Tallahassee CRA approves $30,000 match for Southside mural after ethics concerns and split vote

The Tallahassee Community Redevelopment Agency voted 3–2 on Jan. 28 to award $30,000 in matching CRA funds to KCCI’s Southside Public Art Initiative, a project KCCI says will create a professionally curated, block‑long mural installation in the South Monroe/South Adams corridor.

KCCI executive and presenter Miss Couch told the board the nonprofit had already raised $30,000 and requested a CRA match to pay professional local artists. “We have raised $30,000 already,” she said, and “100% of the CRA funds we are asking will go to support local artists.” The proposal described a 2,700‑square‑foot outdoor installation that KCCI says will be accessible 24/7 and used to promote nearby existing public art.

Supporters framed the grant as a small, targeted investment. Commissioner Williams Cox moved staff’s recommendation, saying KCCI had brought private funds to the table and that the project would build on existing activation in the South Side. Commissioner Porter urged caution but acknowledged the placemaking benefits KCCI has delivered in other projects.

Opponents and public commenters pressed the board for clarity about prior CRA funding tied to the same property. Dorothy Edmond Johnson said she had filed an ethics complaint and told the board she believed a CAC member partnered with an arts group seeking funds after the same building had received approximately $1.1 million in CRA support. “I filed an ethics complaint on the same issue,” she said, adding that she would escalate to the Florida Commission on Ethics if necessary.

Resident Stanley Sims also accused officials of allowing one property to benefit repeatedly from CRA dollars and said prior mural commitments had not been delivered: “We’ve given them money for this very same thing…and they have not built one doggone mural down there,” he said.

Staff and other commissioners disputed some of the accusations or stressed procedural safeguards. Staff said the property owner recused himself during the CAC vote and that the KCCI application was a separate request. CRA staff also described a clawback and standard oversight for other grant agreements when asked during the meeting about prior project deliverables. Commissioner Matlow pressed staff and the city attorney to locate and review the original development agreement language describing 20 artistic walls versus an alternative treatment that ultimately used shipping containers.

The board considered a substitute motion from Commissioner Porter that would have added two conditions: a 20‑year guarantee of rotating public art at the site and a requirement that the property owner pay KCCI before any CRA funds were dispersed. That substitute failed 2–3. The original motion to approve the staff recommendation passed 3–2, with Commissioners Porter and Matlow dissenting.

The project’s next steps, according to KCCI, include a call for artists and community engagement in local schools; KCCI said donations of materials and in‑kind support are expected to supplement artist stipends. KCCI also informed the board it would need the CRA funds allocated up front to meet artist needs. The CRA asked the city attorney to review development‑agreement changes that some commissioners said merited further board consideration.

The CRA’s vote does not change the outstanding questions about prior uses of CRA funding or the ethics complaint filed by a public speaker. Commissioners directed legal staff to review the underlying development agreement and return to the board if a material contract change or breach is identified. The mural project, as approved, will proceed under the terms discussed with KCCI and subject to the normal grant oversight and reporting requirements.