8 Candidates, Most With Strong Credentials, Apply to Fill Palm Coast Council Seat Vacated by Barbosa

Whether because the stint is temporary or doesn’t require an election, applicants seeking to fill the seat by appointment tend to be qualitatively and temperamentally several cuts above the individuals they’d be replacing.

So it is at least with most of the eight applicants seeking to fill the seat Victor Barbosa vacated when he resigned abruptly on March 1 after an accusation of shoplifting, soon after dismissed. Most are well known, most have been public servants, some have run for local office before, if unsuccessfully.

The eight are Tony Amaral Jr., Bob Coffman, John Fanelli, Larry Gross, Hung Hilton, Carl Jones Sr., Perry Mitrano and William Schreiber.

Notably, not a single woman applied, ensuring that the council–like the County Commission–would continue to be an all-male club. Both panels are also currently all white. (Palm Coast is 11.5 percent Black. The last time the council had a Black member, the late Bill Lewis, was in 2014.)

The council meets in special session on March 22 to consider making the appointment. It must be final by the end of the month. The appointment will fill the seat until November, when the person elected in the August primary or the November runoff is sworn in.




The opening of the District 2 seat was open only to residents of that district, which includes Palm Harbor, the entire F Section, a small part of the north end of the B Section, and the area of Matanzas Woods and the L Section, north from Matanzas Woods Parkway. Qualification was conditioned on applicants willing to serve just eight months, and not be candidates for the coming election. The condition serves as a filtering mechanism, keeping out less serious candidates. At the same time, it pushes forth the sort of candidates who may have all the qualities of a council member but not necessarily the bile or cynicism that has become a near-requisite for elections to the council in the last few cycles.

The type of candidates who applied also suggests rather strongly that, contrary to the mayor’s claim, the low salary–the appointee will be paid all of $5,600 for seven months’ work–appears not to have been a deterrent to quality.

Four were registered Democrats as of the 2020 election (Amaral, Coffman, Gross, Jones), four were registered Republican (Fanelli, Hilton, Mitrano, Schreiber). Council seats are ostensibly non-partisan, but in elections that’s only a pretense anymore. The council itself is all Republican.

Amaral, 48–officially, Antonio Amaral Jr.–is a certified building, roof and pool contractor and a real estate broker who got his education at Embry-Riddle Areronautical University and Daytona State College, is a business owner who started his own company six years ago and a member of the Flagler Homebuilders Association, a role that’s led to frequent interactions with city staff and council members over the years. He refers to the need for civility and continuity in his application–at one page, the briefest of the six, with a nod to humility: “I started sweeping floors for my parents’ company when I was just 12 years old in Palm Coast.” (He is the son of builder Tony Amaral.)




Coffman, 63, ran for the congressional seat that includes Flagler County in 2018, and for this District 2 seat on the council in 2020, when he faced Barbosa, David Alfin, and Dennis McDonald. Coffman came in second–ahead of Alfin by almost 2,000 votes, and behind “the outbound Barbosa,” as Coffman referred to him in his application letter. Alfin was elected mayor in last July’s six-way special election, when Coffman did not run. “I bring a moderate voice to the table, having attended many city government functions, and I am ever-mindful that governance is the act of balancing frequently conflicting viewpoints, always searching for win-win solutions.” Coffman, a recently retired Captain who spent most of his career with American Airlines, flying international routes after 20 years’ service flying warplanes in the military, in his campaigns brought a sort of Eisenhowerian demeanor–in moderation, temperament and even comportment–that has seemed at odds with some of his more shrill competitors.

If there is a surprise candidate, it is Fanelli, 42, not long ago a Principal of the Year when he was at Wadsworth Elementary. He became principal at Buddy Taylor Middle School, then was elevated to the district office as its Coordinator of Student Support and Behavior–a role that would be particularly useful on this council. For lay readers the title may mask the job’s importance: Fanelli handles the most serious disciplinary issues in the district, and is at times in court, overseeing students’ criminal cases. He oversees several interventionist support functions on behalf of students, along with home-schooling and other student services. The council has had a few educators in its history, not least the late Jon Netts, the longest-serving council member and mayor, who was a school administrator in new Jersey. But Netts’ service was of another generation. The council has never had a school administrator as entrenched in today’s social  and economic issues–as in tune with the district’s 13,000 students on that score–like Fanelli.

Gross, 63, fronted his application with a disclaimer about “my past behavior” and “some poor choices” due to a drug addiction some 25 years ago, resulting in a criminal record. “After successful drug treatment, a lot of hard work, and a lot of family and community support, I turned my life around,” he wrote. “In the decades following, I have focused on taking care of my family and establishing a prosperous local computer business. I take great pride in serving my clients and my community.” He included a letter of recommendation from Tim Curtis, the president and one of the original founder of Houligan’s, the restaurant chain. Gross owns Compu Clinic, the business on Office Park Drive.




Hilton, 40, has been in this very position before, when the council in 2020–the last time it had to make an appointment–had to fill the seat Jack Howell vacated for health reasons. Four candidates applied. Three were interviewed, among them Hilton. Hilton, an information technology architect,  had the misfortune of going up against Jon Netts, who would end up being chosen unanimously to serve his last stint in public office. The appointment requires a candidate already well versed in budgeting, since that’s the council’s next busiest issue over the next few months, and Netts could do the job with his eyes closed. Hilton got a consolation prize: he was appointed to the Palm Coast Planning Board, which he would have to resign if he were chosen for the council. He garlanded his resume with a quote from Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax,” the 1971 book: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”Jones, 58, a 26-year military veteran and teacher in Flagler and St. Johns district schools–he has been substituting since 2013–has also been mentoring students in Flagler schools for many years and currently serves as president of the African American Mentoring Program established by Jim Guines well over a  decade ago. Jones ran for a school board seat in 2018 looking to build “confidence, discipline, positive attitudes, and respect for authority,” elements he saw lacking. He was in a three-way race against the late John Fischer and incumbent Janet McDonald. McDonald won with 41 percent of the vote. “The youth of this community and their desire toi matriculate through our schools, leave and come back after college should be a priority,” he wrote in his application letter for the council seat.

Mitrano, 63, was Bunnell’s solid waste director, then both its solid waste and utilities director before he retired during City Manager Alvin Jackson’s administration. Mitrano had applied for city manager in Bunnell in 2013, and ran for an East Flagler Mosquito Control District seat in the last election, falling short. He has been an auctioneer, runs Diana Minotti Fine Art Antiques and Collectibles with his wife, and periodically appears before the council to discuss municipal issues, especially issues pertaining to the north end of town. He’s among the applicants most familiar with the workings of local government, taxes and budgeting.

Schreiber, 79, was among the four applicants and the three interviewees ahead of the foregone appointment of Netts in 2020. The retired physicist and mathematician worked as a teacher in the St. Johns school district for many years and as a government contractor, owning his own company for 10 years. He’s lived in the city since 1995 but has never served on an advisory board, and his interview with the council in 2020 left council members a bit cold from his generalities, his aphorisms and a prickliness that may match the occasional distempers of the current council, but not the direction its mayor would rather it took. He also said something that may resonate with one council member (Ed Danko, who’s been the target of whistle-blowing-like complaints) but not others: “I’m not real fond of whistle-blowers, if you will.”

All eight applications are below.

The city’s invitation to apply for the District 2 seat was worded as follows, and was not necessarily complied with to the letter by every applicant:

The City of Palm Coast is accepting applications from citizens residing in District #2 who are interested in appointment to the vacant City Council seat. Applicants must be registered voters of Flagler County and qualified electors of the City of Palm Coast who not only reside within District #2, but maintain a residency within the District for at least 45 weeks of each year.

Applicants must be available to attend regular City Council meetings on the first Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. and the third Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. of each month. They also must be available for City Council Workshops on the second Tuesday of each month at 9:00 a.m. and any additional special meetings that may be called. Applications are available on the City’s website www.palmcoastgov.com/council or by contacting the City Clerk at [email protected]

Interested citizens must submit an application, letter-of-interest, and a resume, to the Palm Coast City Clerk’s Office no later than noon on Wednesday, March 16, 2022. This is a limited appointment for the remainder of District 2’s term, which will end November 2022. City Council has asked that applicants not apply if they intend to run for City Council in the upcoming election for District 2.

If you are unsure of the District in which you reside or have any other questions relating to this appointment, please contact the City Clerk’s Office, City of Palm Coast, 160 Lake Avenue, Palm Coast 32164; phone – 386-986-3713; fax – 386-986-3714; email to [email protected].

Here are the full applications:

Click to access ALL-APPLICATIONS-VACANT-SEAT-2-2.pdf