- January 27, 2026
The city of Daytona Beach has a new concern on its plate: legislation that would prevent the city from requesting or receiving state legislative funding.
Daytona Beach Government Relations Coordinator Michael Chambliss told the Daytona Beach City Commission at its Jan. 21 meeting that local state representatives Sen. Tom Leek and Rep. Chase Tramont have both filed legislation that would prohibit local governments from requesting funding from the state until excess building code funds have been spent. The bills would also prevent a local government from receiving state funds for while it is the subject of a legislative committee audit.
Daytona Beach would be subject to both criteria.
“It’s a shot across our bow,” Chambliss said.
The bills are Senate Bill 1614, filed by Leek, and House Bill 1169, filed by Tramont. Leek filed his bill on Jan. 9 and as of Jan. 26 the bill has been introduced and referred to the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government.
In an interview with the Observer, Leek said the bill was written with the situation of Daytona Beach in mind, but it is broader than just one municipality. Some local governments end up collecting excess fees, but, he said, the law does not permit them to hoard that extra money.
Cities are required to either give back the money or spend it. Leek said it has been close to a decade since Daytona Beach has been told to spend the excess funds in its Permits & Licensing Fund.
“Continuously, they've been brought up before the legislature, the audit committee to say, 'Hey, what are you going to do?' And every year they promise to do something,” Leek said.
At the same time, he said, Daytona Beach came to Tallahassee this year to ask for funding on critical infrastructure projects related to flooding. Leek questioned why when the city had this extra funding.
State law requires funds for enforcing the state building code — like Daytona’s Permits & Licensing Fund — may only carry forward an excess balance of its average operating budget. For years, the Daytona Beach P&L Fund has had millions in excess funding.
His bill, he said, will permit the city to use the excess funding for critical needs related to stormwater management and mitigation.
“You should have to spend the money that you've got,” Leek said. “[This bill] would allow them to do that.”
Really, he said, what Daytona Beach needs to do is not charge excess fees.
Daytona Beach has more problems than the excess money in its P&L Fund. Daytona Beach was last in front of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee in December 2025 after Sen. Tom Wright brought the city’s scandal over the use of its employee Purchasing Cards to the committee’s attention.
The scandal was uncovered in October, where city employees have been accused of mishandling city funds, with little to no oversight. A portion of SB 1614 also prohibits municipalities from legislative funding for at least one year if it is the subject of an audit. The municipality will be eligible again once it comes under compliance with the law.
“If you’re persisting with the problem, you’re not eligible,” Leek said.
There have also been other accusations of Daytona Beach city staff misusing funds, including releasing bonds for poorly constructed sidewalks in the Mosiac neighborhood and an audit over employees pocketing funding for lessons at the city’s golf center.
“The city of Daytona Beach is in trouble. They're absolutely in trouble. They have absolutely mismanaged their money,” Leek said. “I’m glad they’ve woken up. They have finally realized the legislature means business and I hope they get it right.”
November 2025 was when Daytona Beach was last admonished by JLAC for its excess permit fee money. The committee told the city to spend it or return it to developers or tax payers.
Despite telling the committee it would work on the issue, Leek said, at the next City Commission meet the commission said Tallahassee “needs to mind its own business.”
“So, they’re not committed to it, right? They just want to do what they want to do,” Leek said.
That meeting was on Nov. 5. In it, Leek is referring to a comment made by Zone 2 Commissioner Ken Strickland.
Strickland said: “Tallahassee needs to mind their own business. And I know they're not. They should be representing us, not trying to ridicule us, make us look bad, make accusations they have no proof of. And I am just absolutely disgusted with our representation up there.”
Leek said cities are “creatures of the legislature. They’re enacted by the legislature, and every year we dissolve cities.”
“I’m not threatening them with that. I want to be clear,” he said. “But the legislature has the ability to dissolve the city, so the idea that the city gets to do whatever it wants is false.”
