DAYTONA BEACH, Fla — Emails that 9 Investigates got our hands on show a former Daytona Beach city employee warned the city manager of spending issues on city credit cards back in July. We started going through each transaction line by line one week ago today after a commissioner raised concerns about spending.
We found thousands of dollars spent on hotels, flights, restaurants and even retail stores. Our findings are now getting attention from state leaders.
Eyewitness News told the city manager we had these emails and asked him if he wanted to talk, but he didn’t respond to that. Instead, he sent us a calendar invite for an interview at 9 a.m. Monday.
The email sender worked in the finance department and alerted City Manager Deric Feacher and HR Director Jim Sexton that there were currently 273 active purchasing cards within the city. The employee added the finance department continues to experience issues with Truist Bank’s system that “affects their ability to log in and service card holders.”
Then the employee said, “this program has been mildly maintained at best since 2022” and that “The city has been done a disservice by not being able to maintain this program in the way that it should have been. CODB is hemorrhaging funds out through these cards due to the inability to properly analyze their usage and offer follow up training for cardholders. I have recently discovered policy violations that need high level attention.”
Feacher responded to this by saying, “I believe you should be communicating with your supervisor and director of the department. If I were to meet with every single employee of the organization when they wanted to change a process this would not be prudent. Please work through your department leadership before engaging Mr. Sexton and I.”
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE
- 9 Investigates confronts Daytona Beach city manager about possible misuse of taxpayer money
- Daytona Beach misspending claims get state lawmakers’ attention
- WFTV investigation reveals thousands of dollars in questionable spending in Daytona Beach
- Answers sought after commissioner alleges thousands of dollars misspent by Daytona Beach
- Daytona Beach commissioner questions city credit card spending, calls for audit on purchases
The employee told Feacher they had already done that and that this was their last-ditch attempt to help this department before my departure.
The last email is a resignation letter from that same employee explaining their decision to leave the purchasing department and the city. The employee included an email chain that they said “is an example of the pressure that was said to be directed by the city manager.”
They go on to say “the continued issues with administrative and accounting practices within every department is considered an emergency and becomes purchasing’s burden. This is common and frustrating because we have no support staff at all while the departments do. It feels imbalanced.”
We asked the mayor and every city commissioner for their reaction to this and haven’t heard back. Only one, Stacy Cantu, responded. She said, “I find this very alarming if an employee made the city manager aware of misspending on p-cards. Not knowing all the details of the emails, I would need to look into this further.”
We are planning to follow up with all the commissioners again tomorrow since they employ the manager.
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