Eager for Experience, Palm Coast Council’s Top Two Choices for Appointment Are Dave Sullivan and Dave Ferguson

The Palm Coast City Council’s two leading choices to fill the District 3 seat Ray Stevens resigned in March are former County Commissioner Dave Sullivan and former City Council member Dave Ferguson. 

Sullivan just last November ended eight years on the County Commission. He opted not to run for a third term. Ferguson served two years on the council, between 2012 and 2014, when he filled out the term of Frank Meeker, who went on to serve on the County Commission. 




The council interviewed 10 candidates last week. Its top choices clearly point to the council’s eagerness for a tested, knowledgeable colleague who won’t need much of a learning curve as the council readies to appoint a new city manager and start budgeting for the coming year. Ferguson and Sullivan also have close ties with the local business community. Neither is a firebrand. Neither is foreign to humor and self-deprecation, qualities that have been largely lacking on a council more high-strung than an unsecured trigger. 

The council narrowed a list of 10 applicants to three Tuesday evening in three successive ballots. The four sitting council members each marked three candidates they favored, without rankings. On the first ballot, five candidates got two votes each–Ferguson, Sullivan, Candace Stevens, Mark Stancel and Cornelia Manfre. Two more got one vote each and were eliminated (Gene Perez and Michael Flanagan.) 

A second round narrowed the field to two top choices as Sullivan and Ferguson each got three votes. Stevens, Stancel and Manfre got two each. Since the council is looking to have three candidates from whom to choose when it makes the appointment next week, it voted yet again to break the three-way tie, from which Candace Stevens emerged with two votes to Manfre’s and Stancel’s one. 




For Manfre, it was the latest in a long series of defeats in her attempts to win appointment or election to the City Council. For Stevens, even if she is not selected next week, it’s a clear warm-up to a run for the seat in 2026.

Council members thanked the candidates. Before the votes, Council member Theresa Pontieri said that while each council member has choices in mind, “ as we move forward to next week, we really want somebody that impressed upon us facts about our city, knowing some of our current issues, and a state of preparation that shows, hey, you looked into things, you know what’s coming up before us.” 

Pontieri prized preparation and evidence over “buying into just what is seen in Facebook posts, headlines, things like that. We need people that are willing to listen to residents, but also do their own research and their own due diligence and dig into things that, on a cursory level, may look or appear one way, but when you actually get into things granularly, you get to the truth and you get to the bottom of things.” 

Council member Ty Miller, whose approach has emphasized deliberation over reaction, echoed Pontieri and complimented the quality of the field. “There’s always more applicants than seats available, and so unfortunately, you have to select somebody,” he said. “But that does not mean any negative towards anybody here that applied.”

Council member Charles Gambaro was himself appointed to the council last fall. That process contrasted greatly with the current process. The appointment to fill the seat Cathy Heighter vacated when she resigned was fractious and politicized. But three members of that council have been replaced. 




The current process has been civil, non-partisan and issue-focused. At every step, Mayor Mike Norris has impressed on the candidates and the audience that the process should not be partisan. Ironically, Norris had continued to criticize the Gambaro appointment and the council member’s legitimacy, though he has not done so from his seat for several weeks. 

“ I think we did a great job with the interviews,” the mayor said. “I think everyone asked the exact same question, so it was fair across the board, and the residents of Palm Coast had a chance to evaluate the people that came up and threw their hats in the ring.” 

Stevens resigned his seat after developing health complications shortly after his swearing-in last November. The person appointed to the District 3 seat, which roughly corresponds with the south and southeast part of the city, including the P and R sections and Grand Haven, will serve until November 2026, when an election will be held for that seat. The appointee will be eligible to run.