- April 19, 2024
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The city of Ormond Beach pledged $20,000 for the creation of the base for the bronze statue of Mary McLeod Bethune, to be placed at Bethune Plaza in the Daytona Beach Riverfront Esplanade Park on Feb. 22, 2022.
Its 11-foot marble counterpart is currently on display at the News-Journal Center, where locals may view it through Dec. 12 before it is sent to the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall State Collection. Bethune will be the first Black American to have her statue in the collection, and the 10th woman.
“It’s unprecedented and historical that we’re living through this moment in time where for the next 100-plus years the statue in the U.S. Capitol that represents the state of Florida, one of the two, will be a hometown resident and trailblazer of civil rights and social justice,” said Nancy Lohman, president of the Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Statuary Fund, at the City Commission meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 19.
The statuary fund is seeking a total of $52,000, with $25,000 already committed by the city of Daytona Beach.
Lohman asked the City Commissioners to consider donating toward the placement of the bronze statue, which was also created by Nilda Comas, a Puerto Rican artist who is also the first Hispanic sculptor chosen for the Statuary Hall State Collection. All donors of over $1,000 will have their names engraved on its base.
“I can’t think of a better way for the city of Ormond Beach to show how we care about Mary McLeod Bethune and what she generated for our community and Volusia County,” Commissioner Susan Persis said.
The commission voted 4-1 to support the effort with a $20,000 donation. City Commissioner Troy Kent voted against.
Kent pledged to make a personal donation to the fund, but said he couldn’t support giving taxpayers dollars to a nonprofit.
“It’s not me writing a check for $20,000,” Kent said. “It’s easy to do that, I think, when it’s not coming out of my personal account.”
Kent later criticized Commissioner Dwight Selby for voting in favor of the donation when he voted against the tax rate because he believed the city should have adopted the rollback rate. Selby said he felt there was plenty of funds in reserve for both efforts.
Mayor Bill Partington told Kent he made a good point, but argued that John D. Rockefeller, one of Ormond’s most famous residents in history, was a huge supporter of Bethune.
“Ormond Beach has a history of supporting this,” Partington said.
About 15 police officers and department civilian employees attended the City Commission meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 19, to show solidarity as Ormond Beach Police Officer Robert Pearson, who represented their call for higher starting pay and better pension plans to improve recruitment and retention.
Pearson said OBPD currently has 11 vacant positions out of its 71 allotted, and that the department is down 22% in sworn personnel. Agencies like New Smyrna Beach Police and Daytona Beach Police already offer a higher starting salary, something neighboring Holly Hill Police Department is about to accomplish.
“A compounding problem is that our pension plan is, by far, the least desirable in the area,” Pearson said.
OBPD is not the only public safety agency that has come before the commission lately. On Sept. 22, David Randall, vice-president of the Ormond Beach Professional Firefighters, asked the commission to consider its pension plan for firefighters in comparison to neighboring agencies.
Randall said retirement benefits for all future members were reduced in 2014, something many other agencies also did, but have since reversed. Ormond hasn’t.
The starting hourly pay for firefighters is just $13. Randall asked for “enticing” benefits to retain and recruit firefighters.
