As the conflict between the City of Tallahassee and Leon County over fire services reaches a new level, term ends and an upcoming election are shifting the focus to what comes next.
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What’s next for Leon County, Tallahassee fire services as county weighs dual-track plan after election
The county is now moving forward with a dual-track path: renegotiating a new interlocal agreement with the city, creating a plan for county-run fire services and determining whether the county incurred any damages after the election.
County leaders will choose whether to ratify that dual-track plan on November 17.
The latest flashpoint came Wednesday, after city commissioners rejected the Benesch report, an independent review of the city’s management of the fire service fund from the county.
Im not spending any more time on this junk that’s coming out of the county, and I am disappointed in the behavior of certain county commissioners including the chairman for gaslighting this community on false narratives, Dailey said Wednesday. We expect better as a City of Tallahassee. This is a big issue, but this is not a way to come to an agreement to move forward.
During the meeting, City Resource Management Director Robert Wigen said the report used flawed math, missed key accounting context on the Leon County School Board’s unpaid fees and ignored that utility collections sit at 98%.
“We’re not in a deficit position. Any lost revenues or new revenues would just go back into reserves in the fund, and the financial status is sound, Wigen said.
But Leon County Commission Chair Christian Caban maintains that the report which used data from public records requests from the city, data provided from the county and joint GIS staff still stands.
He provided a document with a list of public records requests the city fulfilled and didn’t.
“Well, you know what they say, if you have the facts on your side, you hammer the facts. If you have the law on your side, you hammer the law. If you have neither, you hammer the table, and what Mayor John Dailey did is he hammered the table because they don’t know the facts, and they don’t know the law. The City of Tallahassee has been clearly mismanaging the fire fund, and the data points to that, Caban said.
Tallahassee Fire Chief Gene Sanders says right now, nothing changes with service.
He points out that the department’s five-year strategic plan which utilizes new technology, enhances its training division and eventually adds stations 17, 18 and 19 is based on the direction city commissioners took in 2025, choosing not to renew the interlocal agreement after it expires in 2028.
“Based on the direction of the city commission right now, that is the direction we’re moving. Now, of course, if direction changes, then our plan is developed in a way that we can adapt accordingly,” Sanders said.
But county leaders like Commissioner Brian Welch pointed to a comment from Dailey during that meeting in September 2025 in a Facebook post, defining it as a termination instead.
To provide official notice that in three years when the interlocal agreement between the city and the county in regards to fire services comes up that we are looking forward to terminating the relationship, and we go our separate ways, Dailey said during last years meeting on Sept. 17.
That distinction could change what comes from the dispute down the road.
I reached out to the city for a response to the county’s documentation of records requests and correspondence with the city but haven’t heard anything back yet.
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