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:

Holly Hill City Manager Joe Forte, Über Alles

In my post-productive life, I’ve made a perverse pastime of harping on local politics, criticizing our distant and detached local governance, and skewering those still in the arena who make the sausage to various affect.

After a lifetime spent clawing my way to middle management in municipal government (then hanging on by my fingernails, the Peter Principle personified…), this blog serves as a cathartic vehicle to vent my political frustrations, a salon of sorts, a place to express an alternative opinion on the issues of the day, and a way of purging the guilt of my many faults, failures, and foibles during three decades in public service.

As a dilettante editorialist, criticism comes with the territory. 

For instance, I fade a lot of heat for not taking my former profession of law enforcement to task, and for sparing the City of Holly Hill from these often-bilious diatribes.  The fact is, that wonderful community on the banks of the Halifax River gave my family everything we have, or ever will have. 

I tried to give my all in return.

A beautifully eccentric place that embraced me as a young man and never let go – a city that I love beyond words. As a result, it can be difficult to see the things you love in an objective light when empathy, care, and a desire to protect obscure one’s ability to see situations through the stark lens of facts and logic. 

If you want that kind of content, there are plenty of sites that bash cops or denigrate The City with a Heart. 

Just not here…

The fact is, for the past decade, the City of Holly Hill has enjoyed a unique stability among regional municipalities.  A rare civic equilibrium seldom found in small town governments (especially around these parts…)

Having spent the bulk of my life in that beautiful coquina building that houses Holly Hill City Hall, I can say with certainty that the success the city has enjoyed – that “small town” feel inherent to a closeknit community with accessible and responsive municipal services – is a direct result of the strong leadership and financial stewardship of City Manager Joe Forte.

In my view, he set the benchmark for all who hold that difficult and often tumultuous title.

Last week, Joe called me with the news I had long dreaded – the time has come for him to hang up his well-worn spurs and retire from a very impactful civic life.  After a combined 36-years of honorable public service, he’s earned the rest… 

During a lifetime of service to others, Joe demonstrated a true care and concern for Holly Hill residents, the dedicated city employees who provide essential services, and a sensitivity for the city’s role in the mosaic of unique communities that comprise east Volusia. 

As a multitalented leader, manager, and administrator (three distinct skillsets) he guided the community through good times and bad, earning the public’s trust by breaking down barriers, ensuring transparency, always welcoming constituents into City Hall to discuss issues that are important to them.  

Speaking truth to power can be difficult, but Joe embodies the diplomacy and universal respect required to tell elected officials what they need to hear, keeping everyone on the same page, never playing favorites or controlling a false narrative. That’s a rare commodity among public administrators who survive by keeping five to seven strong elected personalities reasonably happy, often by telling them what they want to hear…  

Invariably, his insistence on accessibility and collegiality led to sound decisions based on logic, consensus, and reason, not political expediency or self-serving personal agendas.

In my view, what made Joe Forte the best in that difficult business is his willingness to listen to residents from diverse backgrounds, understand their individual concerns, offer suggestions, provide ways municipal services might help a situation, or give his own heartfelt wisdom and perspective to neighborhood issues that rarely have an easy solution. 

Most of all, I admire the fact Joe always shows up when and where he’s needed, not because it is a requirement of his role, but because he cares.  

It wasn’t all smooth sailing – but nothing worth doing ever comes easy.   

During difficult times, often under withering criticism, Joe calmly stressed the correlation between leadership, responsibility, and accountability.  Possessing the humility to admit mistakes, the strength to make unpopular decisions, and the heart to communicate in an honest and forthright way.

Using the forge of adversity to build civic resilience, find creative solutions, and foster organizational growth.

When I think back on Joe’s service, I am reminded of the best virtues of the art and science of public administration – the personal sacrifice required of leadership – the necessity of strong fiscal stewardship to a community’s future, the importance of giving credit when and where it is earned, and the essential obligation of treating those he served with courtesy and respect.

On a personal note, I am incredibly proud to call Joe Forte my friend, someone who had an indelible influence on my life, personally and professionally.  Because of his high standards and personal example of honor, integrity, and professionalism, I never wanted to let him down.

His guidance and steady hand on the civic tiller will be sorely missed.

To his immense credit, Joe Forte leaves a grateful community at the top of his game – a rarity in his often tumultuous and politically precarious profession – and a testament to the deep respect and admiration he has earned in his important role.   

Here’s wishing Joe and Dora all the best for a happy, healthy, and exciting next chapter in their extraordinary lives of service to others.   

Well deserved, my friend!  

The Birth of Avalon Park: A Real “Gamechanger” for Ormond Beach   

There used to be a favorite saying among our “Rich and Powerful” (The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s descriptor, not mine), a phrase those influential movers-and-shakers here in the Halifax area used whenever they gushed over the latest panacea project guaranteed to cure every civic ill from economic blight to pubic lice… 

Be it a megadevelopment, insurance office, hotel, or chain restaurant, we were assured anything shiny and new held the supernatural power to transform a community that had wallowed in blight, mediocrity, and neglect for so long we lost our civic identity.

These cure-all projects were hailed as “Game Changers.” 

“That’s a game changer with a capital G!” or “This project promises to be the game changer of all game changers!”

The excitement the tag generated always paved the way for the corporate welfare ask we knew was coming – public funds used to underwrite the for-profit motives of corporations and developers.

Whenever I kicked and bitched about the platitudinous label being attached to everything – from another failed hotel or now defunct eatery to a multi-million-dollar publicly subsidized “retail and entertainment hub” – my concerns were summarily dismissed by those with a chip in the game as the ravings of a nay-saying asshole…

The pathologically positive catchphrase eventually became something of a sick joke when the promised “revitalization” never caught up to the hype and horseshit used to sell the tax breaks, concessions, and public giveaways that always sweetened the pot.

Nearly a decade ago, The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s excellent editorialist Mark Lane mentioned the hard-earned wisdom of outgoing Daytona Beach City Commissioner Pam Woods.

According to a 2017 op/ed by former Editor Pat Rice, “Lane asked Woods what she had learned in her time on the commission, and she replied: “Whenever you hear somebody get up and say to you, ‘This is the project that’s going to change this town’ and ‘this is the game changer’ … Do. Not. Believe. Them.”

Like the proverbial ‘boy who cried wolf,’ eventually we wary villagers simply tired of being lied to, and the term went out of vogue.    

I hate to say it, but I think the time has come to dust it off one more time, y’all.

This one’s different…

Six years ago, “Fun Coast” residents awoke to an article by The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s business reporter Clayton Park, announcing “Latitude Margaritaville is about to get a big new neighbor.” 

Boy howdy, is it ever…

An Orlando-based developer named Beat Kahli purchased some 2,600 acres south of State Road 40, west of Interstate 95, stretching from Tymber Creek Road west to Tiger Bay State Forest with a plan is to construct Avalon Park – a massive development consisting of a residential element with some 8,818 homes with one million square feet of supporting commercial/retail space, etc. 

That’s a real “game changer,” folks… 

As I understand it, the latest “city within a city” will rely on the City of Daytona Beach for essential services, and possibly the City of Ormond Beach for water utilities.  The details are currently being litigated in a federal lawsuit brought by Avalon Park Daytona LLC, alleging that Ormond Beach – the sole provider of utility services under a 2006 interlocal agreement – has stalled construction by denying connection information required to complete engineering plans.

Last week, the Daytona Beach City Commission unanimously approved the project’s rezoning and annexation, paving the way for things to get started at Avalon Park.

According to a report by Sheldon Gardner writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Khali said he’d like to get things moving as quickly as possible. Ideally, he’d like to start building houses in 12-18 months, he said.

Initial businesses will likely be retail and a bank. The development also plans to bring in a charter school. Kahli said Avalon Park Daytona will offer a range of housing, from higher priced homes to what would be attainable for firefighters and teachers.

“Our idea is, you know, this will be a town where people can live, learn work and play,” Kahli said.”

Great. 

But what about existing Ormond Beach residents who will be adversely impacted by an estimated 30,000 new neighbors accessing West Granada Boulevard? 

The city’s main east/west thoroughfare and commercial corridor has already been classified an official “traffic nightmare” by claustrophobic motorists who are demanding relief from malignant development that has far exceeded the limits of existing infrastructure. 

To alleviate citizen concerns, Mr. Khali said “We will invest our money, $125 million, to this value and probably over time, inflation, it’ll probably even go up; we will build parallel roads to 40.”

According to reports, plans include a new cut-through connecting State Road 40 to the equally congested LPGA Boulevard.  Under the developer’s agreement with the cities and Volusia County, infrastructure improvements must be completed to meet the needs of each phase before construction can advance to the next.

Time will tell… 

Traffic congestion and already overwhelmed civic infrastructure – and the question of who will ultimately pay for it all – are why unrestrained growth, and the resultant quality of life issues, are becoming the singular focus of our local elections this year.

The fact is, Volusia County has gotten development wrong for years. 

That’s why wary residents increasingly question development agreements, including the waivers and unspoken “flexibility” developers are often gifted for seemingly small things that ultimately result in big impacts to existing residents, our dwindling greenspace, and wildlife habitat.

Compromised politicians, both locally and in Tallahassee, have kowtowed to every whim of speculative developers who own the paper on their political souls, including their laissez-faire approach to low-impact development requirements, ignoring concurrency, and preempting local growth management regulations, all to allow more, more, more 3/2 cracker boxes to increase the homogenized sprawl.  

While Daytona Beach long ago succumbed to the “shove ten-pounds of shit in a five-pound bag” growth at all cost strategy, the future of Ormond Beach will be indelibly shaped – and our civic culture defined – by Avalon Park.

Residents of the Halifax area and beyond are legitimately concerned about what tens-of-thousands of new residents and commercial space massed on the southern border of Ormond Beach will mean for our limited civic resources, roads, and utilities – and how it will fundamentally change what we remember of the character in this once unique community… 

I hope Beat Khali and his partners in this regionally impactful project live up to their promises. 

This one’s a true “game changer.”

Tomoka Oaks: Development Decisions Shouldn’t Be Made at the Point of a Spear

“You should not be under that much duress when you are trying to make decisions about whether or not they are meeting the land development code,” said Michelle Zirkelbach, a Tomoka Oaks resident and volunteer HOA president. “And the land development code is very clear that we, as existing residents, are also offered protections.”

–Reporter Jarleen Almenas, writing in the Ormond Beach Observer, “Tomoka Oaks HOA files appeal of golf course development approval by Ormond Beach,” Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Last month, claustrophobic citizens from across the region watched as desperate Ormond Beach residents gathered in a final valiant push to convince their bureaucratically hamstrung elected officials to deny a development order allowing 254 homes to be shoehorned onto the former Tomoka Oaks Golf Course.

During the emotionally charged hearing, it appeared the chessboard, all the pieces, the table, the game room, and the building that housed it all were wholly owned and controlled by the development consortium and their land use attorneys. 

In a subsequent editorial in the Observer, Commissioner Lori Tolland rightfully described the feeling of duress she felt making a difficult decision “with a virtual gun to our heads.” 

That pressure was reinforced by the pessimistic drone of the city’s legal counsel and senior planning apparatus who assured the elected body that their hands were legally bound by reiterating the serious financial implications to every citizen of Ormond Beach should they fight the inevitable…  

That left bewildered residents feeling the approval had been coerced…   

Now, residents of Tomoka Oaks have filed an appeal of the 3-2 vote that approved the development order for Tomoka Reserve claiming that, along with other procedural concerns, the decision was made under the pressure of a lawsuit.   

According to a report in the Ormond Beach Observer last week, “The HOA’s appeal states the federal lawsuit “tainted” the development’s approval.

“Without the approval, the City Commission was told that they would face monetary damages, attorneys’ fees and damages amounting to millions of dollars for which they would have to assess residents, including Petitioners as citizens of the City of Ormond Beach,” attorney Ralf Brookes writes in the appeal.”

As I understand it, the residents of Tomoka Oaks also contend the approval bypassed the city’s land development protocols, and involved substantial changes to the developer’s initial proposal, to include less stringent environmental buffers.

“The plan wasn’t the same,” Tomoka Oaks resident Missy Herrero said. “And if it was a continuation of the same plan, that plan was recommended for denial by city staff and the Planning Board.”

In my view, the citizens of Ormond Beach have a right to demand that proper development protocols – and what remains of the city’s land development regulations – be applied equally to ensure fair treatment for both the developer and existing residents. 

Longtime residents of Tomoka Oaks and beyond should be protected from inappropriate or intrusive projects in places (like golf courses) that were never intended for residential development without the hammer of multi-million-dollar lawsuits hanging like the proverbial Sword of Damocles each time they are asked to consider a development order.  

I’ve said this before, traumatic civic events that shake the core of a community should not pass without a thorough review.  An objective and independent post-mortem to determine what went wrong – and what (if any) legislative, organizational, or administrative changes could have positively affected the outcome.

In my view, everyone on both sides of this issue deserves the benefit of a thorough examination of the facts and circumstances that led to that very telling “checkmate” on a dark April night in an Ormond Beach City Commission meeting… 

Quote of the Week

“A charge from a Budapest, Hungary hotel linked to Mayor Derrick Henry and financials involving the “Mayor’s Math and Fitness Boot Camp” are a few of the targets in a series of recently issued subpoenas in a Florida Attorney General’s Office investigation.

The office is digging into the spending and financial practices of Daytona Beach city government, and the investigation has reached officials inside and outside of City Hall.

A subpoena is an order to provide information, such as records or a sworn statement in an investigation.

The city is facing multiple controversies, including financial issues highlighted by an internal auditor and investigations by state auditors and state prosecutors.”

–Reporter Sheldon Gardner, writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “New subpoenas target Daytona Mayor Derrick Henry, other officials,” Wednesday, May 27, 2026

I’m certainly not a defender of beleaguered Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry, but I thought everyone in town was aware of his May 2023 junket to Budapest as a guest speaker at something called Hungarian Summit 2023.

No?

It was in all the papers… 

In fact, at the time, it struck me as just another waste of public funds dedicated to that “Good Old Boy’s Travel Club” over at Team Volusia – and I said so: 

“Those high-flying globetrotters over at TVEDC – that redundant public/private scam that throws our hard-earned money around to bring all those “high paying jobs” you hear so much about (but never materialize) home to the “Fun Coast” – recently accompanied Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry on a junket to Budapest.

That’s right.  Budapest…

According to media reports, Team Volusia’s President and CEO for Life Keith Norden led a group to the Hungarian Summit 2023 earlier this month – ostensibly an economic/cultural/educational confab “…bridging the gap between the two countries in business and higher education.”

A similar “summit” was held in Daytona Beach last year, sponsored by something called HungarianHub, a not-for-profit operated by Piros Pazaurek, a local resident who claims the title “Honorary Consul of Hungary in Central Florida.”

Which makes sense, I guess.  

I am certainly no expert on international business affairs – so, perhaps there is a Hungarian logistics company looking to cram an industrial warehouse offering $15 an hour scutwork at the increasingly crowded interface of zero-lot-line subdivisions and gridlocked thoroughfares in Daytona Beach?

Because that seems to be TVEDC’s stock in trade…

This week, our jetsetters over at Team Volusia are enjoying the sights and sounds of Paris in Spring at the International Paris Air Show…

How fun!

How’s by you?  Yeah, I know…

Now, I have no idea what Norden and Company hope to lure here from Le Gai Paris! – but under the current process, we could be vying for a massive distribution center, a modern manufacturing operation, or a toxic waste incinerator – because any endeavor will be cloaked under a secret squirrel code name requiring our elected officials vote in the blind to authorize a lucrative publicly funded incentive package.

In this political environment, where oversight is abhorred – anything is possible…

As a result, in Volusia County, our “economic development” efforts have become a bad “Let’s Make a Deal” episode – where elected officials are asked to give away our money on dubious corporate welfare schemes with little, if any, prior knowledge of what is behind door number three.

That’s wrong.  But nobody who should seems to give two-shits.

According to the excellent reportage of Charles Guarria in Hometown News Volusia, perhaps some public good may inadvertently come from Mayor Henry’s jaunt to Budapest:  

“The mayor referred to the cleanliness of Budapest. He noted how trash is hardly seen when moving about the city. Mayor Henry intended to speak to Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony to gain an understanding of how they keep the city clean. He will share his findings upon his return.

Mayor Henry also was part of a group that toured an Audi manufacturing plant, a university and a public school. Daytona Beach was gifted a statue by representatives of the Hungary government. The statute will be on display at a yet-to-be-determined location. Mayor Henry said the Hungarian Summit “has been great.”

Great…”

I suppose (for good reasons) the Statewide Prosecutor is looking into every nook-and-cranny at Daytona Beach City Hall – and there are certainly enough questions surrounding why taxpayers floated a $1,121.06 bill from the Hotel President in Budapest, Hungary for the mayor of a down-at-the-heels beach town with an apparent spending problem…

The fact is, politicians and public/private “economic development corporations” routinely waste public funds – spending millions on corporate welfare scams whenever government insinuates itself in the marketplace.  Picking winners and losers, voting in the blind, ensuring ludicrous minimum revenue guarantees, building private infrastructure, gifting tax breaks, and lavishing public funds on private entities. 

In my view, a public integrity investigator could make a career setting up shop in Volusia County and following the money trail of public funds used to offset the entrepreneurial overhead and startup costs of wealthy private for-profit entities as more local mom-n-pops wither and die on the skewed playing field.

Perhaps Mayor Henry would be smart to print off a copy of this blogpost and send it to the prosecutor with a note: “See, this is just how we do things around these parts…” 

That’s as honest an explanation as any.

And Another Thing!

“In 1999, my husband and I built a home in Lake Helen. In 2000, we learned that Victoria Park (with all its various communities) would be built on the peaceful, unspoiled grazing land between Lake Helen and DeLand on Orange Camp Road, encompassing all directions. Can you imagine how we felt about that? Can you imagine how beautiful and peaceful it used to be?

It’s been at least 26 years of pro-growth County Councils and city commissions throughout Volusia County bowing to greedy developers that has resulted in our overcrowding, nightmare traffic and environmental degradation. The creation of the city of Deltona in the 1960s was the beginning of the destruction, and our local officials and developers never looked back.”

–Carol Curry, DeLand, as excerpted from her op/ed in the West Volusia Beacon, Letters to the Editor, “Irresponsible growth nothing new in Volusia County,” Tuesday, May 19, 2026

I find the lamentations of longtime Volusia County residents both heartbreaking and extremely telling.  The similarities in experience, our mutual fears, and the slowly evolving realization that we have been lied to by those we gave our trust, and our sacred vote… 

In her touching essay, Ms. Curry wrote of the fallacy of “responsible growth,” a hackneyed political dodge trotted out by elected officials – usually right after they approve the latest land use change, variance, or “planned” development. 

It’s a classic political sleight-of-hand – often couched as “smart growth,” or “infrastructure-first development.” 

It’s a magical misdirection that – when combined with acronyms and confusing bureaucratese – leads the masses to believe our local and state elected decision-makers actually take their enormous responsibility to ensure planned, regulated, and appropriate growth seriously.  

It’s a sham. 

Don’t take my word for it. 

Look up and down the spine of Volusia County, on both sides of the Palmetto Curtain, and see for yourself what the fictitious term “responsible growth” means to mercenary developers, their minions in the state legislature who run interference, and those elected marionettes on local councils and commissions who rubber stamp it like clockwork.  

As a longtime political voyeur, I shake my head whenever I see well-meaning people (and not-so-well-meaning elected officials) demanding that we accept everything coming out of those spinmeisters ensconced in a government “community information” office as the divine truth. 

In turn, they ask that we discount our own conclusions, intuition, and the observations/experiences of our neighbors on the popular soapbox of social media as “misinformation.”  

Bullshit.

I happen to believe that most people chose to believe what they see with their own eyes, rather than what they are told by a bureaucratically biased mouthpiece…

As Ms. Curry so aptly said, “It just takes a quick look outside one’s window to see that responsible growth hasn’t been a priority in Volusia County for more than 60 years.”

She’s right.

During election season, we frequently hear incumbent politicians pounding their chest with righteous indignation, crowing to their incredulous constituents/victims, “I’ve never been asked for anything by a real estate developer or campaign contributor!”  

We get it.  They don’t have to ask. 

Special interests know the minute these bought-and-paid-for hacks accept that first $1,000 campaign contribution exactly who – and what – they are purchasing.  It’s called a return on investment – all perfectly legal here in The Biggest Whorehouse in the World – the green grease that lubricates the interface of politics and governance, whether we like it or not.

This isn’t an original thought. 

Years ago, the question of why power brokers spend a small fortune on hand-select candidates for local elective office was put to The Brennan Center for Justice, a law and policy institute at the NYU School of Law that seeks to improve our democracy and system of justice:

“There is a growing disconnect between average citizens and elected officials.  Part of the blame lies with a campaign finance system that unfairly stacks the deck in favor of the few able to give exceptionally large contributions.”

 Sound familiar?

This campaign season I encourage you to remember: Votes beat money every time.

Pay attention.  Do your homework.  Become an ‘informed voter’ (that’s what politicians fear most).

Then vote your conscience, oust entrenched incumbents with an abysmal track record on malignant growth, and let’s elect state and local candidates with the moral and political courage to think for themselves, the independence to speak the truth, and the will to preserve that which We, The Little People hold dear.  

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