City manager speaks on next steps in choosing new TPD police chief

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — We're getting some answers from the City of Tallahassee about how the next police chief will be chosen.

Here's the biggest difference, instead of a panel making the decision, it seems the city manager's office will ultimately decide who will be the next chief.

"I'm confident that we have very good candidates and we have a good process to move forward," said City manager Reese Goad.

Goad says he wants to put the past behind.

"I believe it's important to move forward, support our police department that we make sure our chief is here, ready to fight and ready to tackle issues that we have so that's what we're prepared to do," said Goad.

That includes all dealings with Antonio Gilliam.

"We were two weeks into that process and Antonio elected not to continue," said Goad. "We were willing and that was his choice and we need to be prepared to take on that challenge and we're moving forward to make sure we find the best chief for our police."

Gilliam was supposed to get paid more than two million dollars over the course of the next seven years.

Gilliam says his big issues were over those contract negotiations involving language that allowed termination “without cause” and ensuring there was autonomy over command staff decisions.

Current Interim Chief Steve Outlaw is now back in the running. He's one of the eight candidates the city manager is considering.

Outlaw says he doesn't mind reporting to Goad.

"From my interim experience, we really had quite a bit of autonomy at the department level," said Outlaw. "I've enjoyed that personally for the five-and-half six months, so I anticipate that same autonomy and decision making ability moving forward."

But a lot is still unanswered, like who will put on the badge next and how long it will take to figure it out.

Goad says he isn't sure yet if the community will be a part of any more meet-and-greets in the future or if the candidate list will be narrowed down further.

To view an online copy of Gilliam's contract, click here.