20/08/2025
Don’t forget:
🔥We analyzed the letter sent to the county by City Manager Reese Goad. Here is how we interpreted it:
🔥 “The 2025 Fire Service Fee Study was jointly commissioned and scoped by the City and County.”
-This is a debatable statement as county Administrator Vince Long stated earlier this year that he was not a participating party in the decision for the fire re-assessment study.
🔥 “At your August 12, 2025, Special Meeting, the Leon County Board of County Commissioners took action to reject all elements of the 2025 Fire Service Fee Rate Study results.”
-While the commissioners did vote to reject the outlined expenditures, Reese Goad states just prior to this that there were “cost drivers that could not have been anticipated in the 2023 study.
-This is simply not true. They negotiate with our fire union every few years, the pay of our department has been lagging behind comparable departments for years and station 17 has been cited as a reason for increase not just in this recent study but also the two previous studies. So where is the excess money for the station from the past 5 years?
🔥 “The County Commission also directed the County Attorney to withdraw its demand for arbitration regarding increases in the Fire Service Fees & Assessments based on her change in guidance that the issue is not arbitrable. Yet for the past three weeks thousands of dollars have been expended by the City and County for the arbitration process…”
-If something is not arbitrable then why continue spending money on it. This while seemingly self explanatory appears lost on the city manager bringing into question his overall judgement in city matters.
-If a mechanic tells you a car can’t be fix, you could keep putting money into it or you could cut your losses.
🔥“The County Commission has now simply chosen to ignore the rate study, reject the results, and leave the Fire Service Fees & Assessments for properties in unincorporated Leon County unchanged, including not funding the cost for firefighters that has been much discussed by all County Commissioners.”
-This is simply untrue and a bullying tactic. We have seen first hand Reese Goad’s lack of collection from Leon County Schools as well as dozens of churches. This doesn’t include the ledgers they produce under Public Records Request to a neighbor that showed the city has not been depositing funds into the fire ledger accounts.
🔥 “As is well known, the City Commission ratified the collective bargaining agreement with the fire union after the 2023 rate study. The resulting wages are significantly higher than the projected wages in the 2023 rate study”
-City Manager Reese Goad is openly admitting to not planning to pay our firefighters in the last contract. Many of percentages agreed upon were not even sufficient to cover the increased cost of living.
🔥 “While the construction at stations 15 and 17 may possibly be delayed, the Tallahassee Fire Department has made personnel commitments consistent with previous plans and must honor these obligations…my recommendation to the City Commission will be to… increase the Fire Service Fees & Assessments for properties within the City limits… and to postpone the expansion of
Station 15 and construction of Station 17 and all related trucks and equipment.”
-This is quite simply a bully tactic. City manager Reese Goad is threatening that if the county doesn’t bend to his will that he will ensure these stations are not completed and that he pushes a narrative that the county is responsible.
-When he does this, we will remember how expansion has been cited in two other fire rate studies. The money for these stations should be there already but our city manager is withholding public safety from neighbors.
🔥We stand stronger against bullies when we stand together. Our fire department deserves to be fully funded and a fire assessment fee ensures that the money collected for the fire department is solely spent on the fire department.
🔥Unfortunately the city has not been able to produce evidence that they are doing this to us or our County government.
🔥While this is our interpretation of the letter, this may not be the intent of the City manager. Unfortunately, this letter in conjunction with uncooperative actions leaves a harmful impact.
🔥We stand with our firefighters and our county government on the fire service fees.
🫶We are better and stronger together. Keep the conversation going.
