Palm Coast City Council members Theresa Pontieri and Nick Klufas, who were on the losing end of a 3-2 vote that fired City Manager Denise Bevan this morning, were sharply critical of Vice Mayor Ed Danko, who left the meeting immediately after the firing to campaign at the public library.
Both council members hinted that Danko had shown up to the meeting only to cast the firing vote, and that he therefore knew about the vote ahead of time–what would amount to a sunshine law violation. Mayor David Alfin and Council member Cathy Heighter were also in the majority. Danko said he had no knowledge of the vote. He’d shown up just for public comment, and was intending to leave after that regardless, until Alfin told him he was passing the gavel so the mayor could make the firing motion.
“This is going to be controversial but it is what it is,” Pontieri said at the tail end of a three and a half hour council meeting. “Our vice mayor decided to show up today to remove our city manager and then get up from the dais. I have it on very good authority that he is campaigning right now at the library and Facebook-living while doing it.”
Danko was, in fact, doing just that, and posting the video at his Facebook page. He is running for a County Commission seat. He pans the video to show one of the two tents he set up at 7 a.m., showing his own numerous campaign signs, a cut-out of Donald Trump wearing one of Danko’s campaign buttons, and his own exhortations to support Trump, “because you know they’re going to cheat. That’s what they do.”
“To me, this indicates two things,” Pontieri continued. “That there was a violation of sunshine that occurred before today’s vote, because he showed up to clearly take the gavel to support the motion, and then he left, which if there was something so pressing that he had, why even come to the meeting today. He clearly came to cast his vote for this motion. And now he’s campaigning from the library when we have a business meeting that requires voting on serious city matters. This person is running for a county position. And I take real issue with this. I know we don’t have the ability to censure up here. But this needs to be addressed. This is a problem.”
Klufas said it wasn’t the first time Danko had left a meeting to campaign. “It absolutely needs to be addressed,” he said. “I also think that it was not coincidental that he had people with him in the audience that had prepared statements for this type of thing.”
Seven people spoke during the public comment segment immediately before Alfin made his motion, one of them–Steve Carr–a frequent speaker on Florida Park Drive issues. He complained that nothing had been done there in 10 years, remarks Klufas would criticize as “disingenuous” later. After Alfin’s motion to fire Bevan, when the floor was open for public comment on that specific issue, Alan Lowe and Mike Norris, both candidates for mayor, spoke in support of the motion, as did a third speaker, a resident who called Bevan “in over her head.”
“Interesting that there were prepared comments from commenters who just spoke up,” Klufas said when the segment ended, before the vote. He would at the end of the meeting.
Danko said he did not see the vote coming. “I was caught off guard, I was only planning on staying through public comments and proclamations,” he said, speaking by phone from the library, where he said he’d planned to be for the entirety of Election Day. (The presidential primary election culminates today, though in effect Donald Trump has already clinched the nomination and Democrats were not on the ballot.) Danko said he let the mayor know that was his intention. “You don’t want to miss the meeting but I also felt it was kind of silly to schedule a meeting on Election Day.”
“I was stunned that Mayor Alfin did this,” he said. “Basically it was Mayor Alfin that pushed Denise into this position,” when Bevan was appointed b y unanimous vote. “I was not a big fan and I did turn to her an I said, are you sure you want this, and she said yes, so I went along to get along and voted yes.” Addressing the claim that the vote had been pre-arranged, Danko said: “Clearly, she’s wrong.”
At the library, Danko said he was campaigning both for himself–gathering petitions for his election run–and for Trump, though turnout was “very light.” He said he didn’t like leaving the meeting but that there are times when it’s necessary–and that Klufas had missed his share of meetings,”for vacation or whatever.”
At the end of the council meeting, Klufas was calling it “a sad day to be up here and it’s also very troubling.” Referring to the back of the room, where directors usually sit, he said, “I understand how everyone in the back can feel troubled right now and that’s an okay emotion to feel.”
