The Prodigals: Donald O’Brien Appointed to Library Board, Peter Johnson to Parks and Rec

The Flagler County Commission on Monday appointed former County Commissioner Donald O’Brien to the Library Board of Trustees, and Peter Johnson to the county’s Parks and Recreations Advisory Board. For O’Brien, who just ended his political career, it’s a reprise of a role he held for many years. For Johnson, a former candidate for Palm Coast mayor, it is a further warm-up to a likely political career ahead.

O’Brien stepped down from the commission last November after two terms. He had been the commission’s liaison on the library board, and he is an avid reader. “Libraries are more than books and media,” he wrote in his application for the opening. “They are places for access to technology, adult and child education programs, literacy support, and other essential services. I am interested in advocating for and supporting the growth of the Flagler County Public Library system.”




O’Brien fills the seat vacated by Armando Mustiga. The commission also re-appointed Bernard Barczak, a Palm Coast resident and an accountant who’s been on the advisory board since 2019. Other members of the board are Jim Ulsamer, the chair, Nancy Bettencourt, Sharon Atack (the board’s longest member: she was first appointed in 1993), and Jan Cullinane. The commission’s current representative is Leann Pennington.

The library will be marking its single-largest expansion later this year when it opens its “Nexus Center,” a south branch library on Commerce Parkway, across from the Sheriff’s Operations Center.

The appointment was ratified without comment by the County Commission at its meeting Monday, as the item was part of the consent agenda–the part of the agenda that gets approved wholesale–since the two appointments were not contested. The $16 million library, which will serve as the administrative home of the county’s health and human services division as well, is expected to open in October.

The appointment to the parks advisory board was contested, however. Mike Desroches, Gary Johnson (who was just ending his first three-year term on the panel), Peter Johnson, Lawrence Pulos and Worth Strecker applied for two seats on the seven-member board. Peter Johnson ran in the 2024 mayoral race in Palm Coast. He is currently among those leading the plan for a Bunnell History Day on June 7, was appointed pretty much by acclamation, garnering unanimous votes from commissioners. After a tie following the first round, Desroches got three votes in the second round, to Gary Johnson’s one, so Desroches was also appointed.




“I am an advocate for conservation, outdoor recreation and responsible land management,” Johnson told commissioners before the vote. “I believe our parks and green spaces are some of our community’s greatest assets, and we should do everything we can to protect them, which is why I would like to be involved in the board.”

Desroches and Johnson join Charles Cowart, Robert Knapp, Arthur Kuepper, Michael Dembosz and Tiffany Wiggen on the board, which meets the fourth Wednesday of the month at 10 a.m. in the first floor conference room at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. The library board meets the second Monday of the month at 4:30 p.m. at the Flagler County Public Library, 2500 Palm Coast Pkwy NW, Palm Coast.