Sheriff Mike Chitwood resorts to new low in vulgarity: Uses F-word in Daytona Beach News-Journal interview over power struggle with county leaders

Photo for Headline Surfer / The uncredited photo above is the same image the Daytona Beach News-Journal used in a story quoting Sheriff Mike Chitwood using the F-word.
 
By HENRY FREDERICK
Headline Surfer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla -- When he was Daytona Beach PD's top cop for a decade, Mike Chitwood's arsenal of vulgarities for alleged lawbreakers and others he didn't like was limited to scumbag, thug, and knucklehead.

Chitwood added "moron," to his vulgarity bucket list specifically for his perceived rival, then-Sheriff Ben Johnson, causing then-County Chair Frank Bruno and others to demand an apology that never was delivered. Chitwood then ran for the office of sheriff last year and won, after Johnson announced he was retiring.

Chitwood promised transparency with the public and to push for significant pay raises for the deputies. Instead, he was able to get a $54,000 public relations job for his campaign manager, Janelle Holman, the day he took office on Jan. 1. Headline Surfer is the only media outlet to report the hiring and has been eliminated from the VCSO e,mail media alerts, banned from agency press conferences and denied "official" Sheriff's press cards. 

Chitwood then added a truly vulgar term to his name calling collection, describing County Manager Jim Dinneen as a "lying sack of shit" in an interview published earlier in the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

On Wednesday the elected sheriff reached an all-time low, with his use of the F-word in a quote attributed to him in the News-Journal, in which he was in a lather claiming he was yet again blindsided by the county in directing its paid lobbyists to stop lawmakers in Tallahassee from pushing bills that would alter the county's charter, otherwise known as Home Rule. 

Here is the offensive verbiage as it appeared in the News-Journal: “It’s basically (like they’re) yelling at me to go f*** myself,” the sheriff said Tuesday when The News-Journal reported it told him of the county’s legislative priorities.

“This is something buried on the agenda that no one has told me about. It once again demonstrates the lack of transparency and (dishonesty) that the county is known for.” He said the changes the county’s fighting against would cause people atop Volusia’s organizational chart to “give up power” and “lose their minions.”

Chitwood then added a truly vulgar term to his name calling collection, describing County Manager Jim Dinneen as a "lying sack of shit" in an interview published earlier in the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

On Wednesday the elected sheriff reached an all-time low, with his use of the F-word in a quote attributed to him in the News-Journal, in which he was in a lather claiming he was yet again blindsided by the county in directing its paid lobbyists to stop lawmakers in Tallahassee from pushing bills that would alter the county's charter, otherwise known as Home Rule.

Here is the offensive verbiage as it appeared in the News-Journal: “It’s basically (like they’re) yelling at me to go f*** myself,” the sheriff said Tuesday when The News-Journal reported it told him of the county’s legislative priorities. “This is something buried on the agenda that no one has told me about. It once again demonstrates the lack of transparency and (dishonesty) that the county is known for.” 

County Manager Jim Dinneen, who’s been a target of Chitwood’s insults, personal attacks, and disapproval since Chitwood took office in January, did not return phone calls seeking comment. The county defended its stance on Page 8 of the agenda, along with information about the charter’s history. 

Volusia County’s home rule charter was approved by Volusia voters in a special countywide referendum in 1970. During the mandated charter reviews in 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005, and 2015, citizens did not propose amendments to the county officers’ policies, according to county documents. In Volusia County, the sheriff, property appraiser, and supervisor of elections are elected officials who serve as charter officers and department directors. The tax collector functions have been transferred to the county finance department.

County Attorney Dan Eckert has said that what Chitwood wants would require a “partial repeal of the charter” and that would be a complicated procedure, even before it would go on a ballot for voter approval. County officials say changing elected department heads to constitutional officers would cost Volusia County taxpayers a minimum of $10 million but have offered no explanation as to how they arrived at that dollar amount.