DeLand City Hall, 120 S. Florida Ave.
UPDATE: DeLandite Harper Hill, of Allstate Insurance, has filed to run against Richard Paiva, the father of current City Commissioner Charles Paiva.
City Commissioner Dan Reed was re-elected unopposed.
ORIGINAL STORY BELOW
With two hours to go before the filing deadline, it appears DeLand’s newest city commissioner will be re-elected without opposition, and the father of another commissioner will step unopposed into the City Commission seat his son has occupied since 2020.
Candidates for local offices are required to file paperwork by noon today, June 14, if they want to run for a seat. In DeLand’s case, candidates file at City Hall, 120 S. Florida Ave.
“It would be very, very difficult for someone to get it all done by noon,” said DeLand City Clerk Julie Hennessy as the two-hour window began closing.
Two of the five seats on the DeLand City Commission are up for election this year: Seat 2, which has been held by Charles Paiva, and Seat 4, occupied by Dan Reed.
At 10 a.m., two hours before the deadline, only Reed and Charles Paiva’s father, Richard Charles Paiva, had qualified to run. With no other candidates in the running, the City of DeLand will not have an election.
Reed was elected in 2022 to finish the unexpired term of Chris Cloudman, who left the seat to run successfully for the job of DeLand’s mayor.
Reed took the lack of opposition as a vote of approval.
“I feel that running unopposed in this election is a beacon of citizen satisfaction with the job I’ve done so far,” Reed said. “I’m thankful, and look forward to serving this community for the next four years.”
Charles Paiva did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why he decided not to run for re-election. His father, Richard Paiva, declined to comment until after the noon qualifying deadline passed, at which time, Richard Paiva said, he would release a prepared statement.
Seats on the DeLand City Commission have four-year terms, and the job pays $11,600 a year.
