- April 26, 2024
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Volusia County Council Chair Ed Kelley announced recently he won't be seeking re-election, marking the end of an 18-year political career.
Kelley, former sales distributor and president of European operations at Hawaiian Tropic, served on the Ormond Beach City Commission from 1993-1997, and then again from 2005-2009. He then served as the city's mayor from 2010-2016 before running for Volusia County Chair. Kelley will finish his four-year-term on the council at the end of 2020.
When looking back at his legacy in Ormond Beach, Kelley said his biggest impact was establishing efficient fiscal policies that are still in effect today. He and the commission adopted a dedicated millage for roads, contracted out services like solid waste and set aside funds for stormwater projects.
It was over the holidays that Kelley, who previously had announced he would run for a second term as chair, decided it was time to close the political chapter of his life. The Ormond Beach Observer recently sat down with Kelley to talk about the past, the present, (a little bit of Florida-Georgia Line) and the future of several local issues.
Q: Was there a particular moment when you realized that you weren’t going to run again, and if so, what was that moment?
My son said, ‘dad, we don’t know how much time you have left with us but what time you have left, I want to spend as much of that as I can with you.’ And then we looked, and in hindsight, last year is the first time in 10 years that we did not get to see them in concert because of business and conflicts. We went five months without seeing them. Before we would try to see them once a month. Not necessarily in concert, but be together with close family.
You stop and think and you look at it, and that’s what’s most important.
Q: What are you most looking forward to after your current term ends?
Being able to choose what I want to do and where I want to go. The time constraints on free time is tough.
Q: How have you seen social media affect your position on the council?
You are able to reach a broader number of people — more diverse groups of people. Thousands of people instead of 15-20 at a time, or 30 or 40. So from that standpoint, it is very good. It’s the criticism of saying something that is there. People have always criticized politicians. I guess that goes back forever. But I think the biggest thing is the negativity expressed, and oftentimes hurtful name-calling, which you really wouldn’t do to someone’s face.
And that does hurt, I don’t care how strong of back you say you may have. When people call you a liar, or lying this-that-or-the-other, that hurts because you know you’re not doing that. When you’re serving for the right reason, to be criticized for that, that hurts.
Q: You were very vocal about the importance of passing a sales tax last year. Then it failed. Now, there’s talks of bringing it back for 2022. So what do you believe is at stake in Volusia County?
It should’ve passed. There’s very few people that will say we don’t have a need for water and infrastructure improvements to correct situations that we have. Maybe I was part of the problem of being factual about it in a short situation. It just made the most sense to be able to do something, have a use tax, instead of putting it on the backs of homeowners again.
As far as going forward in 2022, I won’t be there to make that decision, as we know. But I think if the people will say, ‘this is what we want,’ and I think some of the things that could be done to make that happen would be to create an approval board of citizens.
Q: In 2018, the state’s Constitution Review Commission was criticized for bundling issues like offshore drilling and vaping. Why do you feel bundling ECHO, Volusia Forever and a sales tax is appropriate?
I did not use that bundling term. It’s revenue sharing. You can have the issues there that all would derive their income from a single source, and that was sales tax. If ECHO, Volusia Forever, water and infrastructure can all benefit, and share in that one-cent sales tax a percentage, it’s all relative to that one thing.
Q: Volusia County has gone through a lot of changes in the past couple of years — new medical director, revamped EMS, new county manager, and will soon get a new county attorney. What has being County Council chair been like through all of that?
I guess it’s been exciting. If there is any one thing that I would probably regret, if the situation was different, is not being here in the coming years to help see all of that through. Because we now are at a point where we’ve put some of those things behind us.
Q: What was the best piece of advise you ever got, and how did it influence your political career?
The best advice I got was from David Hood, who said: ‘We can debate, discuss or disagree, but we do not have to be disagreeable.’ There were people on the council that I disagreed with back in the day, but when we saw each other outside of the commission, we spoke, we said hi and were friendly. That’s the way you should be.
Q: What is your favorite Florida-Georgia Line song?
Oh geez. Probably would be “H.O.L.Y.” It just says so much about life and about people together. I guess that I see each time that Brian and Tyler would do that one, the emotion they had and the feeling they put in. They do it every song, but on that one especially — they made it about their relationships with their wives.
