Petition to the Mayor and City Commission of Daytona Beach

We, the undersigned residents, taxpayers, and stakeholders of Daytona Beach, call on the City Commission to refuse renewal of the contract of City Manager Deric C. Feacher when it expires on May 31, 2026, and to initiate a transparent, nationwide search for new executive leadership.

This is not personal.
This is about public trust, executive duty, and accountability in civic management.

Recent events demonstrate repeated failures of oversight, control, and administrative discipline at the highest level of city government. These are not isolated incidents—they reflect a persistent pattern of nonfeasance, misfeasance, and malfeasance.

 
A Pattern of Executive Failure — Defined
City Managers are entrusted with:

• Safeguarding public funds
• Enforcing internal controls
• Modernizing policy
• Preventing misconduct before it happens

The following examples show where leadership has fallen short.

 
1. Purchasing Card (P-Card) and Spending Oversight — Misfeasance
Public reporting has revealed significant concerns about the city’s purchasing cards and travel expense practices, prompting after-the-fact internal reviews. These are basic controls found in professional organizations; their breakdown reflects misfeasance — improper execution of lawful duties.

 
2. Fire Department Overtime Abuse — Malfeasance Through Negligent Oversight
In a stunning example of failed internal controls, reporting revealed that a Daytona Beach Deputy Fire Chief earned more than $14,000 in overtime in just six weeks, despite holding an administrative role rather than a frontline firefighter assignment.

Details include:

• Nearly 200 hours of overtime logged between late May and early July
• Overtime recorded on days of personal leave
• Extreme payroll entries such as a 23.5-hour Saturday shift
• City officials initiated a review after public exposure—but this episode reflects malfeasance through reckless indifference to oversight and risk.

 
3. Daytona Beach Golf Club Misconduct — Nonfeasance and Malfeasance
An internal investigation at the Daytona Beach Golf Club uncovered:

• Employees improperly accepting cash lesson payments
• Failure to remit city revenue
• Documentation so poor that total losses could not be determined
• Inadequate supervisory enforcement of controls
• Even after discipline for individual employees, the real issue remains: internal controls were absent, enforcement was lacking, and revenue protections failed. That is nonfeasance — failure to act — and malfeasance — overlooking misconduct through neglect.

 
4. Decades-Old Policies — Pure Nonfeasance
Critical governance policies — including purchasing and travel rules — were allowed to remain outdated for more than 20 years.

Failing to update core administrative policies in a modern municipal government is nonfeasance by any reasonable definition.

 
Compensation Without Accountability
According to public reporting, City Manager Deric C. Feacher’s base salary is approximately $291,000 per year. When additional benefits—such as retirement contributions, insurance, paid leave, vehicle allowances, and other contractual compensation—are included, the total cost to taxpayers approaches $400,000 annually.

This places the City Manager among the highest-compensated municipal administrators in the region.

At that level of compensation, residents deserve:

• Robust, enforced financial controls
• Proactive prevention of misconduct
• Modern internal policies
• Disciplined executive oversight
• Instead, taxpayers have seen a pattern of repeated managerial failures followed by public investigations and damage control.

High compensation without high accountability is not leadership—it is entitlement.

 
A Direct Call for Courage from the City Commission
Daytona Beach deserves commissioners who are willing to act, even when it is uncomfortable.

We demand commissioners with the courage to:

• Set aside personal relationships
• Reject political convenience
• Resist institutional inertia
• Act in favor of the public interest

Renewing this contract would signal that nonfeasance carries no consequence, misfeasance is excused, and malfeasance is tolerated at the top.

That is unacceptable.

 
Our Demand
We call on the Daytona Beach City Commission to:

• Vote NO on renewing the City Manager’s contract
• Launch a transparent, competitive, nationwide search for new executive leadership
• Publicly commit to restoring accountability through:
  • modernized city policies
  • strengthened financial and payroll controls
  • strict enforcement of internal oversight across all departments

Cities fail slowly—then suddenly—when leaders tolerate systemic dysfunction.

Daytona Beach deserves leadership that PREVENTS misconduct, ENFORCES duty, and RESPECTS public trust.

Sign this petition if you believe nonfeasance, misfeasance, and malfeasance have no place in the management of our city.