- May 20, 2026
Dear Editor:
Reflecting back on the last few years and the cast of characters who ran for office or were elected in Flagler County raised a red flag. It suggests there was a shortage of quality candidates or that our local electorate was not as discerning as it should have been — or likely both.
Some candidates had resumes that lacked basic qualifications, some had troubling pasts and were not vetted well, others had extremist views or anger management warning signs that were ignored or weren't discovered until it was too late.
We came way too close to actually electing as mayor and as council member, a declared "sovereign citizen” handyman who had a past disavowing his U.S. citizenship and not paying income taxes.
We elected a council member despite her resignation from our sheriff's department, after the department described her racially charged podcast comments as “divisive and controversial.”
A county commissioner called for the beheading of liberals and later became a nationwide embarrassment by claiming “I run the county” at a traffic stop.
We also elected an ultra-partisan City Council member, who was later censured.
We had a barber shop owner elected to the City Council who later was accused of shoplifting and, as reported by our county sheriff, had outstanding charges of kidnapping and extortion in Costa Rica, a matter that remains a mystery.
A former School Board member, running again for the position, once stated that God placed her on the board to combat “satanic warfare” and believed she was battling “evil spirits” in the school district. And she actually filed a report with the Sheriff’s Office against school district staff for allowing a book on the shelf that she deemed pornographic.
As for our sitting mayor, the list of controversies, bad behavior and mis-steps has grown so long that for the sake of brevity, it suffices to say simply “oops.”
This is not to imply that all our candidates and public officials should be as pure as Caesar’s wife, but at least they should offer, and we should require, a semblance of public service norms that include competence, honesty, integrity, decency, inclusiveness and, of course, sanity.
Hopefully, the last few years was an anomaly and is not suggestive of a trend.
Mary Zito
Palm Coast
