Interview With Mayoral Candidate Mike Foust

(TALLAHASSEE, FL.) -- With the deadlines for running for mayor quickly approaching, it is important to learn about your candidates.

The deadline to join the race by paying the $3,996 qualifying fee is June 12.

There are currently four candidates in the running, including Daryl Parks, Loranne Ausley, Jeremy Matlow, and Michael Foust. Opgov.news will interview candidates and consistently update during the election cycle.

OpGov.News was happy to interview Michael Foust, a candidate who embraces the uniqueness of his campaign. 

Photo Credit: from https://floridacapitaltea.com/mike-foust-mayor-seat-4/

Unlike the other three candidates, Foust has limited political experience. Foust graduated from Florida State University (FSU) and worked in Information Technologies (I.T.). He has experience in the Department of Environmental Protection, as well as entrepreneurship. 

Foust credits some of his political inspiration to his time with the Department of Environmental Protection, one of the jobs he enjoyed the most.

“It's fun to have an enemy, but to me it's exhausting. And I just want to focus on the things that work.”

Foust spoke in reference to his time with the Department of Environmental Protection, where political affiliations were non-factors. 

Photo Credit: Ballotpedia

While it is no secret that there is a large discrepancy between the campaign funds raised, Michael does not believe it should preclude him from the race. He noted the difficulties of campaigning as a single father and is looking to do more.

He also mentioned his friends discovered his campaign.

"I didn't tell anyone, you know, people just found out from public record."

While not a conventional campaign strategy, Foust believes it is representative of how hostile and divisive politics can be, an atmosphere he hopes to change.

Outside of campaigning, Foust mentioned changes he wanted to see in the political atmosphere.

“Tallahassee, you know, has a 3-2 argument; it's because we have politics in the race. We all pretend, you know, it's a secret that it's not non-partisan, and I wanted to truly step apart and just focus on city issues and municipal problems.”

As a mayoral candidate, Michael Foust wants to bring a new culture to the city commissioners. With less stagnant voting blocks, Foust believes the city will get more done.

Foust is one of several candidates to express some level of discontent with the apparent lack of teamwork within the current commission. Explicitly, Foust believes the commissioners to be a “quiet” force, with their debates not overshadowing their work.

“An effective government should be almost out of sight, quietly taking care of the infrastructure.”

Another topic of concern for Foust was the new limits placed on unagended speakers. Tallahassee’s city commission began meeting once a month instead of twice in 2026. Foust noted the change came after the successful vote (civil) to double commissioner salaries to nearly $100,000 annually.

In January, the commissioners voted 3-2 to limit unagendaed speakers to 30 minutes, meaning fewer than ten residents will be able to speak.

“And when they cut the council meetings in half and doubled the salaries, that was when I really said, 'OK, I'm gonna do this.”

Throughout the interview, Foust stressed the importance of the mayor outside of commissioner meetings. While understanding the importance of the mayor as the leader of the city commission, Foust had ambitious goals for how he wanted to use the mayor’s office. 

"The time zone change, I'm sick of that. I would get rid of that, and I know that's not within the purview of the city of Tallahassee, but from the mayor's office, you can advocate for these things, make noise, get in the press."

The statement does a great job of detailing how important the speaking role of the mayor is.

While Foust will be forced to deal with time zones for the foreseeable future, he is adamant about how much change the mayor is able to inspire.

“I also think that the office of the mayor of Tallahassee is underutilized. You know, we're the capital of Florida.”

The city of Tallahassee operates in a manager-commissioner format, meaning the elected mayor does not hold any executive power outside the city commission. Foust understands and wants to use his influence to bring the city together.

Mayor John Dailey has made over a dozen podcast appearances and even more news appearances over his eight-year career as commissioner.

However, Foust wants to appear to the media differently. Where Mayor Dailey was frequently present in the media, it was in a limited capacity in comparison to what Foust desires. When Mayor Dailey spoke to the media, it was often in regard to major events, such as the FSU-TMH merger, TLH, and COVID-19-related issues. In contrast, Foust wants to dedicate media time to being an advocate for issues he finds important.

One of his most important issues pressing Tallahassee is how the city handles homelessness. 

Foust went out of his way to elaborate that Tallahassee has a multifaceted homeless problem. Not only does Foust sympathize with the unsheltered homeless in the community, but also with the hidden homeless population.

“It's not the people you see on the street that make up the homeless population. That's about 5%. The other 95% are families, broken-up families, children floating on couches, people working two or three jobs who can't afford a single unit.”

Foust had several ideas to approach the problem, namely, encouraging more homes and family units to be built to make ownership more accessible. Michael believes an undersaturated market is contributing to a lack of affordability and access to homes. 

Foust also had mentioned ideas directed at making the city more efficient. Instead of city-run food programs, Foust would suggest directing funds to Second Harvest, an organization he believes will be able to provide for needy residents more efficiently.

Foust expressed discontent with how accessing important services requires traveling to several different sites. The mayoral candidate proposed an ‘all-in-one portal’ for citizens to easily access services they may not have been aware of.

Outside of homelessness, an issue personal to Foust was mental health. Foust advocated for improved crisis intervention as well as better care for social workers. 

During the interview, Foust elaborated on how some civil issues have very few avenues to appropriately escalate issues. 

“What could've been an intervention became something much worse. We have got to have something in that gap.”

His way is to get necessary help that will not look to punish either party. If an unsafe behavior is reported to the police or a mandatory reporting service, the active party will face consequences. More accessible avenues free from consequences would not only increase the number of people reaching for help, but also keep loved ones from reporting one another.

Foust also believes the system needs to be more personal. By providing more vacation and care for mental health workers, a better product can be given to those in need. Ultimately, Foust is advocating for a system and culture that can better prevent crises from happening and escalating.

Thank you for reading and be sure to stay updated with our candidates for the upcoming elections. Be sure to comment and email me at jason.f@lead4earth.org to help everyone stay informed about the upcoming elections.