The City of Tallahassee is a Proud member of Florida League of Cities (FLC). Mayor Dailey, Diane Williams-Cox, and Reese Goad received a “Home Rule” Award from this organization. After the award was presented, FloridaCapitalTea wanted to know more about this organization we are associated with.
According to their website https://www.flcities.com/about-pages/about they have been a united voice for municipalities for 100 years. It appears that this is a type of union for municipalities. They lobby to help shape legislation for the benefit of cities. We appreciate their emphasis on local government maintaining their power to make decisions for the benefit of the people.
However, FloridaCapitalTea also recalls that the FLC lobbied against First Responder benefits (https://floridapolitics.com/archives/257420-jimmy-patronis-league-disgraceful/) as well as against the Firefighter cancer benefits bill (https://floridapolitics.com/archives/295175-florida-league-vet-cancer-firefighters/). Their opposition to First Responders and Firefighters raises the question: who in the city are they lobbying for?
Who Is A Member of Florida League of Cities?
According to the FLC website, City officials formed the group and now represent 400 cities. They state that they are there to help city officials advocate for what is bests for local cities. FloridaCapitalTea agrees that local government should maintain control.
We become concerned when local government weaponizes their independence to deny First Responders and Firefighters benefits. We recall The City of Tallahassee denying Joey Davis his cancer benefits, forcing clarifying amendments to be written. What other bills does the FLC lobby against that would benefit our hard working neighbors?
We had a difficult time confirming whether or not Leon County Government is a member of FLC. According to their budget they do pay them for trainings but we did not find a membership transaction. However, according to The City of Tallahassee website, (https://tallahasseefl.opengov.com/data/#/8110/query=5B1839087798B3DEE358396B30A01BB8&embed=n) the city pays a membership transaction as well as trainings. Seat 5 (Dianne Williams-Cox) “Office of the Mayor,” and seat 2 (Curtis Richardson) have several transactions in association with FLC. The City Manager’s office pays the membership/certification dues to FLC.
*If* Leon County is not a member of FLC and the City of Tallahassee is, and since FLC functions like a union… Does this mean that when Mayor Dailey, Dianne Williams-Cox, and Curtis Richardson left a blueprint meeting, they essentially performed an organized strike?
Many neighbors questioned why our firefighters did not perform a strike during their prolonged negotiations. If you recall, it’s because we are a “no strike state” meaning there can be severe ramifications for a union to go on strike here.
Doing Business
When the “Home Rule” award was presented, it was brought to our attention that Mayor John Dailey reported on his financial disclosure form that his consulting firm JDA strategies, LLC profits $96,000 and the major source of income is from Florida League of Cities (https://clerkpav.talgov.com/CCDisclosures/ ).
This leads us to more questions, what was the intention of this award? The impact elicits more distrust in our elected officials. As they parade the award in front of us, we feel even more distant from them. We question what lengths our elected leaders will go to in order to inflate and protect their image.
National League of Cities Visits
On May 15th 2024 FloridaCapitalTea submitted a request for the year 2023 for the total amount of money paid to the Florida League of Cities, Northwest League of Cities, National League of Cities, and any other associated organizations. We submitted a follow up on our request on May 24th 2024 , and on May 28th we were notified to check OpenGov checkbook. We already researched their website prior to making the request.
The problem we ran into on their website is Florida League of Cities is documented in their checkbook under several different names. The abbreviation “FLC” is used for Florida League of Cities, but also represents “Florida Linemen Competition.” On May 28th we explained this issue and since we are publishing the results we would like to accurately represent the city’s expenditures. The city responded on May 29th and informed us that the problem would be looked into.
FloridaCapitalTea was going to wait to publish this piece until we received all our information. However, we wanted all of Tallahassee involved in celebrating the National League of Cities visiting on May 31st.
We will update this piece with more information as we receive it.
Sure, it sounds like a conflict of interest. Not in the best interest of the firefighters.
John Dailey works for league of cities ever since his dad made Michael Sittig promise to always employ john through the league of cities. hence the overlap with the state money running john dailey FSU institute and Jeff Hendry. Vancore jones works for league of cities too aka triple conflicted political consulting firm in the middle of all this. At one point Dailey’s own home was owned by his church.
Thank you for this information! Very fascinating history ☕️????