- August 13, 2026
In 2020, Volusia County billed the City of Ormond Beach roughly $157,000 in property taxes owed over seven years on the River Bend golf course, about $21,000 a year for 172 acres. Case law precedent ran against the city prevailing, so the responsible move was to settle. Instead, the city chose to fight using its own legal department plus McKinnon Law as outside counsel.
In June 2025, the city lost. With interest, it paid the county roughly $392,000 that December, some $235,000 more than the original bill. That is only tax and interest, not legal fees. The city has never disclosed publicly what it spent fighting this case. The tax bill and the legal bill for outside counsel were never put on the agenda by staff or by the commission.
Officials often say they cannot discuss a matter in litigation, and legal advice is indeed privileged. Nothing required them not to reveal the mounting cost. They could have placed the growing bill and a decision to settle or keep fighting on a public meeting agenda at any time. The News-Journal reported that the legal cost had already reached $338,000 by 2022 and then the case dragged on for three more years. How much did we spend to lose? That has never been publicly revealed.
This was a failure of accountability by the commissioners, city manager and city legal in office during those years, who failed to reassess the case and settle when they still could. Commissioners who could have called a halt to this boondoggle are still on the dais today. McKinnon Law attorneys who served as the City’s outside counsel contributed to the 2022 campaigns of sitting commissioners who could have voted to settle it. The recipients include Zone 1 Commissioner Lori Tolland and others, according to their own filings.
I’ll hold myself to the same standard I ask of all candidates. I will not accept campaign contributions from vendors doing business with the city. When the people billing taxpayers also fund the campaigns, residents wonder whose interest comes first? None of this happened on Mayor Leslie’s watch; it began years before he took office. Releasing a full accounting is the transparency residents deserve and I will work for it.
These matters concern Zone 1 residents as well as all voters. River Bend GC is in Zone 1, and its commissioner has held that seat since 2022 while the bill kept compounding. Now she wants to be mayor. Shouldn't a commissioner answer for what happened in her own zone before seeking a higher office? I certainly would.
As your Zone 1 commissioner, I pledge to make Zone 1 my primary responsibility while tending to all city matters. Accountability and transparency are not slogans to me. They mean putting the hard truths on the agenda and refusing to let a $157,000 problem become a $700,000-plus loss on your watch.
Neither of my opponents has highlighted these issues nor offered a plan to bring River Bend GC back. Melissa DeVriese and Alan Burton speak of stewardship and community. All happy talk, no plan. My plan for River Bend is to sell it AS IS to a buyer who will restore and manage it at no cost to taxpayers. That means money for the city from the sale and the return of an asset the community valued for 30 years.
Since I began my campaign, I’ve made the case that River Bend can be opened cost-free to taxpayers. As your commissioner, I’ll finish it.
Coleen McMahon is a candidate for Ormond Beach City Commission, Zone 1.
Editor's note: Alan Burton, a candidate for Zone 1, submitted the following in response to this op-ed, concerning his experience with golf courses.
Golf Course Outdoor Service Manager, Marriott Resort, Lincolnshire
Recreation Bureau Chief, Orlando Managed Dubsdread Golf Course
Ormond Beach city staff also provided the following response:
The city entered a lease for the operation of River Bend golf course in 1989. A lawsuit filed in 1994 resulted in a 1997 court judgment determining the golf course exempt from taxes. In addition to the judicially established exemption, the lease required the lessee to pay any taxes if ever assessed.
In 2013, the property appraiser removed the exemption without providing the notice required by law. The city first became aware in 2018 that the lessee allegedly owed taxes for operating the course. Volusia County, through the property appraiser and tax collector, asserted the city, not the lessee, owed those taxes.
In 2018, the city commission authorized a lawsuit asking the court to determine two issues: the validity of the tax exemption, and whether the lessee, not the city, was responsible for any taxes owed. The county responded by suing the city to collect the lessee's taxes. It did not sue the lessee.
The suggestion that established law ran clearly against the city is not accurate. Florida statutes and the rules of the Florida Department of Revenue (FDOR), the state agency responsible for oversight of the tax process in each county, recognize that taxes owed by a lessee of public property are owed by the lessee, not the government.
FDOR intervened in the case to assist the court in the correct application of tax law. FDOR informed the court that the taxes were owed by the lessee, who was not a party to the lawsuit, and that the Grove Key decision relied upon by the county was incorrectly decided. The court chose to rely on Grove Key rather than FDOR's guidance and ruled the city responsible for the lessee's taxes.
That ruling created an appealable issue. Members of the current city commission did not make the 2018 decision to initiate the litigation. The current commission did decide not to incur the cost of an appeal, which ended the litigation.
Regarding public discussion of pending litigation: the city operates a self-insured liability program established in 1989 and governed by the Florida Constitution, Florida Statutes, the City Charter and the Code of Ordinances. Under that framework, claims evaluation, reserves and litigation strategy are directed by the city attorney and the claims committee, whose meetings are privileged and confidential under Florida law.
Commissioners are kept apprised of litigation developments through one-on-one briefings and litigation shade meetings held in accordance with Section 286.011, Florida Statutes. Pending and threatened litigation, including aggregate loss reserves for liability and defense costs, is disclosed annually to the city's independent auditor as part of the annual audit and budget process. These procedures exist to protect the city's legal position, and taxpayers' interests, while matters are in litigation.
