Challenger takes aim at Volusia chairman, calls for leadership change at debate

Thursday night marked the first time all four candidates for the Volusia County Council chairperson’s seat had the chance to square off, and one challenger took the opportunity to take a couple of shots at the incumbent.

Deb Denys is a former county councilwoman who resigned her District 3 seat to run for the chairman’s seat. She lost to incumbent Chairman Jeff Brower in 2020 despite having a much-better-funded campaign.

The forum in DeLeon Springs, where Brower lives, tossed multiple real estate development questions at the candidates — the topic Brower is most vocal about.

He railed about flooding and the need to change how development is done, drawing applause and cheers from some people gathered at the outdoor venue.

Some of the questions read by the organizer included criticism of Brower ― drawing sounds of protest from some in the crowd.

One question asked whether in light of the thousands of acres set aside for conservation through Volusia Forever and additional lands for parks and trails in the county and cities, "what's your response to the current chairman putting forth the narrative that there's overdevelopment and soon we won't have any green space left?"

Brower said in the town halls he has hosted throughout his term, the same concerns are at the top of everyone's list: overdevelopment, water quality and increased taxes to pay for those things.

Brower said he is "a champion of preserving necessary land." He said the issue is not how much land is set aside, but how the land is developed that's left over, he said.

"And we're doing it wrong. We're doing it legally. We're following the engineers ... designs. We're raising it up. Paving it over. And then we're flooding neighborhoods. You can't deny that. ... We have to change the way that we develop," he said.

Denys, who said no one wants overdevelopment, said "rhetoric doesn't help anything" and leadership needs to change.

"You can't hear the same campaign rhetoric four years later and there be no change," Denys said. "If there was an answer and it could have been done and you had four years, what changed in those four years? So I'm just saying as a leader we work with all of our partners."

Another question asked whether the county chairman has any authority over the cities on development. Everyone split with Brower's position.

"We do have that authority," Brower said. "We have the constitutional authority as a charter government that for the health and safety of Volusia County, we can make rules that apply to every one of the cities," Brower said. "I don't want to do that. I don't want to tell any other city what they can do. I want to work together and come to an agreement that this is a quality-of-life issue that affects our children, our grandparents and our day-to-day lives."

Denys said Volusia County doesn't have legal jurisdiction over the municipalities.

"The only one that thinks that you can maybe do that is if you're a dictator and you ignore all the other electeds," she said.

On development and land preservation, Port Orange Mayor Don Burnette said officials need to focus on what they can control and collaborate with other local governments. He gave an example of Port Orange providing utilities for residents in neighboring areas, he said.

"We need to look for those kinds of things so that we can spend our money better so we can make our infrastructure better the way it is right now," he said. "I can't stop people from moving to Florida."

Denys, Burnette and Randy Dye voiced support for preserving more land in the county.

"We definitely need to continue down the path of trying to acquire more green space," Dye said. "Keep it preserved. Don't allow it to be developed or built and at the same time ... absolutely make sure we manage the development and not let it get out of control."

The setting of Thursday's forum, held around sunset, looked straight out of a movie on the rural South. The candidates spoke from a wooden gazebo in a field of trees draped in long curls of Spanish moss.  Dozens of people stood around the gazebo or sat in lawn chairs.

The DeLeon Springs Community Association hosted the event.  Each candidate had a couple of minutes to answer each question and a short time to make closing comments.

The four candidates will face off in the primary on Aug. 20. If no one wins the majority of the votes cast, the top two vote-getters will face each other in the general election on Nov. 5.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia County chairman candidates face off at DeLeon Springs forum