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!