AskFlagler Palm Coast Mayor Interview: Cornelia Downing Manfre

Cornelia Downing Manfre is one of five candidates running for Palm Coast Mayor, along with fellow challengers Peter Johnson, Alan Lowe, and Mike Norris, along with incumbent David Alfin. It’s Manfre’s second run for mayor following a bid in the 2021 special election, and her third campaign overall including a City Council run in 2020.

The primary election for Palm Coast Mayor will take place on August 20th and will be open to all Palm  Coast residents. If any candidate obtains one more vote than 50.0%, they will win the mayoral election outright. If none reach that threshold, the top two candidates will move on to the general election in November.

Other Candidate Interviews

Flagler County Commission:

• Andy Dance – Flagler County Commission, District 1
• Fernando Melendez – Flagler County Commission, District 1
• Kim Carney – Flagler County Commission, District 3
• Bill Clark – Flagler County Commission, District 3 (Did Not Complete)
• Nick Klufas – Flagler County Commission, District 3
• Ed Danko – Flagler County Commission, District 5
• Michael McElroy – Flagler County Commission, District 5
• Pam Richardson – Flagler County Commission, District 5

Flagler School Board:

• Derek Barrs – Flagler School Board, District 3
• Janie Ruddy – Flagler School Board, District 3
• Lauren Ramirez – Flagler School Board, District 5
• Vincent Sullivan – Flagler School Board, District 5

East Flagler Mosquito Control Board:

• Julius ‘Jules’ Kwiatkowski – East Flagler Mosquito Control Board, Seat 1
• Perry Mitrano – East Flagler Mosquito Control Board, Seat 1
• Lance Alred – East Flagler Mosquito Control Board, Seat 3
• Ralph Lighfoot – East Flagler Mosquito Control Board, Seat 3

Palm Coast City Council:

• David Alfin – Palm Coast Mayor
• Peter Johnson – Palm Coast Mayor
• Alan Lowe – Palm Coast Mayor
• Cornelia Downing Manfre – Palm Coast Mayor
• Mike Norris – Palm Coast Mayor (Did Not Complete)
• Kathy Austrino – Palm Coast City Council, District 1
• Shara Brodsky – Palm Coast City Council, District 1
• Ty Miller – Palm Coast City Council, District 1
• Jeffery Seib – Palm Coast City Council, District 1
• Dana ‘Mark’ Stancel – Palm Coast City Council, District 3
• Ray Stevens – Palm Coast City Council, District 3
• Andrew Werner – Palm Coat City Council, District 3

Interview Criteria

• The object of the interview is not to grill the candidate, nor to give them softballs. Ideally, in their answers the candidates provide to voters a useful insight into their ideology, their priorities, and their knowledgeability and preparedness for office.
• These questions are sent to each declared candidate in Flagler County’s local elections. All candidates running for the same office received the same exact questions.
• The only edits made are for spelling, formatting and basic grammar (i.e., ‘their’ when it should be ‘there’). Censorship of profanity may also be applied if it were applicable. Otherwise, answers are presented in their full form as the candidate provides them.
• Answers are subject to fact-checking if they contain information that’s blatantly misleading or untrue (misrepresenting factually verifiable information, misquoting a statistic, etc). Clarifications will be added underneath the candidate’s answer if applicable. The answers will still be presented as given even if a fact-check or clarification is needed.

Candidate Interview

Date of Birth: May 5th, 1957

Hometown: Washington, D.C.

Career/Educational Resume: Click to View Resume

1. Name three issues in Palm Coast you see as most pressing right now, and what you see as the first steps in addressing them under the new City Council.

• “Necessary to hire an experienced and educated City Manager with analytical skills, able to review personnel performance and needs based hiring, able to plan necessary infrastructure maintenance and expansions and financial background to eliminate waste in the government functions.
• Review infrastructure needs and budget for same.
• Enhance response time for permitting.”

The processes to initiate your first two priorities are relatively self-explanatory, but how would you propose executing an enhancement in permitting response time?

“I would request the City Manager to implement a timeline approach for all permit requests, planning and development requests. For developments, a software tracking system should be used along with a 90-120 days for approval process be put in place.”

2. One of the key duties of a mayor is chairing City Council meetings. Describe your temperament in ways that are relevant to that responsibility.

“I have been trained in negotiation throughout my career and believe this will be a benefit to bringing compromise within the council.”

3. With what you know now, give your evaluation of these city leaders: interim City Manager Lauren Johnston, Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo, and Stormwater & Engineering Director Carl Cote.

“Each appear to be doing a good job but I can evaluate once in office and working directly with them.”

4. Are there any new or underutilized revenue streams you can name that Palm Coast could tap into to support its operating budget? If so, expand upon your plan for implementation.

“The revenue in the past five annual cycles has seen a 45% increase in tax collections, I do not see a need to increase fees or taxes.”

While it’s valuable to know you’re against increases in taxes or fees, those would be changes to existing revenue streams. The question also asked if there were any potential new revenue streams which you could identify.

“At present, I do not support implementing new fees or increase in the tax rate. The City has collected annual increases in revenue based on the increased values since 2020. Therefore, I will recommend a complete budget review of the City administration-from department to department, analyze where the increased revenues have gone and where to reallocate to insure the basics of municipal responsibility are covered, ie maintenance of road, swales and canals.”

5. In recent months some residents have broached the idea of having a forensic audit, a practice typically undertaken due to reasonable suspicion of financial misconduct. Do you see a forensic audit as being necessary for Palm Coast?

“No.”

6. One of the duties of Palm Coast’s mayor is to lobby Tallahassee for state funding. What experience do you have that would prepare you to execute this duty effectively?

“I believe I bring 40 years of business background that can be applied to negotiating for additional funds from the state when necessary.”

7. Adults under 25 in Palm Coast have a median income of $34,663, against a median annual rent of $24,156. Can Palm Coast take any additional steps to provide affordable housing to keep FPC and MHS graduates in town? Could doing so threaten to create a potentially excessive pace of residential development? 

“I think it is imperative to establish affordable workforce housing in the community especially in light of the increased housing cost. The housing could be in a planned community offset from existing housing. The community will set its own market value.”

8. What does the long-term solution for public safety in Palm Coast look like? Do you think the city’s future growth will create enough tax revenue to fund indefinite, incremental additions of Flagler Sheriff’s deputies? If not, how does Palm Coast make ends meet to facilitate adequate law enforcement coverage?

“Establishing a police department for the City is not necessary with the structure of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office as it exists to serve all communities within Flagler County. With the reduction in crime as stated by the Sheriff, we should not need anymore deputies than those currently planned for the foreseeable future.”