{"id":287713,"date":"2026-05-28T16:20:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T16:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/287713\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T16:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T16:20:24","slug":"sitting-tallahassee-commission-should-choose-new-manager-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/287713\/","title":{"rendered":"Sitting Tallahassee commission should choose new manager | Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was out of town for work and was unable to attend the May 13th city commission meeting in person. However, I have watched the recording of the meeting multiple times and certainly read the news clips from various media outlets especially the coverage of the \u201cCity Manager Recruitment Process\u201d agenda item.<\/p>\n

Let me put some data on the table since my opinion may draw some fire.<\/p>\n

I am not running for any local office. I did apply in 2018 with 92 other people to fill Scott Maddox\u2019s vacant city commission seat.<\/p>\n

I have made previous political contributions to all three sitting commissioners in the 3-2 current split. That does not mean I agree with 100% of policy position those sitting commissioners have or have taken during their tenure.<\/p>\n

In August 2021, the Tallahassee Democrat published a Your Turn column by me with the headline \u201cMatlow\u2019s political style requires a villain\u201d.<\/p>\n

I have been in a meeting with Reese Goad, in my memory, on only one occasion, which was a meeting of a volunteer committee I was serving on with the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce. I do not know him personally or professionally beyond that.<\/p>\n

With all this public record data on the table, my opinion piece today focuses on the discussion of good governance.<\/p>\n

While I respect the commentary about the \u201cpending possible changes\u201d to the composition of the city commissioner post November elections, given that there are two open seats on the panel and one contested seat on the commission during the 2026 election cycle.<\/p>\n

The fact of the matter is that \u201cbest practices\u201d in the corporate, civic, and not for profit worlds indicate that the currently populated governance body should be the one to conduct the search for a city manager.<\/p>\n

The city manager\u2019s role (a CEO in a private sector setting) is extremely important. The budget for the City of Tallahassee is public record for all to see at Tallahassee \/ FY2026 Adopted Budget and Historical Budgets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To potentially ask two if not three \u201cnew commissioners\u201d to provide the most effective fiduciary oversight on the search process for the city manager vacancy post November elections does not make logical sense. Yes, some candidates have been in office before, but the city\u2019s needs, demographics and vision are different from when they served in the past.<\/p>\n

\"Tallahassee<\/p>\n

Tallahassee City Hall, 300 S. Adams St.<\/p>\n

This is not meant to be a slight to any of the declared candidates running for office and their intent or their backgrounds. However, most would be coming in \u201cgreen\u201d not only to their commissioner role, but certainly to their understanding of the role of the city manager.<\/p>\n

Like it or not, the current commission has the most governance experience conducting the search for the next city manager.<\/p>\n

\"Bennett<\/p>\n

Bennett Napier<\/p>\n

Bennett Napier has served as CEO for several not for profit organizations during his 30-year-plus career and served as a board member on a number of local, state, and national not for profit organizations including as board chair. He is President\/CEO of Partners in Association Management headquartered in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n

JOIN THE CONVERSATION<\/p>\n

Send letters to the editor (up to 200 words) or Your Turn columns (500-550 words) to\u00a0letters@tallahassee.com<\/a>. Please include your address for verification purposes only, and if you send a Your Turn, also include a photo and 1-2 line bio of yourself. You can also submit anonymous Zing!s at\u00a0Tallahassee.com\/Zing.<\/a>\u00a0Submissions are published on a space-available basis. All submissions may be edited for content, clarity and length, and may also be published by any part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Sitting Tallahassee commission should choose new manager | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was out of town for work and was unable to attend the May 13th city commission meeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[7452,109184,3305,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-287713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-city-commission","tag-city-commission-seat","tag-city-manager","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}