- September 8, 2024
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Flagler County Commission candidates, from left to right: Bill Clark, Andy Dance, Fernando Melendez and Nick Klufas. Photo by Sierra Williams
Former Flagler Beach commissioner Ken Bryan at the forum. Photo by Sierra Williams
John and Sonia White closely monitored candidates' timing on questions. Photo by Sierra Williams
The local branch of the NAACP held two back-to-back political forums at the African American Cultural Center on July 30. Photo by Sierra Williams
Forum moderator Danielle Anderson. Photo by Sierra Williams
Resident Covita Grey was one of the few who were able to ask candidates a question. Photo by Sierra Williams
The local branch of the NAACP held two back-to-back political forums at the African American Cultural Center on July 30. Photo by Sierra Williams
Flagler County's commission candidates got a chance to tell voters their thoughts at a local political forum, but not many attendees were able to ask candidates their questions during the forum.
The Flagler County branch of the NAACP hosted two back-to-back forums on July 30 at the African American Cultural Center, one for Flagler County Commission candidates and one for Flagler School Board candidates. The Flagler County Commission candidate forum started at 6:15 p.m. and went until 7:30 p.m., when the school board forum began.
Three of the five Flagler County Commission seats are up for election in August and November. Commissioner Andy Dance is the only commissioner running for reelection, while Commissioners Donald O'Brien and David Sullivan have decided to step down from their seats, leaving the district 3 and 5 seats up for grabs.
But not all the commission candidates were in attendance, though candidates from all three district seats were invited. Both candidates for the district 1 seat — Dance and opponent Fernando Melendez — attended. The district 3 seat candidates Bill Clark and Nick Klufas attended the forum as well, but not opponent Kim Carney. None of the three district 5 commission candidates attended either.
They were presented two questions from moderator Danielle Anderson, and then had an opportunity to answer questions from the audience. Candidates had five minutes to answer each question.
Anderson asked two prepared questions for each candidate to answer: the first about what life experience has prepared the individual for the seat they're running for. The second, in two parts, about the candidates positive outlook for the county in 10 years and what concerns the candidate has for the county's future.
Each candidate had a different idea of what the county's future could like, from needing to protect the natural resources to planning for the influx of traffic on roads like State Road 100 to planning for further economic development.
Flagler County resident Covita Grey said she has lived in Flagler County going on nine years, but, coming from Chicago, Illinois, she said sometimes its difficult knowing which candidate is running for which seat or even how Florida's closed-primary system works.
She said there should be more forums like this, and not just during election season, in order to address the community.
"It's hard to get into the meat of things in this little short snippet of an introduction," Grey said, "and I probably won't see or hear from him again, unless I got to the meetings.
Grey also said that while the forum was good to get an idea of some of the candidates opinions, there wasn't enough time to get into every topic. She was hoping to hear about the county's changing traffic patterns and what can be done about them, but the topic didn't come up and the candidates ran out of time to take questions.
"Everybody is complaining about the traffic," she said. "So why are there not more cross streets being built to get around Palm Coast or some more major thoroughfares than just the Belle Terre and Palm Coast Parkways and 100?"
Because of the strict timeline, the forum did not allow much time for questions for the commission candidates. In fact, only three people in the audience got to ask a question, one of which was former Flagler Beach Commissioner Ken Bryan.
For the most part, the candidates stuck to the time limits, but at the end of the forum during his closing remarks, Commissioner Andy Dance rebuked other candidates on the podium for spreading "misstatements and untruths."
"It really doesn't do anybody any good to scare people with untruths," Dance said. "Let's be realistic. Let's use facts. And let's play on an honest playing field."
