- February 27, 2026
A discussion item about Flagler Beach City Manager Dale Martin’s performance fizzled and died without any action by the commission.
"This is a waste of time," one Flagler Beach resident said.
Commissioner Rick Belhumeur requested the discussion at the Feb. 12 meeting, saying he had found several areas of concerns with Martin’s performance. Listed on the Feb. 26 City Commission meeting agenda, the issues included improper hiring procedures, permitting processes and concerns capital projects are not seeing any forward momentum.
“I have concerns about how some things are going wrong and the city manager just makes excuses for the individual that's responsible,” Belhumeur said. “We’re not getting things done as a city.”
But, excepting Commission Chair James Sherman, the other commissioners did not feel there was anything actionable.
“What are we doing? Is this just an agenda to complain,” Commissioner Eric Cooley said. “We’re up here debating, without purpose.”
Repeatedly during the discussion, Cooley asked for what direction the conversation was supposed to be going in.
“I really only see the conversation going two different directions,” he said.
Cooley wanted to know if the point was to gain information to work out concerns or if Commissioner Belhumeur was not happy with the city manager’s job and seeking termination. Cooley said he felt some items were just issues between two employees.
“We are interjecting ourselves into a matter between two employees,” he said. “That seems very odd for a political body.”
Many of the issues presented by Belhumeur had simple answers: An employee was hired quickly not because he knew another employee but because that person had a college degree and the city was trying to fill the position quickly. A city engineer was hired without the correct degree qualifications, Martin said, because instead they had more than the required experience in the construction field.
“It's been commonly recognized around here that if you have experience with home building, you are an expert with water, wastewater, and storm water,” Martin said.
Regarding the stormwater projects, Martin said city staff is trying to figure out how to fund some of the capital projects and maintenance items.
“But at a million dollars a year, we're not going to get very far tackling the most significant stormwater issues facing this community,” Martin said.
After an hour trudging through Belhumeur's list, both issues submitted in advance and items that weren’t in the agenda, Belhumeur said he wasn’t going to motion for any action on the item.
“I’m not going to dig into this any further,” he said. “Just forget it.”
Sherman also submitted a number of questions he would like answered, ranging from the city’s policy on the use of city vehicles, public safety and site conditions — like using extension cords at the monthly First Friday event — and compensation and budget practices. He said he’s looking to “tighten some loose ends around town.”
“What's been presented before us here could be alleviated if we had a little bit tighter grasp on some of these things,” Sherman said.
Cooley said he agreed with that but worried about “the other side of the coin,” where employees would be worried every action they took, even public works stopping for a drink on a hot day, might come back to them.
“There's groups out there that think all the city employees are just terrible, [that they] sit around and do nothing,” Cooley said. “...Our employees, the vast majority of them, are great people. They're doing a great job.”
Belhumeur said he agreed, but that his concern was with their leadership. Commissioner Scott Spradley disagreed.
“There's always ways we can all improve, whether it's me, whether it's you,” he said.
Cooley said he receives similar complaints from residents but submits them to Martin and they “usually get corrected without any issues.” There were valid concerns in what was presented, he said, but some of what he is seeing “just seems to be brow beating” employees.
“We as a body need to support our employees,” Cooley said. “If they're doing something wrong, let's acknowledge [it] and have frank conversations about it. But we can't spend hours on end talking about how terrible our employees are, because they're good and they're doing a good job.”
