Daytona Beach City Manager Deric C. Feacher's Contract Renewal: An Analysis, Commentary and Commissioner Quotes
- Charles I. Guarria
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Five weeks late but right on time for government work, I suppose, the Daytona Beach City Commission finally renewed City Manager Deric C. Feacher’s contract.
The contract, formally known as the City Manager Employment Agreement, is for three years beginning June 1. The long-overdue vote and review took place during the commission’s May 6 meeting.
The lengthy delay is the fault of Commissioner Quanita May, as she was the person in charge until April, when she had to hand off the responsibility due to a family concern.
Mayor Derrick Henry gave the baton to Commissioner Paula R. Reed.
Ms. Reed, on record as saying no written review was needed despite the employment agreement stating that it was required, began the May 6 evaluation with what seemed a promotional piece for Mr. Feacher rather than a review. Complete with nifty photos of the City Manager doing great things in the community.
It is true that even Mr. Feacher’s biggest detractors credit him for being a solid presence in the community. But did the citizenry of Daytona Beach need a commissioner acting like a former member of Pravda?
In the aggregate, the commissioners were less complimentary this year than when they reviewed Mr. Feacher two years ago. (Mind you, they are supposed to review him every year. But hey, they are politicians, so the rules don’t apply, right?)
Mr. Feacher should note the disparity between his last two evaluations and take it as a warning. To wit, in 2024, his overall rating was 4.29. In 2026, his overall rating is 3.63. That is 15.38 % drop in his approval rating.
There is more that should unsettle the city manager.
In 2024, Commissioners Ken Strickland and Paula R. Reed handed Mr. Feacher perfect 5.0 scores. This year, not a single commissioner rated Mr. Feacher’s work performance as perfect.
Ms. Reed and Mr. Strickland were tops, once again, with scores of 4.86 and 4.82, respectively.
Commissioner Stacy Cantu, who repeatedly says there is nothing personal in her constant slamming of the city manager, led with the lowest score this year, as she did previously, with a 2.18, down from 3.24 in ’24.
Ms. May, twice voting not to renew Mr. Feacher’s contract, also filed a job performance rating in the twos at 2.94.
Interestingly, Mayor Derrick Henry downgraded Mr. Feacher’s performance from 2024 yet voted “unequivocally yes” to renew the city manager.
Two years ago, Mr. Henry saw 3.80 as the proper overall rating; this year, 3.05, three-quarters of a point less. He explained why he wanted to keep the city manager around:” I haven't seen anything that says that we should terminate.”
Mr. Feacher’s highest rating was in the category of citizen relations. Here, he received a 4.23.
Within this category are the following remarks:
Mr. Henry, “This is one of Mr. Feacher's strongest areas.”
Ms. Reed, “Mr. Feacher is a manager for the people.”
Commissioner Monica Paris, “Strong community engagement remains a key strength.”
Commissioner Dannette Henry, “Does very well with community engagement.”
However, Rich Yost, a co-chair of Let Volusia Vote, has a different take, as he explained on my show, The Opinion Guy.
It was 2022 when Mr. Yost was initially rebuffed in his pursuit to speak with Mr. Feacher. Eventually, the city manager took a phone call with Mr. Yost and proceeded to chastise him.
“Do you really think in a city of eighty thousand people and a thousand employees, just anybody should be able to pick up the phone and call the city manager?” Mr. Yost recalled the city manager asking.
He responded by informing the city manager that that was his exact expectation because “you work for me; you work for us,” at which point Mr. Feacher cut the conversation short by hanging up on Mr. Yost.
Many citizens are squarely in the city manager’s corner. By my count, 10 residents spoke on the matter of Mr. Feacher’s review before the commission voted. All 10 were in favor of renewing his contract.
Commissioner Strickland echoed a view said by a handful of the citizens before he voted.
“In America, you are innocent until proven guilty. We've not had anybody arrested out of city hall or any of the departments. We've had nobody charged, nobody jailed. All we've had were allegations unsubstantiated.”
This isn’t entirely correct.
Innocent until proven guilty is in the court of law. It is not in the court of public opinion. That is why, despite my fondness for Mr. Feacher, I believe he should not have been renewed and signed Mr. Yost’s petition asking that his contract not be renewed.
Daytona Beach City Hall is a mess right now. It is sinking; he is one of the people charged with making sure the city doesn’t veer off course and into audits, criminal probes, and subpoenas. But instead of stopping it from happening, Mr. Feacher watched it happen.
In her closing remarks, Ms. Reed sought to downplay the allegations, asking rhetorically, “If this was such a serious situation, why did we wait until the last minute, the last hour to say he must go? We should have addressed this a long time ago.”
I have an answer, Ms. Reed, that is not doused in rhetoric: because some of you aren’t doing your jobs well enough and should go with him.
The commission’s vote was as such:
To renew City Manager Deric C. Feacher’s contract for three years: Dannette Henry, Derrick Henry, Ken Strickland, Paula R. Reed.
To terminate City Manager Deric C. Feacher’s contract: Stacy Cantu, Quanita May, Monica Paris.
Charles I. Guarria is an author, reporter and host based in the state of Florida, USA, covering any topic, anywhere in the world. His career began in 2009. Mr. Guarria is a three-time winner of Emerald Group Publishing’s Highly Commended Award and host of The Opinion Guy Fun Friendly Informative.
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Photo Credit: City of Daytona Beach
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The city manager answers to the commission and the commission answers to the people. Feacher has been allowed to behave like a politician and that needs to stop now. Residents should be approaching their commissioner and those commissioners should be able to relay the concerns. This has been a massive break down in the chain of command and is what has created the issue we have at hand. If he spent the time he has in the community, IN THE DEPARTMENTS HE IS SUPPOSED TO OVER SEE the city would be better off.