Percy Sayles Resigns as Flagler County’s Deputy Administrator Amid Toxic Dynamic Between Petito and Commission

Last Updated: Feb. 11, 5:48 p.m., with Percy Sayles comments.

Flagler County Administrator Heidi Petito stunned the County Commission at the end of Monday evening’s meeting when she announced that Percy Sayles, whom she’d hired away from the fire services as her deputy county administrator barely three months ago, has resigned. The resignation highlights the ongoing toxic relationship between the administration and the board, and the fracture within the administration, leaving Petito isolated as the commission continues to seek new leadership.

Petito did not say when he had resigned, but by the time she announced it to the commissioners, the news was actually five days old. Sayles had tendered his resignation in a one-page letter to Petito dated Feb. 4. Sayles’s resignation is effective March 3.

“It is with mixed emotions that I submit my resignation from my position at Flagler County,” Sayles, 57, wrote. “As I reflect on my career, I am filled with immense gratitude for the opportunity to work alongside such an incredible team and to serve the citizens of Flagler County. Throughout my 33 years of public service, encompassing both my military and local government service, I have dedicated myself to making a positive impact on the communities I served.”

Speaking at the end of a four-and-a-half hour meeting during her manager’s reports, Petito said Sayles’s “departure represents a significant loss to our organization as he has consistently demonstrated exceptional professionalism, dedication and leadership throughout his tenure. His contributions have had a lasting positive impact and he’ll be greatly missed.”

Neither Petito nor Sayles gave a reason for the resignation, though Sayles in his letter hinted at it clearly: “I have often heard it said that you will know when it’s time to call it a day, and I now understand the truth in those words,” he wrote. “There is a natural life for all things, and I feel confident that this is the right moment for me to step down.”

The resignation announcement may have stunned the commissioners at that moment, but not surprised them, as the working environment between the commission and the administration has been little short of toxic, and had been so even before the death of Jorge Salinas, the former deputy county administrator killed with his wife in a car crash in early October. Petito had been at odds with a majority of the commission. Salinas had provided a buffer, and was managerially joined at the hip with Petito.

Sayles has always been his own man: around four years ago–according to a person familiar with the situation–he almost walked off the job as deputy fire chief, frustrated with interference from Don Petito, the former fire chief, whom he felt was still meddling into the running of the fire service through Heidi, Don’s wife. Sayles was convinced to stay.

In an interview on Feb. 11, Sayles said that account is inaccurate. “I’ve never had any issues with him,” he said of Don Petito. “There was a point where I thought I might leave. It was more related to the fire department needing attention and resources, and I wasn’t sure there was any plan for that.”

Like Salinas, Sayles was beloved wherever he went and had very good rapport with the commissioners. But the working dynamic, people familiar with the situation said, was different between him and Petito, especially as a majority of the commission made it very clear last month that it wanted Petito gone from the top spot.

Commissioner Kim Carney attempted to fire Petito at the Jan. 12 meeting. She had the full support of Pam Richardson and, in principle, had the support of Commission Chair Leann Pennington, but Pennington was uncomfortable with the timing and the method of Carney’s move, while Commissioner Andy Dance strongly objected to the attempted firing at the end of a late-night session, without the item being on the agenda.

Richardson had made an oblique reference to compassion during the discussion. “I think the compassion works both ways too,” Dance had said. “I think it’s terrible timing, as we do escape tragedy and haven’t even given Percy really a chance to get acclimated and to show his strengths. Talk to the people in Fire Rescue. There’s not a single person over there that can say a bad thing about that man, and we haven’t even given him a shot yet.”

Those remarks said as much about the timing of the attempted firing as they did about where Sayles stood: his name had not once come up during the discussion about getting rid of Petito, either as a possible successor or as an interim. It essentially let him know that the commissioners trying to fire Petito were not really interested in Sayles as a successor. That, compounded with the continuing deterioration of the dynamic between the administration and the commission, along with a sense of being overwhelmed by the work, may have led him to conclude that, as he put it in his letter, “you will know when it’s time to call it a day.”

The resignation is yet another blow for Petito, who has maintained a stoic, nose-to-the-grindstone approach throughout even as the grief of losing Salinas has continued to weigh on her. Sayles’s letter concluded on warm reflections for his colleagues and an endorsement of Petito as the leader of “dedicated public servants.” But he may also have felt that even if he’d stayed, his one escape hatch back to the fire services had closed the day before the attempted firing of Petito, when Fire Chief Michael Tucker named Daniel VanDeusen the permanent deputy fire chief, the position previously held by Sayles.

On the other hand, Sayles–whose nobility has never been in question–could also have been opening a path for Petito’s soft landing. The commission majority has made clear that it wants Petito gone, but not gone entirely. Pennington wants Petito to stay in the administration. She is only a few years away from retirement. Sayles vacating the deputy position that Petito could return to now gives both the commission and Petito a less abrasive way forward.

Sayles in the Feb. 11 interview said it was clear to him the commissioners “want a different leadership structure and I’m part of that structure.” Though he feels highly productive and effective, and is at a point in his career where he has “a lot to offer” still, he aid if I can step aside and facilitate that,” meaning the change at the top, “then by all means.” He noted: “I am not seeking anything additional. I am looking to retire.”

The County Commission has scheduled two daylong “retreats” at the south-side Nexus library in March and April to attempt to work through its own difficult dynamics and bridge what has been a deep gap between Carney, Richardson and Pennington on one side and Dance and Commissioner Greg Hansen on the other. To get there, however, the commission also knows it will have to find new leadership, since Pennington’s grace period for Petito is not open-ended, though Sayles’s departure has now made that more difficult. It is not clear, for example, who would step in for Petito should she go on vacation or resign.