A cabal against Flagler Beach City Manager Dale Martin by a handful of people–some real, some fictitious–continues but appears to have little steam and less credibility.
At the Flagler Beach City Commission meeting two weeks ago Commissioner John Cunningham asked that Martin be placed on probation and his contract, due for automatic renewal this month, not be renewed pending his evaluation in August.
Cunningham has no confidence in Martin, having evaluated him last year more poorly than any commissioner has evaluated a city manager in recent memory, calling his job performance “unsatisfactory,” “ineffective,” “inconsistent” and lacking leadership. The evaluation was neutralized by strong findings in Martin’s favor by three commissioners.
The commission did not endorse Cunningham’s suggestion of placing Martin on probation or suspending the contract renewal, but invited Cunningham to make the issue a discussion item on tonight’s agenda. He has.
The day after the May 14 commission meeting, a change.org petition appeared online titled “Vote ‘No Confidence’ in City Manager Dale Martin, before his contract automatically renews.” The petition, which may be used to bolster Cunningham’s goal tonight, states that “The residents of Flagler Beach deserve transparent, accountable, stable, and competent leadership from the highest levels of city government. Unfortunately, many residents, employees, and observers no longer have confidence that the current City Manager, Dale Martin, is providing that leadership.”
The petition uses the word “Transparency” or its derivatives four times, the word “accountable” or its derivatives four times, and makes appeals to “trust” and “responsible governance.”
But the petition itself is neither transparent nor accountable. As presented, it is neither trustworthy nor responsible. It appears to be bogus, unverifiable, and the work of a person using a fictional name, undermining the petition–such as it is–with the telltale signs of a fabrication.
The petition was started by a “Porter StClair.” There is no Porter SClair registered to vote either in Flagler Beach or the rest of Flagler County, including Palm Coast. There is no “Porter StClair,” or “Saint Clair,” or “St. Clair,” in the property appraiser’s records.
There is a Porter StClair in the city’s public record trove: “Porter StClair” placed a public record request to the city for all the resignation letters that accompanied the resignations of five members of the Flagler Beach Fire Department last month. The request was placed May 1, the same day FlaglerLive published an account on the resignations. “StClair” also on May 21 placed a request for incident and other reports and findings surrounding the death of former Fire Chief Robert Creal. (FlaglerLive’s article on Creal’s death had referred to “criminally concerning findings” on his laptops. The findings were confirmed.)
FlaglerLive sent an email to “Porter StClair” through the email the fictitious entity used to place the public record requests ([email protected]), asking about the identity behind the fictitious name, about the details behind the alleged petitions, and questioning the lack of transparency on a petition demanding transparency. There was no response.
FlaglerLive contacted Change.org through its “media inquiries” email with similar questions. There was no response.
The petition has allegedly gathered 39 signatures, allegedly verified (“Change.org helps verify signatures are from real people,” the site claims). But none of the names are visible. None can be verified. If “Porter StClair” is one of the alleged signatories, then Change.org’s claim about “real people” is itself suspect.
Even so, the petition, which has appeared on several social media platforms, had gathered just 39 alleged signatures as of this writing.
“Yes. I am putting weight on it,” City Commission Chair Eric Cooley said archly in a text when asked if he put credence in the petition. “When I analyze this data and the fact it was even shared to its target audience (social media pages based in complaints), for this petition to gather 39 signatures total (last I checked) out of the over 5000+ population means that the citizen base beyond any shadow of a doubt is happy with our current city manager.”
Mayor Patti King was even more direct: “I’m placing zero credence in any such petition,” King wrote, before addressing Cunningham’s item on this evening’s agenda. “One cannot arbitrarily change a contract mid-term. There is a process for renegotiating a contract and its terms/conditions. I have faith that this will all be put to rest this evening, once and for all.”
Commissioner James Sherman said he listens to all viewpoints, but as he’d noted in his evaluation, he was not diverging from his support for Martin. “I believe we may have an isolated situation,” he said of the perceived criticism, or not-so perceived if he was referring to Cunningham. “Are there always areas for improvement, yes. I think we have a city manager who is competent and I have faith in him. I think whenever you have a large team there will be imperfections. I believe Mr. Martin is working to correct some of those issues that have come to light.”
Cunningham did not respond to questions about the petition before this article originally published, including whether he was behind it.
Martin has been weathering blow after blow for several months, but Sherman’s characterization of “isolated” criticism seems to sum it up. Martin took repeated criticism from a few residents at the south end of town as the city’s Ocean Palm Golf Club was moving toward a sale to private owners. The commission voted 3-2 to sell the course last October. One resident filed an ethics violation against Martin, alleging he’d conducted secret dealings toward the sale. The Ethics Commission tossed the complaint, clearing Martin’s name.
Cunningham, who was seated in March 2025 in place of Jane Mealy, has been a relentless critic of Martin, though the criticism, when specific, has focused on a few project details. Cunningham’s criticism about Martin’s management, lack of transparency, oversight and hiring practices has been general and lacking specifics, except in the case of an employee Martin fired last fall after a brief stint with the city.
The employee is suing. The city is seeking a dismissal, arguing the suit is flawed, lacks specifics or documentation. The employee’s grievances have framed much of the criticism Cunningham has leveled against Martin, as had former Commissioner Rick Belhumeur before he was unseated in March. Just before the March municipal election, Belhumeur did the equivalent of pinning a set of theses on Martin’s church door, alleging all sorts of problems with the city manager and getting seconded not by commissioners, but by Belhumeur’s son, Benjamin Belhumeur. As with the employee’s lawsuit, Belhumeur’s claim lacked specificity and amounted in large part to routine internal conflicts.
Commissioners routinely face occasional residents’ grievances, complaints, alerts and concerns during public comment segments. But other than the handful named above, residents have not been clamoring for Martin’s head.
The mass resignations at the fire department took Martin by surprise: he had entrusted the department to Stephen Cox, whom he elevated to chief last year. Martin fired Cox and is rebuilding the department. As major crises go, that may have been one, but no city or county manager is without the occasional crisis, and Martin addressed this one quickly, if summarily, the firing of Cox relying on none of the usual and necessary steps, reasons or documents. Cox’s decision to be fired rather than take the offer of resigning suggests the matter is not over.
While Martin may appear to have been weathering repeated blows, the source of the criticism can be counted on one hand: Cunningham, Belhumeur, Belhumeur Junior, and Bryan Moisao, the former employee suing the city. Commissioner R.J. Santore had been sharply critical of the city manager at times during his campaign, but has since taken a more thoughtful, deliberate approach, so far working with rather than against Martin.
As for tonight’s commission meeting, “Commissioner Cunningham’s recommendation,” Cunningham wrote in the memo-cover sheet summarizing the agenda item, “is for a motion to direct the City Attorney to prepare an amendment to the City Manager Employment Agreement removing any automatic renewal provision and requiring annual review of the agreement in conjunction with a formal annual performance evaluation by the City Commission.”
Nothing suggests in the past-year history of the commission and its general support for Martin that the votes are there to carry Cunningham’s motion. Nothing suggests a majority of the commission isn’t seeing through the petition as a bogus, if not dishonest, attempt to fabricate discontent.
Martin himself is confident. “I have minimal concerns about City Commission actions at this evening’s meeting,” he said. “I believe that I have a strong working relationship with the City Commission and look forward to continuing to serve this community.”
The dude says
Children… you people are children… really old, angry children.
You are incapable of well… anything.
You all prove this time and again.
If any government in the area actually did something competent, it would be amazing. But they cannot. MAGA is too dumb to govern, too focused on using the levers of “power” for retribution, too… MAGA to be competent. It’s institutional.