- January 16, 2026
Flagler County Commissioner Kim Carney made a motion to fire Flagler County Administrator Heidi Petito at the Flagler County Commission’s Jan. 12 meeting.
“I lack confidence in our administrator,” Carney said. Later, she added, “As a board, we need to move this county in a very aggressive, very forward acting direction, and I don't see that happening. I am basically stating a lack of support for Mrs. Petito.”
Carney made the motion to fire Petito at the end of an 11-hour meeting day on Jan. 12 during the final portion reserved for commission comments. The motion died without a second, but not because Carney was alone in her feelings for Petito.
Carney said she can’t continue to work “feeling the way I do and being treated the way I have been treated.” She described a work atmosphere where all of her suggestions had been ignored, specifically citing her direction to set up meetings with Flagler Beach on beach renourishment.
“There's no rebuttal, there's silence, there's head nodding, and that's it. There's nothing else,” she said. “I can't salvage a relationship that's not being responded to.”
Commissioners Pam Richardson and Chairwoman Leann Pennington said they had similar experiences. Richardson said she has seen a lot of preferential treatment and said things she has asked for have also been ignored. She’s seen that the staff seems nervous and people who put their all into their jobs feel unappreciated.
Pennington, too, said the previous Deputy Administrator Jorge Salinas, who was killed in a car crash alongside his wife last fall, was her “only bridge” to getting help with things.
Despite their experiences, neither seconded Carney’s motion to terminate.
Commissioners Greg Hansen and Andy Dance also did not support firing Petito, and questioned the wisdom of firing her without a succession plan in place.
Carney said she had a succession plan in place: While the county searched for a replacement, she recommended placing an outside, retired administrator to step in as an interim county administrator.
“This place needs a lot of grooming and to move us to the next level. We need new leadership,” she said. “I have no vote of confidence in moving this place forward the way it is today.”
But Pennington said she also did not support firing Petito at this time, and said she would still like to see the administrator in a position at Flagler County, even if it is no longer as county administrator.
“I can't second just straight termination at this time,” she said. “I think the wheels are off the train right now around here, and there's nobody here to guide it.”
Dance also said Carney’s motion lacked transparency, though Carney said she had checked with the county attorney beforehand that it was legal for commissioners to motion and vote on a motion made during the comment section.
“It’s bad faith,” Dance said. “On its face, doing it at the end of a meeting, when nobody’s in attendance and nobody knows about it — it lacks transparency.”
“Well, who does she report to?” Carney asked.
“The board,” Dance replied. “And we report to the public.”
For Pennington, the issue goes deeper than just who is in the administrator position. She was moved to tears as she expressed her frustration over the stagnated culture within Flagler County’s government and staff and the loss of Salinas.
The county has to have an administration and staff that puts in the effort to figure out how to get things done, beyond taxation. The county is in a situation where there are many backlogged problems with “only so many pennies” that can be collected, she said.
But three of the board members feel as though the administration and staff are shutting them out of doing their jobs, Pennington said, because staff wants to go another way. She said staff has even told her to her face that they “are a voting block of 1,500” and can vote out commissioners.
“The culture has to change,” she said.
Pennington said she did not know what the solution was, whether it was to find a replacement or hire a consultation firm of some kind to help right the problems within the county. But in the meantime, she said, she didn’t know how the commission was going to be able to work together.
It’s at the point, she said, where the staff is afraid to make recommendations to the board because they’re afraid of the board’s potential reactions.
“We — I hate to say this word — but we have decision constipation,” Pennington said. “We can't make decisions up here anymore.”
Pennington is right. Just on Jan. 12, the board started the day with a 9 a.m. workshop meeting that ended up lasting six hours, followed by this four-hour business meeting. And for over a year the board has been stuck on the decision of how to fund its beach maintenance program.
The board is also facing an election year where Hansen’s seat will have a new person come November, and Pennington is herself up for reelection.
The board is already going to have problems this year finding things to agree on, she said, “you can already see it.” The county needs meaningful change, she said.
“I'm really worried about getting stuck in indecisive land,” she said. “I'm worried about not making meaningful changes to the budget that aren't painful.”
