- June 12, 2026
Ray Stevens will return to the Palm Coast City Council in November.
With the qualifying deadline passing on Friday, June 12, Stevens remained the only candidate in District 3. He was elected to the City Council in 2024 but resigned less than four months later because of a serious illness.
After recovering from fungal pneumonia, the 77-year-old former New York police lieutenant announced last August that he would run again this year to serve the last two years of his four-year term.
Former Flagler County Commissioner David Sullivan was appointed on April 15, 2025, to fill the seat until the 2026 November general election.
“I feel as though I have a job to finish,” Stevens said on June 12 after the candidate qualifying period ended at noon. “I want to fulfill or attempt to fulfill the promises I made during the (2024) campaign. Unfortunately, due to health reasons, I stepped down from the council because I thought it was the ethical thing to do, because I'm laying on my back in the hospital, which turned out to be two months, collecting a paycheck, and the City Council is deadlocked on important issues to vote.”
He said it has been a long recovery, but he is back riding his motorcycle, doing light calisthenics and riding a bicycle.
“People say, ‘how do you know you're not going to get sick again? Well, how does anybody know (they're) not going to get sick again? Nobody can say for certain, or without equivocation, ‘I'm not going to be sick tomorrow.’ So what we do is we have to take care of ourselves the best we can. You get your shots, your inoculations and you carry on.”
Stevens said the issues facing the City Council have not changed since he resigned on Feb. 28, 2025.
“I got elected because I was on point, I was on message,” Stevens said. “And that message is that we have to put the brakes on or pull the reins in on what I consider to be uncontrolled and/or poorly planned development. It's taking a toll on our quality of life here, as far as traffic conditions, air quality, loss of green space. Infrastructure cannot sustain the rapid population growth.”
He said he would also like to see the city government pared down through staff attrition.
“I believe we should engage in consolidation of services,” Stevens said. “We are top heavy with too many levels of supervision. I don't believe in mass layoffs, but it may come a point where attrition may not be able to handle the situation, and we may have to go to layoffs.”
The other local races are set with two or more candidates running for Palm Coast City Council, County Commission and School Board.
Tony Amaral Jr., Jeani Duarte and Jimmy Hengy are running for the City Council District 2 seat, currently held by Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri, who is running for County Commission. Four candidates have qualified in the City Council District 4 race: Dylana “Dee” Galery, Ramon Marrero, Darlene Shelley and John Kvederis.
For County Commission, two Republicans — Greg Feldman and Pontieri — are running along with independent Raymond Royer for the District 2 seat. That seat is currently held by Greg Hansen, who is stepping down after serving two four-year terms plus a partial term after he was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2017.
Commission Chair Leann Pennington is running for reelection in District 4 against Ana Jones and Drew Moss. All three candidates are Republicans.
There are three seats open on the School Board. Cathy Moon and former board member Jill Woolbight are running for the open District 1 seat. Incumbent Will Furry and Rob Wood are running in District 2. Commission Chair Christy Chong, Ron Long and former board member Trevor Tucker are running in District 4.
Kevin Porter (Seat 1) and George DeGovanni (Seat 5) are each running unopposed for the two open Dunes Community Development District seats. Gary David Garner is running unopposed for the Deer Run CDD Seat 1; and Jeanna James and Gary Marsten are running for Seat 2. Richard Mayor and Kathy Myers are running unopposed for Grand Haven CDD Seats 1 and 5, respectively; Joe Janukaitis, Ray Krov and Brian Unger are running for the District 3 seat. Patricia Thigpen (Seat 1) and John Ford (Seat 5) are running unopposed for Hunter Ridge CDD.
