Ex-County Commissioner Dave Sullivan Appointed to Palm Coast Council After Bruising Process

Dave Sullivan, the former county commission member, was appointed to the Palm Coast City Council’s District 3 seat vacated by an ailing Ray Stevens in late February. It’s a wonder Sullivan wasn’t himself ailing by the time he got the council’s vote: his appointment was not elegant.

The council’s decision was on a 3-1 vote following several fractious, at times injurious and ageist public comments about Sullivan–who is 82–and a series of failed motions or lack of motions that passed over Candace Stevens, Dave Ferguson and even Dana Mark Stancel, who wasn’t among the three short-listed candidates.




Along the way, Norris attempted to name Stevens, a motion that failed on a 2-2 vote, Council member Charles Gambaro’s first attempt to appoint Sullivan failed on a similar vote, Council member Theresa Pontieri’s nomination of Stancel got no second, and finally, after Pontieri decided to reverse on Sullivan after opposing him on the first try, Sullivan got her vote and the appointment.

The two Daves and Candace Stevens were the candidates short-listed from a field of 13 that self-dwindled to 10 before the council’s interviews earlier this month.

The debate, on the council as from the floor of a largely empty chamber, hinged on the difference between a “fresh” perspective and proven experience, with Miller and Gambaro pushing for experience, Pontieri hedging, and Norris decidedly for Stevens and only for Stevens.




When the nomination item came up the mayor immediately passed the gavel and made a motion to appoint Stevens. There was a long pause, suggesting that second might not be forthcoming. Miller seconded for discussion: he wanted to hear Norris’s reasoning. Norris said Stevens is not a member of a homeowner association. “She lives out in the community, and she has been coming to these city council meetings probably as long as I when I decided to run for office more than two years ago,” Norris said. “She’s well aware of all the issues going on in the city, especially the flooding issues.”

Candace came to prominence with a Facebook page that focused the city’s attention on drainage problems on the city’s ITT lots as new construction was rapidly sprouting and rising higher than existing homes. The council established an advisory committee in part as a result of Stevens’s pressure.

“We already have a pretty fresh council up here,” Pontieri said, at that point hinting that she would oppose Stevens. “I’m the most senior, and I would consider myself close to being senior, as I’ve only been here for a little over two years, and I’m still learning a lot.” But she added of Stevens: “I think that this is definitely somebody who wants to be a servant leader, and that is invaluable.”

Those who spoke from the floor pushed for Stevens, too, perhaps swaying Pontieri. “Just because you have experience, that’s not what the people voted for,” one resident among several said in support of Stevens.




After the vote failed and the other nominations followed, the same three or four people in a largely empty chamber cycled to the mic as the mayor opened the floor to public comment after each motion. The most frequent commenter was Dennis McDonald, who spoke demeaningly of Sullivan’s age and of his service on the Value Adjustment Board, to which he was appointed after his County Commission term ended last November.

McDonald was also critical of Sullivan’s tenure as a commissioner, though McDonald’s fraught history with the state Commission on Ethics, his “complete disregard for law,” in the commission’s words, and unpaid fines he has accrued over the years as a result of his frivolous and often maliciously false complaints about county officials is well documented.

When Gambaro motioned for Sullivan the first time, getting Miller’s second, the response from Pontieri was complimentary of Sullivan’s past public service but cautious about his perspective. There may have been a subtext as well: Sullivan has long advocated a sales tax increase during his service on the County Commission, and now becomes the county’s de facto strongest voice on the council to push for that support. The county is looking for a sales tax increase to fund a new beach-management plan. But without Palm Coast’s support, the plan dies. (The county administration has been losing support for the plan from its own commission recently.)




“My concern, in all candor, is that we will miss out on new innovative approaches to solving problems in our city,” Pontieri said, “and I think that that should be a concern for all of us because I think that we kind of represent a new course forward in what a representative for their city looks like.”

When members of the public raised objections about Sullivan, who they said did not represent the public’s will, Miller said: “Mr. Sullivan was voted in twice in by a lot of people, more than probably any candidate up here, in fact.”

When Pontieri dropped her objection to Sullivan and Gambaro motioned again for his appointment, Norris, who has a knack for sharply encapsulating populist sentiment, said: “For me personally I feel like appointing Mr. Sullivan would be the same as appointing David Alfin in that seat, and I can’t see that happen.” Alfin is the former mayor who Norris defeated.

There was an odd moment when Norris asked the council if it would be proper to let Stevens–Ray Stevens, the former council member–make a comment by phone from his home. Norris said Stevens was trying to reach him. The council agreed. Norris called Stevens, who was clearly surprised. Didn;t he want to address the council, Norris asked him. “No, I’m returning your call,” Stevens said to titters from the floor. That was that. Norris wished him well.

There were more comments from the floor, some of them shriller than substantial, before the council appointed Sullivan. By then, Ferguson had walked out, and Stevens wouldn’t be far behind.

In his first words from the dais, Sullivan commended Stevens, whose primary win by two votes Sullivan himself had to certify as a member of the county canvassing board. As for his coming tenure, Sullivan said, “I absolutely guarantee you, all of you on the board, all the citizens of Palm Coast, that I will do the job, absolutely along the lines that I said I would do it.” He said he would let facts guide his decisions.