'Expensive stalemate': Charter Review Committee debates adding more city commissioners

The city’s Charter Review Committee delved into whether the City Commission should have more members and what impact that might have on community representation and the bitterly divided board itself.

The 10-person CRC, which first convened last month, discussed the issue and a related one, moving from at-large to single-member City Commission districts, during their meeting Thursday at City Hall. Currently, the City Commission is made up of five commissioners, all elected at-large or citywide.

CRC member Beth Corum, CEO of Capital City Banking Group, said she is not in favor of expanding the commission without a conversation about representation. She said city commissioners have historically been “clumped in one area of our city” and that there are “a lot of rooftops” across town with “no representation.”

“I don’t have my mind made up which way I think the city should go,” Corum said. “But I do believe expansion comes with additional representation in other areas of our city.”

CRC member Bruce Strouble, an adjunct history professor at Tallahassee Community College, said he believed at-large commissioners do in fact represent their constituents. He questioned whether the CRC should be looking at representation based on where officials live or other factors, from demographics to socio-economic status.

“I don’t know that that’s our charge,” Strouble said. “We’ve only been asked to look at … the number of electors. Again, I have to reiterate this, if we go from five to seven to nine to 12 to 15 to 19, it doesn’t mean that we would get everyone represented.”

CRC member Jared Willis, a lawyer, lobbyist and political consultant, gave the hypothetical that if the current commission is a "perfect image of what Tallahassee looks like" it doesn't guarantee that will always be the case as the city grows in population.

"I do think as we're talking about the number of electors, just moving from five to seven to nine to 11, without any other consideration is a mistake," Willis said.

CRC member Chantelle Dorsey, a DJ and Florida Channel employee, said adding more commissioners wouldn't change the City Commission's 3-2 voting dynamic. The commission often splits 3-2 on major issues, with Mayor John Dailey and Commissioners Curtis Richardson and Dianne Williams-Cox on one side and Commissioners Jack Porter and Jeremy Matlow on the other.

"Instead of a 3-2 break, we would have a 3-4 break," Dorsey said. "I think it's an ... expensive stalemate."

Strouble said he wasn't worried about the 3-2 voting block and that the CRC wasn't tasked with addressing that.

"I feel that that could be changed in one election," he said.

The CRC also again discussed whether city commissioners should be paid a higher salary and whether their pay should be tied to the Leon County Commission

The city charter currently calls for city commissioners to make half of what Leon County commissioners earn with the exception of the mayor, whose pay is based on the County Commission chairman's salary. County commissioners earn $90,577; city commissioners earn $45,288.

Committee members previously talked about taking commissioner salaries out of the charter, but CRC member Mark Mustian, a former city commissioner, called that a "recipe for disaster."

"So we're gonna have the elected officials vote on their own salaries?" he wondered aloud. "That wouldn't be the best idea at all."

The next CRC meeting will be held Thursday, Feb. 15 at City Hall in the Tallahassee Room. The committee plans to begin voting on proposals at the following meeting on Feb. 20.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee Charter Review Committee debates adding more commissioners