Flagler County Commissioner Leann Pennington late Monday night sharply criticized the county administration, including its legal department, over a series of errors and missed steps that led to a state rebuke of the county’s permission to Ragga Surf Cafe, a for-profit company, to use public land at Marineland’s River to Sea Preserve to run its business.
County Administrator Heidi Petito and County Attorney Al Hadeed defended their actions.
Ragga Surf’s food truck, two trailers and 20 picnic tables took over the south end of the preserve and Marineland boardwalk since early August on the strength of a temporary use permit the county issued, valid until the end of December. The county informed Ragga Surg that the permit would not be renewed, triggering a vast “Save Ragga Surf” campaign targeting county commissioners, and crashing some of their email servers. (See: “Ragga Surf Fiasco: How Flagler County Risked Losing River to Sea Preserve Over Botched Favor for a Private Business.”)
Ragga Surf supporters continued their campaign Monday evening in the earlier portion of the meeting, but had cleared the room by the time Pennington brought back the issue. (See: “Ragga Surf Cafe Supporters Urge County Commission for Eviction Reprieve, But Hear Only Silence.”)
The commission in August had by consensus, and on the urging of Commissioner Greg Hansen, given County Administrator Heidi Petito direction to draft an agreement with Ragga Surf, which had just been evicted from private land. Hansen had brought up the matter essentially as a favor to Ragga Surf. It was not on the commission’s agenda. There was no preparatory documentation. Petito did not mention the state-required management plan restrictions that apply to the River to Sea Preserve.
The commission gave that direction on two assumptions: that Ragga Surf is a non-profit, and that Petito would bring back a formal document for the commission to act upon before the agreement goes forward.
Ragga Surf is not a non-profit. Petito did not bring back the proposed agreement. She issued it unilaterally. Nor did Petito inform the commission that such an agreement would have to be approved by the state before it is issued. If the county violates state rules controlling public land, it could lose ownership of that land–in this case, the preserve. The Florida Community Trust, a division of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), issued a notice of non-compliance to Marineland (which co-owns the preserve) and the county on Nov. 15.
“I thought that legal told us that this was going to be requiring a resolution to be brought back, and it would be formally brought back,” Pennington said at the end of Monday night’s meeting, past the 9 p.m. mark. “So I guess my question is one, why didn’t we ever get to that step? I guess maybe I’ve missed something. And then two, and to some others who spoke, we should have known that the DEP was going to require action there before we put someone there. And that goes back to the no good deed goes unpunished. So those are big issues right now for me, with staff and legal. How do we get here? I think we wanted to do the right thing, and probably should have been briefed that those two issues didn’t get handled properly.”
Petito voiced a defense of her actions since August, summarizing the August meeting segment that led to consensus on an agreement.
“At that meeting, Jim Powell actually came forward and kind of explained his nonprofit status, as well as his for profit businesses that support his nonprofit status,” Petito said of one of the co-owners of Ragga Surf.
That’s not accurate. Powell said Ragga Surf supports a non-profit. He never said that Ragga Surf is itself a separate, for-profit business. He never said that only Inter-United, the soccer organization it supports, but is an entirely different creature and unrelated to the operation in Marineland, is a non-profit: “The nonprofit that these businesses support is Inter-United,” was Powell’s phrase. He did not lie. But it was crafty, and left at that before he went on to confuse the matter by describing at great length the good works of Inter-United, rather that speak to any of the business aspects of Ragga Surf.
Petito did not make the distinction either. Nor did Assistant County Attorney Sean Moylan, who stressed that the county could enter into an agreement with an organization at the preserve only if it were a non-profit. It was based on those assumptions–false assumptions–that the commission green-lighted an agreement with Ragga Surf, on a further assumption that the proposal would return to the commission in September for review.
Petito continued her defense, shielding her actions by invoking Moylan’s name: “There was consensus provided from the board to move forward, as outlined by Sean Moylan, and they and the board had instructed staff to work on bringing back a formalized approval at the following month. I probably should have said something then, but when you think about a formalized approval, that would have meant that we have to develop either an RFP or an RSQ. That process alone is 10 weeks. Then when you add in there that when we prepare our board agenda, we prepare it two weeks in advance, so that we can get it out there, that would add another two weeks. So realistically, we couldn’t have had anything come back to you for at least 12 weeks.”
Petito never spoke of that timeline at the August meeting. Rather, she made it explicit: “We’d still have to bring this back to you for consideration in September,” the words Pennington was referring to.
Petito then explained why she went the route of a temporary use agreement. “It is something within my purview that didn’t need to come back to the board,” she said. The RFP would have had to–and of course would have been accompanied by all the commission vetting that did not take place with the temporary use agreement. The RFP process, Petito said, was delayed by various circumstances, among them a hurricane and engineering matters.
Hadeed claimed the temporary use agreement “had to be consistent with the management plan. It wasn’t a situation where, oh, we forgot about the management plan. It is in there.” It is, but as a single mention requiring Ragga Surf to be “in compliance with applicable laws and other agreements affecting the premises,” including the management plan. The agreement does not specify what the management plan calls for, and of course makes no mention of FTC-required approval.
“then the hurricane end, and that threw the momentum off. It threw the momentum off.”
Contacted about the issue last Saturday, Hadeed had told a reporter that Moylan was handling the issue. In fact, “I spent a whole day at Marineland, surveilling these things, talking with people and finding out the facts so that we could communicate back to FCT,” Hadeed told commissioners Monday. “We tried to set up conversations. They didn’t happen. It was a situation was overtaken by events. If we had been able to do it in an orderly fashion, we would have had an RFP or RSQ process, which we could advise FCT: this is what we’re doing, and have an orderly timeline as to how we were going to do it. We just never had that opportunity. The opportunity never presented itself. There was never any intention ever to dishonor the management plan.”
Pennington was not placated. “So knowing that you knew about the management plan, I think this board knowing would have helped to make a better decision that day,” she told the attorney and the administration, referring to the permission FTC required. “Two, I think consensus was made because we thought we’d be seeing it again within a month or so. So just lots of lessons out of that whole thing. I know I will not be doing anything that pops up like that, that wasn’t on the agenda, that I couldn’t research in the future.”
Robjr says
…a series of errors and missed steps…
It is more like someone is someone else’s friend and was allowed to feed at the public trough, until they got caught.
These actions do not happen in a vacuum, more like a caculated set of manuvers.
Using Common Sense says
What a mess. Petito and Hadeed should be fired. Between this, the rat infested derelict hotel debacle, airport training flight school high jacking of our rights to safety, health, and welfare, and the Captains bbq fiasco, these two have proven themselves inept, at best.
Bored with it says
Lame excuses and hiding things from their constituents. Wash, rinse, repeat.
XYZ says
One lies and the other swears to it, ommission is a lie, is a lie
is a lie! Petito, Hadeed, Moylan has been gaslighting and presenting
misinformation for years to this commission, they all need to be
fired. They did not address the issue of “We the People” losing
our precious land and Preserve, no formal apologies from them,
Petito acts like a frantic child making all all sorts of excuses
for not doing her “due diligence” as she is caught in the frey,
one excuse after another can make our stomach turn, Leann
you have 2 new commissioners you can fire her. Petito is a person
who tries to actively avoid responsibility by making excuses
she is an evader and a master manipultor gaslighter. Her behavior
is what makes all of you look like a bunch of fools and covers
up for Hadeed and Moylan, she uses evasive and ambiguous
language to avoid taking a clear stance or admitting fault trying
desperately to hold onto her position. She a SAVE HER OWN
A** administrator.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
XYZ. My exact thoughts and words for years being ignored. Hopefully you will have more luck than me. You need to include Adam Mengel the Developers Boy of the centuty
Tammany Hall says
I can’t believe I’m actually agreeing with Jane!
Fc says
What dirt does Petito have on the commissioners that they allow her to make fools out of them over and over again?
Her underhanded tricks have cost taxpayers here a fortune. This one could have cost us valuable property.
Fire her.
Laurel says
Flagler County seems to give certain people unusually good business deals on the public’s tax dime. Especially in the Hammock. Who is looking out for the residents? No one I know of, except the residents themselves, and they have to fight tooth and nail.
XYZ says
Do not annex anything, not one iota of your properties. learn from what
these officials did to us here in PC, now is the time before decisions are made
They are aiming at you guys down there with the Veranda Bay issue with
the enclaves.
Laurel says
XYZ: PC has set its goal on the Hammock for some time now, but the majority of people here want nothing to do with it and they fight. Years ago, PC painted the water tower with its logo on it, and the locals made them paint it off again! They also tried to strong arm people into annexing in order to get water service. That failed. Then, they tried to jump over and take the beaches, and that failed too. So, they charge us 25% more for water service, and are trying to charge us for the beach *re-nourishment* instead of charging across the county.
Vincent Maccherone says
Here’s where I stand with it. I like the restaurant. The people are also nice but you are running your business in a way that other businesses are not able to and that’s just simply not fair. What would give them rights to use public land over anybody else wouldn’t happen!!
Villein says
Commissioner Pennington, you didn’t exercise good judgment on this but we all make mistakes. I think you now must ask yourself if you trust your administrator and legal counsel going forward. If you can’t honestly say you trust them, then the only option is dismissal. If you can’t trust them to be on the team, it’s better to not have them.
I say this because often times leaders get stuck trying to weigh pros and cons, or measure the severity of the transgression. But analysis won’t get you over the trust deficit. That feeling of trust is essential. As I said we all make mistakes but we can’t change how we feel about things.
Swale Surfer says
Pennington, is the quintessential paper lion, ahe roars but doesn’t bite. She always claims outrage but in the end either doesn’t show up for important county votes or she at the last minute she surprises everyone with the “I” vote usually in favor of one developer or another.
People here in Daytona North are still waiting for the county to rebuild the Bull Creek fish camp. I still can’t believe she allowed the counties building director to tear it down in the middle of the night after she said they wouldn’t.
XYZ says
Swale surfer:Yep , residents are getting wise to her, she also
says she doesn’t have the votes to accomplish issues with the
airport like noise studies , well now she has 2 new commissioners
that are on board of whom she was hoping would get elected so we
are waiting to see if this will happen as she claims in the 2025
Comprehensive Plan that she mentions in emails to residents, if
not her seat is coming up and we will have to vote her out, it’s
not just about optics and making promises to appease residents ,
we need results, time will tell but we will no longer take in the BS,
she needs to practice what she preaches on many issues.
Nah says
The term is paper tiger. You must be one of those mean girls that work for the developer’s attorney. You know the ones that go around buying memberships into clubs so you can get awards from those clubs.
Jim says
I think that if I were a county Commissioner and the administration for the county provided me information like they did in this instance that later was found to be riddled with inaccuracies and ended up putting the county at risk of losing management of the Marineland area, I might be a little upset. Further to find out that there’s a process that requires about 10-12 weeks to put together the background information and details for such a proposal but was apparently deliberately ignored because of “time constraints” would further upset me.
It would almost make me a little skittish about accepting anything the administration provided for the commission’s use in making decisions. At a minimum, I’d be asking those administrators why this happened? Why did they decide to not follow the process? Who made that decision? Why wasn’t the commission made aware of that?
I didn’t see anything in this article that indicated the commissioners share any of those concerns.
That said, I do have hope for Leann Pennington. She clearly recognizes that there was a problem and she pointed that out. But what is missing is the follow up. It looks like this issue is “over and done”. Just because the county got away with a screw up (at least it looks that way), the commissioners are negligent in their responsibilities if there is no follow up. In my working career, when we screwed something up this bad, we did a “post mortem” to find out how and why it happened and we came up with “lessons learned” that we could use going forward to make sure it didn’t happen again. (Side note: For those of you who think “business people” should run the government, I’m not proposing that. What I am saying is that there are basic management practices that should be followed whether in the private or public sector.)
Ms. Petito and the others get an evaluation yearly (to go with a nice raise as well) and I’d like to think this little episode would be part of that review. When you’re the leader, you have to take responsibility for what happens. Over time, I’ve noticed Ms. Petito never seems to just accept responsibility for mistakes. And that’s great – after all, I’ve always heard that those that don’t make mistakes most likely aren’t doing anything anyway.
palmcoaster says
This could have become another costly Captain’s BBQ. I really would not mind that the parcel would be taken away by the state…would be preserved in better hands as public land that is. Look what happened to our Bings Landing! Sure the original donor of the land would have not envision what Hadded and Pettito did to it approving a huge restaurant on it for profit for a wealthy dude that resides in Hammock Dunes.
I totally agree that is time that someone needs to be fired! Need to stop all these frauds so costly to us the taxpayers.
Jane Gentile Youd says
Way passed time to fire Hadeed, Petito and Mengel. Hadeed sent me an e-mail this morning telling me I could ‘upset’ the 3.5 year going nowhere lawsuit against the POS Old Dixie Hotel for my checking with the courts to obtain proof that the fines are not automatically ” self accumulating” g against the property 2251 S Old Dixie Hwy LLC. Judge France Order of Nov 1, 2024 granted county permission to start levying $1,000 daily fines against the POS effective Nov 15 but the court as of December 17 has no record of any fines being ‘automatically levied against the property –
Hadeed however sent me an e-mail on Sunday December 15th that the county was going to apply to start levying the fines.
Not only dos he screw up contracts he makes up daily stories without checking his past stories.
Isn’t it way way way passed the time to FIRE him.
I will prepare and file my Motion to Intervene prior to Christmas .
The Courts belong to the people not to the bullys like Hadeed.