Former City Commissioner Dot Inman-Johnson files to run again in 2024

Dot Inman-Johnson, the first Black woman ever to serve as a Tallahassee city commissioner, is running for City Commission Seat 2, setting up a possible match-up against incumbent Curtis Richardson in 2024.

Inman-Johnson, who served on the City Commission from 1984 to 1994, filed her campaign paperwork on Tuesday at the Leon County Supervisor of Elections office. Surrounded by more than three dozen friends, family members and supporters, she pledged to focus her campaign on issues, not personalities or individual “feuding.”

She described herself as a “solid, progressive liberal” and strongly suggested she would align herself with City Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter, who make up the minority voting wing on the five-person commission. Her candidacy marks another attempt by progressive forces to oust members of the voting majority, made up of Mayor John Dailey, and Commissioners Richardson and Dianne Williams-Cox.

“No. 1, I am going to work as hard as I can to return that third vote on the City Commission to the people of Tallahassee on the issues important to our community,” she told her supporters. “No. 2, I am going to be completely committed to making sure every city employee feels respected, valued and feel they are being treated fairly.”

So far, Inman-Johnson is the only person officially in the Seat 2 race. Richardson, a former Leon County School Board and Florida House member first elected to the commission in 2014, could not be reached for comment.

Inman-Johnson, 76, spent 28 years in the classroom as a Leon County School teacher and served another 14 years as executive director of the Capital Area Community Action Agency, which helps low-income families.

She twice made history at City Hall, becoming the first Black woman to serve on the City Commission when she was appointed to an interim post in 1984 and the first Black woman elected to the commission in 1986. She served two four-year terms, including two stints as mayor, when the position rotated among commissioners. She lost a re-election bid in 1994.

In more recent years, she worked as city manager in Midway and authored several books on topics from local African American history to politics, including one excoriating former President Donald Trump and the GOP. She serves on the boards of the South City Foundation and the Council on the Status of Men and Boys. She recently took a leave from the Common Cause of Florida board to run for office.

“I’ve never been off the playing field, she said.

Last year, Inman-Johnson managed the campaign of Adner Marcelin, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat Williams-Cox. Marcelin is serving as her campaign treasurer; her husband, pastor Lee Johnson, and Margaret Moore, who worked last year with County Commission candidate Damon Victor, are managing her campaign.

Inman-Johnson said she would be a “strong voice” on issues affecting the community, from discrimination to the environment, and pledged to work to eradicate poverty.

“Poverty is the root case of many of the problems that Tallahassee faces right now,” she said. “Whether it’s crime, whether it’s hopelessness of people who don’t get their needs met, whether it’s education for all, whether it’s jobs and economic development — all of those things fall into that pot.”

She said she opposes a proposal to hike the city’s property-tax rate, which has gotten initial support from Dailey, Richardson and Williams-Cox. She said raising taxes would hurt seniors and low-income families and that the city “could have been smarter about how they were spending our money” before turning to a tax increase.

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“People want to have clean water coming from their faucets,” she said. “They want the city to grow in a smart way. And they want our taxes protected.”

Inman-Johnson mentioned Richardson by name only once, after her husband asked her whether she would “not just be a vote with Commissioner Matlow and Porter” and support a “great community idea” that the other commissioners might have.

“Well, I haven’t seen a great idea from Dailey and Dianne and Curtis,” she said. “But when they come up with one, I’m there.”

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com and follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Former Tallahassee Commissioner Dot Inman-Johnson files to run in 2024