A cycle of convulsions that has seen four seats turn over on the Palm Coast City Council, three on the School Board and two on the County Commission isn’t over: the Bunnell City Commission will have two open seats in the March 4 municipal election as incumbent Commissioners Tina-Marie Schultz and Tonya Gordon, both have decided not to run again. Gordon has been serving since 2020, Schultz since 2021.
Only the Flagler Beach City Commission is maintaining the continuity and stability that has defined it for the last several years, with incumbents Jane Mealy and James Sherman running for re-election on March 4.
Schultz filed the necessary paperwork to run and was a declared candidate, but she said today that while she had “every intention of running,” she recently “developed some health issues. So, I will not run for re-election this time. I will complete my current term.”
Gordon’s decision not to run again is not a surprise. “I would like to stay and get into the new building but I think Ive done enough, and there’s other things, I want to spend more time with my family,” she said today. “The board that we have now, we all get along, we’re all good, and all of us have the city’s best interest and the future in our hearts, and we want to see it grow. But it’s just time for me to move on. I’ll still help them out of they need help. I’ll still back the police department and help them with whatever they need and be their house mom.”
Convulsions have limits in Bunnell: Mayor Catherine Robinson, the longest-serving public official in Flagler County, is running for re-election. The only surprise would be if anyone would be audacious enough to run against her, as no one has been for over two decades. But Bunnell’s political center of gravity is shifting, as indicated by two of the three candidates so far who have declared their candidacy: David John Atkinson and Lyle Dean Sechrist, who live almost next-door to each other on Birdie Way, are both relatively new residents or the growing subdivision of Grand Reserve, which has produced a couple of commissioners in recent years.
“There are certainly days ‘when I’ve had enough,'” Robinson said in a text this morning, “but they have been few and far between. I love the Veterans Day Parade that has evolved and Christmas in Bunnell. Our major projects should be completed next year and I want to see them to completion, from groundbreaking to ribbon cutting. I have the best city manager which has been a true blessing on several levels.” Robinson was referring to Alvin It-s-a-Great-Day-in-Bunnell Jackson. “This needs to be preserved with new commissions. It is a lot different sitting in the audience vs having the responsibility to know the facts and history to make decisions. Legacy knowledge is critical to understand and make good decisions.”
Bunnell elects all its commissioners and the mayor in at-large elections. Two commission seats are open, so the top two vote-getters will be seated. The third declared candidate–she declared this morning–is Bonita Robinson, the director of the Carver Center who was a Bunnell city commissioner between 2014 and 2017, when she lost her seat to John Sowell. Robinson would be a voice for South Bunnell, which has not had direct representation since Robinson’s loss.
“I just felt that it’s time for me to run because I just sitting back and seeing things that’s not happening, basically, for the city of Bunnell,” Bonita Robinson said this morning. “I’m just hoping that I can take part with the other mayor and commissioners to move Bunnell forward. For years now we kind of had this black cloud over over Burnell,” by which she meant crime and “past history.” Robinson calls Bunnell “a great city, not as enriched financially as the city of Palm Coast. But we are a great city, and I think we can do great things together, working as a team.”
Robinson wants to work with the county and Palm Coast to bring public transportation to the county–along-time aim for residents, but not for local governments, which continue to rely on the county’s needs-based but far from universal or easily accessible transportation system. Robinson worked in the county’s transportation department in the past. “I found in trying to help people be able to get on that transportation has become very difficult, the paperwork, the things that people have to do,” she said. “I Think it’ll be easier just for someone to walk to a certain area and catch a bus.”
Robinson also wants the city to have a grant-writer. She had not worked with Jackson, the city manager (he arrived after she left the commission) but considers him a “very intelligent person” who’s moved the city forward.
At the Carver Center, Robinson was sharply opposed to the Sheriff’s Office, the county, the School Board and the city (all of whom finance and oversee the center) opening the center to the Sheriff’s Police Athletic League, or PAL. Robinson was part of the opposition that considered PAL’s presence an unnecessary change in the center’s mission, and an intrusion on Carver-based programs. The opposition centered on the rewriting of the joint agreement between the different government agencies, but in the end the joint agreement was adopted and the controversy died down.
“It is taken care of, and we’re working together and making things happen for the kids in the community,” Robinson said of the Carver Center, where she’s been the director for four years.
“Bonita’s previous experience should serve the commission well,” Mayor Robinson said this morning. John Rogers, who has been on the city commission uninterruptedly since 2011, echoed the mayor. “Bonita Robinson has always been a strong voice for the Bunnell community,” he said. “Her previous service on the commission showed her dedication to improving the city, and I believe she would be a welcome addition to the board once again.”
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