- February 4, 2025
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Years in Volusia County: I was born at Halifax Hospital in August 1959, and I lived in New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater as a child. I graduated from New Smyrna Beach High School in 1977.
Qualifications: In 2001, I was voted onto the board of directors for the Port Orange/South Daytona Chamber of Commerce and served until 2008. In 2007, I was nominated for president and served a one-year term. I would meet with the city managers and act as a liaison between businesses and government. Afterward, I applied for the Port Orange Planning Commission, and it has been a little more than 11 years. It has given me a wealth of knowledge when it comes to comprehensive plans, MDAs (master development agreements) and things of that nature. I also served on the Port Orange Family Days board, my church’s finance committee and I own my own business — Bay Breeze Blinds.
Top three priorities in office:
My major concern is public safety, be it the EMA (Emergency Medical Administration) office, which has issues; fire service; trying to restaff EVAC; and helping the Sheriff’s Office, which is shy about 50 deputies.
Another is impact fees. We have infrastructure issues. We have water issues. With the rapid growth we have now, we have to find a way to control it in a smart manner. We have to look if it’s going to be too much to tax our resources, and I think it will. We need to determine if these fees are adequate.
Beach driving is another. I will look into restoring beach driving. It is our history, and a major economic driver.
The County Council handled Jim Dinneen’s exit well.
I feel he should have been fired for how he treated Heather Post. Twice on that podium he chastised her in front of public audience, and I think that should have been grounds for removal.
The county will need to raise taxes to meet the needs of its citizens in the next four years.
The needs of our county are many, but impact needs to help pay for services. Impact fees are not just infrastructure and roads; we have fire and storm impact fees. You have to look at the budget and see where you can streamline. It’s not about cutting, but more trying to making things more efficient, such as putting EVAC under fire services. We have all these departments, and we have to streamline and make them more efficient.
The county has the primary responsibility to solve homelessness, not the cities.
I don’t believe either one of them. Like I said, I’m on the finance committee of my church. Nonprofit churches that gain many tax exempt statuses should do the majority of the giving. Right now in Port Orange, myself and other folks are trying to get several pastors to work on this, at least in the city. To take the burden off the city and county, they should handle it, and in my opinion and as a Christian, that’s what their job is. I’ve met Mark Geallis, and I think they could not have picked a better person to run the First Step Shelter, but I don’t think it will work well, because the majority of homeless people don’t want to be off the streets and live by the rules. I pray to God it works, and help some homeless into rehab and medications they need. It might help a few, but not the majority. I think it’s a drop in the bucket.
The county should invest in Daytona Beach to accelerate beachside redevelopment.
One of my major things is overreach by the county to the cities. I think if you do help with grant money or otherwise, there should be incentives attached to it, such as adding more jobs and making sure they’re created locally.
Impact fees should be dramatically increased to pay for growth in Volusia County.
I don’t think you can hit voters and consumers with one big hit. It’s a lot of money on a house, especially when we need affordable housing. If you have someone in the workforce who can barely buy a $150,000 house and add $3,000 to $4,000 on to of that, they can barely afford it. If we do it incrementally, growth has to pay for itself.
The county needs to hire more firefighters, even if taxes have to be increased.
If someone’s house is burning down and firemen can’t get there quick enough or don’t have the equipment, they’ll be happy to pay for adequate services. You have to look at it from that standpoint, look at the budget to see where money can be saved, and only then will you have to think about raising taxes. With the new housing coming, I’d be interested to see what our population is in 2020, and that property tax is going to help pay for that, as well.
Volusia County should offer more economic incentives to entice companies to bring jobs to the county.
We already have a public-private development arm out there, and I don’t think you need to incentivize because you’d be hurting companies that already are there.
Follow-up question: What would you say the economy is like in Volusia county?
I’m closely tied to the building industry, so I’d say it’s strong from my standpoint, but that doesn’t mean there are folks out there that can’t make ends meet. They’re not looking well on the wages. I don’t think it’s something the County Council gets involved in; it’s something the economy has to handle and deal with. Government should not be involved with business.
Volusia County is successful at attracting tourists.
The image of Daytona Beach hurts us in terms of tourism. It used to be known as the World’s Most Famous Beach, but they changed it to Wide. Open. Fun. They should not have changed the name. New Smyrna has done a good job by not giving any beach away to hotels because they know their money comes from the beach, but Daytona has given it away. I think the county level has done a poor job of managing that beach, and that’s our main money maker. I would have county staff look at those agreements and see if we can change them or see how we can work with them. That core area can be such a jewel, but cleaning up that area may be a hard thing to do.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and space.
