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The Deltona City Commission once again has seven members, including one woman who once paid her water bill of almost $500 in pennies to protest the city’s water rates.
City commissioners on July 13 chose Dana McCool to serve the remaining four months of the term of District 4 Commissioner Robert McFall. McFall abruptly resigned last month.
The vote to appoint McCool, after the commissioners ranked the six applicants, was 5-to-0; Commissioner Anita Bradford was absent from the meeting.
McCool is a candidate for the District 4 post In the upcoming general election Tuesday, Nov. 3. Her opponent is Ruben Munoz, who also applied for the appointment to fill the short-term vacancy on the elected body. Others who applied were Cheryl Blancett, Douglas McDonald, Robert Marchant and Rob Martin.
Following her selection, McCool was sworn into office.
“I’m very happy to get to work,” she said afterward.
McCool gained attention in early 2018, when she protested rising water rates and charges by paying her water bill with almost $500 in pennies. She is also a founding member of Deltona Strong, a government-watchdog group.
McFall also was appointed to the District 4 City Commission seat in 2018, following the resignation of Chris Alcantara. Alcantara quit after he took a job outside the area. In the 2018 election, McFall won the right to remain in the District 4 seat for the remaining two years of Alcantara’s term.
Deltona has six single-member districts. Voters in each of the districts choose a commissioner for their districts, and the seventh City Commission member, the mayor, is elected at large by all Deltona voters.
This year, voters in Districts 4 and 6 will elect representatives on the City Commission. In District 2 this year, Anita Bradford was automatically re-elected because she had no opposition.
In 2022, the terms of the commissioners of Districts 1, 3 and 5 expire, as does the term of Mayor Heidi Herzberg.
