Photo by Henry Frederick / A tough-talking, no-nonsense director for eight years with the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority, Deborah Boyd is moving on.NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Deborah Boyd, the stalwart of a revenue stream that was being pulled in different directions has resigned her management post with Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority.
"Yesterday was my last day at the SVAA," Boyd told NSBNews.net in a 10:41 a.m. Friday e-mail. "I handed in my resignation last week giving two months notice and yesterday, they let me go."
With her wry sense of humor, Boyd, never one to pull punches for what she believes in, added in her message to NSBNews.net, "Either way, it's been fun working with you. I have decided to become a starving artist."
In her resignation letter to SVAA Chairwoman Nicole Carni and other board members, which was obtained by NSBNews.net, Boyd described her tenure as an "entertaining roller coaster for the past eight years." She stated in the resignation letter that her "final day of employment will be July 15, with two weeks vacation and four personal days built in."
But that same day, she was fired outright. Advertising officials were not willing to go into details about what led to Boyd's final days, but board chairwoman Nicole Carni praised her for her "eight good years." Assistant Director Kathy Burrows is running the operation and is reporting to Carni.
Boyd had to constantly walk a tight rope between ensuring the monies generated from the hotel taxes was being used primarily for "heads in beds" meaning drawing tourists to lodge here, but there were a lot of double-dipping requests by downtown merchants getting CRA funding and then hitting up her agency.
And in the last few years, Boyd had to fend off potential plans by the county to fold the regional advertising authorities into one to pump up the Ocean Center. Boyd is the second high-level tax-related official to fall by the wayside.
Last August, then-Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce Director Steve Dennis was fired and last month he lost his seat on the CRA when his friends, Michele and Bob Lott were forced to leave Flagler Avenue and the Observer weekly newspaper with them. That meant the end of the line for Dennis, an Edgewater resident, like the Lotts, after 25 years on the CRA.
Ironically, Boyd and Dennis traveled to New York City together last June to attend a business expo.
Boyd ended her resignation letter with class, stating in part: "Thank you past and current board members for your confidence in my decisions and affording me this wonderful opportunity."
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