Palm Coast City Council Appoints David Sullivan to Vacant Seat

The Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday appointed David Sullivan as the new Council member representing District 3 until 2026. Sullivan beat out two other finalists, Candace Stevens and Dave Ferguson, who also came into Tuesday’s business meeting hopeful for a seat on the dais. The selection was made necessary when Councilman Ray Stevens resigned in February due to pressing health concerns just a few months after being elected. Sullivan will be in office until at least the 2026 elections, at which point a special election will be held to fill out the remaining two years on Stevens’ term. He will be eligible to run for the remaining two years at that stage, and said Tuesday that he intends to do so. Motions for Stevens, Stancel, & Sullivan Fail It took considerable discourse for the City Council to arrive at a final decision. The first motion, made by Mike Norris to appoint Candace Stevens, failed 2-2. The second motion, made by Charles Gambaro to appoint David Sullivan, failed by the same margin with Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri pausing tensely before swinging the vote against Sullivan. Pontieri attempted to make a motion to appoint Dana ‘Mark’ Stancel, who was already eliminated from the selection process. She received no second and so that motion failed as well. Finally, for the second time a motion was made to appoint Sullivan. It was preceded by a separate vote to reconsider Sullivan to meet procedural requirements. A small handful of residents who supported Stevens’ bid spoke against the appointment, but it ultimately passed 3-1. Only Mayor Norris dissented. Vice Mayor Pontieri, who voted against Sullivan the first time around, flipped her vote in support to give him the seat. For a moment it seemed like former Councilman Ray Stevens himself might weigh in; Norris saw Stevens had attempted to call him during the meeting and gained consensus to place Stevens on speakerphone. Stevens revealed, humorously so, that he was only returning Norris’ call from that morning and did not intend to take part in the appointment process. The New Palm Coast City Council The applicant pool contained several former candidates for office, some of which ran in the 2024 election cycle. Both of Stevens’ two opponents from last year, Stancel and Andrew Werner, initially applied before Werner withdrew his name from consideration shortly thereafter. Other applicants who received consideration in Council discussion included Michael Flanagan, Cornelia Downing Manfre, and Gene Perez. With two Council members now having been appointed instead of elected (Charles Gambaro is serving until 2026, appointed to replace the resigned Cathy Heighter), the City Council is now two-fifths members not directly elected by the residents. Even Manfre and Stancel, the two applicants who ran in the 2024 election cycle and received votes of support from at least some residents, did not make the City Council’s list of finalists. Also of note is that four out of five sitting City Council members are U.S. military veterans. Ty Miller was in the Marine Corps, Mike Norris and Charles Gambaro were in the Army, and Sullivan was in the Navy. Reactions “I’m very thankful that I was accepted,” Sullivan said after his appointment. “These votes are never easy, there’s lots of things going on in this city that need to be worked on but I still think it’s one of the best places in the world to live and I’ll make sure we keep it that way.” During a break after the appointment, Candace Stevens discussed the matter with Mike Norris, her biggest Council supporter, in a public area outside City Hall. Norris had lamented during discussion that appointing Sullivan would be tantamount to returning former Mayor David Alfin to the dais, and was particularly dismayed by the Council’s unwillingness to appoint Stevens instead.