Two of the candidates who submitted an application for the vacant District 3 seat on the Palm Coast City Council have withdrawn their name from consideration, a spokesperson for the city confirmed on Tuesday. Chad Raymond and Andrew Werner are no longer pursuing an appointment to the Council.
Thirteen prospective Council members submitted their names for consideration to the City Council prior to the deadline last week, several of them former candidates and a couple former office-holders. Werner was among those who’d run before; he was one of three candidates for the District 3 seat in last year’s election cycle.
Ray Stevens ultimately won the general election in November, besting Werner after those two advanced from the primary election in August. Werner initially looked likely to win after a commanding first-place showing in the primary while Stevens only advanced by two votes over fellow candidate Dana ‘Mark’ Stancel. In November, the voters flipped their preference and elected Stevens, who resigned at the end of February after being hospitalized.
Stancel is also among those who applied to inherit the seat through an appointment by the City Council. He and Stevens grew close after the primary, and he was one of those able to answer questions about his friend’s condition in the aftermath of the resignation. With Werner out, Stancel is now the only applicant who campaigned for the vacant seat in recent memory.
The other applicant to withdraw is Chad Raymond, an S Section resident who works as a real estate appraiser and broker. Prior to that Raymond’s resume lists 20 years in the U.S. Air Force and a 10-year stint with the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.
Other notable applicants who’ve run for office before include former state legislature and Palm Coast mayoral candidate Doug Courtney, two-time mayoral and one-time City Council hopeful Cornelia Downing Manfre, and two-term County Commissioner David Sullivan. Another applicant, David Ferguson, also served as an appointed member of the City Council from 2012 to 2014 after Frank Meeker resigned to run for the County Commission.
The City Council is set to interview the candidates on April 1st, discuss the field on April 8th, and make their appointment on April 15th. The chosen candidate will serve until a special election is held in 2026, at which point the winner of that race will serve the final two years of the term until 2028.
