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:

Cowardice and Avarice Reign in the Lost City of Deltona

With the grotesque Commissioner “Farting” Chris Nabicht now ensconced on the dais, this week the compromised majority of the Deltona City Commission ignored the will of residents, spinelessly reversed course, and abruptly pulled out of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Senate Bill 180.   

After Deltona earned widespread admiration for being among the first municipalities in the state to push back on the preemptions of SB-180 – a wide-ranging tool that completely undermines local growth management regulations and allows real estate developer’s carte blanche to build what, when, and where they want – on Monday, the “new” majority on Deltona’s dais tucked tail in fear of state sponsored “retribution” and voted for vassalage over independent governance and self-determination.  

To her immense credit, rather than kowtow to the petty intimidation of Volusia County’s legislative delegation, Commissioner Dori Howington courageously stood firm in her commitment to represent the rights of her constituents, fighting tooth-and-nail to stay the course and continue the city’s noble legal challenge to the state’s greed-crazed attack on Home Rule authority. 

In a bold act of leadership, Commissioner Howington spoke truth in the face of her “colleague’s” handwringing – standing up to the meanspirited Volusia legislative delegation, who have punished the city for its participation in the lawsuit by childishly refusing to present those giant cartoon checks for projects to deny elected officials a campaign photo op – fighting to protect her residents from malignant overdevelopment.

For her forthright stand against the pernicious influence of special interests, Ms. Howington was browbeaten from the dais by that insolvent sad sack, Mayor Santiago Avila Jr., and the strategically appointed (and forever flatulent gasbag) Commissioner Nabicht…

Kudos to Commissioners Maria Avila-Vasquez and Stephen Colwell for having the courage of their convictions and joining Ms. Howington in voting to stay in the fight.

It is no secret that the gross maladministration of the Lost City of Deltona has been a growing embarrassment for residents (and greater Central Florida) for years – a flaming shit-show of epic proportion – marked by an abysmal lack of leadership, slimy personal agendas, and a parade of ill-equipped elected marionettes whose personal irresponsibility, and ethical ambiguity, would preclude them from holding office in any third-world banana republic in the world.

But not here.

In Deltona – just like in the rest of Florida – manipulative external forces cultivate those they can control, while whoever is responsible for enforcing public integrity laws here in the Biggest Whorehouse in the World continues to turn a blind eye…  

Tragic.

In my view, if – as the majority of the Deltona City Commission now suggest – our state government is engaging in a strongarm campaign, using threats of retribution against any political subdivision that disagrees with handing the future of their communities over to the wants of mercenary developers, then the solution to that disturbing thuggery begins by changing our bought-and-paid-for state representatives at the ballot box.

Rarely in modern times has the pernicious effects of special interest money and influence become so blatant and divisive at the local level.

As the Lost City of Deltona hits an appalling new low, here’s hoping the longsuffering residents of this irreparably damaged community can encourage candidates who have their best interests at heart – servant-leaders committed to something beyond the for-profit whims of their political overseers – then vote their conscience.

The “Culture of Deceit” Continues in Volusia County

“If a well governed city were to confine its governmental functions merely to the task of assuring survival, if it were to do nothing but provide “basic services” for an animal survival, it would be a city without parks, swimming pools, zoo, baseball diamonds, football gridirons and playgrounds for children. Such a city would be a dreary city indeed. As man cannot live by bread alone, a city cannot endure on cement, asphalt and pipes alone. A city must have a municipal spirit beyond its physical properties, it must be alive with an esprit de corps, its personality must be such that visitors both business and tourist are attracted to the city, pleased by it and wish to return to it.”

–Justice Michael A. Musmanno, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Conrad v. Pittsburgh

What do you call someone who reneges on a promise?

Unreliable?  A liar?  An untrustworthy turncoat?  A four-flushing welsher?   

All of the above?

For the second time this month, in a nasty display of bait-and-switch deception, on Tuesday the Volusia County Council once again put not-for-profit cultural organizations across our region through the emotional grinder, voting to deny previously budgeted funding after another round of pompous political grandstanding.

In June 2023, the Volusia County Council listened to two-hours of public input then voted 6-0 (with Councilman David “No Show” Santiago typically absent) to continue the Volusia Cultural Council and the Community Cultural Grant program which has provided assistance to area arts, cultural, and heritage organizations through a competitive process for the past 36-years.

After approving the allocation of cultural arts grant funding during budget negotiations earlier this year, on October 7, Councilman Danny “Gaslight” Robins callously pulled the rug out from under 33 long-established local arts organizations at the eleventh-hour.

It seems Mr. Robins took offense to the fact the Shoestring Theater, a Lake Helen playhouse that has served Volusia County for 75-years, allowed a privately funded “Volusia Pride Pageant,” while the iconic 103-year-old Athens Theater in DeLand permitted an outside group to rent the venue to screen an adult only production of the “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which included a “drag show” before the movie.

In turn, after Robins clutched his pearls, and a ham-handed process of confusing motions and counterproposals – the council voted 6-0 (you guessed it, Santiago was absent…) to return the traditional $611,758 allocation back to the general fund.

Oddly, Chairman Jeff Brower mumbled something about the money going to a non-existent “road” program…   

As a result, those cultural organizations who dutifully completed grant applications, attended workshops, provided requested financial data, and jumped through the myriad hoops required to have their funding request ranked and vetted by the Cultural Council, were publicly humiliated for no other reason than it suited Councilman Robins’ shameless self-promotion.

After fervent public pushback – including lobbying by 19 former Volusia County Council members, emails, social media posts, a petition containing 2,300 signatures, and impassioned pleas from the podium – this week, the off-the-agenda discussion continued with a longwinded push by Councilman Don Dempsey to wheedle a way to use Volusia ECHO funds for the cultural grant program by manipulating the millage (?).

In what must have been a pique of guilt, Mr. Dempsey mewled, “I’m not opposed to the ECHO portion of our tax dollar being used to maybe help them out, because that seems like that was the will of the voters with ECHO.  But I would never want to take anything out of the general fund for the arts, because I don’t think that’s a government purpose, but as long as that goes in place, I think it’s fair that maybe these people should have a shot of putting in for some of that money.”

You remember Councilman Dempsey? 

He’s the one who hates investing public funds in arts and cultural pursuits that draw thousands of visitors to our area annually, yet he has proposed shoehorning a multi-million-dollar publicly funded motorcross track to accommodate his family hobby using a mishmash of Volusia Forever and ECHO programmatic funding…    

(Maybe Mr. Dempsey should sit this one out?)

This time around, the council’s self-aggrandizing kabuki focused on pretentiously preaching how “fiscally conservative” our elected dullards are (after unanimously approving the cultural grants program in the 2025-26 budget?)

After taking a few cheap shots at arts organizations who spoke of hiring grant writers, cutting children’s programs, and restructuring budgets after the promised funds were abruptly denied, a motion to approve funding for the current list of grant recipients failed 4-3, with Councilmen Matt Reinhart, Jake Johansson and “No Show” Santiago voting to fund the program, at least for this year.

Given the promise made in 2023, it was a gross betrayal of those organizations who acted in good faith.

In my view, this protracted pageant of pomposity was a sickening display of the abject cruelty self-serving politicians are capable of – to include their suggested manipulation of established voter approved and tax supported programs like ECHO – when it serves their posturing, regardless of the corrosive effects on the public trust.   

These chiselers went back on their word – repeatedly – and Volusia County voters should not forget that.

Richard Francis “Dick” Kane – Requiescat in Pace

Several years ago, I ambled into a riverfront bar in Wilber by the Sea, perched on a barstool, and ordered a cold beer.  As luck would have it, sitting next to me was the great Dick Kane and his lovely wife Marylin. 

At the time, Dick was well into his 80’s and we rekindled our acquaintance, having previously met during a Sons of the Beach fundraiser. 

In remarkable fashion, Dick plumbed the depths of his incredible knowledge of local politics spanning decades as we spoke of the absurdities, blessings, and importance of a lifelong calling to public service. 

Having spent the bulk of my life serving the citizens of Holly Hill, I was amazed that Dick knew as much about the unique history and political timeline of that small community as he did about Daytona Beach and Volusia County – recalling names, dates, the context, and backstory on some of the most famous (and infamous) periods of Halifax area history. 

It was like learning at the foot of a master storyteller with an encyclopedic recollection. 

According to a reflection on Mr. Kane’s amazing life and times published in The Daytona Beach News-Journal last week:

“Born on Long Island, New York, Kane served four years in the U.S. Navy, then earned a law degree from Duke University in 1963. He was admitted to the Florida Bar later that year.

He became the first Daytona Beach city attorney, and in 1965, as a member of the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce, he helped move Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to Daytona Beach.

At age 34, in 1969, Kane was elected to the first of three terms as Daytona Beach mayor.”

During his long legal and often tumultuous political career, Mr. Kane held various posts, to include service as municipal judge for the City of Port Orange, decades as the city attorney of Hallandale Beach, Florida, past president of Sons of the Beach, and a longtime member of the Volusia County Republican Executive Committee. 

In the News-Journal’s summation of Mayor Kane’s life of service, former President of Sons of the Beach, and longtime friend of the Kanes, Paul Zimmerman, spoke of Dick’s dedication to preserving public access to our most precious natural amenity:

“…Kane’s legal acumen served the Sons of the Beach well, advising the group as it engaged in lawsuits against Volusia County seeking to overturn decisions that removed beach driving in certain designated areas.

“One of the reasons he was so stringent about his belief that driving should be sanctified, it’s written in our County Charter,” Zimmerman said. “He felt as though driving on the beach was a tremendous economic engine for Daytona Beach, and he was always looking at ways to improve Daytona Beach.”

Mayor Dick Kane passed away last week. He was 90 years old.

A wonderful life of service to others.  

Well done, Mayor Kane.  We’re glad you passed our way…  

City of Bunnell – Crossing the Goal Line Pays Dividends…

“To mark the completion of his seventh year with the city, last Monday commissioners gave him a 10 percent raise, or $14,600, increasing his salary from $143,395 to $158,000, not including a $2,400 a year car allowance and his health and retirement benefits.

It would have been a 12.5 percent raise had Commissioner Pete Young’s motion carried. Commissioner John Rogers pushed it back to 10. “I did the best I could to cut it back,” Rogers said.

The 10 percent includes a 2.5 percent inflation raise that all employees got. Employees also got up to 3 percent in merit raises. But no one got anything more than 5.5 percent.

Jackson’s salary is now nearly double the $82,000 salary he started with in August 2019. “My work speaks for itself,” Jackson said.”

–As excerpted from FlaglerLive.com, “It’s a Great Day for Bunnell Manager Alvin Jackson, Who Gets $14,500 Raise Despite Checkered Record,” Friday, October 17, 2025

When I read the Bunnell City Commission gifted City Manager Alvin Jackson a $14,600 salary increase following their almost supernatural evaluation of his performance, I immediately thought of that old adage “Persistence pays off.”

Make no mistake, when it came to ramrodding some of the most impactful (and controversial) development agreements and rezonings in the history of this once quaint community – a herculean behind-the-scenes effort that overcame almost universal public opposition and blindsided outraged residents – Mr. Jackson simply ignored civic resistance and made it happen.

Now, Alvin Jackson gets his due.  Because that’s how it works.

In my view, Mr. Jackson’s lucrative payday comes after his ‘damn the torpedoes’ push to resuscitate the 6,100-home monstrosity perversely named the Reserve at Haw Creek just weeks after the commission quashed the project to the applause (and relief) of worried residents.

Using a viciously underhanded tactic known as public policy by ambush, Bunnell Mayor Cathrine Robinson waited until the end of a June meeting to revive the development that will ultimately blanket over 2,800 acres between SR-100 and SR-11.

After strategically waiting for interested residents to leave the chamber that evening – Mayor Robinson sprang her off-the-agenda surprise – moving to reconsider the previous denial of the rezoning application and move forward with the development agreement. 

It was widely seen as wrong, duplicitous, and horribly deceitful – something orchestrated well in advance…

The mayor’s deceptive action stunned Bunnell residents who are rightfully concerned that the “city within a city” development will fundamentally change the character of their community.  Now, many believe that while Mayor Robinson was the face of the project, City Manager Jackson was its architect.

After greenlighting the Haw Creek development, the City Commission moved to rezone some 1,260 acres to light and heavy industrial use despite public opposition.   

According to a report in FlaglerLive.com, the approvals represented “…one of the largest such single-rezoning in the state, while never disclosing to what uses the land would be put. The development and the rezoning drew near-unanimous and intense public opposition. It made little difference to Jackson and the bare majority of the commission that pushed both through.”

Most recently, Mr. Jackson kept a mysterious project known only by the cryptogram “Another Great Day,” hidden from public review as the Bunnell City Commission took action to “execute documents” on the October 13 consent agenda. 

Using an “economic development” public record exemption to keep the project a secret, the citizens of Bunnell could be getting anything from an ice cream parlor to a hazardous waste incinerator…

None of that matters. 

Now is the time for those in “public service” who are willing to go along and get along to feather their nests – and the needs and demands of those they took an oath to serve are of no concern.

When historians reflect on this period of explosive growth in what remains of the Sunshine State – a greed-crazed era that traded our environment and quality of life for more pavement, development-induced flooding, loss of natural ecosystems, and growing threats to the quality and quantity of our finite water supply – they will note that loyalty paid dividends for those willing to sell their soul for a developer’s sense of “progress.”

Quote of the Week

“For most of the 13 years the City Island Recreation Center has been shuttered, city managers have repeatedly suggested that the World War II-era building be torn down.

The once-beautiful heart of pine floors have been buckling, and in recent years the wood frame structure has been saddled with water damage, mold, cracked walls, broken windows and holes in the roof, floor and walls.

Now, for the first time, a majority of city commissioners have agreed it’s time for the beat-up riverfront structure to come down.

At their next meeting on Nov. 5, city commissioners will vote on a proposal to tear down the 8,000-square-foot building perched on Orange Avenue just east of Beach Street.”

–Investigative Journalist Eileen Zaffiro-Kean writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Daytona Beach World War II building appears doomed to the wrecking ball,” Thursday, October 23, 2025

She was a tough old bird.  Good bones. 

It took decades, but the forces of “progress” finally got their way.  Our culture and history be damned.  Waterfront lots don’t grow on trees – and who needs trees anyway?

Sad.

Under this pernicious scheme, “progress” and “economic development” often require the sacrifice of public properties which link our present to our past – and the idea of preserving and enriching our unique cultural heritage by incorporating the past into the modern landscape is dismissed as “too expensive” by arrogant politicians and short-sighted administrators who naturally know what’s best for the rest of us.

So, they simply breach their fiduciary duty and fail to act or use due care – strategic negligence committed in plain sight – that allows publicly owned assets to fall into dangerous disrepair.  

And no one who should seems to care.  

The ruse usually begins with scary stories about physical threats to the building – a nasty “mold” problem, rodent infestation, or compromised structural elements round out the tale – all while officials purposely withhold funding for maintenance of the facility then allow time and the elements to do the rest.

When the public asset has deteriorated to the point it is no longer salvageable – outrageously inflated estimates for repairs are published – and the complicit elected officials tut-tut in faux astonishment about “priorities” and a “lack of funding” – with razing and replacing the building as the only prudent solution.

Now, the fate of the City Island Recreation Center is sealed after decades of strategic neglect.

I am always taken by the fact that our ‘powers that be’ have no qualms about gifting tens-of-millions in public funds to all the right last names – with various city and county officials rolling over and pissing on themselves like incontinent lapdogs whenever our “Rich & Powerful” demand tax incentives and corporate welfare packages to underwrite their for-profit ventures – yet an expenditure to save arts organizations or preserve a threatened piece of our local history is never a “wise investment.”

“Not a core responsibility of government…”

My ass.

This staggering level of incompetence, deliberate waste, and resource mismanagement at all levels of government is not limited to one historic building in Daytona Beach.  In my view, it represents a continuing, almost institutionalized, lack of substantive oversight by our elected officials that allows this calculated course of conduct to continue.

We deserve better.

“Tu vis ta culture ou tu tues ta culture, il n’y a pas de milieu.” “You live your culture, or you kill your culture, there is no in between.”

— Les Rôdailleurs, La Prière

And Another Thing!

Last week, Volusia United Educators held a rally outside the School Board meeting in DeLand to bring attention to the district’s insulting offer of a 1.5% cost-of-living increase for educators.

The teacher’s union had asked for 4%. 

According to reports, negotiations between VUE and Volusia County Schools stopped in September when the district declared an impasse after five bargaining sessions…

In a disturbing article by Jarleene Almenas writing in the Ormond Beach Observer last week, “As a union steward for Volusia United Educators, Mainland High School teacher Susan Holbrook asked her colleagues: If you could say one thing to the School Board and the superintendent, what would you say?

Their responses? One teacher sells plasma to pay her bills. Another said she wished she could sell plasma to buy her groceries, but can’t due to the cancer treatments. Then there was a statement by a teacher who lives with three roommates to make rent, and another by a teacher who has to work five jobs to make ends meet.”

Unfortunately, it appears those grim realities – along with physical assaults, threats, statistical manipulation by district administrators, and dystopian classroom conditions – are the terrible cost of teaching our children in Volusia County Schools in 2025.

The district claims that under their current offer, all instructional staff will receive a minimum 2.5% increase this year, with most instructional staff seeing a 3+% raise.  In my view, given the trifling offer, the teacher’s union is right to stand firm in opposition to an insulting 1.5% cost-of-living increase.  

According to VUE, Florida ranks an embarrassing 50th in the nation for teacher salaries – with Volusia County Schools base pay for instructional staff falling below what surrounding counties in Central Florida offer by $5,000 to $6,000.

In a statement to the board, VUE President Elizabeth Albert said, “Your employees are working harder than ever, yet they are struggling to make ends meet.  Wages are low. Respect feels conditional and the people that make VCS an A-rated district are reaching their breaking point.”

In a horribly lop-sided insult to their dedicated instructional staff, last December, the Volusia County School Board – with little opportunity for newly elected representatives to review the lucrative terms of the agreement – fast-tracked an obscene four-year contract with Superintendent Carmen Balgobin on a 4-1 vote – increasing her base salary by 8.7% bringing her annual haul to $280,000 before perquisites.  

In addition, Balgobin’s contract includes life insurance, a medical stipend of $500 a month, district-owned cellular phone and computer, 20 calendar days of vacation, 12 days of sick leave per year, six “personal leave days,“ and a take-home car owned and maintained by Volusia County taxpayers.

A virtual cornucopia of salary and bennies has been lavished on Balgobin while questions of altering enrollment records and manipulating testing to increase school scores, ongoing communication issues, nondisclosure agreements to silence administrators, program cuts, and allegations of gross mismanagement in the Ivory Tower of Power continue to swirl…  

After that slap in the face to Volusia County educators, you begin to see why the district’s measly 1.5% cost-of-living offer is a sick joke…

According to the Observer’s report, to her credit, during last week’s School Board meeting, the resolute District 4 member Donna Brosemer – who cast the lone “No” vote to deny Balgobin’s horribly disproportionate contract – explained:

“District leadership knows what I thought of 1.5 (percent) from the beginning,” she said, adding that the board had been celebrating Homes Bring Hope — a nonprofit that recently helped six VCS employees become homeowners — while “completely ignoring the fact that there’s no number of plaques and certificates or photo ops or challenge coins that we can give to any teacher that helps them pay their bills.”

“What I heard tonight was horrifying,” Brosemer said. “So I hope that we all take this to heart and do more than just be dignified in ignoring it.”

That’s what leadership looks like, folks…

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

______________________________________________________

Note to the Barker’s View Tribe:

Barker’s View will be on hiatus – a short ‘pause for the cause’ – until November 13, 2025. 

During the break, please feel free to enjoy some past asides from the copious BV achieves at the bottom of this page.  In my view, it’s fun to take a look in the rearview mirror with the clarity of hindsight and analyze what’s changed, and what remains the same, here on Florida’s “Fun Coast.”  

All the Best, 

MDB