Tallahassee's Appointed Charter Officers

Four people answer directly to the Tallahassee City Commission rather than to the city manager or the mayor. The commission's page on talgov.com names the offices and their jobs in one passage: the city manager oversees most departments and the daily operation of the city; the city treasurer-clerk administers records, taxation and the city treasury; the city attorney is the city's legal advisor, prepares contracts and represents the city in legal issues; and the inspector general reviews the policies, procedures and accounting of city operations.

As of October 9, 2026, the city leadership page lists City Manager Karen Jumonville, Inspector General Dennis R. Sutton, Treasurer-Clerk James Cooke IV and City Attorney Amy M. Toman. All four keep offices at City Hall on South Adams Street, and because Tallahassee is the only incorporated municipality in Leon County, these four run the only city administration in the county. Last verified: October 9, 2026, on the City of Tallahassee website.

Older guides, and many residents, still name a City Auditor as the fourth officer. That was accurate until November 5, 2024, when Tallahassee voters approved a charter amendment putting the Inspector General in the charter in the auditor's place. The commission finished the cleanup on February 12, 2025, with an ordinance deleting references to the City Auditor from the city code.

The City Attorney's Office represents the City Commission, the city manager, city departments and city-appointed boards in any suit filed by or against them, gives legal advice at commission meetings, writes advisory opinions, and drafts or reviews contracts and ordinances, according to the office's page. It does not represent residents: the page states plainly that the office does not give legal advice to citizens of Tallahassee and refers them to private lawyers, the Florida Bar referral line or Legal Services of North Florida.

The in-house office is younger than most people assume. It opened in City Hall on October 1, 1992, as the first in-house legal department, under James R. English, who served as City Attorney from 1983 to December 31, 2012. Lewis E. Shelley and Cassandra K. Jackson followed. The current staff list shows a deputy and assistant city attorneys assigned to areas such as land use, utilities, contracts, employment and police legal advice.

Amy Toman took the post in January 2024, when commissioners voted unanimously to name her city attorney, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. She had been a deputy city attorney since September 2018 and earlier was executive director of the Florida Elections Commission, and had served as interim city attorney since November 2023. Her starting salary was $230,048.

The treasurer-clerk combines two jobs that many Florida cities split: the city's banker and its clerk. Jim Cooke, a Florida State University (FSU) accounting graduate who joined the city as Deputy Treasurer-Clerk in 2002, has held the office since the City Commission appointed him in 2012. His office directs five divisions, treasury management, records management, revenue collection, risk management and retirement, invests approximately $2.0 billion for the city's pension plan, and has guided debt issuances totaling $2.0 billion, according to the Treasurer-Clerk's page.

On the clerk side, a 2017 description of the office on talgov.com lists the preparation of City Commission minutes, responses to public records requests, the city archives and the registration of lobbyists. The debt the office administers covers the city's electric, gas, water, sewer, stormwater and airport systems, a reminder that Tallahassee owns its utilities and Tallahassee International Airport outright. The city's custodian of records page still names the City Treasurer-Clerk, through the Records Division on the second floor of City Hall, as custodian for general public records.

The treasurer-clerk is also the officer residents meet at commission meetings, because speaker forms go to that office. Cooke's pay drew attention in May 2025, when the commission raised it from $191,250 to $229,500; city agenda materials said the post had gone without a salary review because Cooke had held it since 2012, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

The auditor's office was the commission's own watchdog. In 1979 the City Commission established the Office of the City Auditor as an independent internal audit function, unencumbered by operational duties and reporting to the commission, according to the city's Inspector General page. A 2017 version of the auditor's page lists T. Bert Fletcher as City Auditor with a staff that included an audit manager named Dennis Sutton. When Fletcher retired, the commission unanimously appointed Joseph Maleszewski, then inspector general for the State University System, in May 2018; the office had seven employees, including five auditors, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

The shift to an inspector general came in two steps. On July 8, 2020, the commission adopted an ordinance creating an Office of the Inspector General, but the new office's powers were capped by the charter's language on the City Auditor. The 2023 to 2024 charter review took that up, and on November 5, 2024, 65% of Tallahassee voters approved defining the Inspector General's role in the charter. The amendment means no commission can abolish the office by ordinance, and removing the Inspector General requires a supermajority of commissioners, for cause, with a chance to rebut the cause in a public forum, WFSU reported. The commission had sent it to voters 4 to 1, with Mayor John Dailey dissenting.

The office now runs audits, investigations, inspections and reviews of city operations and takes reports of fraud, waste or abuse in Tallahassee city government. Sutton, who appears on the 2017 auditor staff list, is the Inspector General as of October 2026.

The clearest map of who handles what is the City Commission Policy Manual, which assigns each policy to an office. On the commission page, the City Attorney owns the policies on recovering attorney's fees, the Office of the Inspector General owns Policy 104, and the City Treasurer-Clerk owns a long run that includes Policy 108 on public participation at meetings, Policy 110 on citizen advisory boards, Policy 140 on public records and retention, Policy 144 on filling unanticipated commission vacancies and the debt and investment policies. The city manager's list is the most local: Policy 106 on Adams Street Commons and downtown sidewalk cafe permits, Policy 138 on alcohol on city property and Policy 154, the sound policy for the Capital City Amphitheater at Cascades Park, while the StarMetro transit policies sit with that department under the manager.

City agenda materials quoted by the Tallahassee Democrat in May 2025 set the rank order of compensation among appointed officials as City Manager, City Attorney, City Treasurer-Clerk and City Inspector General. At that time City Manager Reese Goad made $292,930.72, City Attorney Amy Toman $239,710.02 and Inspector General Dennis Sutton $177,613.20. Pay for these officers has been a recurring flashpoint between the moderate and progressive blocs on the Tallahassee City Commission, the paper noted.

Removal rules now differ by officer. The Inspector General's protection is written into the charter. The city manager's comes from contract: when the commission ratified Karen Jumonville's agreement in September 2026, it included a five-year term, a $317,000 salary and a provision requiring a supermajority vote for termination, WTXL reported. Mayor John Dailey defended the term, saying it was awkward to have four appointed officials with one terminated by a supermajority and the other three by a simple majority. Jumonville took office on October 1, 2026, according to her city biography, reporting directly to the City Commission and overseeing nearly 4,000 employees.