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:

Bait and Switch: Weakening Conservation Protections in Volusia County

Forever

“For all future time; for always.  Permanent, continual, and perpetual.  Endless or indefinite; eternity.  The state or quality of lasting forever.”   

We all know what it means…

Twenty-five years ago, voters initially approved a concept known as Volusia Forever – described on the county website as a tax supported land conservation program that “…finances the acquisition and improvement of environmentally sensitive, water resource protection, and outdoor recreation lands, and the management of these lands as conservation stewards in perpetuity.”

In 2020, a profound 75.6% of voters reauthorized Volusia Forever in an effort to protect and preserve their drinking water, lakes, rivers, coastal waters, springs, woodlands, and greenspace in the face of aggressive development that continues to threaten access to passive outdoor recreation lands, foul the aquifer, and destroy sensitive wildlife habitat.   

Trust me.  75.6% of Volusia County residents can’t agree on whether they like ice cream – but they resoundingly want sensitive areas publicly acquired and conserved in perpetuity. 

Forever.  

For the past quarter-century, Volusia County residents have seen with their own eyes the threats we collectively face in an age of metastatic sprawl – perpetuated by a transactional political scheme – based on the shady concept of quid pro quo, “something for something.”

Now, several of those compromised shills that comprise the Volusia County Council of Cowards wants to arbitrarily change the rules on us.

Earlier this month, during a goal setting workshop Councilman Don Dempsey – who has spent the bulk of his term ramrodding his pet multi-million-dollar motorcross facility on land purchased with Volusia Forever and ECHO funds – said he wants to revisit the concept of “forever” and “perpetuity,” using the nonsensical argument that 75.6% of Volusia voters didn’t understand what we were voting for…

Bullshit.

According to an article by Al Everson writing in the West Volusia Beacon last week:

“Council Member Don Dempsey, for his part, urged his colleagues to consider time limits and the effects of use constraints on land set aside for conservation, and purchased with Volusia Forever dollars, as well as funds from state or federal agencies. Some uses and in-perpetuity clauses, he noted, are written into the covenants of land acquisitions, and such provisions.

“The voters never voted to make it in perpetuity,” Dempsey said. “Imagine 100 years from now we want to do a commercial well. … We’re basically making half of our county off-limits. … Farmers 100 years from now cannot water their crops.”

To borrow a phrase from big Jeffrey Lebowski, What in God’s holy name is he blathering about? 

In my view, there is something inherently deceitful about a self-serving politician – one with a history of working to weaken growth management measures and facilitate more, more, more sprawl – who presumes to tell me what I did or did not vote for when I cast my ballot. 

The condescending tactic raises its ugly head every time an elected official/special interest (the two terms are now interchangeable) decides they want to change a voter approved initiative that now impinges on their ability to get fatter.  

So, they quibble the nuances of ballot language, tell a few scary stories of potential unintended consequences, before finally claiming voters were too stupid to understand what they were voting for…

In my view, Councilman Don Dempsey and his bobble-head cohorts – Councilman Danny “Gaslight” Robins and Councilman David “No Show” Santiago – seek to weaken conservation efforts by questioning the appropriateness of certain parcels, insinuating the potential for abuse by property owners (something that wasn’t a concern when Dempsey’s motorcross acquisition was being considered), and opposing the issuance of bonds to finance the purchase of identified conservation lands.  

Why?  Good question…

According to a December 2025 article in the Ormond Beach Observer:

“In the Volusia Forever ballot initiative, it was stated that the county would borrow money through bonds to purchase land acquisitions, Volusia County Council Chair Jeff Brower said. Staff also explained that the council’s preliminary authorization on bonds would allow the money to be available when a purchase is approved.

Councilman Don Dempsey disagreed with this approach.

“I don’t like the fact that we can borrow into the future to buy more conservation land,” he said. “We’re already number two in the state. It scares me that we’re rushing towards a 50% acquisition rate, that we are going to basically encumber half of the property in the county.”

Robins agreed with Dempsey and Santiago.

“What I don’t want to see is take a good program like this and use it as the easy way out to not put in a development application because people don’t want to go through the squeaky wheels and deal with the development application in unincorporated Volusia,” Robins said. “I’m not saying I’ve seen it happen, but I do have ears and I’ve heard certain things like, ‘Hey, this is an easier way to do it, to get paid and stuff.'”

Per usual, Robins’ logic is clear as nutrient clogged mud in a Volusia County estuary.

What “Gaslight” Robins fails to mention is Volusia Forever has an extensive application process – which includes land evaluation and appraisal – along with a citizen advisory committee and staff reviews that guide the program, determine appropriate acquisitions, and recommend those properties to the Volusia County Council for consideration.

In addition, since the program’s renewal in 2020, Volusia Forever has successfully partnered with various state and federal organization, and the St. Johns Water Management District, to leverage tax dollars resulting in $4.00 from partner match funds for every $1.00 in taxpayer investment.  

Regardless, now that manipulating Volusia Forever is an official “goal” of the Volusia County Council, I’m told the discussion may come before the council in February.  That gives concerned citizens ample time to consider the true motivations of Councilmen Dempsey, Robins, and Santiago, then let their voices be heard.    

Why do you think these dull tools of development interests want to manipulate Volusia County residents into second-guessing why they taxed themselves to protect environmentally sensitive conservation lands from being churned into a muddy miasma to facilitate their greed-crazed ‘growth at all costs’ strategy? 

In my view, this bait-and-switch shim-sham will result in even more loss of the public’s trust – the same suspicion and doubt that resulted in Volusia County voters overwhelmingly nixing a shady sales tax increase ostensibly earmarked for transportation infrastructure…   

Regardless, these political sock puppets have repeatedly demonstrated they do not represent your interests or mine – and it is time to reject their unscrupulous horseshit once again. 

We know what we voted for.    

The people have spoken.  Twice.

Leave Volusia Forever and ECHO alone.    

Replacing Secrecy with Commonsense at Volusia County Schools

“I’m right and you’re wrong, I’m big and you’re small, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

— Narcissistic Headmistress Agatha Trunchbull in Roald Dahl’s Matilda

The operative ethic in the administration of Volusia County Schools is loose lips sink ships – and shady school administrators…

Unguarded discourse outside the confines of a professional spinmeister’s pap and fluff is never tolerated – and no expense will be spared when the district sees the need to defend Superintendent Carmen Balgobin’s subjective edicts from external scrutiny.

In fact, controlling the narrative and silencing contrary opinions has become the overriding focus of Superintendent Balgobin and her dwindling “cabinet” of obsequious drones – a well-crafted and intensely protected storyline (with Balgobin as the heroine) that has captivated the majority of our so-called “independent oversight” on the Volusia County School Board. 

Those sycophantic elected officials who prefer to rubber stamp the administration’s whims and wishes rather than question their purpose, expense, or legality…

For instance, last year, School Board member Donna Brosemer was shocked to learn some 110 non-instructional staff members had been directed to sign a non-disclosure agreement by the Balgobin administration – an overbroad gag order that silenced the release of information specifically made public by Florida’s open records law – something many saw as a means of bureaucratically silencing those who accept public funds to serve in the public interest.

To her credit, Ms. Brosemer didn’t take “shut up and know your role” for an answer – and she wasn’t intimidated by nasty glances and swipes from her “colleagues” – spending her own money to fight for her constituents by personally funding an independent review by outside counsel, all while being billed by the very administration she was elected to oversee to obtain public record requests.

The attorney hired by Ms. Brosemer came to a legal determination that the NDA was most likely “void, illegal and unenforceable under Florida law.”

In turn, the district used taxpayer funds to hire Aaron Wolfe, an attorney with Doran, Foxman, Sims, Wolfe & Yoon of Daytona Beach, to defend Volusia County School’s Attorney Gilbert Evans’ opinion that the Balgobin NDA was somehow legal and constitutional, even when employed by a tax supported entity subject to Florida’s open records law…

Now, after spending untold public funds to defend the controversial (and possibly unconstitutional) non-disclosure agreements, we learn that Volusia County Schools have now dropped Balgobin’s Code of Silence in favor of simply updating standards of conduct for district employees after the NDA’s “sunsetted” in December 2025.

Essentially, the policy requires that employees having access to “sensitive and confidential” information are required to “safeguard such information and must not disclose it outside the scope of their official responsibilities.”  Anyone found to have violated the policy will be subject to disciplinary action, including criminal prosecution.

The policy was last updated in 2002… 

According to a report by Jarleene Almenas writing in the Ormond Beach Observer, “I’m happy to know that, ” said School Board member Donna Brosemer, who was a vocal critic of the NDAs last year. “I had understood also that the purpose of this language was to accommodate the concerns that the NDA was intended to address.”

Of course, there was some quibbling over wording – but it appears that after a costly fight to prove Ms. Brosemer wrong – and, by bureaucratic validation, that Superintendent Balgobin was right – at the end of the day, a commonsense policy tweak was all it took to bring the controversy to a close. 

On January 9, Ormond Beach’s own Senator Tom Leek filed SB 1620, a bill which would provide members of school boards with a Bill of Rights – including the ability to review district documents, seek information from staff without begging the superintendent’s permission, a specific prohibition on nepotism, and a ban on requiring or incentivizing any district employee from signing a non-disclosure agreement.

Sen. Leek’s bill is among the best legislation of this miserable session.

In my view, the bill validates Ms. Brosemer’s concerns.  More important, it protects School Board members who act in good faith to address controversial issues, provide oversight and accountability, and speak the independent truth to their constituents.

With luck, these legislative protections will put an end to the “Balgobin Way” – a terribly expensive and lopsided strategy that employs the full might of a tax supported behemoth to defend her monarchical decrees. 

Quote of the Week

“Councilman Troy Kent posed an interesting question today. He asked why citizens should trust their government.

It’s a fair question—and one a lot of people are asking. Troy meant it rhetorically, but since he raised it, let’s talk about it.

Why should residents trust a county government that is actively working to defund voter-approved conservation programs that passed with nearly 80% support?

Why trust a county government that eliminates all arts funding under the banner of “austerity,” while simultaneously appropriating ten times that amount for a motocross track and other pet projects?

Why trust a county government that cuts lifeguards and other public safety services?

Why trust a county government that silences citizens when it comes to development decisions that directly impact their homes, water, and quality of life?

Why trust a county government that won’t even defend its own home-rule authority—choosing instead to tuck tail rather than stand up to Tallahassee overreach?

On this one point, I actually agree with Councilman Kent: why should we trust them?

Especially when the same officials criticizing government waste are cashing not one—but two—taxpayer-funded paychecks every month.

Three county council seats are up for election this year. Accountability matters.”

–Volusia County Council District 3 Candidate Bryon White, writing in the Facebook forum, “Slow the Growth Volusia,” Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Whether you support Bryon White’s candidacy or not – his social media post was spot-on.

The man ain’t lying…

During Tuesday’s Volusia County Council meeting, the always meanspirited Councilman David “No Show” Santiago clenched his tiny fists and openly threatened a Volusia ECHO advisory board member (read: engaged citizen) who dared to share his perspective regarding a proposed strategic plan for the tax supported program.

According to the member’s communication with the council, he clarified that the Committee only reviewed a preliminary spreadsheet, not the final recommendations of the ECHO Vision 2040 Strategic Plan.  At least one member of the board disagreed and stood before the Council to share her own interpretation of the process, and the lack of objections during previous board meetings.  

In turn, Brad Burbaugh, director of Volusia County’s Community Services Department, which includes the Volusia ECHO program, described the Santiago pushed kerfuffle as a “mischaracterization.”

In my experience, differences of opinion and skewed personal perceptions happen.  In fact, the competition of ideas is what makes advisory committees so important to the legislative process.

Not in Volusia County…

Without due process or formal investigation, speaking from the dais, Councilman Santiago branded the civically involved committee member a “liar” – then threatened to make a motion to remove the citizen volunteer for not sharing something Santiago called the “principles that he believes in.”  (That’s a hoot!  “No Show” Santiago claiming to have “principles,” that’s rich…)

During his diatribe, Santiago spewed his version of what constitutes “misinformation,” i.e., any idea or information that does not originate with those faux “experts” that comprise their incredibly well compensated senior staff – or is first sanitized by those spinmeisters in the “Community Information” office – then threatened to take “drastic measures” to silence the voice of a concerned advisory board member who took a view contrary to county staff’s official line…

Maybe the opposing board member’s view was right – or maybe his perceptions were wrong – but he thought enough of his role and responsibility to buck ‘groupthink’ and write Volusia County Council members to express his view on the process that will shape the direction of a program vitally important to our quality of life.

For his trouble, an advisory volunteer was viciously rebuked, and his character openly besmirched by Santiago – a manipulative shit-heel and self-serving political hack – who crushes dissenting opinions by eliminating opposing voices from his echo chamber. 

After receiving implied pushback from some of his “colleagues,” Santiago relented and withheld banishing the dissenting board member. 

For now… 

In my view, Councilman Kent was right when he said no one trusts government anymore.

For damn good reasons – many well-articulated in Mr. White’s social media post.

In my view, the “trust issue” continues to loom over Volusia County like a multi-headed typhon, and each time residents are gaslighted, voter-approved programs are arbitrarily dismantled, civically engaged citizens are pilloried, pet projects prioritized, and our collective voices ignored while the mercenary whims and wants of their political benefactors take precedence, the public trust is further eroded.   

It’s true.  Accountability matters.

And Another Thing!

“The county makes clear in the agreement that it won’t have financial responsibility for any future operational costs.

“The county never shall be required to make any other payment as a condition for the admittance of any person to the facility,” the agreement states.

The new agreement also specifies that the First Step building will serve as an emergency shelter during disasters, extreme weather conditions such as cold snaps and hurricanes, and other crisis situations.

During those events the shelter will be required to expand capacity, maintain safety for everyone in the building, and provide access to food and water.”

–Reporters Eileen Zaffiro-Kean and Sheldon Gardner, writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Daytona Beach homeless shelter set to get city and county funding for the next five years,” June 30, 2025

This week started downright frigid – dangerously cold – for those unfortunate souls who, for myriad reasons of insanity, infirmity, destitution, and addiction, find themselves without adequate shelter during life-threatening weather events.

In fact, last year, those of us with full bellies and a roof over our heads took comfort knowing that our ‘powers that be’ ensured the misnamed First Step Shelter – as a contractual obligation for extended public funding – would be required to serve as an “emergency shelter” during extreme weather conditions.

Once Volusia County assured us that First Step had been directed help those most at risk during dangerous weather – I didn’t give it much thought.  Then several members of the Barker’s View tribe reached out last week and asked if I knew why First Step Shelter wasn’t listed as a cold weather option for the homeless…

When temperatures fell and the winds increased on Sunday, a public service announcement appeared in The Daytona Beach News-Journal but failed to mention First Step Shelter as a winter weather shelter. 

The PSA explained that in Flagler County, The Sheltering Tree – housed at the Rock Transformation Center in Bunnell – would be open Sunday and Monday nights, with at least six pickup locations identified by address for transportation assistance.   

In Volusia, the options were The Bridge, operated by the Neighborhood Center in DeLand; with Halifax Urban Ministries coordinating East Volusia shelters “…in partnership with local churches and nonprofit organizations.”

According to reports, in Volusia, “When available, transportation assistance may be provided through Votran in coordination with community partners.”

That didn’t sound very reassuring. 

Neither did a disturbing report in FlaglerLive.com earlier this month where we learned of the changing dynamics of poverty in the region:

“Average occupancy at the (Sheltering Tree) shelter last year was 10 to 12 people. When it last opened in late December, it drew 26 people. It’s not your stereotypical homeless population anymore.

“We had two people come in from work the last days we were open, literally leaving work and arriving at 7 o’clock and leaving the next morning and going back to work,” says Martin Collins, vice president of the Sheltering Tree’s board. “Middle class people are finding themselves struggling with working class issues, and working class people are finding themselves struggling with poverty.” Others are living in their cars.”

After reading the News-Journal’s sheltering notice, I went to the First Step Shelter’s website where (not-so-shockingly) there was nothing to indicate they were accepting at-risk people during this week’s winter weather outbreak. 

However, I noticed that the “Mayor’s Gala” was prominently advertised front-and-center… 

The “shelter’s” asinine annual “we’ve got to spend money to make money” formal soiree set for February 7 at the tony Hilton Oceanfront Resort in Daytona Beach.

Unlike homeless persons seeking transportation to a warming room this week, a shuttlebus is being provided to attendees of the “Mayor’s Gala” to ensure everyone’s timely arrival for the cocktail reception beginning at 6pm…

Then, guests are off to dinner in the resort’s ballroom where they will be entertained by a musician amidst the whimsical theme “Under the Sea.” 

Swellegant…  

As questions continue to swirl around First Step’s commitment to emergency shelter operations, perhaps it is time for Volusia County – and the City of Daytona Beach – to ask their respective internal auditors to determine if the “shelter” is living up to the contractual terms and caveats agreed to before our elected officials decided to handover another $400,000 last year, $300,000 this year, and $200,000 annually for the remaining three years? 

Maybe next year, the theme of First Step’s “Mayor’s Gala” should be “Underwater: Struggling to Get Off the Public Teat and Stand on Our Own Two Feet…”

That’s all for me.  Have a great Rolex 24 weekend, y’all!