Hi, kids!

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

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole           Deltona City Commission

Last week, we learned that during a “shade meeting” in August – a statutorily permitted secret conclave held outside the public eye to discuss litigation – the Deltona City Commission approved an $8,000 settlement with resident Nick Lulli following an unprovoked and hate-filled social media attack by Commissioner Tom Burbank earlier this year.

In September, Mr. Lulli issued a statement announcing receipt of the award from Deltona’s insurance carrier, Preferred Governmental Claim Solutions of Orlando, after he filed a small-claims action against both the city and Burbank which claimed Sunshine Law violations and that the Commissioner made untrue statements described as causing “irreparable harm to any political, business or personal transaction.”:

“In February, Burbank, the District 1 Commissioner, wrote untrue statements on Lulli’s Facebook page in an attempt to influence the 2024 election. The statements included homophobic tropes that caused community outrage and led the Commission to censure Burbank for his actions. Lulli, who is now officially a candidate for the District 6 Commissioner seat, did not know Burbank prior to the social media assault.

Lulli subsequently sued the City and Burbank in Volusia County Small Claims Court, alleging the statements were libelous and also claiming the City and Burbank had violated the Sunshine Laws by secretly coordinating potential legislation outside of a public meeting. The $8000 lawsuit was considered symbolic in nature and only intended to compensate Lulli’s legal fees and time. Lulli represented himself and wrote the historic lawsuit which was settled for its original value.”

In my view, given the vicious nature of the attack, the settlement should have been ten-times that – and come directly from the reprehensible Burbank’s pocket…

Sadly, it appears the only ones held accountable for Burbank’s abhorrent (and expensive) conduct was the good citizens of Deltona. 

In February, the City Commission voted 6-1 on a symbolic (read: toothless) measure to censure Commissioner Burbank for his ad hominem attack on Lulli (with Burbank voting against censuring himself…). 

Last week, when reading the shocking transcript of the August 21 shade meeting, I found it disturbing how most of the commissioners seemed more concerned with the public and political perception of the settlement than seeking justice for Mr. Lulli.

For instance, it was clear that Commissioner Jody Lee Storozuk was nervous about how the agreement would adversely affect his reelection as he faces Lulli for the District 6 seat next year. 

“I don’t want to give him a penny, not an ounce, not a drop,” Storozuk said during the shade meeting. “I don’t want to give him a ride home.”

As though this was somehow the victim’s fault…

Personally, I think Storozuk (who serves under the moniker “Commissioner Jody Lee”) should have seen his political aspirations flash before his eyes last month when it was announced he was caught in a surreptitious three-way confab with Commissioner’s Dana McCool and Steven Colwell as they met with City Manager candidate David Lynch at Storozuk’s home in May.

This potential violation of Florida’s Sunshine Law was rightfully reported to the Office of the State Attorney by Mayor Santiago Avila, Jr.

Although Assistant State Attorney Jeanne Stratis recently found “…no evidence of any city business being discussed” (other than Lynch playing the role of the 800-pound gorilla in the room…) it was clear to most that the presence of three sitting commissioners and an active applicant for the open chief executive position would infer that at least the spirit of the Sunshine Law means little in the cloistered confines of Deltona City Hall… 

What a damnable disappointment for beleaguered residents who were promised an open and transparent process to find the municipality’s first permanent manager in nearly three-years… 

For his role in besmirching the character and reputation of a private citizen, rather than do the right thing and immediately resign – or compensate the taxpayers of Deltona for the $8,000 he cost them by forfeiture of the $10,520 annual salary he receives in public funds – Mr. Burbank apologized to his “colleagues” in private, openly admitting he tried to keep Lulli out of public office by subjecting him to abuse to “make him go away.”   

“I barely know where to start.  I apologize, I had no idea this would become such a disservice. I snapped when he announced his candidacy for public office, which would make him a public figure, which would elevate him to a whole new level of subjective to abuse.  And make him go away and let this thing rest…”

My God.

Who in the hell anointed Tom Burbank – who does little more than sit on the dais like a dry turd and push the envelope of Florida’s Sunshine Law with nonsensical emails to his fellow sitting commissioners – as the gatekeeper of who can serve in elective office? 

If there is anything positive to come from this latest debacle in Deltona, it is that long-suffering citizens now have all the information they need to mount a credible recall petition – and where to cast their votes in 2024 and 2026. 

As I have said before – after 28 controversial years – it is now safe to say the Lost City of Deltona has been a failed experiment, a cartoonish sideshow that has destroyed the public trust and organizational effectiveness of the largest municipal government in Volusia County – something that negatively impacts our region.    

It is equally clear that the current crop of self-absorbed elected officials are either unable or unwilling to change tack and restore equilibrium to this foundering ship.

That’s unfortunate.

Now, as always, the onus is on Deltona voters to remain vigilant, give voice to their frustrations, identify the special interests who continue to control the political environment, and support candidates with the ability to put the growing needs of the community above their own ego, loyalties, and self-interests. 

Angel               Hyatt & Cici Brown and the Citizens of Daytona Beach  

At long last, the much anticipated “Brown Riverfront Esplanade” opened to the public last week! 

What? 

You didn’t hear about the big ‘Grand Opening’ of the southern expanse of the long-awaited 22.5-acre botanical garden and “premiere gathering space” in Downtrodden Downtown Daytona?

Me neither…

That’s okay. 

Apparently, last Thursday evening, our benevolent benefactors Hyatt and Cici Brown – who, to their immense credit, single-handedly underwrote the massive renovation of the historic park with a $36.5 million investment (more than double the original estimate) – held another “invite only” soiree, this time for downtown business owners ahead of Friday afternoon’s grand reveal.

According to Eileen Zaffiro-Kean’s excellent reportage in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Mrs. Brown took the opportunity to commiserate with downtown merchants who have been subjected to a series of natural and manmade disasters in recent years. 

“I feel like this is a celebration for Beach Street merchants,” said Cici Brown, who along with her husband Hyatt have donated tens of millions of dollars to make both the north and south ends of the esplanade possible.

“She listed all the struggles Beach Street businesses have been through over the past several years, including the Orange Avenue bridge and road project that disrupted their operations, severe flooding from multiple tropical storms, COVID and construction of the esplanade.

“It just has to come to an end, and I think we’re there,” she said.”

Damn.  I hope so…

Something else I found interesting in the News-Journal’s report is the fact that the $800,000 annual commitment from Daytona Beach taxpayers “originally earmarked for maintenance” is now being used for “capital costs” – with the $2.2 million operating and maintenance budget coming from generous donations from Advent Health, Brown & Brown Insurance, Halifax Health, ICI Homes, Jon Hall Chevrolet, NASCAR, and P$S Paving.

In addition, “The Browns also donated another $3 million to create an endowment that will cover the salaries of the park manager and an assistant.”

In my view, the Brown’s are to be commended for their extraordinary vision and philanthropy – this is truly a gift to the entire Halifax area that will pay dividends for generations to come. 

Just a damn shame nobody knows it’s open… 

On Saturday, the City of Daytona Beach Communications & Marketing Division posted an inviting video of a fountain setting announcing, “Beautiful morning at the Riverfront Esplanade. Plenty of activities to enjoy in the Esplanade today.”

A subsequent comment on the post made my point: “What sort of activities?”

Unfortunately, many people I speak with tell me they view the Brown Esplanade as just another Halifax area “panacea project” – an over-hyped and incredibly expensive pearl in a sow’s ear – a mysterious “public/private” amalgam that seemed perpetually under construction.   

They feel alienated by “invitation only” celebrations and accolades for our “Who’s Who” – the political elite many hold responsible for the overdevelopment, overcrowding, stressed infrastructure, low wages, strategic blight, and corporate welfare schemes that seem to benefit all the right last names while their small businesses and civic contributions are all too often treated as an afterthought.    

Perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Brown might consider having another go at a better advertised and more welcoming – “Grand Opening” – one that increases civic buy-in, builds a sense of place downtown, shows appreciation for the community’s investment, and better showcases the Riverfront Esplanade’s beautiful amenities to a larger audience of appreciative stakeholders, residents, and visitors. 

Or not. 

Just my $.02. 

With $36.5 million of their personal fortune invested, the Brown’s are free to do as they wish…

For more information on this community gem, please see www.riverfrontesplanade.com  

Asshole           Volusia County School Board

The senior administration of Volusia County District Schools has come to be defined by terms like bumbling, fumbling, clumsy, lumbering, shambling, inept, ham-handed, careless, clueless, and blindsided. 

Add “a sad mishap” to that growing list of descriptive adjectives…

Last Friday, I received an email from a distraught stakeholder at Read-Pattillo Elementary, a school serving some 350 students in New Smyrna Beach, who attached a shocking PowerPoint panel announcing the proposed closure of the campus which has served the community since the 1950’s. 

The slide was unmistakable – boldly headed “Closure of Read-Pattillo Elementary” – and cited a laundry list of serious safety concerns, including “Roofing, Plumbing, Site (7 acres), Electrical, Parking, Flooring, HVAC, Ceiling, and Lights” and a proposed redistribution of students to other area schools, such as Chisholm, Edgewater, and Indian River, for the 2024/25 school year.   

Damn. 

The exhaustive list of discrepancies gave those who discovered the information on last Tuesday’s Volusia County School Board’s agenda concerned about the physical safety of Read-Pattillo students, teachers, and staff – and left taxpayers questioning how an active elementary school campus was allowed to fall into such gross disrepair?

According to an excellent report by Mary Ellen Ritter writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal:

“A presentation attached to the agenda for Tuesday’s board meeting originally included a slide titled, “Closure of Read-Pattillo Attendance Zone Options,” and the agenda noted that board members would make decisions regarding school attendance boundary changes for the 2024-25 school year. 

This slide has since been deleted from the document, as board members unanimously approved a motion to remove it from the presentation. No other decisions regarding the elementary school were made Tuesday.

Chair board member Jamie Haynes said that prior to reading the agenda, she “had no idea that in the presentation there was a slide that said ‘Closure of Read-Pattillo.’ That was nothing that had been discussed with me as chair nor, as far as I know, any of the other board members because … they themselves did not see it until such time.”

Interesting. 

After learning of a petition to save Read-Pattillo signed by some 1,500 people, School Board member Jamie Haynes suggested the slide be “removed,” Carl Persis made the motion – seconded by Ruben Colon – and, by unanimous vote, the suspicious PowerPoint vanished into the bureaucratic ether… 

Yeah.  Wow.

I guess if elected officials don’t like the public record as published and presented – just take a unanimous vote to avoid further political embarrassment and get rid of it – like it never even happened, eh? 

Perhaps more disturbing, Superintendent Carmen Balgobin would have us believe that the closure of Read-Pattillo has never been discussed inside the Ivory Tower of Power in DeLand…

According to reports, Ms. Balgobin – apparently without much thought to the fact the slide had been uploaded to the agenda by her staff and seen by, oh, I dunno, thousands of Volusia County residents, claimed:

“Really, this is just a sad mishap at this point in time.  The intention — and I know it doesn’t come across that way — but the intention was merely to provide an update. So again, as your superintendent, I apologize to you because it does send a connotation with that wording that it’s been predetermined or that a conversation has occurred … So really, we apologize to the community for this mishap and how it was presented, but that’s not the intention, so at this point, we’re trying to correct that.”

I think the “intention” is crystal clear, Superintendent Balgobin…

What has yet to be adequately explained to an outraged community is how this active public asset has been allowed to deteriorate – with and estimated $20 million in repairs needed – which left at least one Read-Pattillo parent rightfully claiming, “intentional and direct neglect” by Volusia County Schools.

Unfortunately, in Volusia County, the tail often wags the dog, and those we elect to represent our interests are admonished to view things from the “30,000-foot level” rather than focus on their fiduciary responsibilities to protect taxpayers from deception – and public assets from destruction.  

That is just one reason they are perpetually “blindsided” by administrators who continue to operate in the shadows, outside any politically accountable oversight, and their long-suffering constituents are told to ignore a briefing slide detailing active plans to close a school serving over 350 families in Southeast Volusia.

I don’t make this shit up, folks…  

In September, the Volusia County School Board approved a budget of over $1.4 billion – an increase of more than $40 million over the current year and still the county’s largest budget – yet critical infrastructure is still allowed to strategically rot while constituents feel their way through the smoke and mirrors for answers. 

Quote of the Week

“At the intersection of Granada and Tomoka Avenue, construction has started while other “pad-ready” development sites are available. Granada Pointe is a project of Holub Development of Ormond Beach.

Local residents have been for and against Granada Pointe. Some residents vehemently opposed the development from the beginning while others, including City Commission and Planning Board members, strongly support the project.

Paul Holub said other construction is starting on a Culver’s on the North side of Granada with an IHOP next door where construction will begin in November.

The high traffic, signalized Granada Boulevard location has great visibility. About 3.4 miles to Interstate 95, the property is open for grocery, discount store, fast food, restaurant, financial services, offices, pharmacy, indoor recreational facility, garden center, retail, insurance and medical offices with 798 feet of frontage on Granada.

John W. Trost of SVN Alliance Commercial Real Estate Advisors is leasing the retail spaces.

Mr. Holub is a long-time Ormond Beach resident, winning the Citizen of the Year award for Ormond Beach from the Volusia League of Cities earlier this year. In honoring Mr. Holub, the award nomination noted, “His selflessness and generosity are truly remarkable, and his contributions have made a tangible difference in the community.”

He has tried to allay fears about the Granada Pointe project since 2018.

The citizen group CANDO 2 (Citizens and Neighbors Dedicated to Ormond) has been the most outspoken opposition to it. Former City Commissioner Jeff Boyle is one of its founders. The group’s concerns included damage to the environment, noise and traffic.

Mr. Holub addressed the concerns of the group and much of the original opposition has calmed.

He said people need to understand the public benefits and the long process these projects take, which include meetings with many different groups. His hope is that, like his other projects, “eventually people will shake his hand being happy with the finished product.”

Past projects of Holub Development, which has been in business since 1986, include Tuscany Shoppes on Granada, and Chili’s, Applebee’s and Steak & Shake on Williamson Boulevard, just south of Granada.”

— Correspondent Regina Barkley, writing in Hometown News Volusia, “Shoppes at Granada Pointe moving forward in Ormond,” Thursday, October 5, 2023   

Many thanks to Hometown News Volusia’s Regina Barkley for so eloquently pointing out why the Volusia League of Cities has become little more than a tax supported fraternity for local elected officials – and an apologist for a developer whose “selflessness and generosity” resulted in the wholesale destruction of 2,061 specimen hardwoods – the decimation of an old-growth suburban forest, wildlife habitat, and natural buffer that was clear-cut and ground into splinters to accommodate another convenience store and drive-thru car wash… 

Remember?  I do.

In many ways, that February 2018 environmental atrocity served as an ominous warning to Halifax area residents of the wave of nonsensical and poorly planned development to come in a greed-crazed cart-before-the-horse strategy that continues unabated.  

At the time, civic activist Jeff Boyle spoke before the Ormond Beach City Commission, as quoted in the Ormond Beach Observer:

“With obvious heavy hearts, we join thousands of Ormond residents who mourn the senseless devastation on West Granada.” Boyle said. “None of us were prepared for the massive deforestation or to be told by this commission developer property rights required you to vote yes.”

He said Ormond’s Tree City designation has become a joke and that environmental standards seem to be “turning the wrong way” with the current city commissioners. He added that the city trusts them to look after their quality of life.

“The tragedy on Granada violates that trust and our sense of place,” Boyle said.”

Sound familiar Ormond Beach and Volusia County residents? 

It should, because sacrosanct “property rights” will be the same dodge used by our craven elected and appointed officials when Belvedere Terminals finally breaks ground on their threatened 20-million-gallon bulk fuel terminal on Hull Road… 

Now, what the developer promised would be a tony retail complex with a specialty grocer, posh “shoppes,” upscale retail outlets, possibly a bank, restaurant, and other amenities has sat vacant, an ugly and often overgrown veld – complete with a mudhole that rivals a Namibian warthog wallow – most mornings little more than a commercial parking lot that now serves as the centerpiece of Granada Boulevard – a highly visible monument to the malleability and acquiescence of the Ormond Beach City Commission.

Inconceivably – five-years on – much of the property (including 1.3 acres of “mitigated” wetlands) that were publicly sacrificed on both sides of the street remains empty – with a vacant lot and washed-out dirt road replacing the “reforestation” we were promised.

Guess what, suckers? 

Last week we learned in Hometown News Volusia that, instead of the elegant shopping and dining outlets we were sold, residents of Ormond Beach will be getting just another godawful strip center – a 20,000 square foot conjoined eyesore, you know, “…now that much of the original opposition has calmed…”

Bullshit.

A cursory search finds hundreds-of-thousands of square feet of retail space currently available for sale or lease in the Halifax area – much of it in half-empty strip centers – but it appears not even the law of supply and demand can stop the insatiable appetite of those who seek expediency and mediocrity over quality of life, desirability, and sense of place.  

How sad. 

And Another Thing!

Look, it truly pains me to say this – because I believe the quaint City of New Smyrna Beach is one of the few communities in Volusia County that consistently “gets it right” – carefully conserving those amenities that enhance its ‘livability’ and working hard to preserve the unique coastal lifestyle residents and visitors have come to expect. 

Unfortunately, in my view, the NSB City Commission got one wrong last week when they decided to pass over a known entity in search of the elusive “expert from out-of-town” when opting for a national search after City Manager Khalid Resheidat announced his retirement next August. 

At a recent workshop, the commission was presented with three options – to include promoting current Assistant City Manager Ron Neibert, who has served under Resheidat’s tutelage since last year – a “localized” recruitment process, or the hiring of a consultant to conduct a national search.

In my experience, one of the many benefits of small and mid-sized communities is the ability to develop talent outside the bulk and static inherent to unwieldy bureaucracies, an opportunity to know (and grow) key senior staff members – to truly understand them warts and all – then promote based upon identified competencies rather than roll the dice on an unknown commodity who appears out of the mist with a smile and shoeshine. 

After serving over three-decades in a municipal government that once experienced a revolving door of city managers – I can tell you that institutional knowledge beats a glossy resumé every time – and the only one who wins when a “consultant” is brought in to parade a host of retreads before the elected decisionmakers is the consultant…

When I read that the NSB City Commission elected to bring in an outside ‘expert’ to throw a nationwide net, I thought, “Hey, maybe they know something about Neibert’s suitability the rest of us don’t?” 

Then Mayor Fred Cleveland said he would “favor the option that says Ron Neibert is a candidate and applies, regardless of whether we go inside or outside,” while Commissioner Jason McGuirk remarked that Neibert is “…going to be the bar for me,” and “Is there somebody out there that I feel is head and shoulders or above that?”

Probably not.  Because education and experience elsewhere mean exactly jack squat if the manager is not a ‘good fit’ for the organization and the community. 

Trust me.  I have seen quality internal candidates passed over for an odd ball with an impressive sheepskin who didn’t possess the common sense to pour piss out of boot with the instructions on the heel…  

All of which makes me wonder why NSB taxpayers are spending $25,000 to $50,000 for a cattle call? 

In my experience, because Mr. Neibert is a known commodity – he will have a tough time competing against candidates presenting the best version of themselves during a stilted interview process – even though most “Managers in Transition” come with a fair amount of baggage in tow…

Unfortunately, I suspect if Mr. Neibert does not receive some concrete assurance that the job is his – he will quickly move to a community that values his talents – which means another expensive trial-and-error process for a suitable assistant during the instability inherent to any senior leadership transition.

Best of luck to Mr. Resheidat on his well-deserved retirement – and to the good citizens of New Smyrna Beach as their ‘powers that be’ undertake this crucial decision for the future of their community.  

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

After recently cutting into Sheriff Michael Chitwood when he objected to a leading question from a reporter, this week, The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s editor John Dunbar continued his one-man crusade against area law enforcement with an over-the-top editorial bashing a Daytona Beach Police Department K-9 officer who used reasonable and appropriate force in subduing a violent felony suspect.  

In my view, Dunbar’s lopsided hit piece had all the usual tropes, carefully painting the offender in the softest light possible, while demonizing the police officer who performed his dangerous duty and intervened to stop an in-progress felony crime when the suspect, Richard O’Donnell, was reportedly burglarizing a vehicle at a Daytona Beach dealership during the early hours of April 8. 

When confronted by officers, the suspect was brandishing a tennis racket and repeatedly refused lawful commands.

After multiple warnings to get on the ground, O’Donnell assumed an aggressive “fighting stance” and K-9 Officer Vezer was released to lawfully subdue him.  In response, the suspect violently resisted arrest – physically choking the dog by squeezing it between his legs, violently kicking, and using the tennis racket in an effort to injure the police K-9.   

In turn, Vezer’s handler, Officer Joshua Martin, disarmed O’Donnell and used the racket as an improvised impact weapon to protect Vezer from harm.  According to Dunbar, “A bloodied O’Donnell still refused to put his arms behind his back. He was tasered at least three times and finally relented and was taken into custody.”

In accordance with proper police procedure, Officer Martin’s use of force was thoroughly investigated and found to be within department policy and the law – and O’Donnell later entered a no contest plea to the charges in Volusia County Veteran’s Court. 

According to reports, even though O’Donnell has multiple previous arrests, he was credited with 79 days served since his arrest, and the charges in this case will be dismissed if he successfully completes the terms of a supervised plea agreement…

Apparently, rather than let those inconvenient facts get in the way, Dunbar hires an “expert” to tell him what he wants to hear…

Since Mr. Dunbar apparently has no personal experience subduing violent felony suspects, in an effort to make a point, he engaged a professional “Monday morning quarterback” in Dr. George Kirkham – who obtained his Doctorate in Criminology from the University of California at Berkeley – and now bills himself as the “Professor who became a cop.” 

According to Kirkham’s “professional vita,” that means he took leave from the Ivory Tower of academia, and “…after attending and graduating from a police academy, Dr. Kirkham spent six months as a patrolman on a high crime beat in a major American city” (?) – before rejoining the faculty at Florida State University while continuing his illustrious law enforcement career as a part-time officer with four different agencies (?). 

Based upon the dates of his academic publications, Dr. Kirkham’s learned opinions may have been perfectly applicable to Adam-12’s Reed and Malloy, but according to his website, Mr. Dunbar’s expert hasn’t been a “certified police officer” in the State of Florida since 1992…

Regardless, from behind the safety of his desk as “Professor Emeritus” at FSU, he now charges defense attorneys (and, apparently, vindictive newspaper editors) for his second-guessing opinions – a service which begins with a $9,500 retainer – and, according to a menu on Dr. Kirkham’s website – includes a fee of $3,500 for depositions, $7,000 plus expenses and per diem for expert witness testimony “due and payable at the time of my trial appearance,” $400 per hour for mediations, etc.

You get the idea… 

In this case, I would suspect Dr. Kirkham and Mr. Dunbar were both safely asleep in their beds at 2:10 a.m. on April 8 when Officer Martin, K-9 Vezer, and other Daytona Beach police officers courageously confronted a violent felony suspect, armed with a tennis racket, and refusing to comply with lawful commands. 

Yet, according to Dunbar, based on body-worn camera footage, Dr. Kirkham still has the prescience to label the officers’ actions “outrageous” and guilty of a “firing offense.”

According to Kirkham’s expensive bilge:

“…the dog should never have been released in the first place. He compares the use of the dog as having the same degree of severity as striking a baton blow.

“There was nothing I saw that would justify taking that dog off the leash,” he said. “You’ve got a lot of other options. You want to de-escalate the situation.”

He recommended a “tactical disengagement.” Back up get out of reach proximity and call for back-up. Keep caustic spray handy and utilize the Taser if necessary. As for the tennis racket?

“There are situations where you can improvise but this ain’t one of them,” Kirkham said.”

My ass. 

I certainly don’t hold myself out as an “expert” – but during over three-decades in law enforcement and the course of hundreds of felony arrests, I never had the luxury of a “tactical disengagement” – running “out of reach proximity” and keeping “caustic spray” handy while an armed suspect presumably chased me around the Maypole…

In my view, that “could’ve, should’ve, would’ve” bullshit might work in the cloistered halls of academia, but it’s dangerous when confronting an armed, aggressive, and actively resisting suspect in a dimly lit alley at 2:10 a.m…

In my view, most people are smart enough to see through the asinine opinion of an egghead with six months full-time experience in law enforcement – and, once again, Mr. Dunbar doesn’t do himself, or the News-Journal, any favors by thinking it provocative to use what remains of our hometown newspaper as a platform to launch repeat attacks on Volusia County law enforcement…

The fact is Volusia County and its municipalities have some of the finest law enforcement officers anywhere. I can state that as a fact, having personally served with many of them – men and women who serve grateful communities with honor, integrity, and courage.

Sadly, Mr. Dunbar’s attempts to sensationalize the realities of policework looks like what it is – desperation…

As the bow of the S.S. News-Journal continues its inexorable slide beneath the waves of a dwindling readership, perhaps Mr. Dunbar should realize that the vast majority of law-abiding citizens everywhere are growing weary of being victimized by an increasingly violent criminal element who have turned the streets of many American cities into a dystopian wasteland – and social engineers who have gutted our criminal justice system and vilified law enforcement.   

Not here.   Not yet. 

In Volusia County, the brave men and women of law enforcement are out there now, boldly holding the thin line between the rule of law and anarchy – willingly placing themselves in harm’s way – and paying the price of protecting your family and mine from oppression and victimization with their blood, sweat, and tears.

In my view, their extraordinary dedication and personal sacrifice in service to others is well deserving of our admiration and support. 

Hi, kids!

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

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole           Volusia County Manager George “The Wreck” Recktenwald

I hate to point out the obvious, but Volusia County government is suffering a serious credibility problem, made worse by a new bureaucratic mouthpiece who blatantly spins fabrications with arrogant confidence in some misguided attempt to divert attention from the multifaceted issues facing our elected and appointed officials in DeLand.

Last week, we learned in a report by Sheldon Gardner writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal that former Corrections Director Mark Flowers has now filed an amended lawsuit against County Manager George “The Wreck” Recktenwald, Public Protection Director Mark Swanson, and county government alleging First Amendment violations, retaliation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and interference with the Family and Medical Leave Act. 

This ugly shitshow came to light last year and quickly dissolved into serious accusations and counteraccusations of misconduct and maladministration between Flowers and Volusia County – an internecine brawl which exposed dangerous conditions at Volusia County jail facilities that continue on Swanson and Recktenwald’s watch.  

So far, the only one held accountable has been Mark Flowers…     

According to the report, “Flowers raised concerns about an alleged use of excessive force by corrections officers in April of 2022. Inmate Justin Caruthers said he was “pummeled,” slammed against a wall and the floor and injured. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation and state attorney’s office review led to no charges against the officers.

The lawsuit says that after Flowers raised concerns about the incident the county took away his job duties and had him work from a conference room instead of his office. The county fired him in January after placing him on administrative leave.

According to the lawsuit, the county’s “retaliatory actions in response to Plaintiff’s protected expressions were motivated by Plaintiff’s protected speech.”

The Caruthers incident wasn’t the only issue, according to the document. Flowers heard that corrections officers used excessive force in other incidents while he was on medical leave for a cancer diagnosis “and nothing was being done to stop it.”

Then, on Tuesday, a dozen courageous Volusia County correctional officers stood boldly before the Volusia County Council to report unsafe practices with harrowing stories of improvised weapons, violent encounters with inmates, chronic understaffing, recruitment and retention issues, historically low morale, mental abuse by inmates “and the administration,” stressed inmates who remain locked in their cells up to 18-hours a day – a deteriorating situation described by one officer as a “recipe for disaster – waiting for someone to die…”

Inconceivably, just days before, Community Information Director Michael Ryan couched the allegations contained in the amended Flower’s suit in a much different light:

“County spokesman Michael Ryan said in an email that the corrections system operates “at the highest levels of professionalism and safety in the interest of all inmates, officers, and civilian employees…”

My God. 

After months of horror stories emerging from the cloistered confines of Volusia County Corrections – including firsthand accounts by dangerously overworked and understaffed corrections personnel who have repeatedly come before the Volusia County Council to warn of a potential disaster in the making – this shill has the unmitigated gall to ignore those cries for help and paint things as “safe and professional”? 

Really? 

As concerns continue to mount, Director Ryan had no problem cutting into Flowers in the media, openly opining on unresolved personnel issues, besmirching his professional reputation, and defending his bosses with blame-shifting, distortion, and defensive projection. 

What does this scorched earth HR strategy say to current Volusia County employees who do not have a highly paid mouthpiece to give their side of the story in the media when they get sideways with the administration?

And what will Ryan’s public obliteration of Mr. Flower’s character and reputation ultimately cost We, The Little People who pay the bills? 

“Flowers, 60, of Volusia County, started working for the county in 2014 and became acting corrections director in 2016. He had more than 30 years of corrections experience when he began working for Volusia County and served as the director of Standards and Accreditation for the American Correctional Association from 2006 – 2009, according to the lawsuit.

County officials said Flowers’ termination was not about retaliation but rather about performance issues and leadership concerns. Swanson’s notice of dismissal to Flowers said he lost the support of many of the correctional officers at the jail.

Other allegations from the county include that Flowers had an inmate improperly placed in a four-point restraint, and ordered an inmate who was on a type of suicide watch to be moved without medical clearance.

Ryan said via email Flowers had a pattern of behavior “characterized by a reluctance to accept personal accountability for his actions and a tendency to attribute fault to others.”

County spokesman Ryan said that Flowers “remains reluctant to acknowledge his failure to effectively oversee his team while employed with the County. Unfortunately, he chooses to continually place blame elsewhere even though the claims he brought against his own staff have been discredited by an internal affairs review and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.”

That’s rich…

The fact is, the review by FDLE found that internal surveillance cameras failed to capture what occurred inside Caruthers’s cell, and the county’s own internal affairs investigator wrote at the time, “Based on the information gathered during this investigation, I am unable to determine if the force used against (inmate Caruthers) on April 26, 2022, was excessive in nature.” 

Ultimately, based upon the findings of the FDLE review, the Office of the State Attorney found “…insufficient evidence to proceed and no further action is warranted by this office.”

Look, you don’t have to be Zebulon Brockway to understand the direct correlation between understaffing and dangerous conditions inside the walls of a correctional facility to an increase in use of force, stress, and deteriorating morale. 

In August, corrections officers began employing body worn cameras, although Volusia County Public Protection Director Mark Swanson would have us believe the decision to add the protections “…had nothing to do with Flowers and was really about transparency.”

During the closing comments section of Tuesday’s council meeting, Mr. Recktenwald and County Attorney Michael Dyer callously accused those brave correctional officers who stood before the elected representatives to explain the tinderbox conditions at Volusia County jail facilities by describing their fervent pleas as a “negotiation tactic” – little more than sensationalized misinformation provided away from the bargaining table – once again turning the tables, devaluing employees, refusing to accept constructive criticism from the tip of the spear, while painting themselves as victims of a “planned attack.”

Bullshit.

Why is everyone in Volusia County government’s hierarchy afraid to admit mistakes and learn from them? 

Why are Volusia County correctional officers chronically underpaid and underappreciated?

And why is Director Michael Ryan allowed to spew untruths without question or condemnation from those we have elected to represent our interests? 

I mean, who is this guy?

In my view, the toxic culture of the Recktenwald administration – with the acquiescence of the Volusia County Council – is literally defined by “a reluctance to accept personal accountability” – and “a tendency to attribute fault to others” – as institutionalized mediocrity has increased at the same rate as the astronomical operating budget…

Regardless, as questions continue to mount on numerous fronts, our elected dullards seem incapable of recognizing that constituent confidence in county government is further damaged each time Director Ryan opens his mouth – and, in the midst of major credibility problems, such as the raging Belvedere Fuel Terminal debacle – that suspicion and distrust won’t bode well for those politically accountable Council members who must stand for reelection next year…

Angel               DeBary City Council & City Manager Carmen Rosamonda

According to sociologists, “unintended consequences” are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not planned or foreseen.

I am certainly no social scientist, but I have watched the machinations of government long enough to know there is also a phenomenon called “unintended benefits” – the direct result of legislation that enriches the same special interests who hold the paper on the political souls of those elected officials who they bankroll each election cycle… 

Sound familiar?

The quaint riverside community of DeBary recently got a down-and-dirty lesson on how those “unintended benefits” work when City Manager Carmen Rosamonda explained that incentives resulting from Florida’s Live Local Act – legislation, we were sold, was crafted to promote “affordable housing” – may result in the loss of a $100 million commercial development. 

At last month’s meeting of Volusia’s Knights of the Roundtable, Mr. Rosamonda warned that the developer of a proposed industrial park may allow the current development agreement to expire, then sell the land to an apartment developer.

According to Rosamonda’s report, once complete, the industrial park would have created some five hundred jobs and boosted the city’s tax revenue by over $1 million a year. Conversely, under provisions of the Live Local Act, if the property is turned into affordable housing units, the project would be tax-exempt…

That’s frightening.

Because anyone paying attention knows the gory fate that awaits any local government who dares to control the grim fate of their community by denying a speculative developer whatever their land use attorney can conjure as the “highest and best use” of the land… 

Even if that use drastically increases the population of a small community, taxes everyone else to pay for necessary infrastructure improvements, and forever alters the quality of life for existing residents…

According to Mr. Rosamonda, should the property off US 17-92 – for which the DeBary City Council approved zoning and land use changes in 2019 – be developed for affordable housing, “They’re not only 100 percent tax-exempt for city taxes but for state taxes, for county taxes and taxes for schools.” 

As I understand it (and I’m not sure I do) the law also requires that local governments automatically rubber stamp “multifamily and mixed-use residential as allowable uses in any area zoned for commercial, industrial, or mixed-use if at least 40 percent of the residential units in a proposed multifamily rental development are, for a period of at least 30 years, affordable.”

It is a very lucrative time to be a developer of “affordable housing” (or anything else) in the Sunshine State – and transportation, utilities infrastructure, school capacity, increased density, environmental protections, emergency services, water consumption, and other “concurrency” requirements be damned… 

On Wednesday evening, the DeBary City Council hardened their tenuous position when they voted to approve the first reading of an ordinance imposing a citywide nine-month building moratorium, excluding projects within the city’s Transportation Oriented Development overlay district. 

The moratorium is ostensibly designed to allow city officials time for “careful consideration and necessary changes” to the city’s land development code which have been under revision since 2020. 

In my view, once you look beyond the legalese, the City of DeBary is doing everything in their power to protect the best interests of residents, businesses, and property owners by creating standards and requirements for commercial and multifamily residential development before the potential tsunami of “affordable housing” applications hit City Hall…

How this tactic ultimately works in an environment where the legislative deck has been stacked exclusively in favor of developers remains to be seen.  But I applaud Mayor Karen Chasez, the members of the DeBary City Council, and City Manager Carmen Rosamonda for thinking outside-the-box to develop solutions to this very serious threat. 

Other Florida communities should take note. 

Although I do not expect the political insulation committee that is the Volusia Knights of the Roundtable to do one damn thing to pressure state legislators into fixing the unintended consequences/benefits of the Live Local Act – it is refreshing to see the DeBary City Council take on this David v. Goliath fight as other communities face the threat of shouldering the burden while “affordable housing” developers get fat.  

Stay tuned, folks.  Something tells me things are about to get interesting…  

Quote of the Week

“Dear News-Journal Editor,

Although I have been labeled “un-American” in your newspaper, I have the right to speak my mind just like anybody else in America.

I’ve noticed the Daytona Beach News-Journal takes full advantage of its platform to pick and choose narratives, to criticize others, and to play armchair quarterback.

Those of us who end up under the media spotlight are expected to lay prostrate, play our part and take whatever’s coming.

That won’t be me. I don’t expect glowing positive coverage of every incident or issue, but I can tell the difference between a tough story and a slanted one.

Today I have seen one too many of the latter. I guess it took me longer than most. This is nothing personal, strictly business, but the only real recourse I have is to unsubscribe from the News-Journal and quit commenting in it.

Your column accused me of cyberbullying, scapegoating, and possibly provoking people to “respond with more than words.” If you or your staff are being threatened in any way, let me know and I will immediately put you in contact with an FBI agent. If you believe I’m responsible, I would urge you to notify the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and file a criminal complaint.

I have been subject to plenty of threats, as has my family, so I can assure you I don’t take them lightly.

There are lots of dedicated reporters out there who are tough but fair, and last week we all said goodbye to one of the best ever.

We need more of those and less of the type who believe in accountability for everyone but themselves.”

–Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood, The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Letters to the Editor, “Sheriff’s response to column by News-Journal editor,” Sunday, October 1, 2023

For those who have been living on the dark side of the moon for the last, oh, decade – Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood speaks his mind on the issues of the day.

He also wears his heart on his sleeve – openly showing raw emotion and speaking off-the-cuff – something his supporters find refreshing in an era where many elected officials ‘stick to the script,’ never wavering from the ‘talking points’ crafted by some PR flack.  

As expected, Sheriff Chitwood’s tough talk is also a source of fodder for his detractors…

That comes with the territory, and Mike has proven, time-and-again, that he can give as good as he gets – standing up to antisemitism, neo-Nazi hate speech, online threats, and cyberbullying.   

I admire that. 

The fact is, Mike Chitwood genuinely cares about those who live, work, play, and learn in Volusia County – and he has the work ethic of the Amish.     

It is also no secret that Florida sheriff’s – often donning ten-gallon cowboy hats – have set a bar only exceeded by Nature Boy Ric Flair when it comes to outrageous pressers and one-liners, with charismatic Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd reigning as the undisputed King of the Soundbite…

As elected officials who must stand before voters and defend their record every four-years, that swaggering self-promotion comes with the territory. 

But knowing Sheriff Chitwood as I do, he would never place a reporter – or anyone else – in harm’s way. 

In my view, News-Journal Editor John Dunbar stretched the limits of journalistic integrity (is that still a thing?) when, in a misguided defense of reporter Frank Fernandez, he insinuated “…he’s (Chitwood) creating a scapegoat and invoking his followers to tell him “what they think.” What happens if they respond with more than words?”

Come on, man…    

What Sheriff Chitwood did was call out a question posed by a reporter – a concern that apparently originated from a local defense attorney – critical of the physical arrest of an 11-year-old girl who texted false reports of a kidnapping to 911 and defended himself after being labeled “un-American” by a “jury consultant” when he expressed his feelings on the Othal Wallace verdict.    

As is his way, Sheriff Chitwood took to social media and asked the public:

“My office got this email from a reporter this morning. The 11-year-old is the one who called 911 with an elaborate report of a fake kidnapping because she thought it would be funny. I think I know how I want to answer this question but how would YOU respond?”

Regarding the Wallace verdict, he inquired:

“I really don’t care what Allison Ferber Miller has to say in the latest BS report by the Daytona Beach News-Journal defense attorney mouthpiece Frank Fernandez. I don’t take Frank Fernandez’s calls or give him quotes for his BS stories anymore, but feel free to let him know what you think.”

That is a far cry from what Mr. Dunbar is suggesting…   

Now, Sheriff Chitwood has made good on his word and is refusing to comment to the News-Journal.  This week, he intentionally excluded the newspaper from a press conference – which resulted in another editorial from Mr. Dunbar. 

Personally, I have always appreciated Sheriff Chitwood’s accessibility – and his candor. 

He puts himself out there, engages with constituents, mixes it up with critics, and partners with the community.  In doing so, he has become incredibly popular with Volusia County voters and a trusted source of information. 

Unfortunately, The Daytona Beach News-Journal is now viewed by many as just another regionalized and homogenized property of the international media conglomerate Gannett – something that bears no resemblance to our former ‘hometown’ paper – and Mr. Dunbar is going to have a tough time changing that opinion.   

It is no secret that, like a good editor should, Mr. Dunbar has been doing his level best to stop the hemorrhage at what remains of the News-Journal, including a recent entreaty to his dwindling subscribers asking for suggestions to improve the newspaper:

“So this is where you come in. I ask you, what would you like to see more of? What needs more attention? What needs less attention? I’m listening.”

Here’s a suggestion: Pick your battles, Mr. Dunbar.

And allow your journalists to do the same.      

That means stop inflating benign comments on social media into a sensationalized “threat” in a misplaced effort to cast Sheriff Chitwood in a bad light because he publicly challenged a loaded question and a gloating social activist with a law degree…     

Reporters need access to newsmakers, and vice versa.

That starts with hard-earned mutual trust.

In my view, what Mr. Dunbar did with his editorial overreach was to alienate and undermine the important work of those dedicated reporters who bring us the news under increasingly difficult circumstances – and further damages the fragile credibility of The Daytona Beach News-Journal at a time when we need quality local investigative journalism the most.  

And Another Thing!

I find it interesting how different the core beliefs and principles that guide a government bureaucracy can be from those of us who pay the bills and are expected to suffer in silence – values like responsibility, accountability, transparency, a focus on individual and organizational progress, active listening, personal courage, ethics and morality, accepting criticism and feedback, service delivery, genuine gratitude, authenticity – those attributes that form the heart of organizational culture. 

In my view, Tuesday’s meeting of the Volusia County Council shined a bright light on what Volusia County government finds important – and it has nothing to do with you and me… 

After twelve brave Volusia County corrections officers stood before the Volusia County Council and, once again, brought attention to the myriad problems in the Division of Corrections – only to be accused by a clearly embarrassed County Manager George “The Wreck” Recktenwald – of conducting a “planned attack” as the rank-and-file fight for a competitive wage and safe work environment. 

To add insult, when it came time for council comments, Councilman Matt Reinhart – who spent 30-years in the Division of Corrections before retiring as warden in 2017 – pooh-poohed jail overcrowding and made a disheartening comment that all options are on the table for dealing with the concerns expressed by the officers, including a cryptic mention of “…bringing in another agency.”

Wow.  If that doesn’t say – “Quit airing our dirty laundry or you will find yourself replaced out-of-hand,” I don’t know what does…

In my view, it also speaks to how little our elected and appointed senior officials value the service, sacrifice, and contributions of those who serve. 

Chilling.  

Having served the bulk of my adult life in local government, I can tell you the courage it took for those officers – several of whom are tenured line supervisors – to enter the gilded council chamber and speak truth to power, knowing well the repercussions that can befall county employees who expose the inner turmoil or challenge the status quo.

Earlier this week, I received an anonymous note (I get a lot of those, about a lot of things) from someone clearly “in the know” who spoke of personnel turnover and the resultant morale issues in the Planning and Development Services Department – and during this week’s public participation period, a longtime government watchdog spoke of a chance encounter with a recently terminated county employee who spoke of potential problems in the Legal Department. 

Were these the rumblings of disgruntled former employees – or symptoms of larger problems?

We will never know. 

Because the culture at the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Building is anything but open and transparent – and no one who should seems to care…  

Although Mr. Recktenwald has come to accept mediocrity as an organizational value – perhaps it is time for our elected officials to understand that an “average” wage will no longer attract quality recruits to this difficult and dangerous pursuit – and it will not retain the experience the Division of Corrections desperately needs.

In my view, the question of “what is important, and what is not,” became evident during council comments, when the topic of where to hold next year’s Grand Soiree known as the “State of the County Address” – where elected officials don their finery and preen and peacock with what Councilman Jake Johansson described as the “Who’s Who” of Volusia County – over a rubber-chicken lunch paid for by government contractors seeking a better place in the suckling order at the public teat…

Although I rarely agree with Councilman Danny Robins, I thought he had the most sensible idea when he suggested holding the annual hot-air generator at a regularly scheduled Council meeting – a notion supported by Councilman Don Dempsey – who argued the event should be held annually at the County Seat. 

Who gives a shit? 

That seemed to be both my uncouth sentiment – and District 4 Councilman Troy Kent’s – who announced that not one of his constituents have ever voiced opposition to holding the event at the county owned Ocean Center. 

Not one.

As the timewasting back-and-forth continued, ad nauseum, proposals and motions were made to alternate across the Palmetto Curtain, with Councilman Matt Reinhart opining that the 2024 event be moved to the City of DeLand’s Sanborn Center (without a clue whether the rental venue is available) – with the collective wisdom finally deciding to allow County Manager Recktenwald to check availability…

My God.   

It also confirmed my suspicions that this annual event is an orchestrated sham when Councilman Johansson admitted that earlier this year, he was required to read from a prepared script at the 2023 State of the County Address (I wonder if he received a treat and a pat on the head for his obedience?).

However, Johansson let staff known that he would be speaking his own mind next year – suggesting that the event be more “low-key” than in years past with a “little less effort put into the production…”

Oddly, Chairman Jeff Brower (the star of the show) suggested he enjoys the “theater production” surrounding the event, and thought it was “fun” for the county’s highly paid communications staff to spend their valuable time staging ridiculous videos and goofy vignettes for the luncheon. 

Did I mention this year’s operating budget now sits at an obscene $1.6 billion?

Whatever…

To understand an organization’s “culture” – one must start by examining the principles, standards, and goals that its leadership strives toward. 

In my view, in Volusia County, outside of revisiting problems that have already been solved so council members can say “look what I did!” gutting environmental protections, staring down from the dais like gargoyles at concerned citizens seeking answers, taking cover behind subjective “rules” and policies, and grandstanding over bullshit process, there is no discernable goal.  Or principles…  

Because empty values, as spouted by out-of-touch elected and appointed senior officials, ring hollow to dispirited county employees who recognize their disingenuous “thank you for your service…” for what it is – and, as suspicions around the Belvedere Terminal debacle have shown, concerned constituents are coming to the realization that good citizenship requires active participation. 

And vigilance…

In my view, it is time for the Volusia County Council to have a serious discussion about the direction, tone, and culture of the Recktenwald administration – and what it means for their political futures in an era when voters are beginning to see through the crumbling façade.

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

Hi, kids!

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

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole           Sen. “Terrible Tommy” Wright

As regular readers of these jeremiads know – as a former member of the Republican party (like my father and grandfather before me) – over a decade ago, when it became evident that power and ideology were more important to both major political factions than the fate of our great nation, I became a No Party Affiliate and never looked back.    

Apparently, I am not alone.

According to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, “A growing share of the public dislikes both political parties. Nearly three-in-ten (28%) express unfavorable views of both parties, the highest share in three decades of polling. And a comparable share of adults (25%) do not feel well-represented by either party.”

Trust me.  What remains of the Republican and Democratic parties have no one to blame but themselves – now that the fringe elements have shouted down any remaining moderate voices – and both party’s piss away any shred of moral credibility protecting their weakest links… 

For the third week in a row, the continuing saga of the powerful Sen. “Terrible Tommy” Wright – in my view, a highly coiffed wolf in sheep’s clothing who was captured on camera browbeating and physically intimidating the interim CEO of a struggling Daytona Beach domestic violence shelter when she attempted to uphold state law and protect the identities of survivors and their children at the facility on Labor Day weekend. 

Last week, like clockwork, things took an unfortunate (but expected) political bent as opportunistic democrats seized the opportunity to use Wright’s abhorrent conduct as a cudgel – while high-ranking republicans seemed content to ignore the raging conflagration and focus on chipped paint and unmade beds…

According to a report by John Dunbar and Mark Harper writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal last week:

“Senate President Kathleen Passidomo wrote Friday that Sen. Tom Wright has made some “very serious allegations regarding the living conditions and financial management of the Beacon Center,” Volusia County’s domestic violence shelter, calling the reports “troubling,” and that she is “pleased that they are being reviewed.” Wright, a New Smyrna Beach Republican, has been accused of flirting with shelter residents evacuating ahead of a hurricane and angrily confronting the shelter’s then-interim CEO on Sept. 2, an action caught on video that has been widely circulated.

“As we have seen most recently with the criminal charges against former executives of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, just because an entity is serving a vulnerable population does not mean they are above reproach or oversight,” Passidomo continued, in a statement to the Orlando Sentinel that was provided to the News-Journal on Saturday.

“That being said,” Passidomo wrote, “I take all of these allegations very seriously. Survivors of domestic violence deserve our compassion and support, and their safety is and should remain our focus.”

Wow. 

In the meantime, the shameless Sen. Wright continued to ignore constituent calls for accountability, and media requests for comment, as he pressed on with his exhausting schedule of self-promotion – even brazenly appearing at a ‘town hall’ at the Beacon Center this week – as though he hadn’t been caught on video verbally brutalizing a female in front of traumatized domestic violence survivors and their children – or openly accused of making a creepy come-on to a then 20-year-old victim in the presence of her baby, crudely chatting about Cuban prostitutes and topless women, before offering to fly her to Las Vegas – as the uncomfortable young lady attempted to evacuate The Beacon Center ahead of a hurricane six-years ago… 

My God.

It is now clear that we live in an age when the disgusting behavior of a sitting state senator – conduct which includes video evidence of bullying and credible allegations of grooming behavior at a domestic violence shelter – gets lost in the internecine bickering of craven partisan politicians.

That bothers me. 

Although I am far from the most virtuous soul you know, I was brought up to believe that we have a moral obligation to protect the vulnerable from exploitation and victimization – a sacred duty that transcends status and politics.

Earlier this week, I was touched by the heartfelt resignation letter of Cheri Brant, another staffer who worked to protect and serve survivors of domestic violence and recently left The Beacon Center citing Wright’s belligerence which read, in part:

“All of the circumstances surrounding the Board of Directors, Senator Tom Wright and the assault on our Interim CEO have been causing me such panic and anxiety that it has been incredibly difficult for me to function.  The bullying and harassment in the workplace that has erupted has now made it impossible!”

“Beacon Center has always been more to me than a job or a paycheck.  Beacon Center helped me find the tools I needed to build myself into the person I am today.  I am put together with all the pieces and parts of all the amazing women I have been in contact through this journey back to myself first as a Survivor seeking safety in the emergency shelter, then as a volunteer giving back and now as an advocate & peer support counselor for the agency that gave me (a) chance when no one else would!”

The Beacon Center – like many domestic violence shelters – has been woefully underfunded, sustained by a caring group of employees and volunteers (some of whom were domestic violence survivors themselves) who did their best to provide a haven for survivors, despite the indifference and political posturing of those in power who should have done more. 

In my view, if Senate President Passidomo were serious about protecting the integrity of the institution – and domestic violence survivors – over the now sullied political aspirations of some shit-heel in an expensive suit with the base instincts of Gaius Caligula who allegedly treated The Beacon Center as his private Hellfire Club, she would have immediately commissioned an investigation into Wright’s disturbing behavior and put a stop to the cheap political rhetoric on both sides of the aisle.   

Angel               S. R. Perrott

I like beer.

I also like local companies with a civic conscience and the courage to stand in support of their community when the chips are down. 

This week, it was announced that venerated Ormond Beach beverage wholesaler S. R. Perrott is challenging the air quality permit recently issued by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to Belvedere Terminals allowing construction of a 20-million-gallon bulk fuel farm near the city’s sports complex, municipal airport, a child’s dance studio, and thousands of homes and businesses.

According to a report by News-Journal reporter Sheldon Gardner this week, “S.R. Perrott, which is near the proposed site, filed an initial petition for an administrative hearing with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in August, but that was dismissed with the opportunity to amend the petition. They are now making another attempt with an amended petition.

Among other things, the latest petition says that “the permit and its safeguards do not fully consider and mitigate the proposed project’s full potential to emit pollutants.”

The challenge also says that legal requirements weren’t satisfied by the public notice of a pending air-quality permit in the Hometown News.”

Since news of the terminal broke this summer in an exclusive exposé by The Daytona Beach News-Journal, residents from throughout the region have mobilized to oppose the plan that would create a hub-and-spur distribution system along the Florida East-Coast Railway – to include the disputed Ormond Beach terminal – which, in the view of many, is proposed for the most inappropriate location on the Eastern Seaboard…

As questions continue to mount about “who knew what, and when” – with senior elected and appointed officials still claiming they were caught flat-footed, even though both entities held meetings with the company in June 2022 – last week, the City of Ormond Beach took a symbolic vote to deny annexation and utilities to the proposed site.

Many in the community rightfully remain skeptical because the City Commission’s vote seemed to contradict previous statements by Ormond Beach planning director Steven Spraker, who last month reported that the city would be required to annex the property as the terminal would use Ormond Beach utilities and existing regulations require the annexation.

However, in a recent press release, Ormond Beach City Attorney Randy Hayes said the city has, “…the discretion to deny utilities to the proposed project.  Exercising this discretion in favor of our community’s safety and well-being is, in our view, the most prudent course of action. The City Commission demonstrated that, unwavering in the commitment to protecting Ormond Beach and its residents from potential harm.”

Time will tell…

Kudos to S. R. Perrott, a great corporate citizen, and the legions of concerned citizens who are fighting valiantly to oppose this potential disaster and preserve the quality of life for residents of Ormond Beach and beyond.

Asshole           Palm Coast Councilman Ed Danko

Palm Coast Councilman Ed Danko has, once again, proven himself among the worst examples of what passes for “elected representatives” in our horribly cursed Metropolitan Statistical Area…

You may disagree with my assessment, but that is the beauty of this forum – and what remains of our great nation.  We should be able to vehemently disagree, while courageously defending each other’s right to voice an authentic opinion on the issues that affect our lives and livelihoods.  

In my view, that takes an open mind – the self-confidence of a freethinker – unencumbered by suppressive bureaucratic “rules” or lockstep conformity to the rhetoric of political parties now wholly controlled by dark money and demagogues from the lunatic fringe… 

Earlier this month, the always arrogant Councilman Danko started one of his frequent contretemps from the dais of power when he set about bullying a staff member following a benign presentation on expanding the placement of electric vehicle charging stations in Palm Coast. 

Because everything in our lives is now hyper-politicized – the topic of electric vehicles has been seized as a cause célèbre by democratic leftwing moon bats as part of their Henny Penny agenda to control the masses through fear mongering – which, in turn, means republican firebrands are dutybound by party dogma to take things to the opposite extreme and vilify the topic or technology.

In keeping with this Doctrine of Divisiveness, the always controversial Ed Danko performed his caustic Clown Show to exploit the electric vehicle debate to his political advantage as he ramps up a run for the Flagler County Council.

According to a report in FlaglerLive!: 

“Palm Coast City Council member Ed Danko verbally attacked and disparaged the city’s resiliency and sustainability officer in a public meeting on Tuesday, baselessly calling her presentation “propaganda,” questioning why she had a job, and sparring with Mayor David Alfin, who brought him under control.

It was the latest in a history of public outbursts for Danko, who has used his position to fabricate lies about a former mayor and have shouting matches with fellow council members, and who previously violated council rules to the point that the mayor threatened to have him removed from the chamber. Danko was also the subject of several complaints by employees. (Tuesday’s outburst was first reported by WNZF’s Rich Carol.)

Maeven Rogers, the chief sustainability and resiliency officer, was appearing before the council to provide an update on potentially upgrading the city’s electric vehicle charging station infrastructure from its lone station at City Hall, and to get guidance on whether and how much to charge at that station.” 

As is his way, Danko cut into Rogers – calling her presentation absurd “propaganda,” while questioning her credentials and the need for her position at City Hall. 

Look, in light of massive budgets, and the corresponding increase in taxes and fees placed on the backs of already strapped residents, I believe we need to have a serious discussion of superfluous positions like “Resiliency and Sustainability Officers” and “Community Involvement Specialists” – as these so-called ‘fiscal conservatives’ we elect pay tacit lip service to our concerns of government expansion – yet refuse to hack the thick rind of fat off area bureaucracies. 

However, openly humiliating a staff member for doing the job she was hired to do, at the direction of the City Manager, for purely political purposes is sensationalistic grandstanding and beyond contemptable. 

I know desensitized residents of Florida’s “Fun Coast” may find this hard to understand – but there are ways in which elected officials can express their views, influence colleagues and constituents, and poke holes in public policies they disagree with without resorting to the personal and professional destruction of the messenger.

That’s the difference between a statesman and a bombastic dipshit… 

If Councilman Danko possessed the human emotion of shame, he would understand that. 

Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin stood up to Danko’s aggression, and according to FlaglerLive!, a heated exchange ensued:

“But by then Alfin was trying to intervene, since Danko had directly attacked a staffer, as council members are not allowed to do by city procedures: staffers answer exclusively to the city manager.

“I think I think you’ve made your point,” Alfin told Danko.

“I’m not finished yet,” Danko yelled.

“Yes you are,” Alfin went on, telling him to address his remarks about staff to the city manager as Dank (sic) said he would speak “any way I want.”

“No, sorry, you will not,” Alfin told him.

“You do not control me,” Danko said, his voice rising further. “You’re elected, I’m elected.”

“You also need to understand the organization of the city,” Alfin said as Danko tried to speak over him. “If you have a question about the assignment, you should address it to the city manager. I will not, I will not tolerate your going after staff.”

“I don’t even know why this person has a job,” Danko said, by then repeatedly out of order.

“That’s a discussion that you can have with the city manager. And I am not going to allow your continued attack on staff.”

“Who do you think you are?” Danko went on.

“I am the mayor of this city and I control this meeting,” Alfin said, turning to (Council member) Pontieri for her questions.

Danko was better behaved at the very end of the segment, when he joined the consensus for charging 18 cents a kilowatt hour, and asked for a report back in a year.

Rogers will, in fact, report back in six months, assuming she is willing to risk subjecting herself to more boorish behavior.”

My God.

This is what passes for “governance” in Palm Coast?           

What a damnable embarrassment…

Here’s hoping Flagler County residents finally see Councilman Danko for what he is (and isn’t) and send this incendiary asshole to the political ash heap in 2024.

Quote of the Week

“After the (2022) election, someone mentioned to me our supermajority and they said, ‘Danny, we can make people do anything we want,’” Perez said. “And that might be true. But just because we have the power to do a thing, doesn’t necessarily mean that we should, and just because we think we are right, it doesn’t mean we are justified.”

–State Representative Daniel Perez (R) Miami, recently designated as 2024-2026 Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, as quoted by the Ormond Beach Observer, Monday, September 18, 2023

Certainly not by conscious design – more like the conjuring’s of a weird civic Ouija board – sometimes a crude subliminal theme emerges in these rambling screeds of mine.   

This week, the sad refrain seems to be the corrosive effect of partisan politics and unchecked power on the lives and livelihoods of Floridia families in an environment where elected officials at all levels of government seem to have forgotten who they work for. 

I found Speaker-Designate Perez’ candid comment on the sorry state of affairs in Tallahassee refreshing – or maybe I was just shocked to see the unvarnished truth coming from the mouth of a sitting politician…  

Unfortunately, we now live in a time and place where some politicians view partisan majorities as a means of forcing We, The Little People to bend to their officious will like pompous tinpot dictators who crave power and control over consensus and collegiality.

Upon accepting the speaker designation last week, Rep. Perez gave his thoughts on limited government:

“I believe in limited government because history has taught us what happens when people with power begin to think they know more than the people who gave them their power,” Perez said.

“I don’t believe our state government should be at the center of people’s lives. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a role to play. Government must protect its people from dangers to life and property whether they come from threats to public safety or natural disasters. Government must ensure that we have a society of equally applied laws where any person who is willing to work hard has a chance to succeed based on their individual merit. And we also must be willing to help those who truly cannot help themselves.”

“I grew up in Miami-Dade listening to the stories of the Cuban exiles and listening to the stories of my own grandparents. I heard the fear and anger in their voices as they described the fall of their country. I sat mesmerized at the tales of the Assault Brigade 2506, and their courage in the face of desperate odds. I came to understand how much Fidel Castro had taken from the people of Cuba, and that took root in my mind as a different kind of fear — a fear about how power can be abused and eventually turned into the poor ideology of socialism,” Perez added.

“After all, what makes the American Revolution such an interesting story is not how we won the war, but how we built our peace. Our Founding Fathers understood that man created government to keep ourselves safe, but that the authority of that government also poses the greatest risk to our freedom. They knew that power without restraint leads to tyranny, just as freedom without responsibility results in anarchy.”

Refreshing, indeed…

And Another Thing!

It is natural for good citizens to hope for the best from those we elect and appoint to represent our interests.  We need to trust their instincts and we desperately want to believe that their service is altruistic, independent, and civic-minded.    

As participants in a representative democracy, we elect the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker – often following the chaotic bloodbath of a modern political campaign – then charge our representatives with setting public policy, enacting the laws, rules, taxes, fees, and regulations that govern our lives and livelihoods, and trust that they will allocate our tax dollars for the essential services we rely on in a fiscally responsible way. 

It is a position of enormous public trust – one that should command our respect and appreciation.  

So, why is our collective confidence in local government at an all-time low here on the “Fun Coast”?

Let me give you a few recent examples…

Last week, the Lost City of Deltona was back in the news when the Office of State Attorney R. J. Larizza issued a disturbing statement which, while stopping short of finding criminal culpability, painted a damning picture of how the “people’s business” is apparently conducted by a small clique of elected officials meeting in secret behind closed doors.   

According to the report by Assistant State Attorney Jeanne Stratis, in May, Mayor Santiago Avila, Jr. brought forth credible information that Commissioners Dana McCool, Jody Lee Storozuk, and Steven Colwell met in private at Storozuk’s home apparently to conduct an interview with City Manager candidate David Lynch.

In keeping with the “deny everything” strategy we have come to expect when elected officials are caught in a “compromising position,” each of the commissioners involved denied they were discussing city business – which would have constituted a serious violation of Florida’s Sunshine law – a second-degree misdemeanor.  

According to the report “The candidate, David Lynch, refused to be interviewed.”   

My ass.

(Last year, The Daytona Beach News-Journal listed a David Lynch, former City Manager of Newton Falls, Ohio, as one of fourteen finalists for the Deltona position.  According to reports, that Lynch was terminated by the Newton Falls City Commission and later resigned after making “defamatory” comments about a Hispanic resident and community volunteer “working on his green card, we think, folks.”  Reports indicate the resident – a United States citizen born in Florida – later filed a defamation suit against Lynch…) 

Sounds like just what Deltona needs, eh? 

Look, I get it – in the absence of corroborating testimony, the SAO may not have been able to establish probable cause that three Deltona City Commissioners met in private to discuss a topic which they knew, or should have known, would come before the full elective body for official action.

You know, like selecting a permanent City Manager?

But given the presence of tightlipped candidate David Lynch in the room, the inference of a Sunshine Law violation is unmistakable – and when it comes to preserving the public trust – perception is reality…

In a subsequent interview with News-Journal reporter Mark Harper, Commissioner McCool admitted being uncomfortable with the situation:

“I walked into the meeting, or I walked into the space, and recognized within five minutes of being there that I was not OK with the gathering, and politely excused myself within 10 minutes of being there.”

Conversely, Storozuk and Colwell stuck to their clumsily orchestrated script:

“Storozuk said Wednesday he didn’t believe he was breaking any rules by hosting the event.

“Everybody around here knows that Steve Colwell is my best friend and we go on vacations together, but that doesn’t mean we meet and talk about city business,” Storozuk said.

Colwell said simply: “Nothing happened. There was no basis for this complaint.”

Which, I think, are the most words the virtually silent Commissioner Colwell has strung together since he was elected… 

To say that the appalling optics exhibited by McCool, Storozuk, and Colwell is disappointing is an understatement – because even the suggestion of clandestine ‘meetings’ further erodes confidence in Deltona government at a delicate time in the city’s tumultuous history – and undermines the fair and transparent process for selecting the community’s next City Manager that residents were promised following a raucous public meeting earlier this summer.

In my view, another corrosive factor that continues to destroy our faith in local government is the lack of effective communication between constituents and our elected officials who increasingly seek cover and concealment behind suppressive “civility ordinances” and “rules of decorum” that have a chilling effect on our First Amendment right to speak freely on issues of community concern.

Even when that means voicing strong criticism of those who accept public funds to serve in the public interest…

In an eye-opening piece earlier this week, News-Journal reporter Sheldon Gardner recounted a disturbing exchange between Volusia County Councilman Troy Kent and a constituent – Ormond Beach resident and civic activist Lindsay Pate – during the public comments section of a recent Volusia County Council meeting:

“Lindsay Pate of Ormond Beach was fired up about the prospect of a huge fuel terminal being built just outside her city. She is opposed and she wanted the Volusia County Council to know about it. She singled out District 4 Councilman Troy Kent during a recent meeting.

“Combative, aggressive, ready to fight, or eager to fight and pugnacious. Troy Kent used this description of a citizen when they inquired for more substantial answers”―

Kent quickly interrupted, saying under county rules, “all comments need to go to the entire council. Ms. Pate doesn’t know the rules of this elected body, obviously. I’d like to help her and this council. No. 4 says all comments shall be directed to the council as a whole. Comments should not be addressed to a single member of the council or to county staff members.”

Yeah.  I know… 

Unfortunately, this is not the first time our cowardly elected officials in DeLand have stood on policy to protect their delicate sensibilities after being caught with their proverbial pants around their ankles – totally clueless regarding plans to place a massive 20-million-gallon bulk fuel terminal in Ormond Beach.  

To his credit, Volusia County Council Chair Jeff Brower spoke to Councilman Kent’s thin-skinned deflection in the News-Journal report:

“I don’t think Councilman Kent got it right that time,” Brower said. “The rule is that the speakers have to address the entire council. … That doesn’t mean that they can’t criticize me or anyone else or mention us in their comments favorably or unfavorably. That’s a violation of the First Amendment. What they don’t do is directly speak to Troy Kent or anybody else and direct comments to them and elicit a response.”

The fact is the damage is done – Volusia County residents have been effectively censored, forced to amend their thoughts and comments from the public podium to conform to a publicly compensated elected official’s tetchy hypersensitivity – and Councilman Kent damn well knows that.

This week, in a feeble and cringeworthy response to the public outcry over the proposed fuel terminal, Volusia County officials announced they are establishing a website “dedicated to updates” on the Belvedere Terminal project – you know, a convenient place where the County’s mouthpiece can control the narrative outside of any public debate the elected officials may find embarrassing? 

(To learn more from independent sources not manipulated by County government, please see www.protectormondbeach.com or on Facebook at Ormond Beach Citizens Against Belvedere Fuel Terminals/Grupo Mexico at https://tinyurl.com/2kt3b25b )

And that, my friends and foes, is the grim result of what happens when citizens no longer trust their government… 

As Speaker-Designate Perez said in his inspiring remarks quoted above, “Our Founding Fathers understood that man created government to keep ourselves safe, but that the authority of that government also poses the greatest risk to our freedom. They knew that power without restraint leads to tyranny, just as freedom without responsibility results in anarchy.”

He’s right. 

In 1776, fifty-six brave souls signed the Declaration of Independence – knowing that the price of treason against the British king was death – yet boldly stood and affixed their signatures to our nation’s founding document with incredible courage and conviction: 

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

How far we have fallen. 

Today, our elected “representatives” suppress public debate, trample our inalienable protections, and cower in frightened silence behind subjective “rules” when a few well-meaning ladies from Ormond Beach exercise their constitutional right to demands answers… 

My God.

I hope you will remember that hard-earned wisdom at the ballot box next November. 

Caveat Emptor…

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

Hi, kids!

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

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Angel               The Great Claire Metz

Over the course of an incredible 39-year career in broadcast journalism, the great Claire Metz of WESH-2 became a household name and a trusted source of information on the most important stories of our time.

She is one of us.  Our beloved Claire.    

Whenever news broke in Volusia County – from the emergent to the mundane – the incomparable duo of Claire Metz, and her longtime photojournalist Hutch Breneman, were there to educate and inform – and when rumors spread through the community at digital speed, the immediate response from anxious residents on social media became “Ask Claire.”

I had the unique pleasure of working with Claire during the entirety of my career in public service, and I came to rely on Claire and Hutch to push critical information to the community.  Her assistance in helping develop leads in criminal cases, reassuring residents during threatening weather, and the ability to tell complex stories in a clear, calm, and cogent way made her an invaluable partner with area law enforcement, emergency management, and public safety organizations. 

Over time, we developed a trusted friendship and in retirement one of the things I miss most about my working life are those daily phone calls with Claire to catch up on developing issues. 

This week, WESH-2 paid tribute to Claire’s indelible contributions to her profession and our community: 

“Claire Metz’s retirement marks the end of an era in Central Florida journalism. Throughout her career, she has been a source of inspiration, education, and comfort for viewers. Her unwavering commitment to journalistic integrity and deep connection with the Central Florida community has made her a beloved figure.

Hail and Farewell, dear Claire.

Congratulations on the culmination of your incredible career of service.

You have set the Gold Standard for all who come after, and it is my pleasure to join your legion of loyal viewers, colleagues, and friends in wishing you all the best in your well-earned retirement! 

Thanks, Claire.  For everything. 

We’re glad you passed our way. 

Angel               Holly Hill Police Officer Andrew Barrett   

Few things give me more pleasure than seeing exceptional law enforcement officers recognized for their difficult and often dangerous work.

Especially so when those brave souls serve with my beloved Holly Hill Police Department.   

I had the pleasure of meeting Inv. Andrew Barrett while assisting a group of Holly Hill officers obtain their FAA remote pilot certificates as the department integrated drone technology to assist with public safety operations.    

In my experience, Inv. Barrett is a shining example of the new generation of law enforcement officers who have so admirably devoted themselves to serving and protecting others.

Recently, Inv. Barrett was honored by Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida as the 2023 recipient of the coveted Spirit of Law Enforcement Award – a special recognition presented by the Crime Stoppers Board of Directors to those who have distinguished themselves through exceptional heroism or extraordinary achievement. 

In my view, Inv. Barrett sets the bar in both categories.   

According to the award citation:

“On January 12, 2023, the New York State Police requested the assistance of the Holly Hill Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division with an ongoing investigation involving the disturbing case of a 13-year-old victim who was exploited by a sexual trafficking ring.

Although these despicable acts are alleged to have taken place in the State of New York, the primary suspect in the case recently relocated to the City of Holly Hill, and the investigation was assigned to Investigator Andrew Barrett.

The results of Investigator Barrett’s interview were extremely influential in the State of New York obtaining a felony indictment leading to the suspect’s arrest.

In total, eighteen additional suspects have been arrested in connection with the trafficking ring in the State of New York.

We’re proud of Investigator Barrett, the nominees, each Officer of the Year that was selected by the Crime Stoppers Board, and all of the law enforcement officers throughout the State of Florida, and the United States.”

I can think of no greater calling – or urgency – than protecting children from violence and sexual exploitation.  Inv. Barrett’s extraordinary work is a stellar example of how interstate cooperation between law enforcement agencies casts a wide net to ensure these monsters have no place to hide. 

In addition, Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida presented awards to exceptional officers from throughout the region – a fitting tribute for their tireless service. 

Kudos to Inv. Barrett – and all law enforcement officers, emergency telecommunicators, and support staff whose heroism and self-sacrifice all too often go unrecognized.

Well done. 

Asshole           Sen. Terrible Tommy Wright

The older I get, the less I care about the haughty self-promotion and time-wasting endeavors of the governmental upper crust or the inane chattering from our ‘movers & shakers’ that others find important. 

For instance, on Monday, The Exalted Roundtable of Volusia County Elected Officials – a political insulation committee comprised of politicians from each of Volusia’s cities, county government, the school district (and their overseers from that camera stellata over at the CEO Business Alliance) who meet every other month during the day (when you can’t be there) to jabber amongst themselves while the bulldozers roar and Rome burns…

They have performed this purposeless kabuki every other month for the past eight-years.  Is your life appreciably better for the effort? 

Me neither.

But doing the same thing over-and-over (with the same do-nothing politicians in the wheelhouse) while expecting a different result is the “Volusia Way.”

Increasingly, what I worry about are the basic underpinnings of our system of governance – the moral imperatives of honor, integrity, transparency, and accountability – and the foul legacy of irresponsibility, narcissistic “leadership,” and institutionalized mediocrity we are leaving for my grandchildren and yours.

One shining example of how off-the-rails things have gotten is the escalating scandal surrounding Sen. “Terrible Tommy” Wright – a stroppy asshole with the ungentlemanly instincts of a broke-back snake – whose videotaped browbeating of a female employee of The Beacon Center in the presence of displaced domestic violence survivors and their traumatized children was covered in back-to-back articles by both The Daytona Beach News-Journal and Orlando Sentinel last week.

Wow.  We didn’t know the half of it…  

Now it appears that Wright’s previous behavior at the center was apparently worse than anyone knew – and his constituents are beginning to ask why those in Tallahassee charged with protecting the integrity of the Florida Senate are mysteriously silent on Wright’s boorish behavior at The Beacon Center?

Call me cynical – but I’m not surprised…

We live in a time and place when holding one’s political peers accountable for their loutish behavior is anathema in the hallowed Halls of Power – now that powerful elected officials practice transactional politics, money is the only thing that matters, political campaigns are a blood sport, and the rules are for the “little people.”

According to the Orlando Sentinel’s report, this was not the first time Sen. Wright’s weird behavior at The Beacon Center raised the eyebrows of administrators:

“The Beacon Center is the state-designated, community-based center for victims of domestic abuse in Volusia County, which has one of the highest rates in a state that has a domestic violence crisis. Its location is undisclosed and clients’ identities are protected.

Wright’s behavior is especially concerning given that he was once a member of the center’s board of directors, and he should know the state and federal rules prohibiting interaction with staff and residents, (former CEO Angie) Pye said.

He also is a member of the Senate Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs, which hears and votes on legislation dealing with child welfare and domestic abuse issues.

Wright filed a complaint with the Department of Children and Families two years ago claiming that the center was involved in drugs, prostitution and human trafficking that all proved to be unfounded, Pye said. He also interfered with the organization’s private fundraising efforts, Pye said.

It got to the point that six of the center’s board members resigned over the summer, followed by Pye and her program manager two weeks ago, just before Wright’s latest visit.

“Anybody in their right mind would leave us alone,” said Cynthia Perez, a domestic violence survivor who has used the center’s services. “These women are already stressed out, and the last thing they need is this guy coming over and stressing out the staff, who are holding the center together.

Pye, a 25-year veteran of what she calls “hardcore advocacy” for battered women, came on board the Beacon Center as CEO in 2016, when it was still called the Domestic Abuse Council. Wright was a volunteer at the time, which has the capacity to house up to 80 women and their children, she said.

“He had free rein” of the place, Pye said.

She said she told him that his presence could result in the confidentiality of the women at the shelter being endangered, which would violate the federal Violence Against Women Act.

Pye also said she witnessed him flirting with a survivor.  “To many people, it would have not raised a flag, but given what I do for a living, I was not comfortable with it,” she said.

She said she suggested he join the board of directors so he would no longer have contact with the survivors. Wright agreed but only showed up for one board meeting in October 2016, Pye said.

Two months later, he invited her to a Christmas party at his home. She said she couldn’t attend, telling him that staff couldn’t interact with board members.

He showed up at the shelter the next day to announce that he had made arrangements to feed the residents and have Santa Claus visit the children. When he was told he couldn’t do that, he berated a staffer and threatened to withdraw the money he’d donated and give it to some other organization, Pye said.

Pye said she and the board made several attempts to meet with Wright to talk things over, but he refused. At one point, he screamed at another staff person, at Pye and at the board chair.

“I knew it was not appropriate to have him around there, and I was happy he disappeared,” Pye said.”

Read the sordid details for yourself here: https://tinyurl.com/4df24yuf

In a follow-up, the Orlando Sentinel reported what Interim CEO Jessica Rivers – a domestic violence survivor herself – experienced (literally) at the hands of Sen. Wright. 

According to the report, Rivers’ recollection of the event was supported by Linda Parker, CEO of Women in Distress in Broward County, who has a contract with the state Department of Children and Families to provide shelters in distress with support services:

“Things didn’t heat up until after the residents were loaded onto just one bus and Wright stepped onto it to talk to the driver, he told police later. Rivers stopped him, telling him it was against the law to talk to be on the bus with the abuse survivors.

That’s when things got physical, Rivers said.

Fearing he was going to strike her, she said loudly enough for the women on the bus to hear, “Do not put your hands on me!”

Hearing her yell, an employee of Parker’s stepped in between Rivers and Wright to intervene, she said.

“What Sen. Wright did was not appropriate,” Parker said. “That is not behavior we want to see from any sitting senator. No one should ever have to feel threatened by anyone.”

A video of the confrontation provided by Daytona Beach Police shows Wright, who stands a good head and shoulders above Rivers, touching her shoulder and yelling.

At that point, he started to walk away shouting something about “thanks for looking after them,” Rivers said.

She responded by saying that state and federal laws prevented him from having contact with survivors in order to protect their identities.

“He came back at me shouting, ‘Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!’” Rivers said.

He walked away from Rivers to confer with (Beacon Board Chair Carmen) Ruiz and the DCF officials present.

The tour apparently was requested because Wright planned to provide funding to the Beacon Center, Rivers said. Whether it was his own money or state money, she wasn’t sure.

“I’ve handled donations for the six, seven years I’ve been at the Beacon Center and I have not seen a single dollar come from him,” Rivers said.

Wright got his tour, and Rivers was confined to a part of the building he was not inspecting.

At that point, she called police and reported what happened, and officers showed up as the tour was winding down.”

Whoa. 

Sadly, “The day after that confrontation on Sept. 2, the Beacon Center Board of Directors held an emergency meeting to demote Rivers, who’d only been interim CEO for three days after long-term CEO Angie Pye stepped down earlier that week.

Rivers said she “resigned under duress due to an extremely hostile work environment” a few days later after the stress of the attack and aftermath put her in the hospital.”

Read the incredibly ugly details here: https://tinyurl.com/55rt7ues

Then, things deteriorated from bad to worse…

On Thursday, The Daytona Beach News-Journal, who originally broke the story on September 2, published a shocking piece describing Sen. Wright’s creepy come-on to a 20-year-old domestic violence survivor, in the presence of her baby, while she was evacuating the Beacon Center ahead of a hurricane:

“Six years ago this month, Shelby Dunlap and her baby were aboard a short bus fleeing Hurricane Irma from the domestic violence shelter where they had sought refuge.

A local philanthropist was also on board, amid a small group of women from the Beacon Center, Volusia County’s only shelter for survivors of domestic violence, she recalled.

“I think he paid for the trip,” Dunlap said.

And he was flirtatious, she added, talking about prostitutes in Cuba, topless women on a boat, and offering to fly her to Las Vegas.

Nothing happened. She didn’t go to Las Vegas, but the conversation still causes her discomfort.

“It’s kind of embarrassing to say, but whenever you’re going through that, especially I was only, like, 20 years old, but you feel like, OK, there’s this rich guy, like, that could help me out of my problems,” she said. “But now I realize, you know, he was a creep.”

The philanthropist, she said, was Tom Wright. A year later, he became Florida State Sen. Tom Wright.”

My God…

Cuban prostitutes? 

Topless women?

Offering to jet off to Sin City with a vulnerable victim of domestic violence? 

In the company of children?

Really?

Trust me.  You’re going to want to read the despicable details here: https://tinyurl.com/wec5ds5z

Unfortunately, it appears the only one to be held responsible for Sen. Wright’s abusive behavior was his victims…

Although Sen. Wright is still refusing to answer growing questions from the media and his outraged constituents, according to the News-Journal, it appears failed Volusia County School Board candidate Kim Short – who is now employed by the district as something called a “Community Involvement Specialist” (?) – is Sen. Wright’s Facebook fixer:

“But according to a recent Facebook post, Wright did discuss the Beacon Center with a local club, the United Patriots of Volusia County.

“Senator Tom Wright gave a detailed update on what is going on at the Beacon Center, and also answered questions from our attendees,” Kim Short the group’s education chair posted on Sept. 8. “Much more on this situation exists and details, with evidence, will be revealed over the coming weeks.”

Oh, I’ll just bet there are a lot more “revelations” to come from this sleazy Pandora’s box…

Considering the salacious revelations by Ms. Dunlap, and Ms. Short’s obvious ambitions – as a tax-supported public employee – she might want to distance herself from Sen. Wright’s constricting circle of support as these things have a way of tainting the political futures of everyone involved…    

In my view, it is now time for Senate President Kathleen Passidomo to do her sworn duty and commission a formal investigation into these scandalous assertions to determine if Sen. Wright has abused the power of his high office, acted inappropriately with vulnerable domestic violence survivors and Beacon employees, used his status to file false allegations against administrators of The Beacon Center who challenged him, and physically menaced a female employee who attempted to protect the confidentiality of survivors. 

Based upon the reporting of both The Daytona Beach News-Journal and the Orlando Sentinel – the integrity of the Florida Senate is now in question – and it is time for President Passidomo and Governor Ron DeSantis to act decisively to enforce the rules of the senate and give concerned residents answers as these shocking allegations continue to emerge.   

Angel               Daytona Beach Police Officer Jason Raynor  

“As police officers, we know that our job comes with inherent risks to our safety and we know that there is a chance that we could lose our lives in service,” Young wrote. “Although we accept the fact that the unthinkable could occur, we expect that those responsible would be held accountable and that justice would be served. Today’s verdict contradicts that expectation.”

–Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young, as quoted by The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Daytona Beach police chief says manslaughter verdict for Raynor’s killer is an injustice,” Saturday, September 16, 2023

I am incredibly proud to call Chief Jakari Young a friend and former colleague.   

He is a gentleman of great intellect, skill, and poise who epitomizes what it means to be a professional public servant. 

In the aftermath of Saturday’s inexplicable verdict in the case of State of Florida v. Othal Wallace, my heart breaks for Chief Young and the brave men and women of the Daytona Beach Police Department, my brothers and sisters in Volusia County law enforcement, our great State Attorney R. J. Larizza, and his dedicated prosecutors, investigators, and staff who worked so diligently to seek justice for Officer Raynor. 

When the lesser Manslaughter verdict was returned for the brutal murder of Officer Raynor, like many in our community, I was filled with rage, and my thoughts remain with his family, friends, and colleagues as they grapple with an incomprehensible outcome that many view as a miscarriage of justice that cheapens the lives of law enforcement officers everywhere.

As Sheriff Mike Chitwood so aptly stated, “The message I take away from this jury is that it’s open season on law enforcement.  A lesser charge of Manslaughter for the MURDER of Daytona Beach Police Officer Jason Raynor is a slap in the face of everyone who puts on a uniform.”

He’s right.

In addition, the Coastal Florida Police Benevolent Association expressed their disappointment in a statement, “The cold-blooded murder of a police officer is not and never will be ‘manslaughter.’ Justice was not served today for our departed colleague, member, and friend Jason Raynor or his beloved family. We join the entire law enforcement community in mourning for Jason while urging our heroes everywhere to remain vigilant and prepared now more than ever.”

Well said.

If you have ever worn a badge – or come from a law enforcement family – you understand early the inherent risks of an often-thankless pursuit made more dangerous by a societal shift that vilifies the sheepdog and mollycoddles the predator.  

You also learn that good does not always prevail over evil…

Make no mistake.  There is a war on law enforcement in this nation.   

When “social activists” scream death threats in the streets of America, openly calling for the wholesale murder of law enforcement, then we see officers dying in increasingly frequent violent attacks – only a fool would deny the direct and menacing correlation – now culminating in a Clay County jury’s senseless decision in a case where Officer Raynor’s coldblooded murder by an avowed cop hater was captured in its bloody entirety on his body worn camera…

My God.

Where is the United States Department of Justice? 

Why isn’t Attorney General Merrick Garland swooping in from on high to appropriately charge Othal Wallace with a federal civil rights violation for his blatant hate crime against Officer Raynor?

Yeah, right…

In my view, as our community grieves the tragic loss of Officer Jason Raynor – and officers across the nation continue to die with horrific regularity – it is time We, The People take a stand in support of the brave men and women of law enforcement.

They damn well deserve it.

Quote of the Week

“The city of Ormond Beach is saying no to Belvedere Terminals. No utilities. No annexation.

“Not no, but heck no,” Mayor Bill Partington said at the City Commission meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 20. “This city will not provide utilities for a project that is so adverse to our residents’ quality of life.”

The commission unanimously approved two motions at its meeting stating that the city has no desire or intention to provide utilities and annexation to Belvedere Terminals, which is pursuing the construction of a 16-tank fuel storage terminal at 874 Hull Road.

“I don’t know if that will stop the project, but I think it’s important that this company knows that we’re going to battle them at every level, at every angle, at every possible time and opportunity to make sure that this project never happens, and we’ll drag it out for years and spend as much money as you have to spend,” Partington said.”

–Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington, as quoted by the Ormond Beach Observer, “Ormond Beach won’t provide utilities — or annexation — to Belvedere Terminals’ proposed fuel farm,” Thursday, September 21, 2023

According to a press release issued by the City of Ormond Beach:

“City Attorney Randy Hayes, who rigorously examined the situation, remarked, “After assessing all the available options and considering the potential repercussions to our community, it became clear that we possess the discretion to deny utilities to the proposed project. Exercising this discretion in favor of our community’s safety and well-being is, in our view, the most prudent course of action. The City Commission demonstrated that, unwavering in the commitment to protect Ormond Beach and its residents from any potential harm.”

In line with this stance, the City of Ormond Beach has been proactive in its opposition to the project. It has dispatched letters of objection to Belvedere Terminals and solicited the backing of key figures, including the Volusia County Legislative Delegation, Governor DeSantis, Congressman Waltz, and FDEP.

The City reaffirms its dedication to working collaboratively with Volusia County, supporting any of its legal endeavors to halt the project and explore alternative, more suitable locations. This collaborative effort underscores the City’s commitment to finding resolutions that best serve its residents’ interests.”

Stay tuned, folks – and do not let your guard down.

In my cynical view, it is too early to tell if Mayor Partington’s saber-rattling – or the symbolic motions adopted by the Ormond Beach City Commission this week – truly represent a “commitment to protect Ormond Beach and its residents from potential harm,” or are just a time buying strategy ahead of the 2024 campaign season… 

Again, time will tell…

And Another Thing!

For years, concerned residents who try desperately to peer through the smoke and mirrors of Volusia County government have complained about the abysmal quality of the audio/visual capabilities in the gilded Council Chamber – which, in a bloated bureaucracy with a budget now well exceeding $1 Billion annually – seems to strategically malfunction whenever contentious issues heat things up between angry constituents and their cowardly elected officials.

I have likened the rickety audio system in the chamber to an early model of Bell’s Harmonic Telegraph (although, acoustically, it sounds more akin to two rusty soup cans connected by a taught waxed string in the style of Antonio Meucci’s Teletrofono) – the difference being that one can decipher what is being said by either of those early means of voice-communications.

And Volusia County taxpayers still do not warrant a public access television channel – which means unless you want to navigate the County’s web feed or YouTube – We, The Little People who cannot attend the meetings in person are SOL… 

On Tuesday evening, during the public comment portion of the Volusia County Council meeting – at a time when frightened residents are demanding answers to mounting questions surrounding the proposed placement of a 20-million-gallon bulk fuel terminal in Ormond Beach – the audio portion of the video mysteriously went mute.

For almost two-hours… 

Apparently, no one who should give’s two-shits in the Ivory Tower of Power in DeLand. . .

Why? 

Because it is now unmistakably evident that our so-called “elected representatives” do not want us to hear (or see) the sausage being made – or they would damn well do something about it…

Now that questions outweigh answers – and testy exchanges are increasing between opponents of the Belvedere Terminal and elected officials who claim to have been caught flatfooted – some officials are now blaming citizen activists for spreading misinformation in Volusia County’s patented ‘circle the wagons’ approach to crisis management.

In typical fashion, Councilman Danny Robins transmogrified in front of our eyes – shapeshifting from an elected official responsible to his constituents into a hand-wringing policy wonk – using his long-winded pettifoggery to silence and marginalize Chairman Jeff Brower for actually engaging with residents during public participation and trying to pry information out of County Manager George “The Wreck” Recktenwald, who continues to quibble the “who knew what, and when” question. 

Ugly. 

In my view, if Mr. Robins and the others were sincere in their lip service opposition to the Belvedere terminal, they would encourage the civic engagement of concerned residents, demand accountability from the bureaucracy, and work diligently to ensure a thorough investigation into how something of this magnitude – that could ultimately impact the lives, property values, and physical safety of thousands of residents – could have escaped the attention of senior management?   

More importantly, the Volusia County Council should demand answers from Mr. Recktenwald on exactly what steps are being taken to ensure this never happens again. 

They won’t – because accountability in the senior ranks of County government is considered corrosive to the status quo.

However, in an unusual move, Councilman Troy Kent of Ormond Beach took the extraordinary step of calling for formal evaluations of both County Manager Recktenwald and County Attorney Michael Dyer. 

In my view, the two most monstrously overpaid hacks in all the realm…

Rather than continue with the traditional practice of merely gifting The Wreck and Dyer massive pay increases each December as a foregone conclusion, Kent is suggesting an objective written assessment, based upon established metrics, such as competency, leadership, problem solving ability, management style, interpersonal relationships, planning and organization, fiscal management and reporting, and team building skills.

Look for this interesting development to be brought back for discussion next month…    

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

Hi, kids!

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

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole           Sen. Tom Wright

I don’t know about you, but I was ready to move on from the Sen. “Tommy the Terrible” Wright controversy – just chalk it up to the abhorrent conduct of another self-absorbed bully with an elective honorific in front of his name…

However, last week, I was taken to the proverbial woodshed by several of Wright’s apologists for instinctively reacting to something I saw with my own eyes on that incriminating video of the Senator browbeating a female employee of Volusia County’s only certified domestic violence shelter.

Nice try.  But feigned indignation doesn’t fly with me…

In the aftermath, it appears a few of Sen. Wright’s misguided supporters want to defend the indefensible, blaming everything and everyone except the Senator for his abominable behavior in the presence of domestic violence survivors at The Beacon Center. 

Since we are still chitchatting about it, here is a synopsis of how we arrived at the nadir of Sen. Wright’s all-too-weird career:

In a story originally told by reporter Mark Harper in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Senator angrily confronts domestic violence worker after shelter leadership resignations,” we learned that Sen. Wright put his hand on a female employee of The Beacon Center – then launched a verbal barrage that left his victim reeling – during a heated confrontation outside a busload of Beacon Center residents.

According to the News-Journal’s report, “State Sen. Tom Wright put his hand on a worker outside Volusia County’s only domestic violence shelter Saturday in an angry confrontation that later involved Daytona Beach police, witnesses said.

Wright has been at the center of an implosion of the Domestic Abuse Council of Volusia County Inc., which oversees the operation and programs at the Beacon Center. Approximately 26 women and children were living there last month in an effort to escape dangerous situations at home and rebuild their lives.”

The damning video shows the powerful Sen. Wright boarding a bus occupied by domestic violence survivors and their children (who were uprooted while Wright was “touring” the facility with Department of Children and Families officials) in contravention of state privacy laws. 

When a Beacon Center employee attempted to stop him, Wright can be seen reaching out and touching the female against her will.

After briefly turning away, Wright returns in a rage – screaming in the employee’s face – placing his hands behind his back, aggressively leaning forward, bearing down, and advancing on the employee as she recoiled from the Senator’s tirade, while another female courageously attempts to put herself between Wright and the target of his wrath… 

Ugly.

Don’t take my word for it, watch it for yourself here:  https://tinyurl.com/4zsa7xrk

This week, Wright’s defenders have been trying desperately to explain “his side,” blaming the victim, insinuating mismanagement, claiming he was “set up,” and spreading rumors of financial irregularities at the center, maintaining that the Senator will be vindicated once the “rest of the story” emerges…  

Sure.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but even if all those allegations were true – the results of any inquiry will now appear to be what they are – base retaliation by Sen. Wright for his embarrassing tantrum in the presence of traumatized women and children.

Look, nothing can justify physically and verbally menacing a female in the presence of domestic violence survivors and their frightened children in the very place they sought safe haven. 

Nothing.

In my view, Sen. Wright, and those obsequious sycophants who support his repulsive conduct, are clearly playing a vile brand of revenge politics – rewarding apologists and punishing perceived enemies – denying everything, making counteraccusations from the influential bully pulpit, and vilifying anyone who challenges the abuser’s self-justification.  

It is called creating a “diversion” – shaming the victim while shifting attention away from the Senator’s cruel behavior – then controlling the narrative with useful idiots willing to deny the obvious and repeat the message until your adversary is marginalized and silenced.

Except these are not political opponents…

In this “David and Goliath” clash at The Beacon Center, an incredibly powerful multimillionaire Senator’s “opposition” are former administrators of a long struggling non-profit and underpaid social workers trying hard to make life better for women and children who have been traumatized and displaced.

Now, with Sen. Wright currently restrained by a trespass warning for The Beacon Center, his concerned constituents are waiting for those in Tallahassee charged with protecting the public’s confidence in the honor, integrity, and independence of the Florida Senate to condemn his aggression and take decisive action to protect domestic violence survivors, and those who serve them, from the Wrath of Wright.

Angel               Halifax Humane Society Employees and Volunteers

What does it mean to do ‘God’s Work’?

We all have our own definition, I suppose – or can point to a worthy pursuit performed by selfless souls who struggle to make a difference in an indifferent world – doing important work that contributes to the common good, often with little recognition or compensation. 

These altruistic individuals do not seek credit for their contributions – they simply see a need and devote themselves to a cause greater than their own self-interests.

In my experience, those who find it in their heart to serve abused and neglected animals – sentient beings who can give nothing in return – gifting their time and boundless compassion to provide comfort, care, and companionship in the frightening and often heartbreaking environment of a shelter are a truly special breed (pun admiringly intended).

Because these dedicated individuals are willing to give their heart and soul in service – it takes a lot to break their Volunteer Spirit – even when bullied and belittled by toxic “leaders” or demoralized by chaotic circumstances that destroys morale and distracts from the organizations mission. 

Once the commitment and enthusiasm of donors and volunteers is crushed, community confidence is often impossible to recover…

In a disturbing report by Katie Kustura writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal this week, Halifax area animal lovers learned of a tumultuous environment at the Halifax Humane Society.

According to accusations brought by “former staffers, volunteers, and others with knowledge of shelter operations” some insiders believe a senior HHS official demonstrated a bias against the pit bull breed, which may have resulted in potentially adoptable dogs without behavioral issues being euthanized, among other controversial management decisions and internal policies. 

“More than a dozen individuals say Christina Sutherin, the shelter’s current chief operating officer, was responsible for essentially disassembling the dog behavior team which resulted in additional responsibilities for an already stressed and overworked staff and led to low morale, high turnover, and mental health problems.

Some ex-staffers said if management found out someone had voiced concerns about the goings-on at the shelter, they would be terminated, or told to leave sooner if they’d already put in notice.”

The possibility of “breed bias” hit home for me. 

You see, since I was a child, my family has welcomed pit bulls as loving, well-mannered, and intensely loyal family members, which includes our current fur baby Nola – an HHS adoptee – who we love beyond words (and is sleeping at my feet as I write this…)

Unfortunately, it appears the internal workings of the shelter have dissolved into a ‘he said, she said’ distraction, with senior officials refusing to answer the News-Journal’s questions citing “misinformation,” and departures “marked by dissatisfaction.”

However, volunteers and former employees were open and transparent with their criticism of senior management…

For me, one revelation in the News-Journal article was particularly hard to swallow:

“Lindy Knapp joined the shelter last October and put in her notice in May. Knapp, who worked as a vet assistant, echoed the concerns others raised about Sutherin.

She pointed to a group of puppies Sutherin brought down from north Florida around February that had to be euthanized due to canine parvovirus, which has a high mortality rate if not caught early and treated.

“When you don’t have enough room for the animals you have, you don’t go and get more animals,” Knapp said.

Shauna Sewell, who worked in vet services for nearly two years before quitting in March, said having to euthanize sick puppies because of poor decisions by management was a traumatic experience.

“I’ll remember that for the rest of my life,” Sewell said.

Former staffers said when Sutherin again brought in puppies that wound up being ill, then-head veterinarian Dr. Jennifer Green resigned in March.

On April 1, Daytona Beach police received an anonymous tip about the shelter “neglecting the animals due to a high volume of staff quitting their jobs at once” after Green’s resignation.

After a walkthrough of the shelter, the officer said she had concerns about the dirtiness of the adoption kennel area and vet services.

Knapp said her last day was to be June 1; however, after she expressed concerns to human resources and Sutherin about Sutherin failing to follow proper procedures while euthanizing a sick kitten, Knapp said management told her May 17 was her last day.”

Damn.  How sad…  

Fortunately, in May, Adam Leath, the former director of Volusia County Animal Services, joined HHS as chief executive officer.  By all reports, he brings a wealth of experience in shelter operations and management – and the Board of Directors appear confident that he can calm the internal turmoil, demonstrate strong leadership, and restore public confidence in this critical service.

According to a quote by Leath in the News-Journal, “[Animals] deserve us to be intentional and to be purposeful around understanding what their individual needs are,” Leath said. “Cramming more into a building does not mean that you’re providing better welfare, and it doesn’t mean that you’re able to find more positive outcomes, which is why we’d be better off investing in resources in the community.”

In addition, I know that the wonderful HHS Board President Mel Stack, and at-large member Nancy Lohman, are both ardent animal lovers, dedicated activists, and generous philanthropists who have given graciously of their time, money, and talents to address the needs of at-risk animals in our community. 

Given the nature and similarities of the anecdotal reports from former employees and volunteers, in my view, it is critical that the HHS oversight board commission an external investigation into these disturbing claims – then develop a transparent response to calm growing fears in the community – and rebuild confidence in the source of much-needed financial support and critical resources to support the important mission of the Halifax Humane Society. 

Quote of the Week

“As your mayor, I am extremely aware that the residents of Ormond Beach have deep concerns about the adverse effects of the proposed Belvedere fuel terminal. The idea of a fuel terminal so close to our homes is not just about potential environmental, health, and safety concerns; it’s about preserving the quality of life we cherish.

Firstly, the increased truck traffic from the terminal threatens the very essence of our peaceful town. Imagine waking up to the continuous rumble of heavy vehicles instead of the familiar sounds of children playing or birds chirping. The air, thick with exhaust fumes, replacing the fresh air we’ve always taken for granted. Such disruptions are not mere inconveniences; they pose genuine health risks, especially for our children and the elderly with respiratory issues. Not to mention the traffic delays and dangers in the very busy proposed area that does not have the appropriate infrastructure to handle a project of this size and impact.

Think of our local sports complex, the hub of youthful energy and community gatherings. How will these recreational sports and tournaments fare with constant disruptions and the looming shadow of tanker trucks?

Now, picture the vibrant, bustling energy during Bike Week and Biketoberfest. With the proposed traffic, these cherished events could turn from exciting festivities into logistical nightmares. The very thought of 167 tanker trucks navigating our already busy streets from incoming tourists during this timeframe is alarming.

And let’s not forget the I-95/US 1 interchange. Already considered one of the most dangerous intersections in the state of Florida, with additional strain, we might be turning it into a ticking time bomb of potential accidents. The transportation of hazardous materials, such as fuel, always carries inherent risks. Any mishap or leakage could have devastating consequences for our community, including contamination of our water sources, soil, and air. The long-term effects of such incidents on our health and the environment are simply too great to overlook.

The possible depreciation in property values is another wound in the fabric of our community. Many have invested their life savings into their homes here, drawn by Ormond Beach’s charm and promise.

From the action taken at the last Ormond Beach Commission meeting, it is clear that our resident’s concerns are shared by the entire commission and are being taken seriously. We’re not just discussing policies; we’re shaping the future of our town. The health, safety, and very essence of Ormond Beach hangs in the balance, and we have sprung into action to protect our city.

I urge you, each one of you, to lend your voice, share your stories, and remain involved in this process. As I liaise with leaders and officials, we will call on Belvedere authorities to see us not just as a location but as a living, breathing community that will be detrimentally affected by their project. We will continue to ask them to consider alternative locations for the terminal, well away from residential areas and as far as possible from Ormond Beach and Volusia County, to protect the well-being of our community.

Let’s come together, unite our voices, and ensure the spirit of Ormond Beach shines bright, now and always.

–Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington, writing in the Ormond Beach Observer, Guest Opinion, “Mayor Bill Partington says city has sprung into action to oppose fuel farm,” Tuesday, September 5, 2023 

Whew.  I thought I was the only one who could write 500 words and say absolutely nothing of substance…    

We can take a break if anyone needs to down three-fingers of a strong antiemetic. 

I know I do…

There now. 

I grew up in Ormond Beach – over on North Halifax Drive, when it was little more than a two-lane fire trail – just a short walk from what I still consider the best beach in Florida. 

There is much to be proud of in my once quaint hometown, and until recent iterations of our ‘powers that be’ saw fit to sell us out to land rapists and speculative developers, we enjoyed a unique seaside quality of life, rich with history, culture, and ecological wonders (See: What remains of the Ormond Scenic Loop), back when wildlife habitat and old growth forests took precedence over another damn convenience store…

Unfortunately, things are changing quickly in what was once a charming Old Florida community – much of it lost forever in the name of “progress.”

Now, with even former golf courses being targeted by greed crazed developers, those stuck in near gridlocked traffic on Granada Boulevard are left to wonder just how much more ‘progress’ we can stand?        

More to the point, residents are asking where Mayor Partington’s impassioned manifesto was in June 2022?    

In my view, Mayor Bill Partington has proven to be an empty suit.  A shameless opportunist who will use any crisis – even one his gross inaction helped create – to his advantage as he claws his way toward a seat in the state legislature next year. 

Unbelievable.

In what is the worst example of group disorientation on record – Ormond Beach and Volusia County officials claim to have been blindsided by a recent report in The Daytona Beach News-Journal announcing a proposed bulk fuel storage facility on Hull Road – dangerously close to the city’s airport, sports complex, a children’s dance studio, and established residential areas.

In places where good governance is a priority, those elected and appointed to positions of power are expected to maintain a strategic awareness of the civic, social, environmental, and economic factors that may affect the lives of their constituents. 

Rather than lethargically reacting to newspaper articles like a bloated sloth, professionals concentrate on effective monitoring and planning to ensure sufficient infrastructure, appropriate zoning, confirm concurrency, provide adequate housing options, and secure ecological protections that safeguard drinking water and preserve the environment.

By listening to the concerns of their constituents and using that information to their advantage – actively involved civic leaders detect trends and make educated predictions that can be used to anticipate “What comes next” – so that effective strategies can be developed in advance of a potential catastrophe. 

That requires a level of vigilance beyond claiming faux solidarity with outraged voters once a crisis breaks.

Sound familiar? 

According to the News-Journal’s initial reporting on the proposed Belvedere terminal:

“While some have only recently learned about the project, it’s been known to city officials for more than a year, at least ― as well as its potential traffic impacts.

The Ormond Beach Site Plan Review Committee spoke about the project in June of 2022, according to meeting minutes. At the time, officials expected the project to bring about seven trucks an hour and over 160 trucks in a 24-hour period. The truck route was expected to be from Harmony Road to Hull Road, and out to U.S. 1.”

This week, I received some disturbing documentation from a Barker’s View contributor that shows Volusia County officials were well aware of Belvedere’s objectives in June 2022, when company representatives submitted a “Pre-Application Meeting Form” to Volusia’s Growth and Resource Management Department for a proposed “…bulk fuel storage and distribution terminal where petroleum products (gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel) and liquid propane will be received by rail car for bulk storage on site for wholesale distribution to gas stations and other commercial users in the surrounding market area.”

In addition, the application package included a detailed conceptual site plan with clear overlays of the terminal’s location, footprint, nearby residential areas, and roadways – even the facility’s proposed encroachment on existing wetlands. 

They literally drew Volusia’s planning officials’ pictures…

Interestingly, the meeting between six Volusia County development officials and Belvedere representatives occurred on June 9, 2022 – thirteen days before Belvedere’s Zoom meeting with Ormond Beach’s Site Plan Review Committee – and concluded that no rezoning of the property would be necessary to accommodate the fuel farm.

A follow-up memorandum commemorating the meeting explained:

“Based on what the applicants are looking to do they don’t actually need a rezoning as the property is already I-2/A-2 in the airport protection overlay as they are looking at developing a rail freight terminal for distribution of oil, fuel, propane. They had thought because the I-1 permitted uses allowed a rail yard they needed to rezone to that, and didn’t understand that the I-2 zoning allowed the less intense industrial uses as well. They will not be moving forward with a rezoning case.”

Now, one would have thought that the information gleaned in that pre-application confab might have been passed along to County Manager George “The Wreck” Recktenwald so that he could brief our elected representatives on what someone either knew, or should have known, would be an incredibly controversial issue… 

Why didn’t that happen? 

Or did it?

In fact, many residents of Ormond Beach and beyond are beginning to question the who, what, when, and why of things. 

For instance, given the fact Belvedere telegraphed their intentions for the property to government staffers over a year ago – why are our elected and appointed officials acting like this is the first they have heard of it? 

Last week, during a meeting of the Ormond Beach City Commission, residents once again stood before their elected representatives to express their collective outrage over the proposed fuel terminal which, according to a recent News-Journal report, looks like a foregone conclusion from a legal standpoint.    

During the meeting, one resident, identified as Arthur Armstrong, who owns property in two residential locations which will be adversely affected by the fuel terminal, passionately spoke of the political accountability that should rightfully result from this unfolding fiasco.

“Every one of you will not be here next election.  I promise you that.  I promise you.  And you on Zone One (Commissioner Lori Tolland) we don’t hear anything from you.  We’ve got to have meetings at the clubhouse.  I own property in both places, Bear Creek and over in Ormond Lakes.  We don’t see you.  We don’t see you.  You need to be there.  You need to fight for us, not just sit up here and look good…” 

That honest criticism from a clearly frustrated resident resulted in an angry rebuke from Mayor Partington – a scolding from the dais that sharply deviated from the horseshit, pap, and fluff stuffed into his commiserating manifesto in the Ormond Beach Observer…

During his thunderous lecture, Hizzoner roared at Citizen Armstrong – “If you’ll direct your comments to me and I take offense to that because I know how hard she (Tolland) works for this community.  Listen, she works hard.  She’s been working harder than I’ve been working and I’ve been working really hard these last two weeks.”  

My God…  

Another speaker approached her elected “representatives” with another dire warning of the political consequences they now face:

“We are watching your actions.  We are watching your inactions.  We are watching your body language.  We are watching your interactions.  We are watching your moves and how they don’t seem to add up.  We are watching your attitude when you claim you are also in disgust.  Technology is so advanced anyone can do it. 

Search for the information, contact news stations.  We are watching you and all of your conversations.  You were elected to represent us and make the best decisions for our livelihoods.  We are watching you make decisions that are not in any way good. 

Be careful of what you say you did and didn’t do, because in the end, we are all watching you.  Lack of opposition and lack of concern.  These are the same things that may cause us to burn.  We only answer questions pertaining to electricity.  Water and electricity.  We didn’t think you’d be on the team for annexation into the city.

Did you stop to ask what the environmental impacts would have had on our health?” 

Imagine what could have been accomplished if Mayor Partington had put half that passion and effort into protecting our quality of life from the threat of a massive 20-million-gallon fuel farm when there was still time and standing to do something about it? 

Last week, area residents awakened to the disturbing news in an article by News-Journal reporter Sheldon Gardner that our elected officials may now be powerless to prevent the Belvedere Terminal.

According to the report, “If the county tried to change the land regulations to no longer allow the use, the property owner could sue under the Bert J. Harris Act.

“Florida enacted the Bert. J. Harris Act in 1995 to seek to redress government actions considered short of an official ‘taking’ that still negatively affected property owners’ existing rights,” according to a memo from the county attorney’s office.

That could end with the county having to pay up.

The memo includes an example of a 2018 case in Indian River County which lasted several years and led to a judgment against the county of $4.7 million in damages and attorney’s fees, according to the memo. A concrete business sought to build a concrete plant under the county’s regulations and had the right to do so, but county officials changed the zoning to keep that kind of development from happening.

There’s another legal issue with trying to change the land regulations.

Senate Bill 250, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, limits the county’s ability to add “more restrictive or burdensome” land regulations before Oct. 1, 2024, because the county was within 100 miles of where Hurricanes Ian and Nicole made landfall in 2022.”

Welp!  There you have it, folks. 

The deck was stacked in favor of developers and massive corporations years ago – and in Florida, the Golden Rule remains: Those with the gold, make the rules…

When plans for the Belvedere terminal became known a few weeks ago, the halfhearted initial reaction of the flummoxed Ormond Beach City Commission was to send letters to state lawmakers and regulators stating their opposition to the fuel farm.   

I found the volleying response from Sen. Travis Hutson telling. 

And frightening…

“Volusia County has sent a letter to at least nine elected officials asking for help in getting Belvedere Terminals to voluntarily move the project.

Florida Sen. Travis Hutson, one of the elected officials the county contacted, said he’s willing to be a part of the effort but that local leaders should be at the helm.

“It really needs to be handled at the local level. If they need to come in to ask questions or need help finding a solution, I’d be glad to try,” he said.”

Translation: “We’re screwed…”

In my view, it is time Mayor Partington and his mealymouthed “colleagues” in Ormond Beach, Volusia County, and State government come clean about who knew what, and when – because their ‘Aw shucks, who knew!?’ shoulder shrugs and bullshit naïveté is not going over well with the angry masses…

If this fuel farm is allowed to progress (as many ‘in the know’ believe it will) our clueless ‘powers that be’ can expect serious political repercussions for those elected officials who treated taxpayers like mushrooms – keeping us in the dark and feeding us bullshit – for far too long.

And Another Thing!

“I have not deserved the time of leave that I have been placed on and I certainly do not deserve anything less than the position I currently have as Principal of Bunnell Elementary,” she wrote in her resignation letter.” I have willingly followed the process for investigation and been as quiet as I can during this process so as to preserve that process, believing that the truth and legacy that I have built would result in restoration of my name and a chance to truly show what BES is capable of under my continued leadership. Since this is not the direction that things are going at this time, I am offering up my resignation.”

–Former Bunnell Elementary School Principal Donelle Evensen in her letter of resignation, as quoted by FlaglerLive!, Thursday, September 7, 2023

To save you the time, “I” or “my” appear in this snippet from Ms. Evensen’s resignation eleven times…

Clearly, Ms. Eversen has a high opinion of herself. 

In my view, rather than wallow in self-pity, she could have used this unfortunate experience as a teaching moment for her students, demonstrating by leadership, poise, and deportment the importance of accountability in education – and in life – rather than teaching them to play the victim when poor decisions come home to roost…

As regular readers of these screeds know, I crow – ad nauseum – about the ancient principle of accountability commensurate with responsibility by those who accept public funds and are expected to serve the public interest. 

Unfortunately, it appears that sacred concept is now outdated – exchanged for cheap political expediency – as our compromised elected and appointed “leadership” abdicate their oversight responsibility and accept personal and professional misbehavior – no matter how abhorrent – to protect the status quo. 

In the case of former Principle Evensen, the segregated assemblies that saw so-called “educators” sequestering Black children, telling them they are a “problem,” who would be killed or end up in jail if they failed to achieve on standardized tests – then pitted them against each other in a scholastic competition for fast food – occurred on her watch, and she was rightly suspended pending an investigation initiated by the district’s new Superintendent LaShakia Moore.   

Once parents became aware of the situation at BES, it quickly turned into an international embarrassment for Flagler County Schools – whose board members responded in the most ham-handed example of what not to do during a crisis – to include allegations of multiple Sunshine violations as the elected officials struggled to get their political ducks in order. 

Unfortunately, this crisis of leadership is not limited to Flagler County Schools. 

From local governments to the highest offices in the land, we live in an era of diminishing expectations – a time when nothing our “leaders” say or do shocks our conscience anymore…

I worry about the long-term societal consequences as our children and grandchildren become accepting of narcissistic leaders and the inherent fraud of a pernicious “system” laser focused on the personal enrichment of a few at the expense of the public trust.   

In my view, the time-honored principles of honor, personal responsibility, and accountability should be taught at home – and reinforced by those authority figures who once served as ‘role models’ in schools, the workplace, and government – as we work to turn the grim tide of young people mimicking the dishonesty, division, and chaos they see around them.  

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

Hi, kids!

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

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole           Senator Tom Wright

I shared my thoughts on this shocking low point in the all-too-weird political career of Florida Senator Tom Wright earlier this week – but today’s “Asshole” column seemed the perfect showcase for his recent behavior.

As this ugly tale continues to unfold, one thing is clear: Wright is wrong…

In my view, Saturday’s incident at The Beacon Center, Volusia County’s only certified domestic violence shelter, embodies all that I abhor about egotistic politicians – those craven shit-heels who use their elective honorific for a dinner reservation – or throw their considerable weight around with “Don’t you know who I am?” arrogance. 

Then, there’s this:

As I said earlier in the week – this is not a Republican v. Democrat issue.  As a confirmed No Party Affiliate, I despise what has become of both major political factions, now equally ruled by influential billionaires, massive corporations with a chip in the game, and “Super PAC’s.” 

Rather, it is an incredibly illuminating scene that transcends petty party politics and peeled back the cloak of power to expose one pompous politician’s true character.      

In a mind-boggling story originally told by reporter Mark Harper writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Senator angrily confronts domestic violence worker after shelter leadership resignations,” we learned that Sen. Wright put his hand on a female employee of The Beacon Center – then launched a savage verbal barrage that left his victim reeling – during a heated confrontation in the presence of domestic violence survivors and their children.

According to the report, “State Sen. Tom Wright put his hand on a worker outside Volusia County’s only domestic violence shelter Saturday in an angry confrontation that later involved Daytona Beach police, witnesses said.

Wright has been at the center of an implosion of the Domestic Abuse Council of Volusia County Inc., which oversees the operation and programs at the Beacon Center. Approximately 26 women and children were living there last month in an effort to escape dangerous situations at home and rebuild their lives.”

We also learned that Sen. Wright, and what the report described as his “ally,” Beacon board chair Carmen Ruiz, apparently engaged in a campaign to sully former CEO Angie Pye – including filing outrageous allegations with state oversight officials – in an internecine conflict which led to the resignations of Pye, Program Manager Valerie Brooks, and several board members as the Domestic Abuse Council spiraled out-of-control…

“He went to the inspector general’s office. He had me investigated and told them I was trafficking children and doing drugs with the residents in the shelter,” Pye said, adding that there were no such findings and she mostly ignored him even as he continued to make similar allegations elsewhere in the community.

Misty Sanders, a former employee at the Beacon Center, has been attempting to build support around Pye.

“The accusations (Wright) threw around were as absurd then as they are now,” Sanders said.”

My God…

Last Saturday, Wright was reportedly “touring” the shelter with officials from the Department of Children and Families.  In keeping with state statutes protecting the identity of domestic violence victims, the residents of The Beacon Center were displaced and moved to a bus (reportedly to be taken on a “field trip”) while Wright and DCF completed their sightseeing jaunt.   

Inexplicably, in apparent contravention of state confidentiality laws, Pye and other witnesses told the News-Journal that “Wright started to board the bus when a worker told him he was not supposed to enter in order to protect the residents’ identities.”

According to Harper’s report, a video camera captured the rest:

“Wright can be seen stepping off the bus placing his right hand on the worker’s left shoulder or chest as she stepped back. He then stepped away for a moment before returning to yell in her face, as another worker attempted to stand between them.”

In the video, Sen. Wright can be seen stepping onto the bus, momentarily turning to his left and looking into the passenger compartment, as the shelter employee approached to protect the privacy of those onboard.  

In turn, Wright can be seen reaching out and touching the woman on her shoulder, briefly turning away, then returning in a rage – screaming in the employee’s face – placing his hands behind his back, aggressively leaning forward, bearing down, and advancing on the employee as she recoiled from the Senator’s tirade, while another female courageously attempts to put herself between Wright and the target of his wrath…  

Don’t take my word for it, watch it for yourself here:  https://tinyurl.com/4zsa7xrk

Then, in an unbelievably boorish demonstration of political power run amok, Sen. Wright responded to a request for comment by the News-Journal with a deluded and self-centered message, painting himself as the victim, and publicly withdrawing his support for Volusia County’s lone domestic violence shelter:

“This is the thanks I get for trying to help DCF in The Beacon Center, and yet nobody but nobody today other than Carmen stood up for me and said no that isn’t what happened. So I can’t stand up for you all anymore either and I wish you all the best.”

Really? 

So, nobody would protect your sorry ass by bearing false witness against your victim, Senator? 

And who are we supposed to believe, Sen. Wright – you – or that damning video that captured you menacing a smaller female alongside a busload of domestic violence survivors?  

My God…

On Tuesday, we learned in a follow-up by the News-Journal that the employee told Daytona Beach Police “…she tried to explain to him their need for safety and anonymity, but Wright spoke to her “in an aggressive manner” and placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Do not put your hands on me,” she told Wright, who she said lunged at her face attempting to intimidate her. When he walked away, he “loudly thanked her for her concern towards the survivor’s safety.”

Another shelter employee stood between Wright and the first worker and said Wright refused to de-escalate.

The report stated the officers at the scene could not talk to Wright because he had left the scene, but he was later interviewed at the business owned by Ruiz.”

According to the News-Journal, when officers interviewed Sen. Wright away from the scene, he “…stated as he approached the bus to speak with the driver, (redacted) begins to yell while advising Wright he is not allowed on the bus. Wright stated (redacted) continued to scream at him, at which point he tries to explain to (redacted) he was not getting on the bus. Wright stated (redacted) was directly in his face so he places his hand on her shoulder and advised her again, he was not going on the bus. Wright stated (redacted) advised him not to touch her so then he walked away.”

Wow.

Yeah.  Watch the video again…

To their credit, at the request of a Beacon employee, officers issued a trespass warning to Sen. Wright barring him from returning to the shelter for the time being… 

How long are residents of District 8 – which covers most of Volusia and northern Brevard – expected to suffer this walking personality disorder? 

Sen. Wright should be held accountable for his abhorrent conduct. 

In my view, touching a female without her permission, aggressively invading her personal space, and shouting in her face – physically dominating and belligerently backing her down – in the presence of traumatized women and children seeking safe haven from physical and emotional abuse is reprehensible.

It should be criminal.

As I said earlier this week, I have nothing but contempt for so-called “men” who bully, oppress, and intimidate others – especially domineering tyrants with “Senator” in front of their name.

Based on this incriminating video, it is clear to me that Sen. Wright is comfortable menacing others when he explodes in fury.  In my view, Wright’s demonstrated lack of impulse control should prohibit him from holding the reins of political power. 

Look, maybe “Little Tommy” has always been an abusive ogre – a craven bully who seeks to dominate those who cannot fight back – or maybe Sen. Wright is a lycanthrope who becomes a whole different person when someone tells him “No.” 

I don’t know. 

But in the wake of his appalling actions at The Beacon Center, many believe Sen. Wright has lost the moral authority to govern.

In my view, anyone holding public office who does not immediately condemn this creep’s repugnant conduct is an obsequious coward. 

Now, nearly a week after this shameful incident, Sen. Wright has yet to show his face or publicly apologize for his belligerent conduct in the presence of already traumatized domestic violence survivors and their children in a place of refuge. 

Despicable – and clearly contrary to the rules regulating legislative conduct and ethics.    

According to the Rules of the Florida Senate:

“1.35 Every Senator shall conduct himself or herself in a manner that promotes respect for the law, upholds the honor, integrity, and independence of the Senate, and justifies the confidence placed in him or her by the people.

(1) By personal example and admonition to his or her colleagues, every Senator shall avoid unethical or illegal conduct.”

So, what happens when they don’t? 

I guess we’re about to find out… 

In an age when politicians seem to have lost the capacity for shame, We, The Little People will now learn if the rules apply to everyone – or if they are merely window-dressing.

Regardless, Sen. Tom Wright should do the honorable thing and resign. 

Angel               Deltona City Commission

Yeah.  I know…

The fact is, last week, the majority of the Deltona City Commission did the right thing, took a symbolic stand, and voted to terminate Interim City Manager James “The Chiseler” Chisholm after he abruptly resigned – taking his two redundant (and incredibly expensive) deputy managers with him – effectively decapitating the municipality’s leadership, leaving the rudderless ship adrift during the all-important budget cycle.  

The lone vote to keep Chisholm dragging on the public teat was Commissioner Tom Burbank – a congenitally stupid lump – who, once again, stabbed his long-suffering constituents in the back from his high perch on the dais of power…

As only a haughty asshole like The Chiseler is capable of – upon resigning his post on August 15, Chisholm ordained himself by imperial edict on paid “administrative leave” until September 14 (?) – effectively remaining on the city payroll while ensconced on his fat ass at home – squeezing even more public funds from an asinine $200,000 agreement (that included the perquisites of a potentate) which would have seen Chisholm at the helm until a permanent manager could be found.

If ever…

According to a report by Al Everson writing in the West Volusia Beacon this week:

“Chagrined by Chisholm’s decision to leave the post for which he had been hired in October of last year, the commission opted to cut its ties with him and stop paying him immediately.

“I move to accept James V. Chisholm’s resignation effective the day that he left, Aug. 15th,” Mayor Santiago Avila Jr. said.

In keeping with parliamentary procedure, Avila passed the gavel to Vice Mayor Anita Bradford for her to preside over the debate.

Former City Commissioner David Sosa urged the City Commission to cease paying Chisholm.

“He took his football and went home on Aug. 15. Why would we start making it effective Sept. 14?” Sosa said.

Avila subsequently rescinded his motion and offered a stronger alternative motion.

“I move to terminate James V. Chisholm effective Aug. 15 and with a day of pay until Aug. 15,” Avila said, drawing some applause from the audience.

Commissioner Dana McCool seconded the mayor’s motion.”

Kudos to those Deltona City Commissioners who took action to excise this parasite from the public dole.

Now, the important work of finding a permanent city manager can begin.

During my career in municipal government, I had the opportunity to serve with some of finest city managers and senior department heads in the business – many of whom achieved extraordinary success in public service and private industry.

These folks all had similar characteristics. 

They spoke truth to power, accepted personal responsibility for their acts and omissions and those of subordinates, maintained 360-degree situational awareness, listened to their constituents, used criticism to their advantage, supported those who deliver essential services, lived their values, led by example, and served with honor, integrity, and a personal commitment to preserving the public trust.

These professionals were not perfect.  They made honest mistakes – and learned from them – earning the respect and admiration of citizens, elected officials, and their colleagues.

Conversely, I have endured the worst of the worst – craven posers who proved themselves the foulest examples of those charlatans who hold themselves out as “managers” and set upon unwitting communities.

The destruction and distrust that results can take years to overcome…

Boards, councils, and commissions have the right to hire who they want, and sometimes “managers in transition” are escaping political shitshows not of their own making.  However, in my experience, the best predictor of future performance remains past performance.

Before Deltona taxpayers are saddled with another perennial failure, nutjob, or itinerant mercenary looking for a settlement on the way out the door – they should demand a strong internal vetting process that includes a thorough personal and professional background investigation as an integral part of a transparent selection where citizens have meaningful input.

Recruiting and retaining senior leadership remains among the most important decisions an elective body will make – and these choices should not be taken lightly.

As the great author and political theorist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson figuratively wrote:

“Those who fail to learn from the brutal stomping’s visited on them in the past are doomed to be brutally stomped in the future…”

Asshole           Volusia County School Board

All right, students.  Open your books, time for a history lesson… 

In 2019, the West Volusia Beacon reported that during a five-week period that year, the DeLand Police Department arrested some fourteen children, ages 11 to 14 at DeLand Middle School.

In addition, officers responded to the school 87 times for both routine issues and to investigate assaults, battery, fighting, suicide threats, or take children into protective custody under the Baker Act, which indicates they were a danger to themselves or others.

A deeper dive found that the previous school year, nearly 30% of the student population of DMS had been given in-school or out-of-school suspensions or placed in an alternative education program.

Unbelievably, parents of DeLand Middle School students were left completely in the dark… 

When parents were notified of on-campus violence, it often came from frantic calls from their kids, social media posts, or a network of parents – not district administrators – and one parent of a sixth grader at DeLand Middle said it was common to repeatedly call the school with no answer or leave messages that were never returned. 

Perhaps most disturbing, during the Beacon’s groundbreaking exposé, district officials remained uncommunicative – the reporter shunted to the Volusia County School’s Community Information Office – that citadel of non-communication, evasion, and obfuscation that protects senior administrators from outside oversight who refused to allow anyone in the publicly funded school system to be interviewed.

Eventually, a highly paid district mouthpiece issued a canned release which, per usual, said nothing – other than spewing some responsibility-dodging crap about “…taking matters seriously.”

Remember?    

So, other than the name on the superintendent’s door, what has changed? 

It is common knowledge that those in the Ivory Tower of Power at Volusia County Schools like to take their sweet time addressing serious issues facing students, staff, faculty, and parents – even the clear and present danger of escalating violent crime, disruption, and victimization – and has been s-l-o-w-l-y revamping the district’s Student Code of Conduct & Discipline…

According to a recent report in the Ormond Beach Observer, “Volusia County Schools has a total of 149 policies. Of those, the district has reviewed 56 in the last three years. The batch of 22 proposed policy changes approved for advertisement on Aug. 22 would put the district on schedule to have all the policies that were created before 2016 updated by the fall of 2024.”

Bravo!  Just shy of a decade. 

No sense rushing things when some bureaucrat can reach retirement reviewing 149 policies, I guess…

Now, considering their experience, it is natural wary parents will suspect Volusia County school officials are looking for ways they can use a new law to cover their own asses by preventing the release of embarrassing incidents on school campuses.

Earlier this year, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill prohibiting students from using cellphones during instructional time unless directed to do so by a teacher.  Interestingly, last year, China banned cellphone use by students nationwide – and studies indicate that 77% of U.S. schools have moved to prohibit cellphone use for nonacademic purposes.  

Depending upon where you fall on this controversial issue, cellphones and electronic devices in the classroom are either a monumental distraction or a powerful teaching tool. 

Probably both…

In my view, the ability to properly utilize and manage technology is far more important to this generation than mine (when scholastic research was limited to an ancient set of Encyclopedia Britannica) – and, given the information vacuum of Volusia County schools – many parents rely on these devices as an important source of real-time information to protect their children. 

Now, Volusia County School Board members are suggesting that students who use their cellular telephones to video fights and disturbances – then post them to social media – should be subject to disciplinary action.

According to the Observer, “Board member Ruben Colon asked if the new law covers students who film fights on campus — particularly high school campuses, where students are allowed to use cell phones during lunch period.

“We’ve said we hold that student accountable too,” Colon said. “… One of the things that has happened with the recording is that [students] fight like Rocky, because they’re being recorded.”

Would that infraction now be a criminal act? Colon asked.”

Good question. 

Would those students at DeLand Middle and elsewhere who used their cellphones to protect themselves by bringing to light the dystopian anarchy that reigns at many Volusia County schools be considered criminals for exposing what students are subjected to each day they enter the Thunderdome?

I’m asking.  

Unfortunately, we live in a place where our political leadership has adopted a “loose lips sink ships” policy which keeps public business limited to a tight circle of insiders (don’t take my word for it, watch any stilted Volusia County School Board meeting) – and employs politically unaccountable gatekeepers to ration information to the masses in a form most advantageous to protecting those in the Ivory Tower of Power.

That breeds distrust. 

Members of the Volusia County School Board should consider that this circle the wagons strategy is counter to the idea that “an informed public is the most potent of all restraints upon misgovernment.”

In my view, it is time for the ‘powers that be’ in DeLand to realize – they can either be open, honest, and transparent with stakeholders – something that cultivates public confidence – or continue to hide behind a wall of silence and perpetuate this toxic “Us vs. Them” mentality that fosters division, suspicion, and discord. 

Quote of the Week

“I received my annual “Notice of proposed property taxes and assessments” in the mail the other day. I haven’t reviewed the Ormond Beach government’s proposed budget for next fiscal year. But if it includes some of the same fund allocation areas as previous years, there are means to offset the proposed 13.7% increase passed by the City Commission (4-1, Mayor Partington voted against).

1. Ending corporate welfare, or “economic incentives,” as they’re sometimes called. Government should not be using taxpayer money to pick winners and losers in a market. If a business wants to stay or relocate to Ormond Beach, they should have the same playing field as other businesses.

2. Florida-friendly landscaping. The St. Augustine grass in our medians requires a lot of watering and high-frequency cutting, as well as chemicals, to maintain. Using micro-clovers instead will reduce or eliminate all those high-cost concerns.

3. Sponsorships for baseball fields. Sports and advertisements go together like peanut butter and jelly. Selling ad spaces around the field and even naming rights for a field could help offset their regular maintenance and repair costs. After a year of multi-decade record-high inflation, it seems reasonable to me to look at ways to reduce the high rise of future costs.”

— Joe Hannoush, Ormond Beach, Letters to the Editor, Ormond Beach Observer, “Property taxes are too damn high,” Thursday, August 28, 2023

And Another Thing!

“I’m excited to announce that I have officially filed to run for the City of Deltona Commission in District 6.

District 6 is located in the southeastern part of our great city, bordering Osteen.

Deltona deserves a great future.

Thank you for your support and I look forward to our conversations through the 2024 election and beyond!”

–Nick James Lulli, Deltona, announcing his campaign for the Deltona City Commission District 6 seat in 2024, Friday, September 1, 2024

As regular readers of these screeds know, I have a long-held conviction that if you care about good governance in your own hometown, you should care about good governance everywhere. 

I live in Ormond Beach (“The Fingerbowl District” as the late great Big John liked to say) but for reasons I cannot easily explain, I have a soft spot in my beat-up old heart for the citizens of the Lost City of Deltona.

Despite having been effectively abandoned by their government – Deltona residents have a true sense of community – a civisme exemplified in their passionate engagement at often raucous public meetings and on social media forums. 

Having watched the once tumultuous City of Debary emerge like a phoenix from the ashes to become a relatively stable and effective presence in West Volusia – I happen to (naïve as it may sound) believe that positive change is still possible in the largest municipality in Volusia County.

Look, I don’t know Nick Lulli – but I admire his civic conscience. 

Periodically, I like to highlight candidates for public office who are not yet bought and paid for by special interests, wholly owned by powerbrokers, or hand selected by Volusia’s stodgy “Old Guard.” 

(Like unicorns, those are exceedingly rare in these parts…)

Earlier this year, Mr. Lulli began exploring the possibility of serving his community as a member of the Deltona City Commission. 

It was clear from the beginning that, despite the rancor and roil inherent to Deltona politics, his heart was in the right place – no hidden agenda, at least none that I could discern – with an apparent desire to serve and help bring positive change to a place that desperately needs it. 

That is when Mr. Lulli got a down and dirty lesson in the cheapjack political thuggery that has turned the Lost City of Deltona into a cautionary tale… 

In February, Citizen Lulli became the target of a brutal cyberbullying social media post attributed to sitting District 1 Deltona City Commissioner Tom Burbank (yes, the same guy who voted to keep The Chiseler snout-deep in the public trough) which read (verbatim):

“I’ve traveled the world, I’m uncommonly well-educated and have had two successful careers. I’ve been a Squad Leader, a Supervisor, a Manager, a Director, a Chairman, and now I’m a Tribal Elder. Given that, I like to think I’m a fair judge of people. On the subject of Nick James Lulli I offer the following personal impressions:

IMHO…The man (I use the term loosely) is: A tool, a sycophant, a wannabe, a stooge (too diminutive to be a goon), a puppet, a kiss-ass, ingratiating, obsequious, an apple polisher, a parasite, mealy mouthed, a brown-noser, more follower than leader, a bottom feeder, a remora, a leech, (probably) an impulsive liar, in prison terms…somebody’s wet-butt boy.

I’ve run out of pejorative adjectives. I don’t get to use them much as I normally give people the benefit of doubt.

He claims to be a marketing professional and communication expert, and yet has no website to peruse. He accepts fees for his work and yet I can find no record of his having a business license.

He may have one, we’re looking into it.

The notion that anybody would elect him to lead is beyond comprehension. Tb”

So much for the quaint notion of ‘free and fair’ elections in the City of Deltona, eh? 

Most would have taken Commissioner Burbank’s threatening shot across the bow for what it was – an ominous attempt to smear and coerce Mr. Lulli from running for office… 

To his credit, Mr. Lulli publicly called his tormentor out and refused to be intimidated. 

I admire that.

Earlier this year, the Deltona City Commission voted 6-1 (with the “uncommonly well educated” Burbank shamelessly casting the lone “No” vote) to publicly censure Commissioner Burbank for his blatant character assassination of a private citizen who had the guts to challenge the status quo, wade into the fetid swamp of Deltona politics, and consider a run for public office.

In the view of many, if Deltona is to be saved – and whether that is possible remains open for serious debate – that transformative process will begin with engaged citizens electing neighbors who care about the community’s collective needs, have the confidence to use the frequent public criticism and dissent as a civic barometer, and serve in a transparent way without petty personal agendas.    

Given Deltona’s short but grim history, it is heartening to see civically minded people willing to meet that challenge.

And Mr. Lulli is right about one thing – Deltona deserves a great future. 

For more information, find Mr. Lulli’s campaign social media page here: https://tinyurl.com/3ejf4425

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

As an inveterate watcher of local politics and those who practice it, I have concluded that most politicians are drama queens – more enamored with the overemotional theatrics and attention seeking histrionics inherent to political conflict than serving the pressing needs of their constituents. 

Few make my point better than the always squirrelly Sen. Tom Wright… 

Before the partisan fangs come out – this is not a Republican v. Democrat issue.  As a confirmed No Party Affiliate, I have equal disdain for what has become of both major political factions.

Rather, it reflects the clear difference between a douchebag and a decent human being.   

In a jaw dropping article by Mark Harper writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal this week, “Senator angrily confronts domestic violence worker after shelter leadership resignations,” we learned that Sen. Wright is alleged to have put his hand on a female employee at The Beacon Center during a heated confrontation last Saturday. 

I don’t make this shit up, folks…

“State Sen. Tom Wright put his hand on a worker outside Volusia County’s only domestic violence shelter Saturday in an angry confrontation that later involved Daytona Beach police, witnesses said.

Wright has been at the center of an implosion of the Domestic Abuse Council of Volusia County Inc., which oversees the operation and programs at the Beacon Center. Approximately 26 women and children were living there last month in an effort to escape dangerous situations at home and rebuild their lives.”

According to the report, Sen. Wright and his “apparent ally” Beacon board chair Carmen Ruiz, engaged in a campaign to sully former CEO Angie Pye – including filing outrageous allegations with state oversight officials – in an ongoing conflict which led to the recent resignations of Pye, Program Manager Valerie Brooks, and several board members.

“He went to the inspector general’s office. He had me investigated and told them I was trafficking children and doing drugs with the residents in the shelter,” Pye said, adding that there were no such findings and she mostly ignored him even as he continued to make similar allegations elsewhere in the community.

Misty Sanders, a former employee at the Beacon Center, has been attempting to build support around Pye.

“The accusations (Wright) threw around were as absurd then as they are now,” Sanders said.”

My God…

On Saturday, Wright was “touring” the shelter with officials from the Department of Children and Families.  In keeping with state statutes that protect the identity of domestic violence victims, the residents of The Beacon Center were uprooted and moved to a bus while Wright and DCF completed their sightseeing. 

Inexplicably, in apparent contravention of these state confidentiality laws, Pye and other witnesses told the News-Journal that “Wright started to board the bus when a worker told him he was not supposed to enter in order to protect the residents’ identities.”

According to Harper’s report, a camera captured the rest:

“Wright can be seen stepping off the bus placing his right hand on the worker’s left shoulder or chest as she stepped back. He then stepped away for a moment before returning to yell in her face, as another worker attempted to stand between them.”

In the mute video, Sen. Wright can be seen boarding the bus as the shelter employee approaches.  In turn, Wright reaches out and touches the woman on her shoulder, briefly walking away, then returning to scream in the employee’s face – placing his hands behind his back, aggressively leaning in, advancing, backing the employee down, as another female courageously attempts to put herself between the Senator and the target of his rage… 

Ugly.

Don’t take my word for it, watch it for yourself here: https://tinyurl.com/4zsa7xrk  

Then, in an unbelievably crass demonstration of political power run amok, Sen. Wright responded to a request for comment by the News-Journal with a deluded and self-centered message, painting himself as the victim, and publicly withdrawing his support for Volusia County’s only domestic violence shelter:

“This is the thanks I get for trying to help DCF in The Beacon Center, and yet nobody but nobody today other than Carmen stood up for me and said no that isn’t what happened. So I can’t stand up for you all anymore either and I wish you all the best.”

Really? 

So, who are we supposed to believe, Senator – you, or that damning video that captured you menacing a smaller female alongside a busload of domestic violence victims?   

Look, this is not Sen. Wright’s first trip to the Twilight Zone. 

Anyone remember in 2020 when he resigned his elected office after being told he did not have carte blanche to hire and fire state employees assigned as the senator’s staff? 

I do. 

In a butthurt email to then Senate President Bill Galvano, Wright took things to the extreme:

“In the past you have expressed that our staff is our responsibility and our decision as to who works for us as Senators,” Wright wrote. “Today, I am told that I am wrong and that the (staffers) work at the pleasure of the President of the Senate.

“I cannot and will not work for anyone this way. Please accept my resignation as Senator District 14.”

After members of the Senate President’s office were directed to kiss Wright’s sizeable ass and smooth his ruffled feathers, the Senator decided he was “rescinding” the resignation and asked Galvano to disregard his impetuous email… 

Yeah.  I know.  

How long are residents of Wright’s district – which covers most of Volusia and northern Brevard – expected to suffer this walking personality disorder? 

In my view, Sen. Wright should be held accountable for his abhorrent conduct. 

Using his considerable political influence to bring false accusations to a state agency is one thing; however, putting his hand on a female employee of a domestic violence center, screaming in her face, and belligerently backing her down – in the presence of already traumatized women and children seeking shelter from physical and emotional abuse – is unconscionable.

Look, I have nothing but contempt for so-called “men” who bully and intimidate others – especially those with “Senator” in front of their name – and it is clear from this incriminating video that Sen. Wright is comfortable menacing a woman when he explodes in a fury…

In my view, after the despicable actions caught on camera at The Beacon Center, Sen. Tom Wright has lost the moral authority to govern – and anyone holding public office who does not immediately condemn this creep’s repugnant conduct is an obsequious coward.  

Sen. Wright should do the right thing and resign. For good this time.

He won’t.  But he should.    

___________________________________________________________

A petition to have Chair Carmen Ruiz removed from the Beacon Center board can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/3hj5f9yt

Hi, kids!

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

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole           Flagler County School Board

Flagler County District Schools has had a rough week…

As everyone in the Free World is now aware, last week, a horribly ill-advised plan was hatched by a few so-called “educators” at Bunnell Elementary School that segregated Black fourth and fifth grade students from their classmates, brought them into the cafeteria, and subjected them to a now infamous five slide PowerPoint presentation entitled “AA (African American) Presentation.”

The presentation, rife with grammatical errors, was ostensibly intended to increase standardized test scores – although some of the students forced to endure the lecture were already earning A’s and B’s.    

Sadly, the segregated “assemblies” included teachers frightening children with threats they could end up in jail or killed if they failed to excel – then pitted students against one another in a weird scholastic competition that would earn the winners a meal at McDonald’s… 

Yeah.  I know.

As a result, last week, Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore rightfully suspended the principal and a faculty member at BES – placing them on paid administrative leave while an investigation into the incident continues.

As I opined in this space last week, Interim Superintendent Moore responded to this crisis – one which saw the Bunnell Elementary School plastered across international media outlets, including the popular news aggregate Drudge Report and Fox News’ Hannity – with great skill and leadership, including accepting personal and professional responsibility and offering a heartfelt apology to the students affected and the community. 

I found Ms. Moore’s response a positive example of transparent crisis management – and how strong leadership can foster healing.   

The Flagler County School Board’s response? 

Not so much…

Following Ms. Moore’s press conference, the elected members of the School Board gathered behind closed doors ostensibly to discuss the Interim Superintendent’s performance – but who knows? 

For the uninitiated, under Florida’s open meetings law it is illegal for elected members of the same board to meet or discuss active matters that may come before the board outside of a properly noticed public meeting…

Ultimately, School Board Attorney Kristy Gavin entered the room and broke up the private klatch – but the damage had been done – adding fuel and speculation to the crisis.

In a hilarious sidenote to this abject absurdity, a reporter from the online news site FlagerLive! snapped a photo of several Flagler County School Board members still seated around a conference table – looking for all the world like kids caught with their hands wedged firmly in the cookie jar…   

See it for yourself here: https://tinyurl.com/bdzhtetc

Angel               Charlene Greer & Jeep Beach, Inc.

One of the most successful and philanthropic special events in the Halifax area Jeep Beach continues to make a positive impact beyond drawing thousands of enthusiasts to our area each year. 

Recently, Jeep Beach, Inc. donated more than $600,000 to the Halifax Health Foundation to support mental health counseling at Halifax Health Behavioral Services.   

According to a press release, “Halifax Health Foundation is thrilled to announce a groundbreaking philanthropic partnership with the Jeep Beach organization, who have generously donated over $600,000 to fund the renovation of the lobby at Halifax Health – Behavioral Services. This transformative gift will not only enhance the physical space but also contribute to the development of crucial mental health counseling programming.”

Now celebrating its 20th year, Jeep Beach has proven a true benefit to the Halifax area and is now universally embraced by locals as a quality annual event that gives back to the host community.

According to a report by Jim Abbott writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Incorporated as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charity in 2017, Jeep Beach Inc. has donated over $3.8 million to area charities over the past decade through the event’s annual weeklong fund-raising efforts. Recipients include the Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia & Flagler Counties; the NASCAR Foundation; the Childhood Cancer Foundation, as well as more than 70 additional nonprofit groups.

This year’s Jeep Beach event in April attracted more than 230,000 attendees and 30,000-plus Jeep SUVs to Daytona Beach and throughout Volusia County. The 2024 Jeep Beach event is slated for April 19-28.” 

Unlike many “pop-up” invasions and “truck meets” – mechanized mayhem that leave area residents trapped in their homes as rowdy assholes turn our streets into a congested dragstrip and our beachside neighborhoods into Party Central during three days/two nights of gridlocked debauchery – Jeep Beach brings thousands of visitors to our area for a great week of fun at various venues throughout the area.

Kudos to Jeep Beach, Inc. Chair and Executive Director Charlene Greer and her legion of dedicated volunteers who work hard to make Jeep Beach an incredibly special Daytona Beach tradition! 

Quote of the Week

“A spokesperson for Port Tampa Bay said Citgo is a “privately-held terminal,” which means the port itself has no oversight over Citgo’s facility, even though it rests within the port’s footprint. That means any details about the “human error” leading to fuel contamination would have to come directly from the company, according to spokesperson Lisa Wolf-Chason.

“They employ their own people, they have their own operators, and they own the land they operate off of,” Wolf-Chason said in a phone interview. “I know this is unfortunate news for Citgo, but we have been working with other fuel operators to make sure they’re prepared for the storm and can help supply the state with fuel.”

–Tampa Bay Times, “Widespread fuel contamination’ reported at some Florida gas stations as Idalia looms,” Monday, August 28, 2023

As Hurricane Idalia bore down on Florida’s west coast earlier this week, many residents preparing to evacuate or top off generators were met with the chilling announcement that, due to “human error,” a private terminal at Port Tampa Bay was distributing contaminated fuel to Florida gas stations. 

More disturbing, initial reports said that the owner of the fuel terminal, identified by the Tampa Bay Times as Citgo, “…will not release the list of gas stations that received contaminated fuel.” 

However, after state officials determined the extent of the distribution, an accurate list of effected gas stations was later released by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as required by law.  

On Sunday, August 27, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson posted to X (formerly Twitter), that his department would “keep you (consumers) informed as we learn more.”

In my view, concerned residents of Ormond Beach can learn something by examining this ham-handed response to a critical incident at a privately held fuel terminal…

As St. Petersburg-based Belvedere Terminals seeks to place a 20-million-gallon bulk fuel terminal on Hull Road – in dangerously close proximity to the Ormond Beach Municipal Airport, Sports Complex, a children’s playground, dance studio, and established light industry – thousands of citizens have signed a petition and flooded both the Volusia County Council and Ormond Beach City Commission to express their fervent opposition. 

A quick review of industrial petroleum accidents from around the nation, including last week’s chemical fire at the Marathon refinery at Garyville, Louisiana, finds that the ‘corporate-speak’ assurances by company mouthpieces touting public health, safety, and environmental concern, quickly turn into abject silence in the aftermath of mishaps when frightened residents start clamoring for answers regarding air quality, water purity, and when they can return to their threatened homes.

As a result, those who will be asked to coexist with this potential catastrophe in Ormond Beach are increasingly skeptical of the safety assurances made in the leadup to this wholly inappropriate facility – and suspicious of why their elected and appointed officials are projecting faux-surprise, strategic ignorance, and plausible deniability – clumsily pointing fingers, blaming anyone and everything (other than themselves) for why they (and us) were embarrassingly blindsided by the news.

I encourage you to stand with anxious residents from throughout the region who are boldly demanding answers and courageously fighting for the safety of their children, property values, and quality of life. 

This one’s important.

And Another Thing!

“A commentary on the mass exodus of Deltona city officials in August of this year: Mr. Chisholm’s resignation letter leads one to think that there was a poor relationship between himself and the City Commission. If so, this can be corrected.

In addition, his statement that politics must be eliminated tells me that he was subjected to a savage barrage of criticism about himself personally and professionally. By whom? The City Commission or the public. I believe that it was the public.

Deltona residents, unlike other Southwest Volusia cities, do not understand the disconnect between an experienced city manager and his decisions. There is no excuse for calling Chisholm stupid, dumb and ignorant just because one does not agree with his decisions.

Chisholm was not used to this constant barrage of unwarranted criticism and did not have to endure this in his previous jobs. This too can be corrected, but it will take positive efforts by the city attorney and the commission itself as described.

My wife was an executive assistant for 29 years to Bob Dallari, chairman of the Seminole County Commission and also a commissioner for many years. Whenever a citizen came into the office or called on the telephone and directed derogatory comments, for example, calling the commissioner stupid, dumb or ignorant, my wife would immediately call security and that person would be escorted from the building and told not to return to his office unless the insults were stopped. She did not have a recurring problem.

Our city needs to implement this type of policy. No city employee deserves this type of commentary. No one deserves to be talked to like this. I am certain that the city attorney would have to draft an ordinance of some type to curtail this without infringing on the person’s First Amendment rights.

It can be done. This barrage of criticism led to the resignation of our city manager as well as others. It does not have to be this way. It has to stop forever!”

— Douglas MacDonald, Deltona, Letters to the Editor, West Volusia Beacon, Tuesday, August 22, 2023

A smart friend of mine likes to say, “Never ask your government to tax you more” – perennially perplexed by those who say, “I don’t mind paying more for (insert essential service here) if it means better (insert what’s lacking in your current governmental service or access here.)”   

Because that begets the question, “What in the hell are you doing with the money we’re already paying for the service, utility, beach access, transportation infrastructure, etc., etc.?”

I would add, “Never ask that your neighbor’s thoughts and opinions be silenced by the ‘powers that be’…” 

While I defend Mr. MacDonald’s right to voice his views – I wholeheartedly disagree with his dangerous premise that elected and appointed officials should be shielded from pointed criticism by force of law.  

In fact, it speaks to all that is wrong with the bureaucratic cloistering of our elected officials – wherein the “system” isolates them from those they serve – and the current weaponization of political power as a means of suppressing legitimate criticism and dissent. 

In Mr. MacDonald’s autocratic world, whenever a citizen presents themselves to address a grievance with their duly elected representative – unless they come hat-in-hand, genuflect before the might of government, and pay appropriate fealty – then “security” is summoned by the gatekeeper and they are escorted from the inner-sanctum, ordered not to return until such time as they demonstrate obedience to the all-powerful elected elite.

Bullshit.

How much longer before outspoken gadflies and engaged citizens are “disappeared” – packed off to a Stalinist-style gulag camp for the crime of “malicious slandering” of the ruling class – stripped of their citizenship and labeled an “unperson.” 

Don’t think that can happen? 

Read history…and think again.   

Now that local governments are doing everything in their considerable power to curtail the ability of the average citizen to address their elected representatives on the issues – passing insidious “civility ordinances” and subjective “rules of decorum” that only apply to taxpayers (as our elected overseers behave anyway they see fit) while limiting when, where, and how long We, The Little People can prostrate ourselves before our increasingly monarchal rulers – blogs, podcasts, and social media platforms are now the few citizen soapboxes left for those who cannot afford to purchase a chip in the game.

In my view, this censorship cloaked in a velvet glove is morally and constitutionally wrong.

Earlier this year, State Senator Jason Brodeur of Seminole County introduced legislation that would have effectively silenced political criticism by requiring anyone wishing to express an opinion critical of state government officials to first “register” with “the appropriate office”:

“If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register with the appropriate office, as identified in paragraph (1)(f), within 5 days after the first post by the blogger which mentions an elected state officer.”

Under the proposed law, the failure of a blogger to file these state mandated reports would have resulted in fines of “$25 per day per report for each day late, not to exceed $2,500 per report.”

Fortunately, Brodeur’s bill was dead on arrival – but many suspect it will return in another form during the next legislative session…  

In March, Bobby Block, executive director of the Florida First Amendment Foundation, said it best:

“From my own experience, the only places where journalists would ever have to register with the government have been apartheid South Africa, the countries behind the Iron Curtain, the USSR, Zaire, Burkina Faso, and socialist Ethiopia,” Block said. “… I don’t think Florida being in that company of those countries is a good thing.”

More to the point, Charles C. W. Cooke, a senior writer for the acclaimed conservative editorial magazine National Review, accurately called Sen. Brodeur a “moron,” and described his bill as “…an unconstitutional, moronic disgrace, and the guy who wrote it, Senator Jason Brodeur of Seminole County, is an embarrassment to the GOP.”

What is it with Seminole County? 

If those who think as the MacDonald’s do have their way, that kind of talk would have resulted in Mr. Cooke being removed… 

In my view, Deltona’s former Interim City Manager James “The Chiseler” Chisholm was well-deserving of the ire and criticism heaped on him by residents before he fled City Hall in a huff and took his minions with him. 

Despite what Mr. MacDonald may think – The Chiseler “endured” the same “savage barrage of criticism” from many in the Halifax area who suffered through his insular and opaque form of governance for, of, and by those wealthy and influential few with a chip in the game…  

The fact is Deltona’s fractured and dysfunctional elected “leadership” failed to heed the well-documented lessons of Chisholm’s history – and they were doomed to repeat it. 

The long-suffering citizens of Deltona had both the right and civic obligation to call out a senior executive commanding an obscene $200,000 – plus the perquisites of a potentate – who then engaged in the same backroom shenanigans he was infamous for during his contentious tenure in Daytona Beach.

Upon The Chiseler’s retirement in 2020, the News-Journal wrote, “…his natural habitat is behind closed doors.”

“It’s an approach that has blindsided potential allies, cut off the city from benefits of wider partnerships and new information, and more often looks to outmaneuver rather than convert critics.

For the next phase of the city’s evolution to be successful, City Hall will need to be a more open place.”

Sound familiar?  It should.   

Last week, the great News-Journal columnist Mark Lane opined about Mr. Chisholm, “He is known as a top-down kind of administrator who likes to keep things away from public notice. I felt a twinge of nostalgia last week on reading the familiar phrase in The News-Journal, “Chisholm said … that he had no comment.” Just like old times!”

In my view, those who blame citizens for the dysfunction of their elected and appointed officials, should understand – this public outcry is what happens when those who pay the bills are repeatedly ignored and gaslighted by those who accept public funds to serve in the public interest.

What we witnessed in Deltona is democracy in action – and it should be celebrated and encouraged – not stifled by ministerial edict and oppressive ordinances intended to shield the fragile egos of pompous public officials at the cost of suppressing our right to free and open expression.

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

Hi, kids!

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

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Buckle-up, folks – this week’s episode is quite a bumpy ride…

Angel               Andrew Baumgartner & Main Street Merchants

Things that may you go, “Huh?” 

In March, the City of Daytona Beach continued its foray into the commercial real estate business when it purchased the 39,300 square-foot former Corbin building in the heart of the downtrodden Main Street Community Redevelopment Area. 

Some of our “economic development” visionaries at City Hall suggested the property would best be utilized as a multi-functional public market, beer garden, food court, event space, food truck spot, full-service restaurant, live music venue, etc., etc., etc.

The idea being that if the stars aligned, the City of Dayton Beach could charge rent of around $546,000 annually and recoup the $3.1 million it paid for the building in six-years… 

That’s a very big “if.”    

So, after putting out a request for proposals earlier this year, Andrew Baumgartner, the owner of Savage Craft Ale Works of West Columbia, South Carolina, was the sole respondent.

To me, that ranks an “A” for “interest.”

According to a report by Eileen Zaffiro-Kean writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Baumgartner “…transformed a historic building in a South Carolina redevelopment area and turned it into a brewery, taproom and restaurant.”  The renovation of that once dilapidated space earned Savage Craft Ale Works a Historic Preservation Honor Award from the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

Impressive. 

For that, I give Mr. Baumgartner an “A” for “experience.” 

In addition, it was recently revealed that Baumgartner has expressed interest in purchasing the property from the city and investing between $6.5 million to $8.5 million to renovate the 84-year-old building as a microbrewery and casual eatery. 

Again, “A” for “commitment & investment.” 

But in keeping with the City of Daytona Beach’s reputation for erecting bureaucratic hoops and hurdles to entrepreneurial investment, recently an internal “committee” comprised of Holly Prevatt, the city’s purchasing agent, Director of Business Enterprise Management Michael Stallworth, Redevelopment Director Ken Thomas, Economic and Strategic Opportunities Director Jeffrey Brown, Financial Business Analyst Sandra Nealy, and “E-Zone” Operations Manager Allyson Brown (Whew! That’s a lot of visionaries!) – sat in judgement of Mr. Baumgartner by “grading” his proposal on a subjective100-point scale. 

According to the News-Journal report, “Each category had a 15% or 20% impact on Baumgartner’s total score. Committee members graded him on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best. He received his highest scores on experience, and his lowest scores on his fee proposal.

Out of 100 possible points, his highest score from a committee member was 73. His lowest was 64.

Baumgartner’s total score averaged out among the five committee members was 68.7.”

So, as I understand it (and I am not sure I do), the only person with a demonstrated history of turning a decrepit building into an award winning and highly successful business in a Community Redevelopment Area launches his efforts in Daytona Beach with a D+ from the city’s redevelopment apparatus?   

Really?   

Look, I get it. 

The process is no doubt based on the statutory requirements for local government procurement of contracted services. 

However, I seem to recall that when less than two responsive proposals are received, the city may choose to negotiate on the best terms and conditions, in the best interests of the community, rather than resolicit for competitive proposals. 

Perhaps that negotiation should begin (and end) with selling the building to Mr. Baumgartner and getting Daytona Beach taxpayers out of the brewery business while we have someone with interest, experience, and commitment willing to take a risky financial gamble on the largely dormant space. 

In 2017, Eileen Zaffiro-Kean authored the five-part exposé “Tarnished Jewel” detailing the malignant blight and civic neglect of our core tourist area.  In her seminal work, this outstanding reporter peeled the rotten onion of Daytona’s Main Street CRA: 

“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.”

Does anyone see substantive change six-years on? 

I’m asking. 

Because, while several intrepid entrepreneurs have staked their claim on Main Street – working hard to breathe life into an area that could/should be a major draw outside of special events – much of the boulevard still has a down-at-the-heels appearance that dissuades investment…

Many are hoping that Mr. Baumgartner’s investment will be the stimulus for change.   

Clearly, Daytona Beach City Manager Derek Feacher has done more than any of his recent predecessors to turn the dismal tide on the civic and financial stagnation that has plagued the beachside and beyond. 

While many tax-strapped residents in Volusia County are tired of the myriad corporate welfare schemes cloaked as “economic incentives” that are repeatedly heaped on all the right names with a chip in the game – Mr. Feacher has proven a true commitment to creating attractive opportunities for private investment in areas of the community that desperately need it.

In my view, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young should also be commended for his yeoman efforts to curb violent crime and nuisance conditions on Seabreeze Boulevard – recently sending a shot across the bow of a notorious area nightclub by suspending its extended hours permit following the shooting of four people in the parking lot – among other well publicized incidents that have turned Seabreeze into the Wild West.  

Although a city magistrate later reinstated the businesses after-hours privileges, Chief Young’s bold move sent a strong message that the lawlessness that has plagued the area will not be tolerated.  

To that end, the Daytona Beach Police Department has completed a new substation on the beachside – establishing a reassuring permanent presence for beleaguered residents and the business community – while Mayor Derrick Henry and the City Commission recently approved an investment of $3.5 million for crime cameras and improved lighting for Seabreeze Boulevard and, ultimately, the Main Street area.

Good stuff. 

In my view, these combined efforts represent a great “jump start” for Main Street and our core tourist area. 

My hope is Daytona Beach planning and economic development officials will drop the bureaucratic impediments to progress – and continue their renewed focus on the renovation and rebranding of the “tarnished jewel” that is our downtrodden beachside.    

Angel               Intrepid Citizens Fighting the Belvedere Fuel Terminal

If recent events prove anything, it is there is no shame in government, the rights of developers and massive corporations will always trump those of average citizens, and our elected and appointed officials will say anything to avoid accountability. 

It also proves that sometimes help comes from the most unlikely places…   

Last week, residents of Ormond Beach were shocked to learn of plans to build a 20-million-gallon bulk fuel storage farm on Hull Road as part of a hub-and-spur distribution network that will see 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 near the city’s airport, a children’s dance studio, and a sports complex…

Sadly, they did not hear about it from their elected and appointed officials in local government. 

Instead, residents read the grim details in an article in The Daytona Beach News-Journal.  And to hear our flabbergasted elected officials in Ormond Beach and Volusia County tell it – so did they…

Bullshit.

As the news swept through the community, on August 15, concerned residents appeared in the Volusia County Council chambers, and later packed the Ormond Beach City Commission meeting, to express their growing outrage against what many rightfully see as a direct threat to their environment, property values, physical safety, and quality of life. 

Of course, our elected officials at both Volusia County and Ormond Beach were dumbstruck – completely poleaxed by the news – and our ‘powers that be’ yammered and stammered about what can be done to oppose a previously issued Florida Department of Environmental Protection “air construction permit.”

Residents also demanded to know why city and county officials failed to give them a heads-up before things progressed this far – especially now that it is too late to appeal the FDEP permit?

What followed is a textbook example of how government reacts when it gets caught out…  

Despite the usual mumbling and fumbling by our elected representatives, public records show that on June 22, 2022, the Ormond Beach Site Plan Review Committee – an internal group comprised of the Planning Director, Economic Development Director, Senior Planner, Planning Civil Engineer, Chief Building Official, Landscape Architect, Utilities Engineer and the Office Manager – met with representatives of Belvedere Terminals to discuss preliminary plans for the fuel terminal and submittals required for the permitting process.

On June 24, 2022, Ormond Beach City Manager Joyce Shanahan dutifully reported the Committee’s meeting to the City Commission via her weekly staff report.  According to the report, Ms. Shannahan advised, “Pre-application meeting for a parcel located in unincorporated Volusia County that seeks a fuel farm facility with railroad access.” 

In her report, Ms. Shanahan specified that annexation into the city would be required based upon the terminal’s connection to municipal utilities… 

After the news broke last week, in a “Planning Memorandum” from Ormond Beach Planning Director Stephen Spraker to his boss, Ms. Shanahan, we learned “Volusia County Land Development, Environmental, Zoning, and Planning staff received an inquiry for the development of a rail freight terminal for distribution of oil, fuel, propane.  County staff indicated that this use was a permitted use by right in the I-2 zoning classification.” 

I guess we now know who knew what, and when…

At their August 15 meeting, the Ormond Beach City Commission directed staff to compose a letter of objection to the FDEP regarding the Air Construction Permit for Belvedere Terminals, a letter of opposition on behalf of the Commission to the Volusia County Council and all Volusia County legislative delegates including the Governor and members of Congress, and a letter on behalf of the Commission to Belvedere expressing their concerns regarding the intended use not being at an appropriate location. 

Trust me.  It was the least they could do. 

Literally…

There was a similar ham-handed reaction from the equally flummoxed Volusia County Council…

During his waning comments at the Council’s August 15 meeting, District 4 Councilman Troy Kent, who claims to represent Ormond Beach residents, spoke in opposition to the fuel terminal. 

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

“Kent said at the meeting that he wasn’t directing officials to pursue action that would necessarily result in a lawsuit, but because the site’s proximity to the municipal airport — about a mile north — he believed the county should notify the Federal Aviation Administration.

“I’m not trying to be a fearmonger, you’ll hear me all the time bashing people for that, but if there is a plane that hits those towers with all of that fuel in it, we are talking about a firestorm in this community,” Kent said.

Not every area in town is unsuitable for a fuel terminal, but Hull Road is, he added. County Council Chair Jeff Brower agreed.

“I hope that this council, if we have an opportunity to have any input on it, that we will stop it in its tracks,” Brower said.”

What I found most troubling was when the exasperated Councilman Kent announced that he found out about the fuel terminal from the “News-Journal.” 

For the record, Mr. Kent was a sitting member of the Ormond Beach City Commission last June when Ms. Shanahan announced the pre-application meeting with Belvedere Terminals…    

Whatever.

In turn, Councilman Danny Robins rightfully asked County Manager George “The Wreck” Recktenwald to compile more information on the history of the terminal – which was met with Mr. Recktenwald’s usual lack of urgency – as he garbled and grumbled in some weird tongue that only Mr. Robins seemed to understand… 

Then, during a standing room only special meeting of the Volusia County Council on Wednesday evening, we learned – among other disturbing revelations – that county officials are unable to appeal the FDEP air construction permit issued to Belvedere Terminals because the county now lacks legal “standing.”

We also became painfully aware that Volusia County’s highly compensated legal and planning apparatus was asleep at the switch and completely failed to notice the required Public Notice of Intent to Issue Air Permit published in the Hometown News. 

In fact, an Assistant County Attorney confessed (to the collective gasps of assembled taxpayers), “Volusia County does not monitor the notices of other government agencies…” 

Really? 

Even when it involves a 20-million-gallon bulk fuel terminal?   

Wow. 

What followed was a long parade of angry residents who approached their elected representatives to passionately demand action to protect their lives, children, and homes from the adverse impacts of a massive fuel storage and distribution terminal in perhaps the most inappropriate location on the Eastern Seaboard.

Public comments included:

“Please lead!”

“Traffic, traffic, and more traffic.”

“An attractive target for domestic terrorism.”

“Why in God’s name do we have to defend ourselves over something you should have said no to a long time ago?”

“Why now?  And why Ormond Beach?”

“As leaders, you should know what’s happening, when it’s happening.”

“We’re sick of excuses.  You need to listen to your constituents!”

“Shame on you for not doing your job!”

“If my child dies, will you go to bed knowing you did all you could to stop it?”

Powerful…

During public comments, Debbie Cotton, President and CEO of the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce, boldly announced that the Chamber’s Board of Directors opposes the fuel terminal, saying the project represents an “undeniable threat to Ormond Beach.” 

Before Wednesday’s meeting, State Representative Tom Leek of Ormond Beach issued a strong statement claiming, “As a vehement opponent of the proposed fuel terminal project in Ormond Beach, I am working every angle to derail this project.  Additionally, I call on the leaders of the Volusia County Council to join me and make every lawful effort to stop the proposed fuel terminal project in Ormond Beach.”

I also understand Senator Tom Wright of New Smyrna Beach has voiced his opposition to the terminal. 

More important, I heard an interesting rumor through the Barker’s View grapevine this week that a certain unnamed High Panjandrum of Political Power – the ultimate ‘powerbroker’ who swings a lot more wood in Tallahassee and beyond than Rep. Leek and Sen. Wright combined – is also not happy with the idea of a massive fuel farm in once idyllic Ormond Beach…

Time will tell.  

So, what was the ultimate result of this coming together of furious residents and outpouring of opposition against the unthinkable?

Well, after hearing the fervent pleas of their constituents, those gutless do-nothings on the dais of power elected to direct the same staff that got us into this mess to “investigate” options and alternatives… 

You read that right.

After blaming everyone but themselves (or that bloated bureaucracy in DeLand), it appears to many that Growth and Resource Mismanagement Director Clay Ervin – supported by County Attorney Mike Dyer – is setting worried residents up for their patented, “Nuttin’ we can do, y’all. Our hands are tied – bidness is bidness” dodge. 

Without outside help by those in state and federal government (and the private/political sector) who have leverage over the Florida East Coast Railroad and the petroleum distribution industry – which should include the identification of alternative sites with rail access outside of heavily populated areas or adjacent to children’s playgrounds – this terminal may well become a reality for Ormond Beach residents.

Because Volusia County has telegraphed that it doesn’t have the backbone to stand and fight – and Belvedere Terminals hasn’t even rattled their legal saber yet…

Kudos to those intrepid Halifax area residents who are standing firm for that which is right and had the courage to speak truth to power on Wednesday evening. 

It was democracy in action – something our cowardly elected officials have not seen in quite a while…

Angel               Flagler Interim Superintendent of Schools LaShakia Moore

Earlier this week, Pierre Tristam of the online news site FlaglerLive! broke the incredibly disturbing story of how a group of so-called “educators” at Bunnell Elementary School isolated students in an assembly last Friday, ostensibly for a presentation on the importance of improving their standardized test scores.

In Mr. Tristam’s informative article, “Black Students at Bunnell Elementary Are Told Of ‘Early Grave’ If They ‘Clown’ Around and Don’t Perform,” we learned the shocking common denominator – “What these students had in common was one thing, and it wasn’t even low test scores. It was their skin color. They were all Black students. Only Black students.”

According to the report, “They were summoned in two separate assemblies at Bunnell Elementary, one for fourth graders, one for fifth graders, interrupting their classes. They were told that if they clowned around, if didn’t perform well, they could miss out on college. They could end up shot or dead.

They were shown a five-slide PowerPoint that told them that “AA have underperform (sic.) on standardized assessment (sic.) for the last past (sic.) 3 years.” AA are African Americans.

Astonishingly, with three errors in a single line, whoever wrote the PowerPoint would fail a basic English test: the problem at the school appears to start with its faculty, not its students.”

My God…

Please find Mr. Tristam’s excellent article here: https://tinyurl.com/2r5dn8n9

By Wednesday evening, the ill thought segregated assemblies had turned into an international embarrassment for Flagler County Schools as the story was carried by Daily Mail and other media outlets. 

Yesterday, we learned that Flagler County’s Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore has placed Bunnell Elementary Principal Donelle Evensen on paid administrative leave as the district continues to sort through the fallout from last week’s “assemblies.”    

In addition, the Flagler County School Board abruptly postponed a special workshop scheduled for Thursday morning during which Interim Superintendent Moore was to be interviewed for the permanent position…

According to a piece in Thursday’s FlaglerLive!:

“Postponing the workshop—which the School Board has continuously, misleadingly labeled a “retreat”— was Moore’s request.

“After much reflection,” Moore wrote board members this morning, “I respectfully ask that the Board Retreat scheduled for this morning be rescheduled. Greater than serving as the permanent superintendent, is my desire as an educator to continue to serve the community of Flagler well. For the 3-hours we have scheduled for this retreat, my thoughts will be on what is needed at BES and the rest of this district.”

She also informed the board of placing the principal on administrative leave. (Evensen is not likely to be the only Bunnell Elementary staffer to face disciplinary action.)”

Then, Ms. Moore did the unthinkable for a sitting senior official.  She apologized. 

“As the superintendent of Flagler Schools, I apologize for any disruption to our progress that this has caused, and I ask for your support as a greater community in moving forward. We need your time, ideas and resources to address the performance needs of our students as a whole.

“I appeal to this community to come together, not just around what we don’t want to see, but around what we want to see in our schools,’ she said, outlining opportunities to get involved.”

In my view, Interim Superintendent Moore’s response to this crisis should tell the Flagler County School Board all they need to know about her character and suitability. 

By any metric, Moore has shown incredible leadership under pressure, and accepted personal and professional responsibility for a terrible error in judgment that occurred on her watch – and, in my view, she has acted in the finest tradition of demanding a level of accountability commensurate with responsibility.

That is admirable – and something other area government “leaders” could learn from… 

Quote of the Week

“The (Deltona) City Commission agreed during a workshop Monday to create a committee of residents to assist in picking the next city manager following the recent resignation of Jim Chisholm.

The commission also gave consensus to Glenn Whitcomb, the newly named interim city manager, to finalize the parameters of what the city is looking for in a manager over the next two weeks.

The commission will hold votes approving those items during its Sept. 4 meeting as votes cannot be held during workshops.

The commission also agreed to shorten the timeline of searching for a city manager by 30 days.

Whitcomb also will reach out to the city manager search firm that previously responded to the city’s call to see if they are still interested.

During Monday’s workshop however, some commissioners and residents were opposed to hiring a search firm, which can cost upwards of $50,000.”

–Wild West Volusia reporter Katie Kustura writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Deltona residents asked to help pick next city manager,” Tuesday, August 22, 2023

And Another Thing!

Last week, The Daytona Beach News-Journal published a whimsical ditty on the annual personal financial disclosure forms filed by the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker that we elected to the Volusia County Council – a statutorily mandated obligation of all elected and appointed officials governed by Florida’s Code of Ethics who hold a fiduciary responsibility to those they serve.   

Three of our Councilmen – Don Dempsey, Danny Robins, and Jake Johansson – list themselves as millionaires… 

Good on ‘em. 

My three decades in municipal public service were not nearly as lucrative – but it is good to see local boys doing well, eh?   

District 1 Councilman Don Dempsey, a DeLand attorney, took the cake with a net worth of over $4.5 million as of June 1, 2023.

At-Large Councilman Johansson – a retired naval officer and former city manager of Port Orange – lists a sizeable personal fortune with a net worth of $3.4 million – with millions in checking, savings, and investment accounts – and an annual income of $202,726 derived from a military pension, VA disability, and a company owned by Mr. Johansson and his wife, Core Concepts Leadership, (not including the $51,292 he receives for service on the Volusia County Council.)

In his disclosure, Mr. Johansson listed Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce as “major customers” of his leadership training and coaching company. 

According to the News-Journal’s report, Mr. Johansson has rightfully limited his involvement with these clients to avoid any conflict of interest…  

I have always found the Florida Ethic’s Commission’s financial disclosure requirements something of a joke, in that I have rarely known a corrupt public official who willingly detailed their graft and grift on Form 1, have you?     

Frankly, at the risk of sounding crass – I don’t give a rat’s ass about how much these pompous blowholes bring in – or how many play toys they have accumulated in their spacious backyards…

In my view, if we were serious about ensuring our elected and appointed officials remain independent and impartial – we would subject them to regular polygraph examinations, forensic audits, credit checks, analyze their personal financial stability, past criminal behavior, history of substance abuse, veracity, contacts with special interests, and regularly examine any personal and professional associations that suggest a vulnerability to compromise and corruption.

Yeah.  I know…

Most important, if “The System” were serious about preserving the public trust – we would immediately overhaul our horribly broken campaign finance system – an exercise in transactional politics that has taken on the appearance of a Turkish bazaar.

Don’t hold your breath…

As recent events in the City of Deltona, Ormond Beach, and Volusia County government have shown – once lost, the public trust is impossible to regain – especially when the same compromised hands are allowed to remain on the tiller. 

In my view, it is time those who accept public funds to serve in the public interest at all levels of government understand the importance of protecting the integrity of our system of governance by avoiding even the appearance of impropriety, accepting personal and professional responsibility, and holding highly compensated senior government executives accountable for the actions and omissions of their administration.   

It is also high time those we elect to serve our best interests live up to their campaign promises and support and defend the rights of their powerless constituents in the frequent David v. Goliath conflicts we face – like crippling malignant sprawl and the increasingly likely placement of a 20-million-gallon fuel farm in Ormond Beach…

The slapstick comedy of errors that was on full display to astonished residents on Wednesday evening – many of whom had never set foot in the Volusia County Council chambers – should have been a gross embarrassment to our blindsided elected officials, County Manager George “The Wreck” Recktenwald, and his senior staff who either knew or should have known about the Belvedere Terminal project well in advance of last week’s News-Journal exposé. 

In my view, governmental ethics require that those who accept hundreds-of-thousands in public funds to serve in the public interest have a moral obligation to maintain situational awareness, monitor internal and external actions that may adversely impact their constituents, and take early and definitive action to protect public safety, safeguard the environment, and preserve our quality of life. 

Anything less is unethical – and inexcusable.

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