- May 7, 2026
Daytona Beach has renewed City Manager Deric Feacher’s employment contract in a 4-3 vote.
Commissioners Stacy Cantu, Quanita May and Monica Paris all voted against renewing Feacher’s contract. Feacher has been the city manager of Daytona Beach since 2021, and the renewal of the contract extends his employment for another three years.
Commissioner Paula Reed was in charge of the evaluation process, and said the City Commission had given Feacher an aggregate evaluation score of 3.63 out of five points on his evaluation. This means, she said, he has met the expectation of the commission.
“Is he perfect? No, he's not,” she said. “It does indicate that there are some things that need to be done, and we've implicated some of those things, and he's working on those things.”
Daytona Beach has faced backlash for months over a multitude of spending concerns, including state audit on the buildup of impact fee funds, internal controversy over the misuse of taxpayer funds and an internal audit on the Daytona Beach Fire Department.
Some commissioners have laid the responsibility at Feacher's feet as the one in charge of Daytona Beach employees and policies. Cantu had attempted fire Feacher at an April commission meeting.
This is the first performance evaluation Feacher has received in several years. The commissioners were given 10 questions to rate on a score of one to five, five being the highest rating. The answers were then added up for an overall rating out of five.
Cantu and May gave Feacher overall scores of 2.18 and 2.94. Mayor Derrick Henry and Monica Paris gave him overall scores of 3.05 and 3.27, while Reed and Commissioners Ken Strickland and Danielle Henry gave him overall a 4.86, 4.82 and 4.27.
Reed’s motion to renew Feacher’s contract for an additional three years was met with cheers and applause from members of the public in attendance.
“Strong leadership is often demonstrated not only through visible accomplishments, but also through consistency, through vision, through collaboration, and the ability to guide an organization through both opportunities and challenges,” said Reverend Victor Gooden during public comment. “The progress outlined during this report reflects those qualities.”
Those commissioners and Mayor Derrick Henry who voted to renew Feacher’s contract said that the recent allegations against the city have not been shown to be Feacher’s fault. Mayor Henry said he has seen nothing that shows the commission should terminate Feacher’s employment.
If anything were to happen in the future that shows he should be, Henry said, the commission can always return to this.
“His evaluation does not reflect an evaluation that says that you need to be terminated,” Henry said.
Commissioner May said her main concern was that these deficiencies in the Purchasing Card and spending practices of employees were not identified until City Auditor Abinet Belachew’s arrival.
“The difference for me is five years versus seven months,” May said. “The auditor was here for seven months and found this. The city manager was here for five years.”
May recalled Feacher reviewing city policies — like that of the P-Cards — at the beginning of his tenure. But, she said, if the discrepancies had been found sooner, that could have meant more money going out into the communities for community uses.
Reed said the commission needs to allow Feacher time to correct the issues at hand, instead of trying to fire him. The City Commission also, she said, needs to keep up with the annual evaluations of his performance.
“It's time to allow this man to prove to us that he knows the responsibilities that come with his role, and allow him to address them,” she said. “I think three years is enough. It's more than enough time.”
