Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the newsmakers of the day – the winners and losers – who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life, or detracted from it, in some significant way.

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole           Deltona Commissioner Tom Burbank

You can tell a lot about someone’s character by how they treat those less fortunate. 

The instinct to help or hurt others when they are at a disadvantage tells me all I need to know about a person’s values. Once again, Deltona City Commissioner Tom Burbank has proven himself a classless asshole with the uber-weird impulses of a broke-back snake and a narcissistic compulsion for cruelty. 

Last week, Deltona Mayor Santiago Avila, Jr. appeared on regional media outlets to bring attention to the critical lack of affordable housing options in Central Florida.  As an example, Avila announced his family is struggling to meet monthly living expenses with rent now at $1,640 a month for a three-bedroom house in Deltona.

“When you’re trying your best and everything is working against you, it’s very disheartening,” Avila said. 

According to the United Way, Mayor Avila isn’t alone. 

Last year, a report found that 45,000 households in Volusia and Flagler Counties are considered rent burdened. 

During an interview, Mayor Avila acknowledged he is pursuing additional jobs to help make ends meet for his young family, “I’m already looking to get another job,” he said. “So, I’m going to be working multiple jobs, plus whatever I do here as well.”

I think most people have been similarly situated at some point in their lives.  I have… 

Mayor Avila’s willingness to use his personal struggles to highlight a growing problem takes courage, and his openness humanizes the issue of affordable housing in Volusia County, where a resident needs to earn $25.04 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment at a fair-market rent of $1,302 a month.

The average wage for renters in Volusia is estimated at $17.48 an hour.    

At present, the average rental rate in Deltona is $1,900 a month…

In a message of encouragement to the community, Mayor Avila recently wrote on social media, “We may be facing difficulties, but together, we’ll find a way. Let’s keep our community strong, vibrant, and accessible to all. Stay tuned for updates on the progress we make, and let’s work together to ensure a brighter future for Deltona.”

So, how did Mayor Avila’s “colleague” Commissioner Tom Burbank contribute to this important conversation?

On Wednesday, October 25, at 6:00am, Commissioner Burbank wrote to Mayor Avila using their official City of Deltona email accounts:

“Junior,

Reaching out to you on this platform in the hopes that one of your acolytes is still getting copies of all my emails.  I would love this to go public.

To the point:

I’ve de-nutted hogs that whined less than you.  You be acting like you’re somehow surprised that you can’t make 20K in rent on a job that pays 15K.  Successful business owner?

Recall these words?  “I am also proficient in sales, marketing, various types of account knowledge and set-up, cash management, accounting, and investment services.  I am skilled in attaining sales and profit objectives in competitive environment.”  

Proficient?  You’ve a history of bad checks, evictions, and loan defaults.  Without assistance and given your single digit credit rating you’re going to have a hard time finding a place to live in Deltona.  You spread lies about colleagues.  I hear Pierson is nice.

Had you not proven to be such an intense pain in my ass I would be tempted to feel sorry for you.  However………

You reap what you sow, right?  “Ponder the path of your feet…remove your foot from evil.”  Proverbs 4:26-27

Tom Burbank

Veteran, senior citizen on a fixed income, disabled and yet somehow able to pay my bills on time on time (sic).”

You may remember that the City of Deltona recently settled a lawsuit with resident Nick Lulli, a private citizen who, quite by surprise, was ambushed and horribly slandered by Commissioner Burbank on social media when Lulli announced he was considering a run for the City Commission in 2024.

According to a release issued by Mr. Lulli in September:

“In February, Burbank, the District 1 Commissioner, wrote untrue statements on Lulli’s Facebook page in an attempt to influence the 2024 election. The statements included homophobic tropes that caused community outrage and led the Commission to censure Burbank for his actions. Lulli, who is now officially a candidate for the District 6 Commissioner seat, did not know Burbank prior to the social media assault.

Lulli subsequently sued the City and Burbank in Volusia County Small Claims Court, alleging the statements were libelous and also claiming the City and Burbank had violated the Sunshine Laws by secretly coordinating potential legislation outside of a public meeting. The $8000 lawsuit was considered symbolic in nature and only intended to compensate Lulli’s legal fees and time. Lulli represented himself and wrote the historic lawsuit which was settled for its original value.”

Now that the good citizens of Deltona have paid dearly for Commissioner Burbank’s vile impulses – rather than learn a valuable lesson – Burbank now shifts his attention-seeking harrying to a fellow elected official who attempted to bring attention to a pressing civic issue faced by communities throughout the state. 

What gives? 

Smarter people than me are seriously concerned about the direction of the Lost City of Deltona, with many stakeholders quietly worried about how Burbank’s unchecked lunacy will affect efforts to recruit the city’s umpteenth City Manager…   

In my view, it is now obvious that Mr. Burbank’s cheese has slipped off his cracker – and unchecked power in the hands of someone incapable of controlling their base impulses can be dangerous – and expensive.   

If the Deltona City Commission is unable or unwilling to address this continuing embarrassment – then it is incumbent upon voters to take all legal steps to recall Mr. Burbank and remove him from office. 

In Florida, the governor has the right and responsibility to suspend elected and appointed officials for wrongdoing, neglect of duty, malfeasance, or incompetence.  Since 2019, Gov. Ron DeSantis has exercised that power some twenty-three times to remove mayors, school board members, a sheriff, and two state prosecutors.   

Look, I realize in Volusia County we have set an extremely low bar for the conduct and effectiveness of elected officials.  But even by our whale shit metric, Commissioner Burbank has repeatedly proven that he lacks the basic competence and restraint to responsibly conduct the powers and duties of an elected representative of the City of Deltona.

In my view, allowing Burbank to crash about like a tempestuous monkey with a knife – intentionally destroying the reputations of others from his lofty perch, pushing the envelope of Florida’s Sunshine Law, and further eroding the public’s trust in their government – is irresponsible and counter to the concept of good governance in Volusia’s largest municipality. 

Asshole           City of Ormond Beach  

It appears the residents of Ormond Beach are now the first soldiers to be drafted in the coming War for Water this week when City Attorney Randy Hayes filed a lawsuit against developers of the tony Hunter’s Ridge subdivision and our neighbors to the north in Flagler County.

Why?

Well, to hear the City of Ormond Beach tell it, the current developer – U.S. Capital Alliance – is now in noncompliance of a 30-year-old agreement when they failed to deed some 300 acres of conservation lands to the city; and, in 2017, issued Flagler County a 60’ wide public road easement through the conservation area on a rutted dirt trail known as “40-Grade” and failed to adhere to a hydroperiod restoration plan as required by the original development order.

According to city officials, the real fear is that Flagler County will build a road connecting points north to the already congested State Road 40 – something of grave concern to existing residents with the specter of the 10,000 home Avalon Park looming on the horizon… 

Although the Ormond Beach side of Hunter’s Ridge is built out, the real teeth in the noncompliance ruling is that Ormond Beach will not provide utilities for new homes built on the Flagler County side of Hunter’s Ridge. 

According to a report in the Ormond Beach Observer by Jarleene Almenas and Sierra Williams:

“The city filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief on Friday, Oct. 27, writing that the city “has suffered damages as a result of the developer’s non-compliance and continues to suffer damages as a result of the developer’s non-compliance.”

The developer and his attorney were unaware that a lawsuit had been filed until the Observer reached out for comment.

“I think it speaks to the fact that Ormond Beach has never been open to discussion on this matter,” said Jake Beren, chief operating officer of Hunters Ridge Acquisition and Development LLC. “There has always been accusations. There has never been a nuanced conversation.”

In my view, it is becoming clear that what is really driving the city’s belligerence is the gravest issue of our time – access to drinking water in this age of greed-fueled overdevelopment. 

According to the Observer, Jake Beren, chief operating officer of Hunters Ridge Acquisition and Development LLC, explained: 

“He believes the issue goes back to the city wanting to build wells on the conservation parcel, pointing to the fact that the $20 million project was included in the city’s recently approved Capital Improvement Plan, slated to be budgeted in the 2027-2028 fiscal year.

Flagler County attorney Sean Moylan told the Observer that Hayes’ claim in the Oct. 25 meeting that discussions of wells on Flagler County land were only “informal discussions” between staff was not true.

Ormond Beach staff requested and received a special use easement onto Flagler County lands to build wells from the Flagler County Commission in June of 2021, Moylan said, pending the city’s receipt of approval from the St. Johns River Water Management District and the Audubon Society.

“It was much more than just conversations,” he said. “And the irony, again, is that they wanted to use 40 Grade.”

Adding credence to the developer’s allegation is the City of Ormond Beach sat on its thumb for over thirty-years before blindsiding Hunter’s Ridge and Flagler County with a one-two combination of a noncompliance ruling and lawsuit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.

So, why the urgency? 

According to the report, both the developer, and Flagler County, were under the impression the noncompliance ruling allowed them 60-days to find solutions – only to be served with a lawsuit – and learn from the City Attorney that the “60-day timeframe was removed “to accommodate corrective action that might require more time to complete.”

Something’s fishy…  

Look, I don’t have a grain of sympathy in this beat-up old heart for real estate developers – but, as an Ormond Beach taxpayer, I also don’t appreciate having some very expensive wool pulled over my eyes by antsy city officials who got caught with their pants down rubber stamping development without an adequate water supply. 

In my view, we’re seeing the disastrous result of what occurs when insatiable developers and the politicians they feed with campaign contributions – exceed what the environment can support and sustain over time. 

It appears Ormond Beach officials are finally coming to the realization why We, The Little People are rightly concerned about increased density, traffic congestion, and the environmental impacts of unchecked sprawl – those things we see with our own eyes – and why these concerns will have a drastic impact on next year’s elections.   

Angel               Friends of Volusia’s Dog-Friendly Beach

In an unusual departure from the “No Fun Zone” (a/k/a area beaches), this summer, the Volusia County Council voted 6-1 to approve an 18-month pilot to evaluate allowing dogs on the beach along a section between Milsap Road and Rockefeller Drive in Ormond Beach. 

The program officially began on Wednesday. 

This unique project represents the first time in some three-decades that We, The Little People were thrown a bone (pun intended…) by those we elect and appoint to represent our interests.

It hasn’t been an easy fight. 

When he took office in January, District 4 Councilman Troy Kent resurrected the idea of establishing limited dog friendly sections of the beach in each coastal community – a suggestion that brought out Volusia County’s Guardians of the Status Quo who raised a series of asinine hurdles, including not-so-veiled threats that allowing dogs on the beach in Ormond-by-the-Sea could violate terms of the county’s incidental take permit with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, contraventions that could jeopardize our long tradition of beach driving…

Adding to the purely political barriers, senior staff members reported astronomically inflated expenses for allowing dogs to visit the beach under tight controls – including expanding the bureaucracy with a full-time animal control officer to patrol the .06-mile section of the shoreline – coupled with a vocal minority who claimed the measure signaled Armageddon for Volusia County beachgoers. 

In other words, the same “packs of vicious curs fouling the sand” scary stories that were used to quash the suggestion in 2014 and again in 2021.  To ensure the current initiative didn’t receive unanimous support, Councilman Don Dempsey (who seems to loathe everything east of the Palmetto Curtain) cast the lone “No” vote…   

Whatever.

Ultimately, a suitable section of the strand was identified in Ormond Beach.

Following the vote to approve the project in July, Councilman Kent said, “We are going to make history in Volusia County… I am absolutely blown away. This is my favorite type of partnership, which is a public/private partnership, where you, the public, have said you will help and assist to make this wildly successful.”

I wholeheartedly agree. 

Because positive change never comes easy in Volusia County…

Thanks to the efforts of Nannette McKeel Petrella and her group Daytona Dog Beach, Inc., the passionate residents who approached their elected officials and spoke in favor in the measure, and the incredible generosity of local philanthropists Nancy and Lowell Lohman – who pledged a $100,000 donation to help fund the pilot program – tomorrow morning, Volusia County officials and pet owners will gather for a ribbon cutting ceremony just north of the Milsap Road ramp in Ormond Beach, beginning at 9:00am.

Kudos to everyone who worked hard to see this dog-friendly beach pilot a reality! 

Angel               Historian Jordan Tyler Hobson 

We live in a place rich in history. 

Good and bad…  

Ours is a fascinating story of pioneer families who carved out a life amongst the coastal scrub – overcoming the privations, bugs, storms, heat, and adversities to create a mosaic of enduring communities here on Florida’s “Fun Coast.”

A place that continues to exorcise the demons of our notorious past – somewhere the Orlando Sentinel once described as a “…quagmire of violent crime and political corruption…”

Unfortunately, we also live in a time when many of our historic structures and old growth forests have fallen to a speculative developer’s notion of “progress” – or succumbed to the pernicious practice of “strategic neglect” – a malicious custom where local governments withhold preventative maintenance at certain publicly-owned facilities and allow them to rot in place until they reach such a deplorable state that demolition and expensive replacement becomes the only viable option.

But one local man is renewing interest in our area’s historic past. 

I had the opportunity to meet Jordan Hobson last year when I briefly came out of retirement to give him a tour of the Holly Hill Police Department – one of my favorite places in the world – located on the first floor of the beautiful coquina building that has been home to the community’s historic City Hall since its completion in 1942. 

As vice president of the Holly Hill Historic Preservation Society, Mr. Hobson has worked tirelessly with other area researchers – such as Don Williamson, a local treasure who possesses a trove of valuable knowledge about the early days of Volusia County – to document the history of the Halifax area one building, one home, and one majestic tree at a time. 

Several years ago, during a hike near Bulow Creek State Park, Mr. Hobson discovered one of Florida’s largest live oak trees still in existence.     

Most recently, Mr. Hobson published the fascinating book “Historic Homes of East Volusia,” documenting the architecture and historical significance of 95 area homes, along with stories of the interesting souls who inhabited them through the years. 

According to an excellent review by Charles Guarria writing in Hometown News Volusia, “Within its pages, you will read about George F. Johnson, a Volusia County resident who popularized the 40-hour work week. And Simon J. Peabody, the gentleman who donated land that cleared the way for the original Peabody Auditorium.

Another interesting story is that of Fred Merkle. He retired to Daytona Beach after a good major league baseball career. Mr. Merkle became infamous for a base running mistake that cost the 1908 New York Giants a pennant. The mistake is known as Merkle’s Boner, and the game he made the mistake in has been referred to as one of the most controversial in baseball history.”

A portion of book sales will be donated to the Holly Hill Historic Preservation Society. 

For more information, follow Mr. Hobson’s Facebook page Holly Hill FL/East Volusia History HQ or stop by the society at 1066 Ridgewood Avenue. 

Quote of the Week

“Volusia County has a robust public safety system serving its citizens every day, with trained professionals in law enforcement, fire, EMS, emergency management and many other disciplines working together to deal with the challenges posed by rapid growth,” Chitwood wrote. “However, the large ‘fuel farm’ project Belvedere Terminals is proposing in our community has created a new threat to the sense of safety of all who live, work, and do business in Ormond Beach and surrounding areas.”

–Volusia County Sheriff Michael Chitwood, voicing his opposition to the proposed 13-million-gallon fuel farm in an open letter to Belvedere Terminals, Monday, October 30, 2023

This week, I took an early drive to St. Augustine. 

It was one of those cool fall mornings in Florida when the temperature and dew point reach the same value and a blanket of fog forms limiting visibility to well less than a mile.

On Tuesday morning, the only thing missing was Sherlock Holmes, wreathed in the murky mist, trying to enter traffic from Love’s trust stop at Destination Daytona…  

As I drove north on US-1, I saw a series of large dump trucks emerge from the thick vapor hauling loads of fill dirt to change the topography on any one of a thousand active construction sites between Ormond Beach and Flagler County, belching think plumes of diesel smoke as they roared along through the misty morning. 

I thought about what that scene would look like as massive trains unload bulk fuel at the proposed Belvedere facility on Hull Road as a 24/7 convoy of tanker trucks resupply and enter traffic at the unsignalized intersection of US-1.

Yeah.  I know…   

In an interesting development on Wednesday, the City of Ormond Beach issued a cryptic release on social media:

“In response to the action taken by the County Council at their last meeting, City and County staff met today to analyze and explore cooperative solutions to the 874 Hull Road Property. Jointly, staffs are reviewing all legal options to permanently acquire the property, which could include eminent domain.”

Time will tell what that means… 

Regardless, it was refreshing to hear Sheriff Chitwood shoot straight and call the proposed Belvedere Terminal what it is – a public safety threat – one that will adversely affect the lives of thousands of Ormond Beach residents who will be forced to deal with the deleterious consequences of living in proximity to a potential disaster – worried taxpayers who are fighting valiantly for the safety of their children, property values, and quality of life…

Here’s hoping Belvedere officials will take heed of Sheriff Chitwood’s wise warning and work cooperatively with Volusia County officials to find a more appropriate location for their terminal.

And Another Thing!  

“After listening to dozens of citizens for and against the project, the Daytona Beach Planning Board on Thursday night unanimously recommended approval of developers’ revised plans for a 25-story condominium- hotel at A-1-A and Silver Beach Avenue.

“It has met the requirements, no matter how much opposed I am emotionally,” said Planning Board member Milverton Robinson. “I have no choice, but to say yes.”

The Silver Beach Hotel project’s fate now rests with the City Commission, which will conduct a first reading on Dec. 6. A second reading and public hearing, where the final decision is expected, is set for Dec. 20.”

–Business Editor Clayton Park, writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Planning Board OKs revised hotel plans,” Sunday, October 29, 2023

I don’t know about you, but I believe the time has come to disband the various governmental “planning boards,” “development review committees,” and the other political insulation klatches that help create the façade our elected officials have any control over land development and growth management. 

Because they don’t.

That’s what happens with politicians sell their political souls to well-heeled special interests with a profit motive…

We can also do away with these time-wasting “developer-initiated neighborhood meetings” – where frightened residents give powerful testimony about how (insert the next sprawling subdivision or sky-high condo-hotel project here) will adversely impact their property and the livability of their community – while the out-of-town developer du jour and their land use attorneys shoot the cuffs on their expensive suits, look at their Patek Philippe, and impatiently wait for the hayseeds to quiet, safe in the knowledge the fix is in.

They know approval is a foregone conclusion, and it is only a matter of time before rubes like the Daytona Beach Planning Board mewl, “We have no choice” and rubber stamp their project…    

Bullshit.

Florida generally, and Volusia County specifically, has become the exclusive playground for insatiable speculative land rapists – and their bought and paid for marionettes in Tallahassee have paved the way for them to pave over every square inch of greenspace – while our environment, natural resources, and quality of life are sacrificed on the altar of greed…

At a time when South Peninsula beachfront homeowners are working desperately to prevent their homes from crumbling into the sea – fighting a losing battle with incessant coastal erosion – as taxpayers take the hit for shoring up miles of shoreline while time and tide work to reclaim that which belongs to nature as insurance carriers flee the state – last week, a smarmy Miami developer won initial approval to build an ugly 25-story high-rise on a parcel just south of Silver Beach Avenue east of A-1-A. 

Madness.

According to the News-Journal report, “Beachside resident Paul Zimmerman is vice president of a beach driving citizens advocacy group called Sons of the Beach who has been vocal in his opposition to new high-rise projects east of A1A. “It was disappointing, but we don’t feel defeated,” he said of the Planning Board’s vote. “We’re going to continue to fight and hold fast to our position.”

Good luck, friends…

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend at the 100^th Volusia County Fair & Youth Show, y’all!