Just five candidates have applied for the District 3 seat on the Palm Coast City Council that Ray Stevens resigned at the end of February, including Mark Stancel, who lost a primary vote to Stevens by two votes. The application window for the nearly-two-year appointment closes next Wednesday at 5 p.m. The council will make its choice in early to mid-April.
The five candidates so far, three of whom have master’s degrees or better, are Doug Courtney, Joan Paulus, Scott Pillath, Mark Stancel and Candace Stevens.
Whoever the council appoints will be joining a county and a city in turmoil. The four-member council is set to launch an investigation of Mayor Mike Norris, who unilaterally, in a private meeting, demanded that Interim City Manager Lauren Johnston and Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo resign (according to Johnston’s confirmation of the demand), and who has been the subject of mounting internal complaints to human resources about his behavior toward city employees.
The council is in the midst of approving a $600 million utility spending plan predicated on $415 million loans and the sharpest rate increase in the city’s history, though Norris signaled last week that he would predicate his approval of the plan on a building moratorium or vote against it on second reading, triggering a controversy.
The vote is scheduled for next Tuesday, when the council chamber is expected to be filled with Norris partisans, and perhaps anti-Norris partisans–with Norris chairing the proceedings, unless he concedes the gavel to Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri for those segments (he would have to if he intends to make a motion for a moratorium; he would not have to while the council is discussing investigating him). Norris on Thursday was quoting Psalms on NextDoor, the social media platform, and informing his followers that one particular Psalm’s verse “has gotten me through harder times than these. No worries, I have a strong back, shoulders, and spine.”
Into the maelstrom the council just invited five candidates to interview for the city manager position. Those interviews will not be conducted until after the District 3 member is seated.
Stevens resigned a seat he barely occupied after his November election when his health quickly deteriorated. The appointee will join Charles Gambaro as a pair of non-elected members of the council whose terms will end at the 2026 election, for which they would be eligible to run for full four-year terms. It will be the first time in the city’s 26-year history that two-fifth of its representation is appointed, though appointees have been nearly a dime a dozen in the past half dozen years.
The city is split into four districts, with a council member theoretically representing each. Council members are all elected at large and represent the city as a whole, but with a focus on their individual district. The mayor is elected at large, without a district affiliation. District 3 is roughly the southeast quadrant of the city, with the P Section, Grand Haven and Seminole Woods forming its plurality.
Here’s a rundown of the District 3 candidates so far. Their full applications are linked:
Doug Courtney: Courtney, 70, a P-Section resident, is a past candidate for a few local offices, including the council. He has run ExecData, a consultancy, since 2008, and was previously town clerk and city clerk in Beverly Beach and in Palm Coast’s founding days. He played a prominent role in advocacy for the Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club as the school district gradually withdrew support for the public operation of that facility. Courtney had led a membership group that used the club. Cheryl Massaro, a former member of the School Board who had also advocated in vain for the club is among his references.
“I have gained many skills related to City Council work and duties,” he wrote in his application, citing his many years of varied experience. “I have
worked with community organizations to advance programs and ideas with city, county, state, and federal level. As an owner/founder of many business enterprises I know how to lead and when to make the hard decisions.”
Joan Paulus: Given the tenor of this council, Paulus’s name will vault to the attention of several of them because of her deep background in corporate recruiting, a skill that would have made her a useful fit for the council’s city manager search were it not to be over by the time the new council member is seated. It is also a moot skill beyond that, on a board where council members get to fire and hire only the city manager and the city attorney, something they hope not to have to do at least for a few years, though recent history suggests otherwise. Beyond that, the last thing the council and the next city manager need, or can legally exercise, as Norris is discovering, is an administrative meddler.
Paulus, 71, a Grand Haven resident, has been a corporate recruiter for the majority of her career until becoming a Realtor with Grand Living Realty for almost the last two years. Suzie Johnston, the former mayor of Flagler Beach, the current chair of that city’s planning board, and a Grand Living Realty staffer (who would have been an ideal council member were her address different), is among Paulus’s references. Paulus is focusing on her recruiting experience when she explains why she believes she would be a good fit for the council seat, writing that she can “apply my experience to supporting City Council in a professional manner.”
Scott Pillath, 55, a resident of the P-Section, is coming off a rejection by the City Council as one of the 38-some applicants for city manager. He barely made the first shortlist on the strength of his local address, which Norris favored, though he got bottom marks from two other council members. He did not make the second cut, getting almost across-the-board bottom marks. He lists his employment as an “advisor” to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol following 25 years in the Army (the one pedigree that vaults to the highest attention for several council members, whatever else may be on the candidate’s resume.)
His courage is nearly undaunted: he openly terms himself a “humanist” (though he is completing a doctorate in public administration from Liberty University, where humanism is not king). He emphasizes reason, ethics and dignity in his definition of humanism, and doesn’t see it as a complement rather than a contradiction of Christianity. The Palm Coast City Council’s most notable humanist was the late Jerry Full, one of the city’s founders.
Despite applying for a job or a seat from several avowed Trump supporters, he prominently cited his recently acquired DEI certification from the University of Florida in his city manager application. “My DEI certifications will enable me to lead initiatives that promote diversity within Palm Coast’s workforce and community,” he wrote in a cover letter he tempered somewhat when he submitted it for the council seat. “I am committed to fostering an environment that embraces varied perspectives, ensuring that all residents and employees can contribute to and benefit from the city’s growth. These skills are critical as Palm Coast continues to evolve and embrace its diversity.” He clarified in an interview, about DEI: “I don’t embrace it the way the ultra-left believes. I still believe in hiring the best candidate for the job.”
Dana Mark Stancel: The 74-year-0old Seminole Woods resident developed a friendship with Ray Stevens, the man whose seat he now seeks to fill, as he and Stevens battled in last year’s election, then in the most closely contested election in the city’s history, losing to Stevens by two votes. He had by then pledged his support to Stevens, just as Stevens had pledged his support to Stancel if he were to lose. The pledge worked. Even though their opponent, Andrew Werner, had won more votes than either of them, Stevens won. They have remained friends since, and Stevens is one of his references.
Stancel had two careers, the first in the Army (21 years), the second in the the U.S. Postal Service, from where he retired in 2012. He continued working at a farm and home supply store until 2020. In 2021, he was appointed to the Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board, then to the Palm Coast Planning Board, giving him significantly more in-the-trenches experience of city government than any of the applicants. He knows his politics: though the position is non-partisan (a non-partisanship acknowledged only with smirks and nudges in the ribs), Stancel brazenly notes in his application that he is a “fiscal conservative Republican.” As of June 2024, he was a registered Democrat–the party he listed on his FlaglerLive candidate interview, in which he sounded more conservative than most–as is his wife, who chairs the city’s drainage advisory committee.
Candace Stevens: The 56-year-old bartender, pastry chef, lead server, front-of-house manager and resident of the P-Section known as Kandi came to prominence in the last couple of years as the administrator of Flooded in Palm Coast, the Facebook Page that garnered over 1,000 followers and helped propel the council through one of its muddiest controversies. Residents of Palm Coast’s originally platted neighborhoods complained that as new homes sprouted around them, at higher base elevations, they were getting flooded. Stevens’s campaign led to the creation of the drainage committee mentioned above.
Since 2021 Stevens has worked at Santiago’s Restaurant in St. Augustine, after a couple of years as a server at Grand Haven Golf Club and a service adviser at Palm Coast and Daytona Beach and other car dealerships for many years before that. She cites her “proven ability to hold town halls and enrich public engagement” and “experience with media and news interviews” among her skills for the council seat.
Applicants will be interviewed by the City Council in open session at a workshop on April 1 at 3 p.m. The City Council will discuss the applicants during at the April 8 workshop at 6 p.m., and make the appointment at the April 15 meeting at 9 a.m. Public input will be heard at each meeting.
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