elevation development deland city commission beresford reserve
BEACON PHOTO/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN LISTENING — Members of the public and representatives from Elevation Development listen intently to DeLand City Commission deliberations during the Jan. 31 special meeting to discuss Beresford Reserve.

UPDATE, Feb. 16: 

The City of DeLand has obtained a recording of the Jan. 31 special City Commission meeting regarding the Beresford Reserve development and the recording is available online. 

The meeting was recorded by a court reporter from the Volusia Reporting Company hired by Southridge Homeowners Association President Martha Shaw-Sylvester. The audio was shared with the city at no cost for the public to listen to on-demand.

“It was a long meeting, and of interest to many members of our community, so the loss of the audio recording was unfortunate,” Mayor Bob Apgar said in a letter thanking the Volusia Reporting Company for providing the recording. “With your help, we have been able to provide access to an audio recording to those citizens who ask for it.”

To listen to the meeting audio, visit the city’s website, HERE, and click on the camera icon next to the Jan. 31 meeting titled “City Commission Special meeting.”


The official audio recording of the Jan. 31 special DeLand City Commission meeting on the controversial development planned on the former Southridge Golf Course is corrupt and inaccessible, the city said.

The file’s corruption is due to a glitch in software the city recently switched to for recording meetings, Public Information Specialist Chris Graham told The Beacon.

“We try to be transparent and record all of the meetings, and we’ve been transitioning over to new software, CivicClerk, and we found that, apparently, with longer meetings, this software tends to corrupt,” Graham said.

While an official recording of the meeting is not available at this time, Graham said the city is looking into purchasing a recording of the meeting made by a court reporter who was hired to attend by Southridge Homeowners Association President Martha Shaw-Sylvester. 

If the city purchases the recording, it will likely be made available to the public. According to The Beacon’s research, such a recording, if purchased by the city, would be a public record under the state’s open-government law.

“We know this is a meeting that had a lot of public interest,” Graham said, “so that’s something we’ll try to do.” 

In the future, Graham said, the city will ensure recordings are made locally, and not using software that could potentially become corrupted.

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