The flood of complaints that for a few months thronged Palm Coast City Council meetings, upended the city’s administrative priorities, provoked talk of a building moratorium, and contributed some splatters to the firing of a city manager has not translated to comparative interest once the council invited residents to participate in an advisory committee it was willing to create to address the concerns.
Only six people applied, few of them part of the vocal throngs, and one withdrew before the council had a chance to make its choices. The advisory committee required a minimum of five members and at least one alternate, and could have had as many as nine members and two alternates. Given the dearth, the council had no choice but to appoint all five members when it made that decision on Tuesday. (See: “After Torrent of Drainage Complaints, Only 2 Have Applied for Palm Coast’s New Advisory Committee So Far.”
That left the panel without an alternate, but Virginia Smith, the land management administrator, said the search will continue. Lynn Stevens, the second in command at the city’s stormwater department, will be the staff liaison for the board.
The advisory committee members are as follows:
Tony Amaral Jr., the long-time and well known builder, property manager and owner of Amaral Custom Homes. He’s been a Palm Coast resident for 41 years. He is a life director of the Flagler County Home Builders Association. “I am well versed in the past and current regulations of drainage due to my constant involvement in homebuilding,” he said in his application. “I have, and still work with city staff on many occasions including drainage.”
Richard Cooper, an executive at Foundation Risk Partners in Ormond Beach, an insurance brokerage and consulting firm, a former firefighter and a 32-year resident of Palm Coast who graduated from Flagler Palm Coast High School. He is also a member of the Flagler Home Builders Association. He cited writing “a lot of flood coverage” as part of his qualifications for the appointment.
Traci Domke, an office manager and job site manager for Catch All of Palm Coast, a construction company, has been a Palm Coast resident for 16 years, with vast experience managing home owner associations, consulting on drainage issues in St. Johns and Flagler counties.
Donna Stancel, a semi-retired insurance agent, has lived in Palm Coast two years (she lived in Missouri previously), and was previously a computer programmer and analyst.
Maria Jesena-Wuerth, a sales representative for Sherwin Williams, the paint company, since 2017, has been a Palm Coast resident for seven years. But if there is a Ground Zero for the movement that culminated in the creation of the advisory committee, Jesena-Wuerth’s property is it. It was the contrast between the ground level of her home and that of a new home under construction next to hers–on a significantly elevated mound–that illustrated the problem many property owners were complaining of. As construction in Palm Coast boomed and many of those “infill” lots got built higher than older lots, water that once pooled on those lots was no longer draining from the older lots, and creating flooded yards. The council became quite familiar with Jesena-Wuerth’s exasperation (and her own white-boarded illustrations).
Hers will be the voice from the trenches. “I am starting off as an advocate for the flooding issue because I myself have been directly affected by it,” she wrote in her application. “But I believe that the only way to move forward is to work together to find solutions that will help residents with existing problems. My professional experience and personal background makes me an ideal candidate to help secure a better future for Palm Coast.” It isn;t clear what professional background she was referring to.
The committee will face something of a dilemma: it has a defined scope of work, but in a sense it’s picking up the can the council kicked to it when the council itself was confounded by the challenge. Its scope of work is to “evaluate and identify issues related to construction” on the city’s original 50,000 or so lots platted by ITT, about a fifth of which remain vacant. “The Committee shall research potential resolutions to identified issues,” the resolution creating the drainage committee states. “The Committee shall identify potential funding sources for identified resolutions. The Committee shall formulate findings and recommendations in relation to potential assistance and remedies for identified damages.”
The committee’s creation during an election year also shadows it with a purpose both beyond its scope and its stated mission, currently scheduled to sunset in about a year, unless the council extends its mission. (Council members Ed Danko and Nick Klufas are stepping down from the council but are running for County Commission seats. David Alfin is running for re-election as mayor.) The first meeting hasn’t yet been scheduled but an internal administrative meeting on Thursday may set that date.
The first meeting of the panel will go over its responsibilities. The city attorney will explain that the panel falls under the Sunshine law–no conversations about matters in play allowed between members outside of their meetings, and all documents related to the panel’s business, including texts, emails and notes, are public records. Stevens will explain the score of work ahead.
“I want to thank everyone for stepping up,” Council member Ed Danko told the group. “I kind of led the charge on this committee. So don’t let me down. We have a lot of our neighbors, friends, members of our community that have issues, as you all are aware, and I am hoping that you folks will help them solve a lot of these problems. I know some of them are difficult, more difficult than others, and each one is unique. So you’ll be spending a lot of time probably visiting these properties and talking to the property owners. But I know we can solve our own problems here in Palm Coast. And that’s what we’re asking you to do. I greatly appreciate you guys stepping forward.”
“It just so happens that last night we went through the stormwater presentation, so I learned a lot about this,” Stancel, is a current member of the city’s ongoing Citizen’s Academy, told the council. She is married to Dana Stancel, a candidate for the City Council seat currently held by Nick Klufas, who is term-limited and running for a County Commission seat.
“City council thanks you very, very much for taking on this daunting task and taking it on quickly. City staff will do everything they can to support your efforts,” Mayor David Alfin told the five members.
Kandi Stevens of Flooded in Flagler County gave the group her endorsement–and asked for an invitation to every meeting (though no one needs an invitation: the panel’s meeting are open and public and will be posted on the city’s website.)
“The committee has been formed because we can’t possibly know everything,” Council member Theresa Pontieri said. “We really want to rely on people who are feeling the impacts and rely on your breadth of knowledge and experience to kind of help with this situation.”
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