Tallahassee City Commissioners have approved a contract for incoming City Manager Karen Jumonville, but a provision requiring a two-thirds vote to fire her drew accusations that the Commission majority is attempting to constrain the will of future Commissioners.
The requirement means Jumonville cannot be terminated without the votes of four of the five Commissioners.
Mayor John Dailey, who negotiated the contract, defended the provision and said he pushed for its inclusion as a way to depoliticize the City Manager position. He pointed to a similar supermajority provision governing the Leon County administrator.
“I think it depoliticizes the position of the City Manager,” Dailey said.
But critics claimed the move was a brazen attempt to insulate the Commission from future elections and made the City Manager less accountable. City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow argued that if three Commissioners directed the Manager to carry out an action and she refused, those same three Commissioners would lack the votes necessary to remove her.
In a social media post Wednesday, he accused Dailey of attempting to “limit the will of the majority of future commissions” and called the provision a “political stunt” by a “lame-duck mayor.”
A frequent critic of Dailey, Matlow is now running to succeed him. He finished first in the August mayoral Primary and is facing former Sen. Loranne Ausley in a November runoff.
One of the two candidates vying to take over Matlow’s District 3 seat, PJ Perez, also took to social media Wednesday to blast the new provision.
“Today’s City Commission agenda contains some of the worst, most anti-democratic abuses of lame duck authority Tallahassee has ever seen,” he wrote.
Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox defended the contract and said the city needs stability despite the election-year timing.
“We’re trying to stabilize this city by making sure we have some folks in place who know how to run this city,” Williams-Cox said.
At the meeting Wednesday, some residents also took issue with the Jumonville’s $317,000 salary and the roughly 24-hour notice they said they received.
Commissioners also disagree on the legality of the supermajority provision, with Matlow arguing the city charter trumps the contract terms and clearly states that three Commissioners have the power to dismiss the City Manager.
The fight is the latest manifestation of the Commission’s long-standing 3-2 divide, which has repeatedly placed Dailey and Matlow on opposite sides of major issues.
Jumonville’s contract takes effect Oct. 1, a little more than a month before Tallahassee voters choose the city’s next Mayor and fill other Commission seats.