weeks, Red Tape Florida has been asking City Hall to produce the records explaining how officials calculated the program’s promised $8.46 million in annual savings — specifically, the financial models, the methodology, the records identifying which positions would be eliminated, refilled or left vacant, and the analyses showing how those savings reconciled with a salary budget that nevertheless increased. 

The city’s response has been remarkably consistent: no responsive records exist. 

Yet here, in that same email, finance had already described that assumption as routine. If it’s really “standard for our budget planning,” where are the records documenting that standard? Because that is precisely the type of methodology Red Tape Florida has been seeking all along. 

How does this play out 171 times? 

The implications extend far beyond Porter’s office. The City’s voluntary buyout program affected 171 employees across virtually every department in city government. If finance routinely applied the Maximum Hire Rate to vacant positions as part of its budget planning assumptions, how many other positions were budgeted using similar assumptions? Were department directors consulted before those assumptions became part of the FY27 budget? Did every hiring authority intend to refill positions at those lower salaries — or were those assumptions simply built into the City’s projected savings before the people responsible for making the hiring decisions had weighed in? 

Hookfin believes at least some positions were never likely to generate the recurring salary savings reflected in the city’s projections. Certain positions — including a commissioner’s sole legislative aide — were always going to have to be refilled, she said, and because of operational needs and longstanding pay equity, some would inevitably have to be filled at or near the incumbent’s salary. “Those positions would produce little or no ongoing salary savings,” Hookfin said. 

Perhaps there truly are no spreadsheets. Perhaps there is no master financial model. But there was unquestionably a methodology — and taxpayers are only learning about one piece of it because Commissioner Porter attempted to hire a replacement for her longtime legislative aide. 

Which leaves one final question: if this budgeting assumption existed all along, what other assumptions were built into the City’s $8.46 million savings estimate that the public still hasn’t seen? 

August 13, 2026
By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida

Opinion by Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida 

At Tiger Bay a few weeks ago, I talked about what I believe drives successful communities. 

Economic development isn’t the responsibility of one organization. It’s a four-legged stool. 

One leg is local government. One is higher education. One is the private sector. One is state government. 

When all four are working together, communities grow. 

If you’ve read Red Tape Florida for any length of time, you know we have spent a lot of our energy documenting the opposite. We write about bureaucratic delays, unnecessary regulations, missed opportunities and government policies that make it harder for businesses to invest and create jobs. 

That’s not changing. 

But criticism without praise is a one-note song. 

Here is an example of our community getting it right. The topic? Sports and entertainment tourism. 

The story starts in Oregon 

They weren’t just attending a conference. They were selling Tallahassee to the world based on the success of this year’s championship at Apalachee Regional Park.  

That effort didn’t begin with a plane ticket. 

It began more than a decade ago when Leon County made the long-term decision to invest in Apalachee Regional Park as a destination for cross-country competition. Since then, the park has hosted dozens of national, regional and state championships, attracting thousands of athletes and visitors and generating millions of dollars in spending for local businesses. The World Championships weren’t a lucky break. They were the payoff from years of consistent investment.  

And that investment is beginning to compound. 

The World Athletics Cross Country Championships drew more than 10,000 spectators to Tallahassee, including thousands of visitors from outside Leon County, providing another tangible example of how destination events can fill hotel rooms, restaurants and local businesses.  

County leaders aren’t treating that success as a one-off. This summer, they proposed a new performance-based tourism incentive program aimed at attracting even larger events, while simultaneously traveling to Oregon to make the case for bringing the 2029 World Athletics Championships back to Apalachee Regional Park. That’s what strategic economic development looks like. It’s not chasing the next headline. It’s building on success, reinvesting in it and creating a pipeline of opportunities that can pay dividends for years to come. 

That’s the first leg of the stool. 

The second is our area’s colleges and universities. 

Bulls and Bananas 

For years, Doak Campbell Stadium was essentially a twelve-day-a-year asset. Athletic Director Michael Alford deserves credit for changing that mindset. The Savannah Bananas filled the stadium. Professional Bull Riders brought thousands more visitors. Concerts followed. Instead of sitting empty most of the year, one of Tallahassee’s largest public assets is becoming an economic engine that benefits the entire community.  

The success of those events isn’t going unnoticed. 

At the close of last month’s Leon County Commission meeting, Chairman Christian Caban announced plans to bring forward a formal agenda item aimed at creating a more intentional strategy for sports and entertainment tourism. His vision is straightforward: use Tallahassee’s major public venues to attract destination events during traditionally slower tourism periods, bringing visitors here when hotel occupancy and economic activity would otherwise lag. 

That’s exactly the kind of long-term thinking communities need. Successful tourism isn’t about landing one headline event. It’s about creating a year-round pipeline of attractions that maximize facilities taxpayers have already paid to build. 

The third leg is the private sector. 

Chamber checks in 

The Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce publicly backed the County’s effort this week, recognizing what local businesses already know: visitors don’t just attend sporting events. They stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, shop in local stores and support local jobs. Several businesses have already reported significant increases in sales during these major events.  

The fourth leg is the State of Florida. 

Foundational 

The Florida Sports Foundation doesn’t build facilities or operate hotels. But it helps communities compete for major sporting events that might otherwise go to Orlando, Tampa or Miami. That statewide support gives communities like Tallahassee a chance to compete on a much larger stage.  

None of these organizations could have accomplished this alone. 

The County could build a world-class course, but without FSU embracing year-round use of its facilities, the community’s overall sports tourism strategy would be weaker. 

The Chamber could promote Tallahassee all day long, but without venues and events, there would be nothing to sell. 

The state can help market destinations, but it can’t manufacture local leadership. 

It takes all four. 

Too often in Tallahassee, these institutions operate in their own lanes. Sometimes they’re indifferent to one another. Occasionally they’re working at cross purposes. When that happens, economic opportunities are lost before they ever reach the starting line. 

This is different. 

It’s a reminder that economic development isn’t just about recruiting the next manufacturer or announcing another ribbon-cutting. Sometimes it’s about recognizing the assets you already have, investing in them over time and getting multiple institutions rowing in the same direction. 

I’ve spent plenty of time pointing out where Tallahassee falls short. 

It’s only fair to point out when it gets something right. 

The real opportunity isn’t simply bringing another world championship to Apalachee Regional Park. 

It’s asking a bigger question: 

What if we approached our other economic priorities the same way? 

What if the same level of collaboration were applied to expanding air service at Tallahassee International Airport? What if local government, the business community, Florida State and state leaders all treated that as a shared priority instead of someone else’s responsibility? 

What if we brought that same alignment to recruiting major employers? To commercializing the incredible research taking place at Florida State and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory? To creating more startup companies that grow here instead of leaving here? 

Those are the kinds of challenges no single organization can solve. 

The County can’t do it alone. 

Neither can the City. 

Neither can FSU. 

Neither can the Chamber. 

Neither can the state. 

But together? That’s a different conversation. 

That’s why this story is about much more than cross-country championships, Banana Ball or bull riding. 

Those are simply proof of concept. 

They’re evidence that when Tallahassee’s four legs of the stool — local government, higher education, the private sector and state government — decide to pull in the same direction, this community can compete with cities much larger than our own. 

Imagine what could happen if we made that the rule instead of the exception. 

August 11, 2026
Opinion, by Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida

Opinion by Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida 

Red Tape Florida’s recent piece on Austin’s successful efforts to tackle affordable housing had a lot of important themes: 

• The key to lowering prices is driving up supply 

• The cost of red tape is significant 

• Time is money and a bogged-down bureaucratic process hurts not just builders but the eventual home and business owners 

But it was another theme that struck me. I saw something in Austin Mayor Kirk Watson that I simply haven’t seen within Tallahassee City government: True leadership and vision. 

While Tallahassee is paying for awards and positive coverage, renaming streets and issuing proclamations, its economy remainsstagnant and affordable housing persists as an acute problem. 

Tallahassee has largely resorted to unoriginal, public-sector driven solutions — subsidizing projects with federal and state housing dollars, supporting community land trusts, offering down payment assistance, funding rehabilitation programs, requiring or incentivizing affordable units through inclusionary housing policies, and partnering with nonprofits and developers on publicly backed projects. Those efforts may help individual families and add some units to the housing stock, but they largely rely on government money, government programs or government direction.  

Austin tried something different. It considered an idea that would surely seem novel to Tallahassee leaders: Maybe we are a part of the problem. 

It turned a critical eye on itself and hired an outside firm to provide an unbiased report answering this question: is our bureaucracy negatively impacting the issue of affordable housing? 

Can you even imagine that happening in Tallahassee? 

City leaders are too busy flexing, cheerleading and railroading. Decisions are made in backrooms, not in the public’s view. Data isn’tgathered independently with a “what we can learn” mentality. Instead, it’s cherry-picked and presented only in the most positive light. 

The internal culture is toxic and that actually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Let me explain. 

Tallahassee is known across the state and even the nation as a business-unfriendly city. This is simply a fact – I’ve heard it so many times from so many people in so many sectors I don’t need a poll to tell me it’s true. 

But part of the culture that leads to this business unfriendliness is arrogance. An insular attitude. A “we know best” mentality.  

Why, Tallahassee government leaders would likely say, do we need to survey our own operation when we already know we’re right and everybody else is wrong?  

It’s that mentality that leads to absolutely inane results, like the shed from hell, that, according to my sources, STILL hasn’t been approved for use by the City. Or the Midtown Reader grass field, which STILL hasn’t been allowed to be turned into desperately needed parking. And the list goes on (and is growing, as Red Tape Florida is now receiving tips from Tallahassee and across the state on a daily basis). 

The Austin mayor was willing to cross party lines — and other imaginary political boundaries — to gather information to actually solve a problem. He was willing to admit a fault so that it could then be fixed. 

In Tallahassee, we are hopelessly divided by a 3-2 dynamic where if one side suggested an ordinance banning the torture of puppies and kittens, the other side would immediately claim to be pro-puppy and kitten torture. 

Sadly, even business leaders have become so invested in this 3-2 fable that they will support completely unqualified candidates simply to maintain “control,” when all they are really doing is sentencing the city to another two to four years of ineptitude and weak leadership. 

Heck, even when it is obvious that there is a problem – a floundering economy, or a failing Office of Economic Vitality – there doesn’tappear to be the gumption for government leaders to admit it. 

We are left with another generation’s worth of problems that never get solved because no one is willing to ask the first question Austin asked: 

Could we be part of the problem? 

That’s not a partisan question. It’s not a liberal question or a conservative question. It’s a leadership question. 

Until Tallahassee has leaders willing to challenge their own assumptions, invite outside scrutiny and admit that City Hall itself may be standing in the way of progress, we’ll continue treating symptoms instead of causes. 

Austin’s mayor had the confidence to look inward before pointing outward. 

That’s the kind of leadership Tallahassee has been missing. 

July 31, 2026
Opinion by Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida 

By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida 

Florida has spent the last several years telling local governments to get out of the way. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis has made cutting bureaucracy a cornerstone of his administration. The Legislature has repeatedly strengthened Florida’s private-provider law, most recently through HB 803, to speed permitting and prevent local governments from inventing new obstacles. 

So, here’s a simple question. 

What happens when a local government appears to ignore those reforms? 

That’s where this story gets interesting. 

A Florida contractor spent months asking what should have been a straightforward question: Can Marion County require paperwork and notarization that don’t appear on the state’s own form when state law appears to prohibit local governments from imposing more stringent procedures? 

He never got an answer. 

Not from Marion County. 

Not from the Florida Building Commission. 

Instead, each level of government found a reason not to decide. 

Marion County concluded its own appeals board couldn’t determine whether the county’s interpretation of state law was correct. The contractor then appealed to the Florida Building Commission, the agency responsible for administering the Florida Building Code. Rather than determine whether Marion County’s additional requirements complied with state law, the Commission’s Code Administration Technical Advisory Committee recommended declining to answer because staff concluded that the appeal had been brought through the wrong procedural vehicle.  

Think about that for a minute. 

If neither the county imposing the requirement nor the state agency charged with interpreting the Building Code will decide whether the requirement is lawful, who does? 

This is a bureaucratic maze that would make 1970s Kremlin workers blush. 

The paperwork itself may sound insignificant until you think about what it means at scale. Imagine if your electric company required every monthly payment to be notarized before it would accept it. You’d rightly wonder why government had inserted another unnecessary step into something that already worked. Contractors who work across multiple jurisdictions face those kinds of extra requirements every day. 

And that’s why this story isn’t really about Marion County. 

It’s about whether Florida’s promise to reduce red tape survives once local governments decide to test the limits. 

Here’s what happened. 

CT Solutions Vice President Tim Hunt wasn’t asking Marion County for special treatment. He was asking the county to use the form the state had already adopted. 

The Florida Building Commission has adopted an official Notice to Building Official for Florida’s private-provider program. Marion County instead requires applicants to use a county version that adds paperwork and notarization that do not appear on the Commission’s form. Florida law also says local governments may not adopt procedures or standards more stringent than those prescribed in the private-provider statute.  

Hunt first tried to resolve the issue locally, meeting with county officials and appealing the building official’s decision. But before the appeal could be heard, Assistant County Attorney Linda Blackburn concluded the county’s own License Review Board lacked the authority to determine whether Marion County’s interpretation of state law was correct.  

So, Hunt did what the law appeared to contemplate. He appealed to the Florida Building Commission. 

During the hearing, Hunt repeatedly tried to explain that wasn’t what he was asking for. 

“I was not asking for a petition for a declaratory statement,” he told the committee. “I was asking for an appeal on the building official’s refusal.” 

He explained that he had already exhausted the local administrative process before turning to the Commission because state law appeared to direct him there. 

The committee never answered the question. 

Instead, it answered a different one. 

One exchange captured exactly why this case matters. 

Committee member Julio Boza confirmed with staff that the Florida Building Commission had adopted an official Notice to Building Official form and that Marion County’s version added a notarization requirement that did not appear on the state’s form. 

That should have been the beginning of the discussion. 

Instead, it was the end.  

To be fair, Marion County has raised separate legal arguments involving utility releases and the authority of private providers under another section of the Building Code. Those arguments deserve consideration and may ultimately prove persuasive. 

But they aren’t this issue. 

The question presented to the Commission was much narrower: Can a local government require additional forms, signatures and notarization beyond what appears on the state’s adopted form when state law prohibits more stringent local procedures? 

That question is no longer confined to Marion County. 

Even as Hunt’s appeal was working its way through the state process, a remarkably similar dispute surfaced in the Town of Oakland. Acting as Oakland’s contracted Building Official, former Marion County Building Official Michael Savage rejected a homeowner’s authorization to use a private provider, arguing the revised statute requires “explicit written authorization” beyond the paperwork submitted. Savage wrote that the city was simply enforcing “the minimum” requirements of the new law because “an acknowledgement as submitted is significantly different than an authorization.” The contractor responded that Florida law requires written authorization but “does not prescribe specific wording,” arguing the homeowner had already authorized the use of the private provider in writing.  

The Oakland dispute illustrates why the state’s silence matters. 

Contractors and local governments are already reaching different conclusions about the same statute, with no statewide authority stepping in to resolve the disagreement. 

And that’s what should concern every contractor, developer and property owner in Florida. 

Because this isn’t really about Marion County. 

It’s about whether local governments can effectively become the final authority on state law simply because the state declines to rule. 

The Legislature has already spoken. 

The Governor has already spoken. 

Heck, last week the attorney general spoke, ruling on a number of issues related to private providers. 

Nobody is asking the state to pass another bill. 

They’re asking the state to enforce the ones it already has.  

That responsibility now rests with DBPR Secretary Melanie S. Griffin. No new legislation is needed. No special task force is required. What is needed is leadership — a willingness to tell local governments when they’ve crossed the line and to ensure the reforms passed by the Legislature are applied consistently across Florida. If the DeSantis administration is serious about reducing red tape, Secretary Griffin has an opportunity to prove it. 

The process also raises uncomfortable questions about appearances. 

One of the members who voted to recommend that the Commission decline Hunt’s appeal was Michael Savage. Before joining the Code Administration Technical Advisory Committee, Savage served as Marion County’s Building Official and later defended the county’s position before seconding the motion recommending that the Commission decline to answer the appeal. 

Since then, Savage has continued advancing essentially the same interpretation in another jurisdiction. This week, acting as the contracted Building Official for the Town of Oakland, he rejected a homeowner’s authorization for use of a private provider, writing that the revised statute requires “explicit written authorization” beyond the paperwork submitted and that the city was simply enforcing “the minimum” requirements of the new law.  

No one is suggesting Savage violated any law by participating. 

But when the state declines to answer a question involving an interpretation you previously defended — and continue to advocate elsewhere — reasonable people are going to ask whether you should have participated in that decision at all. 

Public confidence depends not only on avoiding actual conflicts, but also on avoiding circumstances that create the appearance the outcome was predetermined.  

If Florida is serious about reducing red tape, it can’t simply celebrate reform when bills are signed. 

It has to defend those reforms when local governments test their limits. 

Otherwise, “cutting red tape” becomes just another campaign slogan. 

And the bureaucracy wins again.  

July 23, 2026
By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida

By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida 

When Red Tape Florida launched, the mission wasn’t simply to criticize local government. 

The mission was to encourage better local government. 

That’s why it’s worth recognizing when public agencies move in the right direction. 

This week, the Office of Economic Vitality issued a Request for Proposals seeking a marketing firm to promote Tallahassee as the “Magnetics Capital of the World.” The initiative would build a multimedia campaign centered on one of the community’s greatest economic assets — the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory — and its potential to attract companies, investment and talent. 

The timing is noteworthy. 

In April, Red Tape Florida published an analysis questioning why OEV’s marketing efforts largely overlooked the MagLab while emphasizing more generic quality-of-life messaging. The argument wasn’t that Tallahassee needed more marketing. It was that Tallahassee needed to market the right thing. 

This RFP suggests OEV is doing exactly that. And that’s great news. 

Tallahassee-Leon appears to be placing greater emphasis on one of its most distinctive competitive advantages. For more than three decades, the MagLab has been the world’s premier magnetics research facility. Communities across America would gladly trade places with Tallahassee if they could. 

Yet the region has struggled to build the kind of private-sector ecosystem that often grows around world-class research institutions. 

Marketing alone won’t solve that challenge. 

But it’s an important place to start. 

The RFP calls for a comprehensive campaign to improve brand recognition, increase awareness of Tallahassee’s magnetic technologies, market targeted industries and position the community as the “Magnetics Capital of the World.”  

It also asks that this newly developed creative be marketed, through paid digital channels, among others. This is an important change from prior marketing efforts that led to award winning creative sitting on a shelf. 

Perhaps most importantly, the project would tie marketing efforts to growing the local magnetics industry cluster — not simply creating a new slogan. 

The real measure of success won’t be impressions, clicks or social media engagement. 

It will be whether more magnetics companies relocate here. Whether more startups commercialize MagLab research. Whether more suppliers choose Tallahassee. Whether more high-paying private-sector jobs follow. 

Those are the outcomes that matter. 

Red Tape Florida will continue asking difficult questions when warranted. But credibility also requires acknowledging progress. 

When government makes decisions that better position Tallahassee for long-term economic success, those decisions deserve recognition as well. 

June 24, 2026
By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida

We’re looking at you, Manatee, Brevard, Sarasota, Lake and Volusia 

By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida 

Nobody who showed up to fight a housing development ever carried a sign that said “I oppose plumber jobs.” 

But that’s what they support. 

In the past 12 months, five Florida counties — Sarasota, Brevard, Manatee, Lake, and Volusia — blocked or effectively killed housing developments totaling 2,469 homes. In each case, the formula was familiar: concerned neighbors, packed commission chambers, petitions, warnings about traffic and flooding and neighborhood character. In each case, the commission obliged. 

Red Tape Florida applied the National Association of Home Builders’ Local Economic Impact Model — the industry standard for measuring residential construction’s economic footprint — to each of the five projects. The results should be posted on the wall of every county commission chamber in Florida. 

The Jobs Florida Never Created 

County	Project	Homes Blocked	Jobs Never Created	Income Never Generated
Manatee	Lennar / Lone Valley, Parrish	2,047	10,490	$763.8M
Brevard	June Park apartments	186	681	$49.6M
Sarasota	D.R. Horton / Celery Fields	126	635	$46.3M
Lake	Crescent Pines, Clermont (KB Home)	79	301	$21.9M
Volusia	Ormond Beach subdivision	31	111	$8.1M
TOTAL		2,469	12,218	$889.7M

Twelve thousand jobs. Nearly $900 million dollars in wages and income. Gone — not because of a recession, not because of a hurricane, not because of some market failure. Gone because of petition drives and planning board testimony and commission votes cast to preserve neighborhood character. 

The Manatee County figure alone should stop a room. In February 2026, commissioners unanimously denied Lennar Homes’ “Lone Valley” project — 2,047 single-family homes on 683 acres near Buckeye Road in Parrish. The vote is especially notable because the county’s own Planning Commission had already unanimously recommended approval. Professional planners endorsed it. Elected commissioners killed it anyway. The NAHB model puts the economic cost of that single vote at more than 10,000 jobs and $763 million in income. That is not a development project that was denied. That is an economy. 

Birds, Flooding, Trees, and Traffic 

The stated reasons varied by county. In Sarasota, it was proximity to the Celery Fields — a beloved bird sanctuary adjacent to the proposed D.R. Horton development. The commission rejected the project twice; D.R. Horton has since sued the county. In Ormond Beach, it was flooding concerns in a hurricane-battered Volusia County. In Brevard’s June Park community, 706 petition signatures produced a unanimous Planning and Zoning Board denial before the developer withdrew. In Lake County, commissioners denied the same 79-home Clermont subdivision twice — in November 2025 and again in April 2026 when KB Home returned with a reduced plan. In Manatee County, the Lone Valley project fell to concerns about nearby grocery stores, road capacity, and the pace of growth in a community that is, by all accounts, already growing rapidly. 

At an earlier Manatee County commission meeting on a separate but related housing denial, landowner Marilyn Moran — whose family has owned land in the area for over a century — offered the most direct assessment of what was happening: “Your decision today needs to be based on the evidence and the legal principles at issue, not unsupported, emotional pleas or the screeching of anti-development activists.” 

The commission voted no anyway. 

What the NAHB Model Tells Us 

The NAHB Local Economic Impact Model calculates three phases of economic impact from residential construction: the direct effect of construction activity itself, the ripple effect of construction workers spending their wages locally, and the ongoing annual effect of new residents paying property taxes and participating in the local economy. 

The jobs lost are not abstractions. They are carpenters, plumbers, electricians, roofers, painters, concrete finishers, and the truck drivers, lumber yard workers, hardware store clerks, and restaurant owners who depend on their paychecks. They are the kinds of jobs — blue-collar, trade-based, family-sustaining — that politicians across the spectrum claim to champion. 

There is also a second table that rarely gets discussed: the ongoing annual economic loss. Once those homes go unbuilt, thousands of jobs that should exist every year — generated by property tax revenue, resident spending, and local economic participation — also disappear. Permanently. 

County	Homes Blocked	Annual Ongoing Jobs Lost
Manatee	2,047	1,837
Brevard	186	119
Sarasota	126	111
Lake	79	53
Volusia	31	19
TOTAL	2,469	2,139 every year

A Statewide Pattern With a Local Address 

These five cases are not outliers. They are the visible tip of a statewide pattern documented repeatedly in Florida housing research. A 2024 report by the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis found that local opposition to development is one of the primary drivers of housing unaffordability. 

The data connecting anti-growth sentiment to poverty, stagnant wages, and housing unaffordability is no longer theoretical. It is documented. It is measurable. It has a price — one paid not by the people who show up to commission meetings, but by the people who can never afford to. 

Next time someone hands a commissioner a petition against a housing development, someone should hand the commissioner these tables. 

June 12, 2026
By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida

Breeze Airways dropped 18 routes in 17 months. In about half (or more) of them, public money was involved. Now it’s coming to TLH. Buckle up. 

Special Investigation by Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida 

The Tallahassee City Commission was practically giddy. 

A shiny new airline named Breeze. Nonstop flights to Fort Lauderdale and Raleigh-Durham. Affordable fares. A 137-seat Airbus A220-300 — described, without apparent irony, as a “Goldilocks-size” plane for Tallahassee’s market. 

What could go wrong? 

Quite a bit, as it turns out. Red Tape Florida has meticulously researched every route Breeze Airways has dropped since January 2025 — 18 in total — and what we found should give Tallahassee taxpayers serious pause before the confetti hits the floor on July 2. 

The deal the city struck is structured as a minimum revenue guarantee: if Breeze’s Fort Lauderdale and Raleigh-Durham routes don’t generate $3 million over two years, Tallahassee taxpayers pay the difference. Half comes from airport funds. Half from community incentives. It’s the aviation equivalent of a co-signer — and Breeze has left a lot of co-signers holding the bag. 

Breeze’s Business Model, Decoded 

Breeze Airways was founded in 2021 by David Neeleman, the airline entrepreneur behind JetBlue, WestJet, and Azul. The pitch is elegant: connect underserved secondary airports with nonstop service, bypass the hubs, keep costs lean. Five years in, Breeze has carried 16 million passengers and calls itself the fastest-growing airline in America. 

It is also, Red Tape Florida has found, extraordinarily good at landing in communities carrying public incentive money. What is harder to prove is precisely how much those incentives influence Breeze’s decisions. What is clear is that public dollars appear repeatedly in the story of Breeze’s expansion — and in many of the routes it later abandoned. 

In the 17 months between January 2025 and May 2026, Breeze dropped 18 domestic routes. RTF examined every one of them. 

The findings were striking: 

• 8 routes involved confirmed public incentives, subsidies, revenue guarantees, fee waivers, or community backstops. 

• 5 more originated at airports with formal airline incentive programs, though Breeze-specific participation requires public records confirmation. 

• 5 could not be confirmed or ruled out after extensive research. 

One or two examples would be anecdotal. Eight confirmed examples and five more under investigation begin to look like a pattern. 

The Strongest Examples 

The clearest case came from Huntsville, Alabama. The City of Huntsville signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Breeze paying $10,000 per month in base incentive payments, with an additional $10,000 per month bonus specifically designated for flying to Los Angeles. The MOU ran 24 months. The LAX route dropped in September 2025. The city then renewed its MOU with Breeze — this time without LAX as a destination. The city paid Breeze to fly to Los Angeles. When the check stopped, so did the flight. 

In Greenville-Spartanburg, the airport CEO appeared before Spartanburg City Council in September 2024 specifically requesting $275,000 to fulfill a backstop agreement with Breeze Airways. He told the council the total minimum annual guarantee required to get Breeze to launch was $1.5 million. The route launched May 2024. It ended September 2025. Sixteen months. 

Ohio’s economic development agency, JobsOhio, operates a $10 million annual Air Service Restoration Program providing short-term revenue guarantee incentives to airlines. JobsOhio’s own press release for the Breeze inaugural LAX flight names the program as the vehicle that made the route possible. The Akron-Canton airport CEO said at launch: “It’s our commitment, with partners like Breeze and JobsOhio — who offer the air services incentive program that brought Breeze here.” The route launched May 2024 and ended August 2025. It has not returned. 

At the inaugural press conference announcing Breeze service to Jacksonville in 2022, Mayor Lenny Curry announced he was asking City Council for $1 million in incentives and marketing assistance. The council approved it in May 2022. The Jacksonville-Westchester route ran four years before ending in May 2026. 

RTF’s complete route-by-route analysis, including source documents and links, is available here. 

What the Counterexamples Tell Us 

Not every route fit the theory. 

Raleigh-Durham to Los Angeles ended in January 2026 despite an 82.1% load factor and no confirmed incentive involvement. That appears to have been a straightforward competitive decision: Breeze held just 7.8% of the RDU-LAX market against Delta’s 50.6% and American’s 41.4%. Breeze subsequently named RDU as an operating base and launched new California service to Orange County — a far less competitive market than LAX. 

But exceptions do not erase the broader pattern. Public incentives appeared repeatedly in markets Breeze entered and repeatedly in routes Breeze later abandoned. 

Tallahassee’s Turn 

Tallahassee has seen this movie before. 

JetBlue arrived with fanfare in 2022 and left in October 2024, citing underperformance. Silver Airways filed for bankruptcy and stopped all operations in June 2025. The city is now down to four American Airlines routes and a single Delta route — a skeleton crew for the capital of the third most populous state in America. 

Into this void flies Breeze, which described Tallahassee as a market that has “really struggled for kind of low-cost or value service” — and which said it thinks it is “the perfect carrier for that.” 

The city has committed $3 million in minimum revenue guarantees to make Breeze feel welcome. Tallahassee taxpayers are effectively co-signing Breeze’s launch. If the routes underperform, the city covers the difference. Half comes from airport funds. Half from community incentives. 

The routes begin July 2. 

The incentive window is two years. 

Red Tape Florida will be watching the calendar. 

June 9, 2026
Special Investigation by Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida