Hi, kids!

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

It’s been an eventful week…

The Volusia County School Board – who recently announced they are $25.8 million in the hole due to declining enrollment – mysteriously brushed aside the adamant objections (and legal threats) of the City of DeBary and voted 4-1 to spend $8.4 million to purchase property for a new school in that community, because, “It’s about the kids,” and all…

School Board member Donna Brosemer rightfully voted against the measure in keeping with the city’s wish to determine its own future – and to avoid a protracted lawsuit as DeBary fights to protect its comprehensive plan.

Meanwhile, Jeep enthusiasts were allowed to park and drive along a long-closed section of beach behind the Hard Rock this week as part of Jeep Beach 2025 festivities – yet the rest of us rubes are being told it will literally take an act of Congress to return the tradition between Auditorium Boulevard and International Speedway Boulevard?

Why is that? 

Let’s revisit some of the other issues that continue to simmer here on Florida’s fabled “Fun Coast” and beyond:

Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris – “Sentence First, Verdict Afterward!”

“As the camel falls to its knees, more knives are drawn…”

–Old Bedouin Proverb

I don’t know Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris, but I know a precious few like him.

Those who didn’t conform, or refused to kowtow to influential insiders, and quickly found themselves on the outside.  The outcasts who couldn’t be pounded into the round hole of lockstep compliance and were cut adrift, marginalized, and ultimately burned at the stake for their independence.

Watching the life altering personal and political destruction of those who enter politics to serve their constituents rather than toe the line is almost a pastime around these parts…  

So, here on the fetid ash heap of history lies the smoldering political remains of Mayor Mike Norris.

A maverick with poor “people skills” and sharp elbows who dared challenge the ossified status quo, struggled to release his community from the mercenary grip of developers, and tried desperately to hold entrenched bureaucrats inside City Hall accountable.

For the sin of refusing to go along and get along, those malleable marionettes on the dais of power crushed Norris and all he stood for.

Let that be a hard lesson to any elected official here on Florida’s “Fun Coast” who dares to mention a “development moratorium,” or derail the out-of-control freight train of greed-crazed overdevelopment that is destroying our environment, infrastructure capacity, and our collective quality of life.

Last month, within days of Mayor Norris’ proposal to pause approvals for new residential development in the face of astronomically expensive utility upgrades to meet current needs, the appointed City Council member Charles Gambaro (a developers shill who hasn’t been elected to anything) along with others working in clear concert began the process of publicly castrating Mr. Norris.

Based on a complaint by Gambaro that accused Norris of unilaterally asking for the resignation of Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston and Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo – bolstered by allegations from delicate flowers inside City Hall who began blubbering about Norris’ coarse language – the Council commissioned an independent “investigation” by an outside law firm.

On Monday, the Palm Coast City Council received the damning “investigative report” – and before any semblance of due process – the following day, with Mayor Norris absent, Gambaro sensed blood in the water and initially moved to ask Governor Ron DeSantis to reverse the will of Palm Coast voters and remove Norris from office. 

In turn, another unelected appointee, Councilman David Sullivan, tapped the brakes and instead suggested the council forward a complaint to the Florida Commission on Ethics.  

According to a report in FlaglerLive!, during the meeting Mr. Norris’ colleagues “…each spoke in turn with that strange mixture of eloquence and disgust, and with the occasional lapse, almost inevitable in those circumstances, into defensive self-righteousness. They rejected public suggestions – by Norris or by his supporters – that he alone has advocated for residents, or that he alone had raised alarms about development or developers.

They repeatedly described Norris as acting in his own self-interest and against the interests of the city, though as that last segment of their meeting lengthened, it risked turning into a public flogging in absentia.”

Interesting…

Ultimately, the council took a vote of no-confidence, issued a public censure, and agreed to refer Norris to the Commission on Ethics.

For clarification, the Commission on Ethics is charged with investigating and administrating complaints of unlawful compensation, the solicitation or acceptance of “gifts,” financial reporting requirements, and the misuse of public office that would secure a special privilege, benefit, or exemption for the elected/appointed official or others.

To my knowledge, Norris hasn’t been accused of any of those things.

So, I’m not sure why Gambaro and his bloodthirsty cronies want the Ethics Commission to pause efforts to ferret out corruption in Florida government (a full-time job which should have them working in shifts) so they can sort through Palm Coast HR complaints? 

Since when did the “Mean man talk ugly to me” indiscretion become a matter for the Florida Commission on Ethics?

Whatever.

To lend an air of legitimacy to this ridiculous Kangaroo Kourt, Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri (clearly thinking strategically) cautioned that the call to remove Norris should probably wait until the attorney who conducted the “investigation” (which appears to consist of little more than a series of written memos from hypersensitive senior bureaucrats) can formally present his findings in a public forum.  

“My hesitancy with doing it now, prior to the investigator coming forth and presenting the findings is he’s also supposed to present recommendations of how we move forward,” Pontieri said.

But, like any good mob beatdown, it appears they couldn’t wait to put the boots to Norris and appease their fawning overseers snickering from the sidelines…   

According to a report in the Ormond Beach Observer, “When a resident also mentioned that the discussion shouldn’t be had until Norris was present, (Councilman Ty) Miller said Norris chose not to attend the meeting.

“His job is to be here, and he chose not to. That says all that needs to be said. He could be here, rebutting this, talking about it. He’s not.”

I guess it’s no fun when the piñata refuses to participate, eh?

Maybe Mayor Norris is a curmudgeonly asshole who needs a lesson in office diplomacy, personal deportment, and an admonition to demonstrate courtesy when dealing with staff; or perhaps he comes from a place where treating well-compensated senior bureaucrats with kid gloves wasn’t a prized trait.

Or maybe he lacks basic social skills and needs a Dale Carnegie course (I have some of those same qualities myself…) 

Regardless, I’m not sure the clumsy fuming of an overzealous newly elected mayor pushing the limits of his role while seeking fundamental change in a historically dysfunctional government is grounds to disenfranchise the majority of Palm Coast voters. 

In my view, the disturbing fact this butchery began within days of Norris calling for a building moratorium – a controversial move which drew vehement resistance from nervous developers and their shills inside City Hall – is a weird “coincidence” ripe for independent investigation.

When pompous politicians become judge, jury, and executioner – publicly decapitating their political foes and destroying anyone who stands against the very lucrative status quo – We, The Little People get a frightening glimpse at the lengths our malleable elected officials will go to remove impediments for their political benefactors.   

Unfortunately, Palm Coast residents are now forced to endure this latest theater of the absurd while progress on the pressing issues of overdevelopment, overwhelmed infrastructure, and the crushing debt that has resulted takes a backseat to this crude attack on our foundational democratic principles and the basic concept of fairness.

First Step Shelter – Who Protects Volusia County Taxpayers?

Earlier this month, the governing board of the First Step Shelter voted 4-2 to ignore expanding lawsuits and disregard still unanswered allegations of fraud, fiduciary malfeasance, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation to provide a protective Teflon coating for beleaguered Executive Director Victoria Fahlberg. 

For many watchers, the timing seemed odd – and cast further doubt on who the board exists to protect – amid mounting questions regarding the form, function, and leadership of the enigmatic program.

Earlier this month, The Daytona Beach News-Journal gained access to the personnel files of whistleblowers – former employees who have, in my view, been the subject of a well-choreographed campaign to besmirch their character and reputation as an example of what happens when one speaks ill of the Queen.

According to reports, the files contained “notes” from Director Fahlberg that painted one whistleblower as disrespectful, insubordinate, and “hostile,” another as a pilferer who was criminally charged with stealing food from the shelter. It appeared the life altering criminal complaint was a cruel strongarm tactic used by Fahlberg to get the lawsuit dropped. 

Although the whistleblower was later acquitted following a jury trial, the damage was done, compounded by the smears and marginalization brought by board members during public discussion of the allegations.  

In my view, you don’t need an advanced degree in personnel management to understand how terribly mishandled this ugly internal tumult has become, allowing a series of bush league mistakes, gaslighting, and inexplicable personal attacks by bullying board members to result in expensive litigation against both First Step and the City of Daytona Beach. 

Rather than say enough-is-enough, instead the First Step board used the clearly conflicted Daytona Beach city attorney Ben Gross to negotiate a shield for Director Fahlberg which, among other protections, ensures a lump sum severance payment equal to 20 weeks of salary if she is terminated “without cause,” and indemnification against “…any tort, professional liability claim or demand or other legal action, whether groundless or otherwise,” arising from the performance of her duties, and the ability to request independent legal representation at the shelter’s expense.

To their credit, Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry and Ormond Beach Mayor Jason Leslie voted against the horribly ill-timed agreement. 

Last year, Mayor Henry expressed concern about the deteriorating situation at First Step, saying “There are things at the shelter that rise to a deep level of concern.  The situation we’re in is because of leadership.”

He’s right.

Before the vote, Mayor Leslie suggested tabling Fahlberg’s contract until October when budgets are set, claiming the measure could jeopardize the City of Ormond Beach’s continuing support – which amounts to $85,000 annually – and that of other concerned municipalities.

“I can’t stress this enough: I think we’re on thin ice.  We could be in jeopardy of losing tens of thousands of dollars,” Leslie said.

The valid concerns of Henry and Leslie come on the heels of funding reductions by the Volusia County Council, who, in January, agreed to a decreasing contribution plan in which First Step will receive $400,000 this year, $300,000 next year, and then $200,000 for the last three years of the agreement.

At the time, Chairman Jeff Brower said, “I don’t think we should just ignore the whistleblowers.  There’s whistleblower laws for a reason, and I think there’s serious issues that are brought forward, and I think they need to be dealt with.”

In my view, it is time for the Daytona Beach City Commission – who has fiscal (and political) liability for the debacle at First Step – to listen to the concerns of Mayor Henry and take action to bring new and innovative blood to the governing board and salvage the remaining support of stakeholders and donors before the next embarrassing (and expensive) gaff…

Animal Activist and Hometown Hero Debbie Darino

Kudos to the intrepid Debbie Darino for her tireless efforts to end animal abuse and hold those who commit these heinous acts accountable to the fullest extent of the law. 

Thanks to her excellent work, in 2018 the state legislature passed “Ponce’s Law,” which provides harsher penalties for those convicted of animal cruelty and gives judges the authority to order the abusers have no further contact with animals. In addition, Debbie led efforts to establish an animal abuse registry in Volusia County and is currently working on new laws that would form a statewide database.

Locally, Ms. Darino serves as founder and president of the Ponce Animal Foundation, a non-profit animal advocacy which helps pet owners cover veterinary costs, and aids with pets of domestic violence victims and those affected by natural disasters. 

Recently, Ms. Darino was rightfully honored for her work by Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis during the 2025 Florida Heros recognition event in Tallahassee.   

Congratulations to Debbie Darino for assisting pets in need, and for her bold efforts to hold accountable and enhance penalties for those monsters who abuse innocent animals.   

For information on how you can help, please visit https://theponceanimalfoundation.org/

Quote of the Week

“Avelo Airlines is scrapping its twice-weekly nonstop flights at Daytona Beach International Airport to two destinations, including one route just launched at the beginning of this month.

The self-described ultra low-cost carrier will end its Thursday and Sunday service to and from Concord, North Carolina, after its last incoming and outgoing flights on Thursday, April 24.

Also slated for cancelation is Avelo’s Friday and Monday service to Hartford, Connecticut. The last incoming and outgoing flights at Daytona Beach airport will be on Monday, April 28.

“It’s always disappointing when an airline decides to change or discontinue some of its routes… but in this case we are not actually losing service to (those) specific markets,” said Joanne Magley, the director of air service, marketing and customer experience at the Volusia County-run Daytona Beach airport.

Magley noted that Breeze Airways, another ultra low-cost carrier, offers twice-weekly nonstop flights to Hartford, while Avelo still offers twice-weekly nonstop flights to nearby New Haven, Connecticut, which is a half-hour drive away.”

–Business Editor Clayton Park, The Daytona Beach News-Journal, as excerpted from his report, “Avelo cuts flights to these cities from Daytona International. Here’s why,” Monday, April 21, 2025

(By Tuesday, Avelo threw us a bone and announced they will be returning twice-weekly “seasonal” service to Wilmington, Delaware on May 22…)  

Two years ago, leery Volusia County taxpayers watched as the majority of the Volusia County Council once again ignored the lessons of history, threw caution to the wind, and entered another unequal “partnership,” this time with the then unknown “ultra-low-cost air carrier,” Avelo Airlines.

To their credit, Councilmen Danny Robins and Don Dempsey voted against making another bad bet, while At-Large Councilman Jake Johansson had something better to do that day and was absent from the meeting altogether…  

It was another example of how elected officials can be sold a pig in a poke – asked to appropriate our hard-earned tax dollars to support some enigmatic private entity, one cloaked in secrecy until the corporate welfare demand is approved.

Then, some “economic development” shill theatrically sweeps back the velvet curtain for the ‘Grand Reveal’ – in this case, a small airline who initially agreed to serve one “premiere destination:”

New Haven… 

In exchange, Volusia County officials agreed to shove $1 million into a brown paper bag with Avelo’s name on it as a “minimum revenue guarantee” – an asinine taxpayer funded bailout should the carrier fail to meet quarterly estimates – and waived landing, terminal, and ground-handling fees for the first two years, something we were told is a standard spiff for all new airlines willing to try their luck at DAB.

In its first three months of operation, Avelo used $226,000 in county guarantees to cover revenue shortfalls…  

What?  Nobody at Volusia County government offered to cover the monthly nut for your small business that employs residents and forms the backbone of our local economy? 

Hard cheese, rube.  Just pay your taxes and keep your piehole shut…  

For reasons known only to our elected dullards, the majority of our self-described “small government/fiscal conservatives” on the Volusia County Council convinced themselves that – despite our painful experience with JetBlue, Silver Airways, Sunwing, etc. – repeatedly risking public funds to cover the operating and start-up costs of an unproven airline with just 24-months experience in a highly competitive industry was fiscally responsible.

That’s why this unwelcome reduction in routes shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone…

By any metric, it is patently unfair when government insinuates itself into the marketplace – picking winners and losers (or, in the case of enticing airlines to DAB, repeatedly pissing away good money after bad), voting in the blind, ensuring ludicrous minimum revenue guarantees, building private infrastructure, gifting tax breaks, purchasing property for commercial enterprises, and lavishing public funds on private for-profit entities.   

In my view, this latest predictable failure should be engraved on the walls of the Volusia County Council chambers in DeLand as a lasting reminder of the risks inherent to corporate welfare schemes and those lopsided “public/private partnerships” grifts, which ultimately leave taxpayers holding the empty bag…  

And Another Thing!

“The Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald reported that the DeSantis administration — without seeking permission from legislators — directed $10 million in money from a Medicaid legal settlement to the Hope Florida Foundation. Then that Foundation gave $10 million to political committees controlled by (Florida Attorney General James) Uthmeier and the Florida Chamber of Commerce that were fighting the marijuana amendment DeSantis vowed to defeat last year.

Let’s be clear: Under no circumstance would it be appropriate for public money to be spent on political campaigns. But now GOP legislators are saying it may have been more than simply inappropriate; it may have been illegal.

State Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, said the money-moving “looks like criminal fraud by some of those involved.” And House Speaker Daniel Perez said the transaction “looks as if it could be illegal.”

Roger Stone, the often hyperbolic ally of Donald Trump, went so far as to predict that both DeSantises and A.G. Uthmeier “are going to prison.”

–Editorialist Scott Maxwell, writing in the Orlando Sentinel, “DeSantis Hope Florida scandal looks like real trouble,” Tuesday, April 15, 2025

The “smell test” is defined as an informal method of determining whether something is authentic, credible, morally acceptable, or ethical using a commonsense evaluation based upon the appearance of impropriety, reputation and past practice, or suspected conflicts of interests. 

Sound familiar?  

Once elected to high office and fawned over by senior staff, wealthy insiders, and backslapping hangers-on who laugh at their jokes – the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker quickly become convinced of their own infallibility – and enamored by the fact people are forced to listen as they drone on from the dais of power during what passes for the policymaking process.

In time, these malleable egotists become confident they are the smartest person in any room.

As a result, I have a theory that in the absence of oversight and accountability, politicians at all levels of government will eventually succumb to these mistaken feelings of superiority – a sense the rules no longer apply – and conveniently forget the purpose and origin of the money they have a fiduciary responsibility for safeguarding.      

That’s when dreadful things happen… 

Last week, the Hope Florida Doesn’t Follow the Money controversy continued to rage as the Florida’s republican controlled House continues down the labyrinth of money trails in an attempt to determine how $10 million in public funds originating from a Medicaid overbilling settlement ended up with a political group that helped Gov. Ron DeSantis fight a recreational marijuana amendment last year.

If I understand it (and I’m not sure I do) after government healthcare contractor Centene entered a $67 million settlement with the state of Florida – funds which, by law, are required to be deposited in the state’s general fund – $10 million was mysteriously sent to Hope Florida, a non-profit created and controlled by First Lady Casey DeSantis. 

Subsequently, it appears Hope Florida transferred millions of dollars to two political groups – who then funneled the money to a political committee overseen by James Uthmeier, then DeSantis’ Chief of Staff – which supported the Governor’s efforts to crush Amendment 3, the citizen lead ballot initiative that would have authorized the legalization of marijuana in Florida.

In November 2024, despite DeSantis’ campaign to defeat it, Amendment 3 gained 55.9% of the vote, but fell short of the 60% required for passage…

With apologies to Henry Clay, in a move that now shines and stinks like rotten mackerel in the moonlight, earlier this year, Gov. DeSantis appointed Mr. Uthmeier as Florida’s Attorney General…

According to Florida’s House leadership, if proven true, the use of public funds for political purposes represents a “criminal fraud.”  For his part, Gov. DeSantis has trashed the investigation as a “total flop” and “baseless smears,” labeled fellow republicans leading the inquiry as “liberal leftists,” (?) although mounting evidence tends to contradict those assertions…   

Last week, Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, who is leading the Hope Florida investigation said he believes Attorney General Uthmeier – now the state’s chief law enforcement officer – committed “money laundering” while serving as Gov. DeSantis’ Chief of Staff. 

Ugly.

In my view, this burgeoning scandal is a shocking example of what happens when our elected representatives and senior bureaucrats get “innovative” when using public funds to underwrite personal agendas. 

That’s when things can cross the line from ‘creative financing’ to misuse of public funds…

Speaking of things that smell funny, earlier this month Volusia County taxpayers got a whiff of the shit when our imaginative Community Services Director Dr. Quackenbush Burbaugh took a huge career gamble and quibbled the intent of tax dollars earmarked for environmental conservation and ecological, cultural, historical, and passive outdoor recreation amenities to grossly overpay for 356-acres of cow pasture off State Road 44.

Why?

To obsequiously facilitate the pet project of Councilman Don Dempsey, who wants Volusia County to build a commercial motocross facility to further his hobby…

Ignoring the fact the track will be built inside Florida’s dwindling wildlife corridor – or that the vast majority of taxpayers will never experience the thrill of hitting the whoop-de-doos they purchased at breakneck speed – Mr. Dempsey has made it clear he wants us to fund it, and the quick to please Dr. Burbaugh found a parcel of land with enough identified wetlands to incumber tax supported Volusia Forever funds earmarked for the purchase of conservation lands.

The remainder of this weird hybrid financing scheme originates from Volusia ECHO funds, which have historically been used for eco-friendly outdoor activities, cultural pursuits, and recreational opportunities available to the widest demographic of residents.   

Earlier this week, a concerned Volusia County resident reached out to me and vented, “From Day 1 this has been the sleaziest attempt to deceive the public on the intended use of Volusia Forever and ECHO funds.”  

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

In the view of many, nothing about this concocted flim-flam passes the smell test… 

Given the enthusiastic interest of motorcyclists to locate a motocross track in Volusia County, no one doubts it would be a welcome and commercially viable enterprise. 

However, in my view, a commercial motocross facility should be pursued in a free and fair marketplace – where entrepreneurial investors take educated risks based upon an anticipated return on investment – rather than a slimy bureaucratic scheme where our tax dollars are used to underwrite the for-profit motives of a private entity – and further the hobby project of an elected official who forgot who he was elected to serve…

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!

Hi, kids!

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

Volusia County Council of Cowards

“In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”

–Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

The descriptor “self-serving” is defined as “serving one’s own interests, especially without concern for the needs or interests of others,” and “habitually seeking one’s own advantage, especially at the expense of others.”

In short, it is the antithesis of selfless public service.

On Tuesday, those sneak thieves on the Volusia County Council of Cowards essentially pilfered $4.62 million of your tax dollars in an elaborate ruse – public funds earmarked for conservation and ecological, cultural, historical, and outdoor recreation amenities – were used to grossly overpay for 356-acres of denuded cow pasture which is located within Florida’s dwindling wildlife corridor.

Why?

Because District 1 Councilman Don Dempsey is hell-bent on constructing a commercial motorcross facility to further his family’s hobby, and he’s doing it at our expense.  To be clear, this isn’t a place to ride motorcycles on ATV trails or operate off-highway vehicles in a publicly owned wilderness. 

Last year, the for-profit facility was described by the county’s Chicago-based motor sports consultant as having two full-sized competitive motocross tracks, a minimum of 50 RV slips with electric and water hookups, 750 general parking spaces, concession and bathroom facilities and a training facility or pro shop.

It also comes with an estimated price tag of “up to $10.2 million” – or, as Councilman Dempsey has described it, “…a top-notch facility.  We’re not looking for just a field to go out and ride.”

I guess not…  Only the best when its someone else’s money, right?

This week, Councilman Dempsey got all his heart desired (and then some) after Volusia’s highly creative Community Services Director Dr. Quackenbush Burbaugh enthusiastically searched out the best spot in the county (or at least the one with fewest surrounding homes to pushback and complain) – then pulled the old switcheroo – cobbling together a slimy hybrid scheme to use both Volusia Forever and ECHO funds by identifying some wetlands on the property to facilitate Dempsey’s Folly. 

To give the shim-sham an air of legitimacy, Councilman Dempsey thundered away like Atticus Finch – reciting the minutia of state statutes, shoehorning the facility into ballot language, and quibbling that dirt bikes qualify as “resource-based outdoor recreation” under Florida Department of Environmental Destruction guidelines — which, ipso facto, must mean that a for-profit commercial motorcross facility is exactly what over 70% of Volusia County taxpayers voted for when they opted to reauthorize Volusia Forever and ECHO…  

Bullshit.  

Per usual, it was immediately apparent to many watching that the entire sketch had been orchestrated in advance – choreographed with such precision it appeared scripted. 

A kabuki that saw each elected marionette playing their appointed role, and Councilman Danny “Gaslight” Robins using one of his weird stream-of-consciousness soliloquies to convince us there is little difference between the environmental devastation of beach walkovers, nature observation trails, or ecotours, and the braaaap-braaaap roar of a commercial motorcross track…

To ensure all available cons and ploys were in play, the cast of characters alluded they were doing us a favor – raising the specter of the property being purchased by a developer and blanketed with another cookie cutter subdivision if we didn’t capitulate to the purchase.

Except, no real estate developer in their right mind would pay what you and I just did… 

In my view, after listening to public participation both for and against the initiative, there is clearly sufficient interest to sustain a motorcross track and training facility in Volusia County – and those families involved in the hobby are rightfully passionate about the sport and its positive impacts on youth. 

In my view, a smart commercial motor sports company should take advantage of that.  I just don’t think Volusia County taxpayers should pay for it…

Unfortunately, that point is moot now that our elected dullards openly violated the very mission of Volusia County Land Management’s stewardship of conservation lands (which happens to fall under Dr. Burbaugh’s purview) which will soon share the same parcel as a commercial motorcross facility – something Mr. Dempsey forgot to mention during his verbose legal justification:

“With the passage of the Volusia Forever referendum in November of 2020, Volusia County will be adding to these protected Conservation Lands.  These lands have been and will be acquired for conservation purposes, while allowing passive recreation by the residents of Volusia County and others wishing to visit them.  Compatible passive recreation includes hiking, biking, bird watching and wildlife observation…”

Now we understand why the ECHO component of the ruse was so important… 

Find the rest of Volusia’s conveniently forgotten land management goals here: https://tinyurl.com/yc2b47kp

Now, our elected representatives will be provided a list of options for expediting Mr. Dempsey’s self-serving project – which could include Volusia County taxpayers getting into the motorcross industry by building and operating the facility (you read that right), forming a “public-private” partnership with a commercial motor sports company, or leasing our land to a third party who would construct and operate a track.

The purchase passed on a unanimous vote…

The only thing clear is that you and I now own 356-acres of pastureland, public confidence in the Volusia Forever and ECHO programs is forever shattered, and the only people who know how much Dempsey’s Folly will ultimately cost Volusia County taxpayers are a few unaccountable senior bureaucrats with firm marching orders to expedite this ridiculous sham with all haste.

It is what it is, y’all. This time there really is no one looking out for us in DeLand. 

In addition, during Tuesday’s meeting, council members once again considered a request by struggling Main Street merchants – intrepid entrepreneurs who have invested their blood, sweat, tears, and money into the revitalization of our core tourist area – to reestablish beach driving from International Speedway Boulevard to Auditorium Boulevard as a last/best hope of reinvigorating the blighted area.

Unfortunately, their request didn’t receive the same enthusiastic reception as Dempsey’s taxpayer funded pet project…

In fact, the very notion was all but publicly shit on by our ‘powers that be’…

A year after the discussion was summarily dismissed by the council on a 4-2 vote with Councilman David “No Show” Santiago absent; Councilman Troy Kent used a parliamentary move that would allow him to bring back the discussion by originally voting with the majority to kill the measure.

During this week’s meeting, Kent’s initial motion to merely reach out to Volusia’s legislative delegation and gauge support for undoing the asinine handiwork of a previous council who, in 1996, effectively killed beach driving in the Main Street area to facilitate some perverse notion of “economic development,” damn near died for lack of a second… 

I mean crickets, y’all.

To his credit, Chairman Jeff Brower (who championed the initiative last year) passed the gavel to Vice Chair Matt Reinhart and seconded Kent’s rather benign motion. 

In typical fashion, the county’s all-powerful senior staff rolled out their battery-operated automaton, County Attorney Paolo Soria, who seems programmed to stand at the podium and repeat in robotic monotone “Does. Not. Com-pute.  Does. Not. Com-pute.” to anything Chairman Brower suggests for improving the beach experience and the commercial viability of our core tourist area.

In turn, Mr. Soria recited all the legal roadblocks, legislative hurdles, “contractual obligations,” and other myriad impediments – both real and bureaucratically concocted – that make returning the tradition and access of beach driving insurmountable…

Ultimately, in a rushed end to the discussion (thanks to the subjective time limitation placed on council meetings?) the council begrudgingly agreed to reach out to the City of Daytona Beach, and contact obstinate hoteliers along the stretch that have already made clear they don’t want to upset their private beach setting, before considering the arduous task of reversing the disastrous course that has contributed to blight, stagnation, and hopelessness in our core tourist area and beyond. 

Which means the discussion of reopening beach driving should come back sometime around the return of the Comet Kohoutek…    

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the idea is D.O.A.  

You are welcome to disagree – and I understand the ‘never say die’ enthusiasm of valiant beachside merchants – but you know I’m right.  

For reasons known only to him, Bob Davis, CEO and President for Life of the fossilized Lodging and Hospitality Association of Volusia County, doesn’t want it.  In an interview with WKMG-6 this week, we learned:

“We’re not a sleepy town anymore. It’s not 1980. We’re okay with the laws right now. It’s worked beautifully,” said Bob Davis, president of the Volusia Lodging and Hospitality Association. He believes the beach should stay clear for visitors who want a peaceful experience.”

Uncle Bob is right about one thing. 

The whole of the Halifax areas beachside is definitely not what it was in 1980 – when the “World’s Most Famous Beach” was an incredibly popular tourist destination – a place full of life, far different than the one that now mostly hibernates between special events.

If anything holds true with our ossified Halifax Area hospitality “guru’s” – it is that doing the same thing over and over and over again while expecting a different result never gets old…

Volusia School Board Member Donna Brosemer – Upsetting the Apple Cart

It is becoming apparent that many elected representatives have succumbed to the bureaucratic mentality that elective boards, councils, and commissions should operate in homogenized conformity – where groupthink, the ability to ‘get along and go along,’ and irrational optimism are omnipotent – while dissent, debate, or conflict among the “team” is to be avoided at all costs.

After all, if everyone is thinking alike, how can individual members of the “in-group” be criticized?

That’s why the independence and strategic vision of freethinkers who challenge the stagnant status quo always makes their “colleagues” nervous…   

During the April 8 meeting, District 4 representative Donna Brosemer did something unheard of when she confronted Superintendent Balgobin on the community consequences of the district’s quiet plans to respond to a reported $25.8 million budget deficit – and the building rumors those plans include putting historic Ormond Beach Elementary School on “the chopping block.”

“It’s safe to say that Ormond Beach parents are not going to take kindly to the loss of yet another of their elementary schools, having lost Osceola so recently, and they would be some of the most likely parents to go to the conversion option that appears that’s going to pass this year,” Brosemer said.

If approved by the Florida Legislature, the “conversion option” would allow parents to request that a public school become a charter.

Throwing off the bureaucratic yoke and seizing the initiative in the face of the latest fiscal crisis, Ms. Brosemer explained she had spoken to the principal of OBE and developed a plan to increase enrollment by turning the school into an “arts magnet school.”

Needless to say, Ms. Brosemer’s resourcefulness upset the board’s delicate apple cart…

According to a report by Jarleene Almenas writing in the Ormond Beach Observer last week:

“Balgobin denied that any conversations on closing schools have taken place.

“I don’t know where the narrative came from, what schools were going to be closing, because I have not even discussed that with staff,” she said.

“It came from my discussion with staff,” Brosemer replied.

“My staff discussed that with you and shared with you the schools that will be closing?” Balgobin pressed.

Brosemer said staff informed her the closures were “two to three years out.”

“Well, I’m not going to put anyone on the spot, but this is what I can assert and tell you — I have not had that discussion with any staff members,” Balgobin said.

Brosemer said she wouldn’t have brought it up if it hadn’t been said to her.

Balgobin said she’s heard from principals say “conversation are taking place that we’re cutting, closing schools.” Again, she said those discussions have not taken place at the district level.

Board members also admonished Brosemer for seemingly making a decision to turn OBE into a arts magnet school on her own.”

Yeah.  It’s Brosemer’s fault… 

This is typically where the elected followers try to silence, besmirch, and marginalize the outspoken offender by beating them into the round hole of lockstep conformity.

That is exactly what happened to Donna Brosemer.

According to the Observer, School Board member Krista Goodrich explained that she was “confused” after having “conversations about a gazillion ideas,” yet closing Ormond Beach Elementary wasn’t one of them. 

I found the tone of the exchange telling.

“Brosemer countered that the notion they function as a board “is correct in one regard, but it’s also completely misleading in another.”

We all bring our own talents, our own perspectives, and if we’re just here to rubber stamp each other or to rubber stamp the superintendent or anybody else, then we’re not doing our jobs,” she said.

Goodrich said that it was “curious” to her that Brosemer brought up these statements at the regular board meeting, and not during the workshop where they were discussing the budget.

“It makes it feel pretty intentional when we had plenty of opportunities to bring up a lot of these questions earlier today,” she said. “Yes, we do all bring something to the table, but when you approach things in a way that isn’t having a discussion, it’s at the end when it’s just statements, that’s not working together — that’s not operating as a team, that’s not looking for solutions.”

Brosemer said she didn’t need to do it Goodrich’s way.

“I didn’t say you had to do it my way,” Goodrich said. “I’m allowed to share my opinion as well.  So that’s what’s devastating — is you could have brought it up this morning. We could have had great conversations about it, asked questions, got answers, but that wasn’t done that way.”

In turn, School Board Chair Jamie Haynes piled-on, lecturing Brosemer that members cannot tell staff members what to do, and that any plan for turning around struggling schools will come from the Superintendent and her bloated staff. 

Only then can the board ensure political insulation by voting on whatever self-serving ‘plan’ is cobbled together in the Ivory Tower of Power in DeLand and “brought to” them on a platter…

“Whatever plan Dr. Balgobin and her staff comes up with will be brought to us, and we will vote on it, and whatever the vote is at the time … at that point it becomes the decision of the board and we each have to own the decision when we make that vote.”

Proving that Haynes, and the rest of her lockstep “colleagues,” are either kowtowed or blatantly ignorant of the fact the school board sets policy – and Balgobin implements it. 

The Superintendent works for them, not the other way around.

Without filtering her thoughts through the district’s public misinformation apparatus, Ms. Brosemer said just that in a cogent essay that appeared in the Ormond Beach Observer this week:

“Current conditions are the result of current policies. Boards make policies. Administrators implement them.

It’s past time to ditch the stock answers — “we’re already doing that,” “we don’t have enough time/staff/money,” or above all, “that’s not how it works.”

Boards are not props. We drive progress with new ideas. Bureaucrats implement them. That is exactly how it works.”

(Find the rest here: https://tinyurl.com/3cj32ucd )

Thanks to Ms. Brosemer’s bold action and willingness to speak out, Volusia County taxpayers are beginning to see how innovation, critical thinking, and independent representation is stifled by mediocrity and stagnant conformism, and why Volusia County District Schools continue to stumble from one crisis to the next…

Quote of the Week  

“The important facts about developers are simple. They do not live here. They will not be here to sit in traffic. The next storm will not affect them.

They were not here when the county created the rural transition. Developers come late to the show. They make strategic campaign contributions, pave the land, and leave.

County staff get the message. They recommend approval, or they find new jobs. Easy choice, really, since their homes will not be buried in developer dung.

This time, there was pushback from the locals. That just means the county rolls it to a future meeting, where hopefully the crowd diminishes. If not, well, roll again, rinse and repeat.

Eventually, those pesky locals will go away. And you know what the County Council is thinking — promises made, promises broken.”

–Columnist Tanner Andrews, as excerpted from his essay in the West Volusia Beacon, “What were they thinking? Drowning in development, stuck in traffic, or maybe both,” regarding plans to destroy the quaint community of Osteen with development, Tuesday, April 8, 2025

With a lack of infrastructure, concurrency, and devastating development-induced flooding effecting homes across the width and breadth of Volusia County – and another active Hurricane Season just around the corner – I found it an odd time for our political dignitaries to rejoice in more, more, more malignant sprawl… 

But last week that’s exactly what our elected elite from Volusia County and various municipal governments did when they gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of Deering Park Phase One – the decades in the making monstrosity that could ultimately see 23,000 “residential units” on the 70,000-acre track that stretches from Edgewater and New Smyrna Beach to just north of Titusville in Brevard, County.

Apparently, Phase One will be constructed in the City of Underwater west of Interstate 95 and will include 1,747 homes along with “…a mix of residential, commercial and green spaces, as well as amenities.” 

According to a report by reporter Brenno Carillo writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Sean Stefan, Deering Park’s project director, said “Deering Park will be unlike any other master-planned community in Florida,” (yes it will), and “It will provide this region with homes for every phase of life in a wide variety of neighborhoods with extensive services and expansive employment centers, all surrounded by one of the largest contiguous conservation and recreation areas in the state.”

What?  You live in Volusia County – the most flood-prone location in the state – and you’re worried about how a massive ‘city within a city’ will exacerbate development-induced runoff and flooding in your neighborhood? 

Well, don’t you worry about it, rube.   

After decades of planning and preparation for Deering Park, environmental consultants and project engineers working for the developer are apparently just getting around to digging little holes on the property to assess how water will react – you know, now that they are ready to break ground and all…

The News-Journal reported, “According to Deering Park’s land manager, Robbie Lee Jr., project engineers have already begun using the area to conduct studies on miniature land models that will help shine a light on how stormwater interacts and moves with the soil.”

“They dug this out to take measurements,” Lee said as he indicated the small area being used for studies. “They are looking at the ebbs and flows of the water — how the water moves horizontally and not just vertically.”

Great. 

Feel better? 

Me neither.  But I’ll bet those “miniature models” made a cool prop for all those malleable politicians gathered in their finery to celebrate the next big thing… 

And Another Thing!

Sometimes the truth stings. 

That’s why it is often referred to as a bitter pill – something hard to swallow.  Perhaps that is why we live in a time of gross ‘disinformation’ and manipulation on all fronts…

A disturbing era when politicians at all levels of government openly lie, gaslight their constituents, become insular, secretive, and opaque; trying desperately to create an alternate reality that masks their collusions, agendas, and associations.  In turn, they expect We, The Little People to accept the steaming crock of shit we’ve been handed as fact, and our ‘powers that be’ begin to feel infallible when apathy replaces civic interest and activism.  

In my view, the stench of lies, especially those that serve the interests of influential insiders who fund their political aspirations, dishonor and pervert the once noble calling of public service – and destroy the public’s trust in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.  

I crow a lot in this space about the importance of trust – especially our faith in the motives of those we elect and appoint to serve our best interests – and the foundational need for public confidence in the democratic processes and essential services of governance that have a direct impact on our lives and livelihoods.   

Here’s one example why.

Last week, beleaguered Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris spoke the uncomfortable truth during the annual State of the City Address – which, regardless of jurisdiction, is typically little more than a rah-rah session compiled by “staff” to tout the bureaucracy’s pseudo-accomplishments and deflect attention from the serious issues we collectively face.

Frankly, I found it refreshing when Mayor Norris described the City of Palm Coast as “challenged,” and reiterated that he wants the future of the city controlled by its residents – not developers. 

“We are still under the mercy of the swamp builders,” Norris told his neighbors. “We are facing a mounting debt, failed planning and economic development and growth to support the existing revenues. You know the ones that are footing the tax bills: us, the taxpayers of Palm Coast. And the answer from the swamp builders and landholders is urban sprawl.”

I don’t care where you live here on Florida’s fabled “Fun Coast,” that should sound chillingly familiar.

If that didn’t resonate, this will:

“The mere mention of a moratorium on residential housing a couple of weeks ago at City Hall was met by a blockade of our City Hall by elements of the Flagler County Homebuilders Association. Let that sink in: Our City Hall was blockaded by the building industry.

“That was quite astonishing and shows you who actually runs our city.”

For the uninitiated, Mayor Norris recently received a down-and-dirty lesson in what happens when one attempts to upset the status quo and take emergency measures in the face of the largest utility rate hike in the city’s history, as officials seek to finance a shocking $615 million capital improvement plan to upgrade utilities to keep pace with current needs. 

When Mayor Norris suggested a moratorium on new residential construction, and rightfully claimed “developers have been taking advantage of this city far too long,” it became immediately clear his bread was never going to land jelly-side up again…

Within minutes of uttering the “M” word, developer shills set upon Mayor Norris, circling the wagons, telling scary stories about the apocalyptic ramifications of even suggesting a temporary moratorium in the face of hundreds-of-millions in utilities infrastructure shortfalls.

(That should sound familiar to waterlogged residents of Volusia County…) 

Just four days later, things took a predictable turn for Mayor Norris when the appointed ‘developer’s darling’ Councilman Charlies Gambaro went on the attack – accusing Norris of violations of the city charter and state ethics codes.

Norris’ crime?

Seeking the resignation of Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston and Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo in a closed-door meeting…

Naturally, others in City Hall began to draw knives, sending complaints to Human Resources, with some municipal employees describing Norris as “inappropriate,” “demeaning, “intrusive” and “rude.” 

Now, Mayor Norris is being formally brought to heel, the subject of an official investigation by an outside law firm.  After all, as every compromised politician knows – if you can’t silence a watchdog – you can damn sure pull his teeth…

During his State of the City Address, Norris addressed the distracting controversy, “We have organizations within our community encouraging city employees to file trumped up HR charges to force a duly elected mayor out of office. Backed by politicians that were soundly defeated in November.”

“These are the headwinds that I have faced the few two months of being in office. It’s challenging to say the least.

“In closing, I’ll leave you with this: Our city’s theme for today’s State of the City is ‘charting a new course.’ Are we as a community going to allow the same people that have failed our community for more than four years to chart that course for us?

Or are we gonna do it?

“It takes cooperation, and it’s not more residential housing without meaningful economic development in our community.”

I’ve said this before, but as Palm Coast goes, so go other areas in Volusia and Flagler Counties that continue to see massive overdevelopment and the resultant infrastructure shortfalls that naturally result from a ‘shove ten-pounds of shit in a five-pound bag’ growth management strategy…

In my view, Mayor Norris is experiencing the tragic personal and political destruction that occurs whenever an elected official stands by claustrophobic existing residents and pushes back against malignant growth until infrastructure requirements can catch up to current and future needs.

That’s all for me.  Have a great Jeep Beach 2025, y’all!   

Hi, kids!

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

City of Ormond Beach – Welcome to the Weirdness

I guess it’s the Ormond Beach City Commission’s turn in the barrel, eh? 

Unfortunately, it comes to all communities eventually.

Differences of opinion, outside influences, or simmering personality clashes between those huge egos that are drawn to politics finally boil over, factions form, and what was once a working elected body lycanthropically transforms into a snarling, dysfunctional shitshow.

Examples of this syndrome include the Lost City of Deltona, Palm Coast, or the decade old Debacle in DeBary, which ultimately saw the city’s demonstrably weird mayor cashiered following a Kangaroo Kourt that continues to serve as a cautionary tale for area municipalities.  

A better illustration is the continuous thuggery that County Chair Jeff Brower has suffered for the past six years at the hands of two iterations of the Volusia County Council – a near constant bullying, blocking, and marginalization as the “Old Guard” attempts to beat him into the round hole of lockstep conformity.

Most recently, there was an unfortunate incident where the Volusia County Council failed to respond to a racial slur uttered from the podium during public comments.  In the aftermath, each elected official present cited the fact they were distracted or did not hear the offensive term at the time it was uttered.

Except At-Large Councilman Jake the Snake Johansson…

Not one to miss a meanspirited opportunity to paint Chairman Brower in a bad light, Johansson – who heard the repulsive epithet and later admitted his own moral cowardice, stating “I should have said something” – turned the tables and slammed Brower for not “stopping it immediately.”

Incredibly, Johansson doubled down in an open letter read in his absence at last week’s Volusia County Council meeting, which read, in part: “I will be working with the chairman during meetings to ensure we respond appropriately in the future and will ensure to become more active in voicing my opinion when issues are not addressed in a timely manner.”

Shameless…

In February, the Ormond Beach City Commission fell victim to similar infighting when Vice Mayor Lori Tolland, Zone 3 Commissioner Kristin Deaton, and Zone 2 Commissioner Travis Sargent put the boots to Mayor Jason Leslie for his participation in the seemingly normal mayoral duty of escorting a reporter to highlight several community amenities.

The mayor’s unforgivable transgression of painting his community in a positive light without clearing it through an unelected staff member resulted in a sustained attack from Deaton and Tolland – who went as far as suggesting a city ordinance to quash the free and open exchange of information between elected officials and their constituents – prohibiting individual elected officials from speaking to residents without majority approval.

Bullshit.

This petty bruhaha resulted in embarrassing media coverage, a critical essay in RedTapeFlorida.com, a rebuttal by former Ormond Beach Commissioner Jeff Boyle, disturbing revelations about how the city’s “public information” apparatus operates and concerned murmurings by residents confused by the backbiting. 

Now, Mayor Leslie has apparently gone a step too far when he had the temerity to visit a valuable civic resource, Barracks of Hope – the successful transitional housing program of Halifax Urban Ministries serving homeless military veterans – which resulted in even more questions from his “colleagues” on the dais.

According to a report last week by Jarleene Almenas writing in the Ormond Beach Observer:

“On March 12, the Ormond Beach City Commission were all copied on an email from Halifax Urban Ministries’ interim executive director Donna Dooley.

Dooley thanked Mayor Jason Leslie for visiting the faith-based nonprofit’s Barracks of Hope, a homeless shelter for veterans in Daytona Beach. She also mentioned that the shelter’s program manager “noted the possibility of available funds from the city of Ormond.”

“Could you please advise us on the next steps? We are very interested in continuing our partnership with Ormond Beach,” Dooley wrote.

City Commissioner Travis Sargent brought the email up at the commission’s meeting on April 1, asking the mayor to elaborate on what was discussed during his tour.

“I don’t know that we have available funds to donate to anyone,” Sargent said.”

And so, it began…

Mayor Leslie explained he viewed Barracks of Hope as another potential resource to address homelessness, something the commission might want staff to research, so police officers and those performing outreach would have another tool. 

Apparently, there was confusion as to whether Mayor Leslie suggested to HUM administrators that there may be city funds available to assist Barracks of Hope.  Regardless, there is an established appropriation process in place for donations to non-profits (like the $85,000 Ormond Beach pisses away each year on the enigmatic First Step Shelter) – and not something Mr. Leslie could snap his fingers and authorize on his own.

Something tells me Commissioner Sargent knows that… 

One thing is certain, in Volusia County politics, you’re either part of the clubbish “in-crowd” or you aren’t.  

During last year’s election cycle, Mayor Leslie – a newcomer to local politics – took on popular perennial politician Commissioner Susan Persis.  The disparity in campaign contributions told observers all they needed to know about who our “movers and shakers” supported.

Before the general election, Persis collected contributions totaling $106,427.53 (for an Ormond Beach mayoral race?) more than double Mr. Leslie’s largely self-funded $42,797.  

All the right last names were represented in the Persis war chest, along with the various entities and LLCs under their control.  That included heavy hitters in the Halifax area’s aggressive development community, and everyone who is anyone in what passes for Volusia County’s social, civic, and political nobility…

But the harsh reality of politics is that votes beat money every time.

Last November, Mayor Leslie soundly defeated Susan Persis with nearly 54% of the vote, proving that many in Ormond Beach are seeking substantive change as we watch our beautiful community transmogrify into something unrecognizable, with looming threats to our quality of life now closing from all sides… 

Perhaps the loud and clear message behind Mayor Leslie’s victory over an entrenched insider is something the remainder of the commission should consider? 

In my view, it is time for Ormond Beach’s elected officials to learn the lessons of other local governments who have been derailed by distracting power struggles, stop the spiteful sniping on the dais, and get back to the pressing issues facing our community. 

Belvedere Terminal’s Palm Coast Project Withers in the Sunshine

Well, that didn’t take long…

Just days after Belvedere Terminals joined with Palm Coast and Flagler County officials to officially announce it was considering a 78-acre site off Peavy Grade for a planned 12.6-million-gallon fuel distribution site, residents let their elected officials know just how they feel about it, and any political support it appeared to have quickly faded.    

Last week, Flagler County officials pulled a proposed agenda item considering a $10 million grant agreement with the Florida Department of Commerce that would have been used to acquire the property and fund certain infrastructure improvements related to the fuel terminal while the City of Palm Coast sought a site analysis to determine suitability.

The Peavy Grade site is adjacent to a Palm Coast water treatment facility, several potable water wells, and two subdivisions, which prompted concerns similar to those expressed by Ormond Beach residents when their community was threatened.

According to a report in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Palm Coast resident Angela Dawson said, “It sounds as bad to me as a nuclear waste site. …homes will be devalued, and what about a mass casualty event? You’re putting our lives at risk, now and into the future.

Another resident, Wayne Bruce, said, “This is gallons of diesel fuel you’re talking about. …” we need to study the risks. I’m very concerned about what’s going to happen to our beautiful city.”

Diesel fuel would be just one of several products such as gasoline, ethanol, propane and other sources of energy that would go through the terminal.”

In an effort to protect the best interests of her constituents, Palm Coast Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri was quoted by FlaglerLive! last week expressing her valid fears:

“One of my concerns is, we’re going to pick this land and the county is going to buy it and own the land, and the company is going to go belly-up,” Pontieri said. (Belvedere’s CEO, Edwin Cothron, filed for bankruptcy in 1998 and 2012.) “If it does go belly up we certainly don’t want a wasteland, particularly next to residential development.”

According to the report, even Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris – who championed the project as an economic boon and strategic fuel supply in an emergency – acknowledged the site is not suitable, “Maybe they can try something further down in the county. I don’t know. If it’s safe in the county that’s a big bonus to the tax base, but I don’t think the citizens of Palm Coast have an appetite for it. But that’ll be between the county and Belvedere.”

In an all to familiar twist, Palm Coast and Flagler County residents also learned last week that their elected and appointed officials engaged in secret closed door meetings with Belvedere in late February and early March, keeping things quiet under a weird state provision that exempts certain economic development projects from public disclosure – which means you and I can be kept in the dark while the particulars are “worked out,” (wink, wink).   

In my view, regardless of the project, that’s not transparency – its collusion – and the reaction of vulnerable Palm Coast residents is what happens when people realize they’ve been kept in the dark and fed bullshit…

By last Friday, Mayor Norris, apparently sensitive to public pressure and the reluctance of his “colleagues” formally pulled his support for the fuel terminal. 

For now, it appears the brief discussion of the Peavy Grade location is over. 

So, the frightening saga of a massive bulk fuel terminal looking for a home continues – and the speculation is making residents in southern Flagler County nervous for the same reasons the citizens of Ormond Beach and Palm Coast roundly rejected the project in their backyard. 

In my view, if you live anywhere along the Florida East Coast Railroad in Flagler, Volusia, or Brevard Counties and value your quality of life, this one bears watching…

Volusia County District Schools – Financial Apocalypse?  Here we go again…

From the “what else is new?” column…

With an astronomical annual budget now north of $1.5 billion, on Tuesday, strapped taxpayers, students, and staff learned that Volusia County District Schools is facing yet another Financial Armageddon.      

You know, another chorus of the Poormouth Blues: “difficult decisions,” “program adjustments,” “closing schools,” “reevaluating staff ratios,” and the frightening refrain “gonna try and retain teachers.” 

Go figure…

During a workshop earlier this week, the Volusia County School Board got the annual bad news from Chief Financial Officer Todd Seis that the district currently has a $25.8 million deficit in its general operating fund. Per usual, the district’s senior staff is blaming the Florida Legislature/declining enrollment/school choice/etc. for its perpetual inability to live within its steadily escalating budget. 

During her 2024 campaign for the district 4 School Board seat, Donna Brosemer – whose fiscal conservatism and no-nonsense observations led her to victory over perennial politician Carl Persis last November – wrote in an essay published in the Ormond Beach Observer:

“I got curious recently and decided to look at where we were 10 years ago, especially given all the very loud chest-pounding over population growth. To my surprise, while our general population may be growing, our student population is not. We can’t say the same for the school district budget.

In 2014, we had approximately 61,000 students. Our budget was $777 million.

In 2024, we have approximately 61,000 students. Our budget is $1.4 billion.

My math says that’s a budget increase of approximately 80% in 10 years, with no increase in students.”

(Current estimates show an enrollment of 57,100 for the 2024-25 academic year.)

She also discussed the various windfalls and COVID relief funds that have benefitted the district over the past few years and suggests anyone looking on would think Volusia County Schools are “rolling in dough.”

Read the remainder of Ms. Brosemer’s insightful op/ed here: https://tinyurl.com/mr3at849

During Tuesday’s discussion, District 2 School Board Member Krista Goodrich attempted to calm the waters, explaining “There’s no cause for panic or fear right now. We want to hear from the community, hear from our stakeholders about ways that we can increase our enrollments, ways that we can make our schools more efficient and optimize the size of them.” 

Which is unusual, because Superintendent Carmen Balgobin and her senior “cabinet” have historically been less than receptive to the concerns and suggestions of those most effected by “program adjustments,” school closings, and other broadbrush financial decisions to meet the latest economic catastrophe du jour that have a negative impact on the educational experience of students…   

Hell, don’t take my word for it. 

Ask the City of Ormond Beach how responsive the administration was to retain the now defunct Osceola Elementary rather than convert it to the Riverview Learning Center, an alternative education program for troubled students, that was sprung on residents.

During a 2021 community meeting to address mounting concerns, confused residents heard the same refrain from their neighbors: “I honestly am appalled that everybody was blindsided by the decision with zero input,” and “People living directly next to Osceola had zero idea that this was happening.”

Quickly followed by former School Board member Persis, staring at his shoes and blubbering – “Was it anyone’s intent to keep it from you?  No. Was it anything shady, underhanded? No, I guarantee you that…”

Right.

Confidence inspiring, eh?

In my experience, no one in the Ivory Tower of Power in DeLand has ever given two-shits about stakeholder input on “…ways we can make our schools more efficient;” and the Volusia County School Board has never been known for their stewardship of our hard-earned tax dollars.

For instance, in November 2023, taxpayers watched in stunned silence as Superintendent Balgobin dispatched her redundant deputy superintendent, and an equally unnecessary “Interim Chief Operating Officer,” to prostrate themselves before the Volusia County Council and beg the county to pay for school resource deputies at multiple middle schools. 

It was a pathetic example of how not to sell a funding proposal important to protecting the physical safety of children and staff…   

As you may recall, Balgobin’s hapless emissaries were horribly unprepared – equipped only with a slapdash slideshow and a misguided notion that the Volusia County Council would simply rubber stamp their ask. 

To their credit, the Volusia County Council did something they almost never do – stood on principle – and sent the district representatives away emptyhanded with an admonition to get their facts in order the next time they come grubbing for money.

Then, one year ago, Volusia County taxpayers, students, teachers, and staff learned (by email) that despite repeated concerns – the district had inexplicably continued to use temporary federal emergency relief funds for recurring personnel expenses – knowing well the federal teat would run dry on a date certain…

Why would anyone with a fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers do that?

Again, in keeping with the worst traditions of what passes for fiscal stewardship, the finger pointing and obfuscation began with Superintendent Balgobin and Chief Bean Counter Seis claiming they “inherited” the problem and other financial issues from their predecessors…    

As the emergency relief revenue drew to a predictable close, we were told teachers were in danger of being “displaced,” popular electives eliminated, and core subjects diluted amidst growing fears of overcrowded classrooms.

I could go on. And on, and on…

It was “Armageddon” all over again.

Now, the shameless ‘budgeting by fearmongering’ continues…

But why? 

Cui Bono?

As President Elizabeth Albert of Volusia United Educators, the union representing teachers and instructional staff, explained on Tuesday “We understand that the legislature is not doing their part to fund public schools appropriately. However, as it was pointed out in the discussion today, every year we have an initial discussion about the budget where essentially the sky is falling and there’s no money. But we always end up in the black.”

I agree with Board Member Goodrich – with a budget now in excess of $1.5 billion – it is time for the Volusia County School Board to make the tough decisions required of them and stop this tiresome “Chicken Little” routine that marks each budget discussion.

In my view, a good start would be taking a hard look at Superintendent Balgobin’s top-heavy administration, hacking the thick rind of fat off that bloated bureaucracy, then reinvest those funds in the classroom where students learn.

Quote of the Week

“Palm Coast is down to two.

The only candidate with city manager experience has dropped out of contention to be the next city manager of Palm Coast. Sonia Alves-Viveiros informed the city, through a consultant, on April 7 that she had withdrawn.

Alves-Viveiros had been the No. 4-ranked choice out of five.

Less than a week ago, the top-ranked candidate dropped out of contention: William Lee Smith has been hired as the city manager in Nome, Alaska. (That’s about 4,218 miles away.)

The news was reported to the City of Palm Coast on April 1 by Doug Thomas, executive vice president over recruitment and leadership development for SGR, the firm the city has hired to guide its city manager search.

Thomas also reported that another candidate, Michael Reese, also dropped out “to focus his energies on another opportunity,” Thomas wrote. He had been ranked fifth at the City Council’s March 11 meeting.”

–Editor Brian McMillan, writing in the Palm Coast Observer, “Another candidate drops out of city manager search; Palm Coast has two remaining choices,” Monday, April 7, 2025  

It’s no secret. 

The City of Palm Coast has trouble attracting quality leadership – elected or appointed – and the unfortunate results are becoming too obvious to ignore…

According to reports, the top-rated applicant for the vacant Palm Coast city manager position, William “Lee” Smith, formerly of Port Wentworth, Georgia, announced last week that he was taking the job in Nome, Alaska – a community of approximately 3,700 located less than a 150 miles from the Arctic Circle on the Bering Sea – with a climate marked by “long, very cold winters, and short, cool summers…”

According to an article by Diane Haecker writing in the Nome Nugget last month, during his interview with the common council, “Smith also noted that Nome is at the precipice of major growth that may come with the Port of Nome expansion and stressed that his strength lies in preparation for changes of that nature and planning for increased housing needs and economic development strategies. He described his leadership style as “management by walking around,” knowing the departments and effectively communicating.”

Trust me, planning for change and preparation for growth is something the entirety of Florida’s “Fun Coast” could benefit from, and it appears Palm Coast may have lost a true asset in Mr. Smith.

As residents of The Lost City of Deltona and now Palm Coast can attest, instability and dysfunction have profound civic consequences.  According to the Observer’s report, “Thirty-eight candidates applied for the Palm Coast position.

Meanwhile, in similarly sized Palm Bay, 114 candidates applied for the position of city manager, which most recently paid about $260,000…” 

In an odd twist, Palm Bay recently hired former Palm Coast City Manager Matt Morton, who fled City Hall amidst political turmoil in 2021. Now, the tumultuous Palm Coast City Council are left with few (as in two) options.

By Monday, things deteriorated when Sonia Alves-Viveiros informed Palm Coast officials through their headhunter that she was withdrawing from consideration citing a “lack of stability” on the city council.  

She isn’t wrong…

According to reports, the remaining candidates are Paul Trombino and Richard Hough, neither of which have served as a city manager before.  

Unfortunately, it now appears any candidate worth their salt would rather work in a Bangladeshi coal mine than suffer through the external influence, self-serving agendas, and political intrigue that have so horribly compromised Palm Coast governance…

And Another Thing!

In July 2024, those self-described “fiscal conservatives” on the Volusia County Council once again dipped into voter approved ECHO funds – adding approximately $10 million in “direct county expenditures” (read: “It’s our piggybank and we take what we want”) – to include $3.5 million for Councilman Don Dempsey’s self-indulgent motocross facility…

In my view, shoehorning the pet projects of council members while supplanting recurring repair and replacement expenditures for existing infrastructure with funds earmarked for new grants by wrapping it in bureaucratese and shoving it down our throats is not a compliant use of these tax dollars.

It’s bait-and-switch sneak thievery…

Most responsible governments (without a slimy tax supported slush fund at their disposal) properly budget for asset repair and replacement obligations each year. In Volusia County, senior staff simply craft a narrative that fits within the ballot language that was used to convince voters to renew the ECHO and Forever programs.   

Rather than justify the expenditure in a competitive process with other public and non-profit applicants, the County of Volusia simply reaches into the pot of money using an obscure 2020 resolution passed by the Volusia County Council authorizing the ballot initiative and permitting the council to use ECHO funds for “direct county expenditure for County government projects or by grants-in-aid awards.”

I’ve said this before, but when I voted to extend the ECHO and Forever programs, I had no idea that those dollars would ultimately be used for “cultural and historic” amenities like repairing long neglected beach ramps, walkovers, and docks, renovating public restrooms and parking lots at county facilities, or building a multi-million-dollar motocross facility to eliminate overhead for a yet to be identified for-profit motorsports contractor.  

In my view, the premeditated shim-sham Director of Community Services Director Dr. Brad Burbaugh is pulling on unsuspecting Volusia County taxpayers to misappropriate Volusia Forever funds – tax dollars earmarked for the purchase of conservation land to protect Volusia County’s biodiversity – should be stopped. 

Now.

At their September 2024 meeting – without being told the site was being purchased for Dempsey’s motocross facility – the Volusia Forever Advisory Committee was merely asked to use suitability criteria to determine if wetlands located on the property being considered off State Road 44 made the parcel eligible for further consideration.  

According to a sparse application filed by the property owner, when asked to “Briefly explain why this parcel(s) should be considered as eligible for purchase in the Volusia Forever Land Acquisition Program,” the company simply responded:

“You called us to buy it.”

You read that right. 

It is now chillingly apparent that Dr. Burbaugh went property shopping with our money to find a suitable location for Councilman Dempsey’s motocross track – then used carefully crafted smoke-and-mirrors to sneak it past the appropriations requirements of Volusia Forever…   

That’s wrong.

Trust in government is essential in a functioning democracy, and public confidence in those we elect and appoint to represent our best interests forms the foundation of good governance.  

If this cheap deception is permitted, it will cement the “business as usual” skepticism that has destroyed public trust in county government, and it will become perfectly acceptable for senior staff to quibble resolutions, twist ballot language, and stretch programmatic intent to shoehorn anything and everything they wish.

Including the pet personal projects of sitting politicians or their influential cronies…

In my view, those machinations are what destroyed the credibility of the Volusia ECHO and Forever programs before – and why the Volusia County Council still suffers from the stigma of the “trust issue” that has left us the disheveled civic laughingstock for the remainder of Central Florida. 

The ECHO and Forever funding for the incongruous purchase of land for “conservation and outdoor motorized recreation” – along with the long-delayed discussion of permitting driving on the now closed section of the beach from International Speedway Boulevard to Auditorium Boulevard in Daytona Beach – will come before the Volusia County Council next Tuesday.

The fun begins at 4:00pm in the Volusia County Council Chambers in DeLand.

You might want to be there for this one… 

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!

Hi, kids!

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

Belvedere Terminals – A Case Study in Confusion and Incompetence

It’s someone else’s problem now. 

Great…

I hate to be a turd in the proverbial punchbowl – and the good people of Ormond Beach and beyond who fought hard against the Belvedere Terminals facility on Hull Road have every right to celebrate this rare and important win – but I believe if you seek good governance in your own hometown, you should want good governance everywhere.

When it comes to the fumbling machinations of government, sometimes I wonder if the right hand really knows what the left is doing – or if the disconnect between the bureaucracy and the elected officials is so wide that things happen in spite of our representatives, not because of them?

For instance, during the summer of 2023, Ormond Beach residents were stupefied by an article in The Daytona Beach News-Journal reporting plans to build a 20-million-gallon bulk fuel storage farm as part of a hub-and-spur distribution network that would have seen dangerous petroleum products delivered by rail, stored in massive above ground tanks, and distributed by a steady 24/7 stream of tanker trucks on two-lane Hull Road.

It was a massive blow to public confidence as the community was galvanized by the stark realization that our elected officials in Volusia County and Ormond Beach were just as clueless as the rest of us frightened rubes – made to look like flummoxed fools by their senior staff – without any repercussions or accountability. 

As the news swept the region, concerned residents appeared in the Volusia County Council chambers and packed Ormond Beach City Commission meetings as residents mobilized to express their growing outrage against what many rightfully saw as a direct threat to our environment, property values, physical safety, and quality of life.

Of course, our elected officials wrung their hands and fretted over what could be done to oppose the project as residents demanded to know why city and county officials failed to warn them of the clear and present danger. 

In the absence of a strategic response, stern letters were written, and fingers were pointed, but no one seemed to know how to extricate the community from the situation.

Then taxpayers learned the deck had been statutorily stacked against them in favor of a bulk fuel supplier with no experience building or operating terminals and Grupo México – the foreign company with a history of environmental concerns who owns the Florida East Coast Railroad.

What followed was a textbook example of how government reacts when it gets caught flatfooted – and we all knew it wouldn’t be long before some government entity started throwing our money at the problem…   

When the grim news came that there was little, if anything, anyone could do to stop the terminal if Belvedere pushed the issue, rather than find a way to legally prevent the facility in the most inappropriate place on the Eastern Seaboard – or stop corporate “property rights” from trumping public safety – in 2024, the Florida legislature allocated $10 million in public funds to “incentivize” the project, so long as it was located anywhere but Ormond Beach…

There was speculation that some of Volusia County’s heaviest political hitters were involved behind the scenes, and some suggested the facility would ultimately be moved to a location near Oak Hill.  Then came a plan for the citizens of Ormond Beach to share some $100,000 in legal expenses with a company located near the site – and the cowardly rejection of a moratorium by the Volusia County Council amid the specter of a Bert J. Harris Act suit.

Then, an eerie quiet as Belvedere Terminals went silent…  

Last week, news broke that the massive fuel depot will be built on a 78-acre site off Palm Coast’s Peavy Grade – immediately adjacent to the city’s Water Treatment Plant 3 on U.S. 1. – which, according to a city website, contains some twenty potable water wells… 

According to a report in FlaglerLive!:

“The $75 million to $80 million capital investment locally will result in a half dozen fuel tanks with a total capacity of 300,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel storage, or 12.6 million gallons–the equivalent of 17 water towers like Palm Coast’s off I-95.

A 125-car train will deliver the fuel to the facility, emptying the fuel into the storage tanks about once a week. (The locomotive will be run by CSX engineers on Florida East Coast’s rail line, but the train cars, designed at the latest safety standards, will be owned by the company). From there, tank truck will distribute the fuel to stations in Flagler, Volusia and St. Johns counties, leaving the plant at the rate of one every four hours, 24 hours a day. Not including the truck drivers, the plant is expected to employ 30 to 40 people, most of them engineers, at an average salary of $100,000.

Local property tax revenue is expected to reach $800,000 a year, according to Flagler County Administrator Heidi Petito.”

Having learned something from the pushback in Ormond Beach, Flagler County officials appear to be taking a different tack – “We’re just giving you what you asked for…”

In a press release last week, Acting Palm Coast City Manager Lauren Johnston said, “This land is already zoned industrial in Flagler County.  We’ve heard from our community that economic vitality is a top priority, as it will help us diversify our tax base. This project will help us start to balance our tax base more evenly and minimize the burden on residential homeowners.”

It appears that without any input from affected residents, Petito and Johnston have teamed to sprinkle sparkle dust on the project and get in front of any resistance – in the process sounding like enthusiastic mouthpieces for an untested fuel distribution company who seeks to put 12.6 million gallons of petroleum within a few thousand feet of a drinking water source.

In my view, that’s a risky position, especially given the mercurial nature of their elected bosses.

For instance, by Tuesday, Palm Coast Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri was questioning the proposed location of the fuel terminal – just 1.7 miles from the Sawmill Branch development and adjacent to KB Home’s Somerset subdivision – suggesting that Belvedere Terminals pay for a site selection survey to determine suitability.

That didn’t sit well with Mayor Mike Norris, who touted the tax revenue and strategic value of having a ready supply of fuel in the event of an emergency.  According to a piece in the Palm Coast Observer this week:

“…those developers knew full well that was an industrial site,” Norris said. In fact, the developers requested a zoning modification in 2020, enabling homes to be built closer to the industrial land.

Norris feels convinced that the fuel terminal will be safe.

“The technology and all the regulatory agencies that go into approving these sites are still in place,” he said, noting that, in Jacksonville, KB Home is also building homes next to a fuel storage site.

The good outweighs the bad, in Norris’ mind. “We have to diversify our tax base.”

Feel better?  Me neither…

According to the report, “The audience applauded Pontieri for challenging Belvedere and Norris.”

Interesting… 

After our elected officials in Volusia County and Ormond Beach finish patting themselves on the back for the “innovative” solution of throwing $10+ million of our tax dollars at the problem, let’s wait and see what they do to prevent anything like this from happening again.  

With those shameless development shills Volusia County Councilmen Danny “Gaslight” Robins and David “No Show” Santiago mysteriously intent on tapping the brakes before instituting protections for the Hull Road property – let’s see the urgency with which the bureaucracy moves to protect current and future residents in Ormond Beach and beyond now that the immediate threat has become someone else’s problem…

Dempsey’s Folly Hits the Fast Track  

Waterlogged residents across the width and breadth of Volusia County who have agonized over how to protect their homes from the devastating effects of recurrent flooding – citizens who repeatedly present themselves before the Volusia County Council, then watch helplessly as the strategic foot-dragging continues – have been frustrated by how painfully slow the gears grind in the hallowed halls of power in DeLand. 

That’s why many were shocked to learn earlier this week that District 1 Councilman Donnie “Braaap-Braaap” Dempsey is on the fast-track to get his shiny new play toy approved – a multi-million-dollar publicly funded motocross facility.

Councilman Dempsey’s pet project advanced at the speed of a Husqvarna FC450 and came to a funding vote just over a year after it was initially proposed…

In a weird hybrid misuse of both Volusia Forever and Volusia ECHO funds, Director of Community Services Brad Burbaugh tapped his top hat with a magic wand and pulled a plan out of his backside to use $4,628,000 from the tax supported programs to purchase 356-acres off State Road 44 to accommodate Dempsey’s motocross facility.

To grease the wheels, a portion of wetlands on the property were cleverly designated a “conservation area” – a convenient means of skirting the fine line of the Volusia Forever’s mission of protecting the county’s natural biodiversity – not facilitate a commercial motocross track…

According to this week’s Volusia County Council agenda item, on July 11, 2024, “…the ECHO advisory committee reviewed the ECHO direct county expenditure (DCE) plan inclusive of $3.5 million for a motocross facility.” 

According to the July 2024 ECHO Advisory Committee’s agenda, the motocross facility was listed on a PowerPoint presentation entitled “ECHO Direct County Expenditure Updated Plan” – but I couldn’t locate an application or score sheet attached…

The agenda item also stated that at their September 13, 2024, meeting the Volusia Forever Advisory Committee “…used the Site Ranking Criteria (attached) to determine this property was eligible for further consideration.”

Except the Volusia Forever Advisory Committee was never told that part of the property purchased would be used for a motocross facility… 

Why is that?

According to a sparse application filed by the seller, Volusia 44 Properties, LLC, when asked to “Briefly explain why this parcel(s) should be considered as eligible for purchase in the Volusia Forever Land Acquisition Program,” the company simply responded:

“You called us to buy it.”

That’s brief alright, but we’re buying it anyway.  Paying over $4 million for cattle pasture to accommodate Dempsey’s Folly…

Yeah.  I know. I wish they would call me, too…

What? 

You thought Volusia County officials would focus Volusia ECHO and Volusia Forever funds on a comprehensive conservation effort after earning the horrific distinction of being the most flood prone county in Florida? 

You thought our elected dullards should use ECHO/Forever funds for the synergistic purchase of wetlands, recharge areas, and ecologically sensitive locations to help control widespread development-induced flooding – or, at the very least – consider passive outdoor recreation activities that everyone who pays for them can enjoy? 

Nah. 

Councilman Dempsey needs a state-of-the-art motocross facility, and, by God, he’s going to get one, even if Dr. Quackenbush Burbaugh has to use every tool in his trick bag to make it happen…

Without much fanfare (or public input), last year, Volusia County officials authorized Hunden Strategic Partners to conduct a feasibility study for what Dempsey called “a top-notch facility,” or at least the best our money can buy. 

While hydrologic and stormwater management studies continue to drag on ad infinitum, the county’s motocross consultant was Johnny on the spot, completing the “feasibility” analysis in no time… 

According to a 2024 report in the News-Journal, “The feasibility study looked at a facility with two full-sized competitive motocross tracks, a minimum of 50 RV slips with electric and water hookups, 750 general parking spaces, concession and bathroom facilities and a training facility or pro shop.”

The consultant also reported that construction of the facility was estimated to cost about $10.2 million… 

Disturbingly, Volusia County has yet to specify where that money is coming from, if county personnel will operate the facility, or if there will be a “public/private” partnership with a private/for profit motorsports company. 

During the public comment portion of the meeting, I enjoyed local environmental activist Cat Pante’s forward thinking solution that Forever and ECHO funds now earmarked for Dempsey’s Folly be reallocated to purchase the Hull Road property once eyed by Belvedere Terminals and use it to turn the area into a park with unique public amenities.  

During Tuesday’s Volusia County Council meeting, Mr. Dempsey appeared to be calling in from the dark side of the moon when the County’s historically unreliable communications system in the council chamber – which has the pitch, tone, and consistency of Alexander Graham Bell’s harmonic telegraph – once again malfunctioned.  

After putting more wax on the frayed string between the rusty tomato cans (and the clerk serving as intermediary) the audience learned that Dempsey wanted the agenda item authorizing the expenditure postponed until the next meeting – no doubt so he can be present to wallow in the adoration of his small but influential motocross constituency… 

And that, friends and neighbors, is how efficiently things can be accomplished in Volusia County government; unless, of course, it involves development-induced flooding, limiting malignant sprawl, or reducing the size and scope of the morbidly bloated bureaucracy.    

Unfortunately, their concerns and priorities truly are different than ours…  

Quote of the Week  

“This is proof, council, that we can set up a common sense program with reasonable expectations for our community members to do, and it can work,” Kent said. “This was a 36-year ban. This is a big deal, and this is part of why I ran for this seat — to start to give the beach back to the residents of Volusia County, and this program is not only giving it back to the residents, but to our visitors as well.”

–District 4 Volusia County Councilman Troy Kent, as quoted by the Ormond Beach Observer, “Volusia County Council makes dog beach permanent in Ormond,” Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Look, “commonsense” and the “Volusia County Council” are not things I normally read in the same sentence, but after Tuesday’s vote to make Ormond’s dog beach a fixture, I have to agree with Councilman Troy Kent.

Kudos to Daytona Dog Beach, Inc., its intrepid president Nannette Petrella, and the organizations enthusiastic membership for proving the possibility of guiding a recalcitrant government to do the right thing – for the right reasons – by showing extraordinary leadership, stewardship, and perseverance.

In addition, a big thank you to Halifax area philanthropists Nancy and Lowell Lohman – pet-lovers and all-around good eggs – who early in the process eliminated the “cost argument” by pledging $100,000 to underwrite the pilot program. 

Due in no small part to Volusia County Councilman Kent’s efforts, this week five members of the Volusia County Council (with Johansson and Dempsey absent) voted to make Ormond Beach’s dog-friendly beach a permanent amenity for residents and visitors.

To their credit, the program was universally supported by those elected officials present, and during the discussion, Councilman Danny Robins graciously provided Ms. Petrella with a letter of support:

“Since day one yourself, volunteers, and the Daytona Dog Beach organization has shown tremendous dedication and have proven to be an exemplary model of how a true partnership should be,” Robins wrote. 

My hope is the Ormond Beach site will prove the value of expanding the popular program to other Volusia County beaches in the future.  According to a report by Jarleene Almenas writing in the Ormond Beach Observer this week, that may be a possibility:

“Council Chair Jeff Brower said the reason the pilot was a success was because of Daytona Dog Beach and the Lohmans. He’s recently received requests for expanding other areas of the beach to dogs.

“We’ll see what the future holds,” Brower said.”

Great news, and a shining example of Margret Meads promise that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can still change our small corner of the world for the better. 

And Another Thing!

As a veteran political voyeur and a dilletante editorialist, I always have more than enough material for these weekly screeds, and regular readers know that beating dead mules has become a perverse pastime of mine. 

In fact, flogging civic issues, repeatedly harping on civic missteps, tilting at windmills, and causing discomfiture in the various political fishing camps around these parts has become my purpose in retirement.   

But some weeks it can be hard to fit it all in…

For instance, this week, former Ormond Beach City Commissioner Jeff Boyle wrote a well-thought editorial in The Daytona Beach News-Journal rekindling the tempest in a teapot between Ormond Beach Mayor Jason Leslie and his “colleagues,” something many in City Hall would prefer quietly went away.

I disagree with Mr. Boyle’s position – and I support Mayor Leslie’s right to speak to his constituents without washing his thoughts through the city’s public information apparatus – so, I wanted nothing more than to respond with a pithy quip (which, for me, takes between 800-1,200 words…) – but I didn’t.

Let it go, Barker.   I’ve said my piece.    

For now… 

Then, on Tuesday, I read an interesting article in the News-Journal that took us down the haunted memory lane that is the ongoing debacle at First Step Shelter – a shitshow of epic proportion that has now resulted in an expanding lawsuit against First Step and the City of Daytona Beach.   

My best/worst instinct was to take those members of the First Step’s governing board who still refuse to thoroughly investigate the whistleblower complaints (allegations that remain shrouded in secrecy) to the woodshed.  

Not going to rehash that sordid mess this week, either. 

But the uncomfortable facts uncovered in an exposé by reporter Zaffiro-Kean this week entitled “Daytona Beach’s Main Street hasn’t thrived for decades. That could finally be changing,” made it hard to keep my hyper-opinionated piehole shut, because this uncomfortable truth slaps me across the eyes with the same sting each time I read it:

 “Main Street has been in the middle of a community redevelopment area since 1982. That designation has provided the city nearly $150 million in property tax revenue over the past 43 years that has been available for revitalizing the core beachside area.

There are demands on that money throughout the redevelopment area, including bond debts that at one point tallied nearly $68 million. But some still question why the core tourist area of the beachside isn’t doing better by now.”

Read that again.

$150 million over the transom… 

Where?  For what?  How was the money spent? 

Qui bono?

In 2017, Eileen Zaffiro-Kean wrote the News-Journal’s infamous Tarnished Jewel series – a critical analysis that took us on a wild ride through the mean streets of the “Main Street Community Redevelopment Area” – a place that came to epitomize the historic lack of vision, poor leadership, and ineffective representation of a long and distinguished cavalcade of local elected and appointed officials throughout the Halifax area.

In my view, the work was worthy of the Pulitzer Prize.

Most important, the series brought into view the misjudgment of some prominent business and property owners who were convinced that throwing more tax dollars and lucrative “incentives” at developers was the answer to the myriad problems on the beachside, despite the lessons of the past.

Whenever public money is used to further private interests, regardless of the guise, that nexus is ripe for abuse. 

History teaches that when vast sums of money are entrusted to Halifax area politicians, a sizable portion will invariably find its way into the pockets of their cronies and political allies – and the rest will be used for “panacea projects” and even larger debt – that’s when money seems to fall through the cracks like beach sand through a sieve, making it infinitely more difficult to follow.

In the Tarnished Jewel series, we learned that former officials were unable to adequately account for millions of dollars the city borrowed relative to the Main Street CRA – and according to the report, much of the remaining revenues would go to paying off bonds for “improvements” related to the Ocean Walk, “e-zone,” and other projects east of A-1-A.

We also became aware that redevelopment officials purchased residential and commercial properties in the CRA for hundreds of thousands over appraised value – then sold the lots for pennies on the dollar – and taxpayers became convinced that there was no one minding the switch…

In this week’s article, we learned that the City of Daytona Beach plans to keep trying more of the same as it desperately tries to breathe life into Main Street.

“To improve Main Street, the city will try to buy more property it can help redevelop, encourage housing development, add lighting, install more security cameras, invest in new planters and pavers, continue offering facade improvement grants, and hold more events.”

I found that plan eerily similar to what was reported in 2017:

“Plans have come and gone to get a water taxi, marina and riverfront hotel on the west end of Main Street. On the east end, there have been failed efforts to create everything from a vastly expanded pier to an Olympic training village.

The “Take Part” studies of the 1980s, the second of which cost $380,000, were aimed at reviving the beachside core tourist area, and once again making Main Street a charming place to stroll from business to business.

The city spent $318,000 more for a 2011 plan to create a Main Street area entertainment zone, or “e-zone,” that has attracted more dust than developers.

The city has given out more than $713,000 in property improvement grants to dozens of businesses and homeowners in the Main Street area since 2006. Many of those grants went to absentee landlords or businesses that now stand empty.

The city paid for a Main Street overhaul complete with new sidewalks and planters about 25 years ago. Those sidewalks are now stained with the excesses of Bike Weeks past.”

In my view, perhaps it is time for Daytona Beach officials to come to the realization that there are some things the municipal government does extremely well.  Unfortunately, the difficult revitalization of a dying tourist area by artificially propping up a struggling commercial corridor isn’t one of them… 

Trust me.  I spent my adult life in municipal government, and the fits, starts, and difficulties of eliminating blight in established communities is not unique to Daytona Beach.

Look, I’m more of a complainer than a “doer” – it’s just my Wa. 

I figure my grumbles and gripes balance out the “happy talk” we hear from government mouthpieces who keep trying to pick up a turd by the clean end…

So, I bitch and moan about intractable problems rather than offer workable solutions.  But in my view, now is the time for city officials to consider hiring an outside professional with expertise in placemaking. 

Get the bureaucracy out of the mix and engage a comprehensive planning and design firm with the demonstrated ability to form a collective vision and develop a unique and attractive streetscape. 

An entity with a proven portfolio of developing vibrant public spaces that attract people – then implement the plan with input from those merchants who have already invested in Main Street to stimulate authentic economic development on our struggling beachside.   

Doing the same thing over-and-over while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, and civic improvements don’t happen by chance.  They begin with positive change.  

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.”

–Margaret Wheatley

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!