Incumbent county councilwoman hasn't even been on dais that long

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NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- County Councilwoman Deb Denys brags in a recent campaign mailer that she "voted against tax increases two years in a row,"  which is impossible since she hasn't even been in office long enough to even come close to completing a second annual budget cycle. 

The fiscal 2015 budget year doesn't start until Oct. 1. And the council hasn't yet even held the first of two public hearings on the budget and doesn't even convene again until Sept. 5. 

But her Aug. 12 mailer continues the tall tale with: "Deb is looking out for us -- she stood strong as the only member of the County Council to vote against tax increases time and again."

For her bald-faced lie, Denys gets an F- in the Headline Surfer® "Making the Grade" political notebook. Let's just call her out for what she has shown herself to be with her own campaign literature, which by law, she has to approve before it is mailed: "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

This top-listed statement in the mailer definitive statement to the citizens of district 3 -- New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater, Oak Hill, Port Orange and parts of Osteen and Lake Helen -- where she claims to be looking out for them is laughable and pathetic.

Denys did have a say so on setting the TRIM notice or what is known as Truth in Millage, which actually carries an increase of .365 mills. Denys and five of her colleagues -- Pat Patterson of DeLand, at-large Councilwoman Joyce Cusack of DeLand, Councilwoman Pat Northey of Deltona, Councilman Doug Daniels of Ormond Beach and Councilman Joshua Wagner of Daytona Beach.

With the vote, an additional $2.5 million in revenue will be generated to cover overtime for 249 unionized county  firefighters. Denys, Patterson, Northey and Cusack are all in the primary. Because Norhey is term-limited, in her Deltona seat, she's challenging Cusack as is Deltona City Commissioner Webster Barnaby.

But with Tuesday's primary now less than 24 hours away, the last thing Denys can afford to have happen is to be shown for what she truly is: Smug, defiant and under the illusion that the big money thrown her way by the insiders like Hyatt Brown, Mori Hosseini and their colleague on the board of International Speedway, Lesa France Kennedy, the ISC boss in charge of Daytona International Speedway and a dozen other tracks with the France family's stronghold on NASCAR as well.

But Denys' biggest threat to re-election, Edgewater's Justin Kennedy, himself the victim of an attack PAC mailer that was traced to Hosseini when it hit mailboxes a couple of days ago, believes she is desperate. 

"She'll do anything to win like she has in attacking me and my family -- a married man with five children to support," Kennedy said. "For her to lie like this shows the desperation she must be feeling inside knowing she has to resort to these cutthroat tactics to stay in office. You have to ask yourself: Is it really worth it by resorting to outright lies?"

But Denys' biggest threat to re-election, Edgewater's Justin Kennedy, himself the victin of an attack PAC mailer that was traced to Mori Hosseini when it hit mailboxes a couple of days ago, believes she is desperate. 

"She'll do anything to win like she has in attacking me and my family -- a married man with five children to support" Kennedy said. "For her to lie like this shows the desperation she must be feeling inside knowing she has to resort to these cutthroat tactics to stay in office. You have to ask yourself: Is it really worth it by resorting to outright lies?"

Denys mailing makes two additional climbs -- neither of which she supports with facts or documentation because she has none. Her are her final two points, neither of which she can substantiate:

The latter two points are equally as outrageous as the first because she doesn't back any of it up with facts. To the contrary, she justified to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority Executive Director Carl Watson's use of the tourism entity's credit card to the for free lunches for himself and others at a cost of $162.10.

And when the auditors caught it, Denys said Watson should be given a free pass because he came from a private chamber background where such things were free. However, the county attorney's office cited written policies and procedures that he was instructed to follow. And because he ran up the card, he was forced to reimburse the SVAA.

Denys also was responsible for having Palmer Wilson removed, saying in part, "We have to finish this," without explaining what she meant, from his seat and chairmanship of the SVAA board in October.

That's because Wilson was holding the line on not doling out bed tax monies to merchants as instructed by the county manager's office in the wake of the scandal involving a director fired two years ago before Wilson was appointed to the tourism board by then-County Chair Frank Bruno.

Wilson was re-appointed for another one-year by term by Jason Davis after he succeeded Bruno by virtue of winning election in 2012.