R.J. Santore Beats Rick Belhumeur, Scott Spradley Is Re-Elected for Flagler Beach City Commission

Last Updated: 7:34 p.m.

Newcomer R.J. Santore and first-term incumbent Scott Spradley won today’s election to the Flagler Beach City Commission, both edging out Rick Belhumeur, who had served three terms in five tries, by a wide margin, and Santore finishing with the most votes. 

Santore took 972 votes, or 42 percent, Spradley took 860 votes, or 37 percent, and Belhumeur took 492 votes, or 21 percent. Voters cast 1,355 ballots for a turnout of 29 percent.

“I got a lot of support and a lot of passion, and people are excited to be out here and support me,” Santore said as Election Day was ending. “Got a lot of waves and thumbs ups and honks and haven’t gotten the middle finger yet, which is a good sign.” It was: he was celebrating with his team at the Golden Lion. “I think the residents appreciate that I’m listening to them and that I am committed to vote for the residents, and I want to support our local community and our businesses.”  

Spradley won re-election after one term. “I have a three-year body of work for people to either connect with me in a positive way or to complain about what I did,” he said. “So that was different, because the first time I didn’t have a track record. I was the next new thing, and I think that was helpful to me. This time, I didn’t approach it any differently, but there were some that were able to cite certain decisions that were made on the board that they didn’t like. So I dealt with that, answered questions about it. I think the fact that I have these town halls on Saturday made it go a lot better, because people who are complaining about something I’ve done, that the board does, they come to the Saturday meetings and we talk about it then.” People who’ve had differences with him and have attended walk  away with handshakes and understanding. 

Ever the understated wit, Belhumeur was quick to react after the results were in: “De-commissioned again,” he said.

If there was a surprise in the result, it was in Santore besting Spradley for the top vote, and not by a minor margin: 112 votes speaks loudly, especially considering the historic landslide that gave Spradley his first victory last year. Spradley knew he was not in as strong a position as he was three years ago, now that he has a record to defend, and spoke this afternoon of the weight of the opposition to annexation and the sale of the Ocean Palm Golf Club, both of which he had supported. The results reflected his analysis. But it was not simply an anti vote that gave Santore his victory. He had clearly worked for it, studied his way to it, methodically and with focus, and earned it, as he had Spradley’s respect even before the results were announced.

“I’m proud of him,” Spradley said of Santore late this afternoon. “When he first started coming to the town halls over two years ago, he was that young kid who sat in the back, never said a word. But he kept coming and eventually started asking questions. And then later on, he would stay after the town hall and talk with me about issues, and wanted to know information about city workings and that sort of thing. So about a year or so ago, I said, R.J., you should get involved with the city more than just coming to the meeting.” Before long, Santore had declared to run–in effect running against Spradley at least as much as he was running against Belhumeur. 

“When I said you should run for commission one day, I didn’t mean to run against me,” Spradley told him, half in jest. But only half. As it turned out, that other half can now be put to rest. The two are colleagues. 

Belhumeur on Election Day had put his chances at 50-50. He could see it breaking against him, and was not panicking. For him, it’s not so much not winning as coming to the end of his run of victories. “It’s going to give me a chance to do some of the other things I want to do, like go places I haven’t been. I got a couple things kind of planned to do anyway, so I can always get more engaged in that.” One of those things is a trip to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry to see the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and seeing Justin Hayward in Ponte Vedra. “I bought that travel trailer to do that to some degree as well,” he said. He travels with Martin–his cat, not his city manager. “So, yeah, I’ll be okay.”

He has no plans to run again. “Seems like years go by faster every year, but when you’re doing this job, it doesn’t, it seems longer really,” he said. He’s proud of his  accomplishments, starting with the annexations of Summertown and Veranda Bay, which he puts at the top of his list. Getting the SunTrail  to go through the city at no cost to the city is second. He has many others that have accumulated through the years. 

A turning point in the election had been Belhumeur’s decision to take on City Manager Dale Martin with less than three weeks in the election campaign, offering up a long but unfocused list of grievances at two successive commission meetings, with his son helping during the first go-around. Looking back, he saw having his son Ben take the lead on the material put together to build a case against the managerial style of City Manager Dale Martin had been a mistake. Both Spradley and Santore saw the whole approach as a mistake. 

“We all have the whats about us. I think I could differentiate myself on the hows, how I would handle a situation like that,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s considered campaigning or not, but I think what he did there did not help.” 

Spradley though the approach ill-advised, too. “I still don’t know how accurate his complaints are. I know the presentation was poor, and I think Rick would be the first to acknowledge that,” he said. “So I was disappointed. I’m afraid that might affect the voting results to a degree. I think some people were upset about that.”

Suzy Johnston, the former mayor and current chair of the city’s planning board gave her quick analysis of the election moments after casting her ballot. “I think the direction of the city is going great,” she said. “We have a lot of hard decisions that have come in front of us, and we’re also under a lot of construction with the pier, but everyone has their best foot forward in planning and working together to make things run more smoothly.” 

She wouldn’t say who she voted for, but she’s been impressed with seeing Belhumeur as the only current commissioner who regularly attends planning board meetings, and she’s always had great regard for Spradley. But her final analysis was congenial: “All the candidates, both Rick and Scott,  have attended obviously meetings forever. R.J. has had a very good presence at the meetings, so he would know what’s going on with city topics versus previous elections, when you have candidates that aren’t even involved in the city. So I think it will be a win every which way you look at it.” 

Santore, who was very active before the commission in the past year, had appeared to align with Commissioner John Cunningham, especially on annexation and rezoning issues and the sale of the city’s golf club, which he opposed. Asked if he was going to be another Cunningham, who is forging a role as the commission’s dissenter, Santore said: “ I’m going to be my own person. I’m not going to be Cunningham. I’m not going to be a Belhumeur. I’m not going to be a Spradley, [Eric] Cooley, I’m going to be my own person. I take a little bit from everybody I hope. Hopefully, I take the best from them all. ” 

He says unhesitatingly that he’s learned most from Spradley after attending so many of the Spradley Saturday town halls, of which there’s been 74 in the last three years, a remarkable feat for an elected official. “I’ve learned a lot about how his approach is and how his demeanor is,” Santore said. 

In a post-victory statement this evening, Spradley wrote: “I am super excited that our residents have the confidence in me to have another term as City Commissioner. I look forward to continuing and concluding the work started in my first term. Thank you Flagler Beach for the opportunity. I am also proud of RJ and am not surprised at all about his vote total. RJ has a very loyal following and he campaigned well. He probably also picked up some votes as a consequence of what I view as Rick’s strategical miscue in the last minute attack on the City Manager. I appreciate Rick’s years of service and his friendship with me. We have not seen the last of Rick.”