The Flagler County Commission on Tuesday welcomed two new members: Kim Carney and Pam Richardson were sworn into office after winning the seats on the November 5th general election. They replaced the outgoing commissioners David Sullivan and Donald O’Brien respectively, both of whom opted not to run for another term in office.
Both Carney and Richardson had to prevail in hard-fought Republican primaries in August in order to advance to the relatively easy general election, in which both women faced a blank write-in line. Their races were closed off to GOP voters only thanks to the write-in entries of Jose Fabiani and Michael McElroy, neither of whom campaigned at all. Carney defeated fellow Republicans Bill Clark and Nick Klufas, while Richardson bested then-Palm Coast Vice Mayor Ed Danko. Carney won relatively handily, while the Richardson-Danko contest was razor-thin.
With Carney and Richardson joining the County Commission, the body for the first time in its history is composed of a majority of women. Leann Pennington, who was elected in 2022, was at the time the only woman on a previously all-male dais. The development was honored by Kathy Reichard-Ellavsky and Kim Medley, who dressed to honor Flagler’s first ever woman voter Alice Scott-Abbott.
Also sworn in was Andy Dance, who’s now on his second term on the County Commission dais. Dance soundly beat challenger Fernando Melendez in the August primary election, as he has for most of his county elections since several terms on the Flagler School Board. Dance, who since last year has served as Commission Chair, has enjoyed a relatively positive reputation in the community even during strained relationships between residents and their elected officials.
After the swearing in of Carney, Dance, and Richardson, the next and only other order of business was to establish a Chair and Vice Chair. The pool of sensible choices was limited, as both posts are most always filled by members with at least a year or two of experience in office. That would limit the field to Dance, Pennington, and Greg Hansen. The matter was ultimately uncontested: Chair Dance and Vice Chair Pennington were both reappointed to their present roles by unanimous vote.
