Local Group Working To Oust Daytona Beach City Manager

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Daytona Beach, FL - A local group of Daytona Beach residents is doing what it can to get current Daytona Beach City Manager Jim Chisholm to retire. The other option is to convince at least five of the seven City Commission members to fire him. Ken Strickland, Chair Person of Sons of the Beach & Friends, says it doesn't matter how Chisholm goes, as long as he goes. He and other members of the group were outside City Hall Wednesday night for the City Commission meeting.

There are a number of issues on the list that Strickland says show that Chisholm is not transparent in his dealings for the city and that he has given away public assets as with Riverfront Park. Strickland says not only are we giving it away for a mere $15.5 million but the city has entered an agreement with Brown & Brown to keep the park up for anywhere between $800,000 to $1,000,000 annually for 50 years.

Strickland said he thinks that Chisholm acts like he hates the residents of Daytona Beach and that he's not really interested in what the citizens want. He said that Chisholm "discounts us and marginalizes us and has people do that at every turn."

During the Daytona Beach City Commission meeting earlier this week, Commissioners had a $600,000 settlement for an age and racial discrimination case on the consent agenda, meaning there was no discussion of the case during the meeting. Strickland says that an outside attorney was hired, costing taxpayers about another half-million dollars. Last year, another settlement was made by the city to the tune of $1,000,000 in a sexual harassment case. Strickland feels that the city of Daytona Beach should not be involved in any kind of lawsuits that involve discrimination or harassment.

Chisholm'S contract requires at least five of the seven City Commission members to vote for his ouster, and there’s been no indication the mayor and commissioners are looking for regime change. He's been the Daytona Beach chief administrator for 15 years. Chisholm's current contract began in July 2004. It states Chisholm would be entitled to a lump sum cash payment equal to six months of his current salary. His annual salary is $227,584 and his annual auto allowance is $11,892. The contract gives the city manager the option to accept severance pay over a six-month period along with a continuation of health insurance and deferred compensation benefits for that half-year period.

The original intent of Sons of the Beach was to fight for beach driving and focus on other beach issues. Because they are a nonprofit organization, a separate political action committee was formed about one year ago in order to be involved in issues such as the proposed half-cent sales tax that failed to pass earlier this year.

Strickland ended with, "We live in a city with some of the lowest income in the state and some of the highest taxes in the state and we have been put into a deal by Mr. Chisholm to keep the legacy of J. Hyatt Brown polished for the next fifty years. That's highly unfair to the residents. We're not going away."