- April 23, 2024
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Dennis McDonald
AGE: 62
FAMILY: Married 37 years, three children
QUIRKY FACT: Collects cars; his favorite is a 1964 Corvette
How can Flagler County work more effectively with the city of Palm Coast and other regional entities?
… (About) 70% of the county lives in the city (of Palm Coast). To be able to get people engaged more at the county level is what I’d like to do. …
What should the commission do to make Flagler County a better place to do business?
The first thing the county should not do is follow the city with this new program to “find” jobs and pay for them. I have a difficult time fathoming that, to say the least. …
I (also) think we need to know where our tax base is and that it’s well grounded, and then if there are no surprises for the future then I think that would encourage anybody who is going to come to this county to pick Flagler. If you’re looking to move, then you’re going to look at a cross section and say, “OK, who’s got problems?” …
And that kind of brings to mind the current budget process. … One of the things that I would like to see happen when I get onto the commission would be a quarterly checkup from all managers in the county. Where do you stand with your budget? Where are you going to be at the end of the year? So that we don’t have any surprises like (the county’s projected budget gap). And if we do, then we can at least be aware of them.
I’m not saying that there’s a way to manufacture money or whatever, but you may be more careful or more prudent with the decisions that we make and the thinking that we have as commissioners as to whether or not we want to put out money toward matching funds. We get all these programs all the time that come from the federal government and they say, “Well you only have to match (a portion).” But if there was a constant running theme of a quarterly checkup from everybody who signs off on money in the county, as to where they are and where they think they’re going to be at the end of the year — if we’re aware of that, then that might change our thinking and what we might sign up for in matching funds.
What is your approach to the county budget?
I was appalled to find out that (the commissioners) do not control their agenda. (County Administrator Craig) Coffey controls their agenda, and so if you want to put something on the agenda, you have to through Mr. Coffey, and he has the yea or nay vote. …
So you have elected officials, commissioners that everybody votes for in the county, but yet you’ve got this gatekeeper. ... And so one of the things that I would move for is, on an immediate basis with the commission, the chairman is going to be in charge of making and controlling the agenda and that all commissioners would have direct input and say so for that agenda. Not that I’m any great student on what’s going on, but from my personal standpoint as a taxpayer, I don’t think the commissioners are in control. … You really don’t have an elected County Commission unless that commission can control its own agenda.
What is your vision for Flagler County in the next four years?
I’m hoping that the County Commission can just become constantly aware of what’s going on, on a day-to-day basis with money that’s being spent in the county. ... We put a high school up there right next to the highway and now we’re talking about opening it up to the world by opening up (the Matanzas Woods Parkway Interchange). … We’re not getting it paid for by the state and this is going to be a huge anchor around every taxpayer’s neck. …
I mean, I know there’s all kinds of smoke and mirrors as to how the money gets passed around and who pays for what, but the bottom line is we’re going to get stuck with the lion’s share of that tab for the developers that are going to build out there. … And it’s not that I’m against development or anything like that — very much to the contrary. I’m just saying if you want to develop, pay for it. Don’t make the taxpayers pay for it in their ad valorem taxes. … The guy who lives in Flagler Beach, he’s not going to get any benefit out of that. I don’t understand why we have to step up to that tab at all. It’s completely unfair in my estimation. ...
The storm drainage issue, that’s another foolish departure in my mind. … This shouldn’t even be a discussion. … It should be a function of our ad valorem taxes, and there should be a budget item that we can all watch and decide that, yeah, we want to spend $50 million this year upgrading our system (or not). ...
I want to be heads up so (residents) know what kind of financial condition they’re in, and I don’t want them to know it at the last minute. I want them to know right along so there’s a constant dialogue.
