Headline Surfer photos / Circuit Judge Hubert Grimes swears in Derrick Henry as mayor of Daytona Beach on Wednesday evening at City Hall in front of 200 citizens.
By HENRY FREDERICK / Headline Surfer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Fresh off his election-day victory over then-City Commissioner Edith Shelley, Derrick Henry was administered the oath of office as Daytona Beach's new mayor by Circuit Judge Hubert Grimes in a packed commission chambers tonight.
Henry and other sworn-in commissioners took their seats on the dais after now-former Mayor Glenn Ritchey exited.
Headline Surfer attempted to get an interview with Ritchey, but Police Chief Mike Chitwood escorted him to a private area and out a side door. Ritchey, in office for six years, was profiled by the Daytona Beach News-Journal in its Wednesday edition.
Newly-elected Mayor Derrick Henry sits in the front row with his wife, Dr. Stephanie Henry, and their 4-month-old son, Derrick Jr., awaiting his swearing in ceremony at Daytona Beach City Hall commission chambers Wednesday evening.
Grimes also swore in commissioners Carl W. Lentz IV, Pam Woods, Rob Gilliland and Paula Reed.
Retiring Volusia County Council member Joie Alexander presented Ritchey with a county pin. She was accompanied by fellow Councilman Joshua Wagner and former County Chair Frank Bruno who lost in the Nov. 6 election to Dorothy Hukill for a state senate seat.
Also in the meeting room was power attorney Ted Doran, who was a candidate for county chair who finished out of the running in the primary.
While Bruno showed up to get his share of the spotlight with Ritchey, former Mayor Bud Asher, 87, stood near the back of the room because every chair was taken with people spilling into the main hallway entrance and watching the ceremony on a large screen. Asher told Headline Surfer afterwards that he was there in support of "our new mayor who worked so hard in this election."
More than a couple hundred people came out to celebrate Henry's swearing in. Nobody was more proud of Henry than his wife, Dr. Stephanie Henry, holding their 4-month-old baby, Derrick Henry Jr.
Asked how she felt seeing her husband front and center, she said, "Extremely proud -- abundantly proud. He absolutely deserves it."
Retiring County Council member Joie Alexander gives Glenn Ritchey a county pin just minutes before he leaves the dais to make room for his successor, newly elected Mayor Derrick Henry. With Alexander is fellow County Councilman Joshua Wagner.
As soon as the new commission and mayor were sworn in, Ritchey exited the chambers and while saying goodbye to well wishers in the hallway, Headline Surfer tried to approach the former mayor for a brief interview. But the 24/7 Internet newspaper never got the chance as Chitwood stood in between and escorted him into a back private area and out a side door with the chief re-emerging by himself.
While Chitwood and several of his administrators, including Capt. Jim Newcombe, patrolled the hallway, the changing of the guard was in full force inside the commission chambers with the mayor and the commissioners addressing the citizens.
Henry, in particular struck a chord, thanking those who helped him get to the top elected post in the city he's called home his entire life.
One person in particular that Henry paid tribute to was Samuel Quinn, his maternal grandfather, murdered in Centerville, Miss., in 1959 while active in the Civil Rights movement. The killing remains unsolved.
"He paved the way for me to have the right to vote," Henry told the audience.
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Henry easily won the mayor's race in the Nov. 6 general election over then-Commissioner Edith Shelley, who gave up her chance for re-election to try and succeed Ritchey, who hand-picked her. She was heavily financed by the speedway and other high rollers over Henry.
Shelley, a former planning board member, gave up the last two years of her seat to run for mayor. Headline Surfer tried to arrange a public candidate debate between her and Henry, but she did not respond. Shelley also did not respond to requests for interviews on where she stood on the issues while Henry was fully cooperative and received Headline Surfer's endorsement.
So confident was the police union's belief that she would win the election, she was endorsed by the membership back during qualifying in June.
Henry, who campaigned on the slogan of "one city one vision," won the Nov. 6 election with 13,814 votes or 55.47% to 11,089 or 44.53% for Shelley.
Henry Frederick is publisher of Headline Surfer, the award-winning 24/7 internet news outlet launched 12 years ago that serves greater Daytona Beach, Sanford & Orlando, Florida via HeadlineSurfer.com. Frederick has amassed more than a hundred journalism industry awards in print & online -- more than all other members of the working press combined in Central Florida since the mid-1990s. He earned his Master of Arts in New Media Journalism with academic honors from Full Sail University in 2019. Having witnessed the execution of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Florida's death chamber and other high profile cases, Frederick has appeared on national crime documentary programs on Discovery ID and Reelz for his investigative reporting and cops & courts breaking news stories.