Political blogger Sally Gillies of SallyGillies.net has teamed up with award-winning newspaper reporter and journalist Henry Frederick, editor/publisher/CEO of NSBNews.Net, for this investigative series, "Show Me The Money: American Music Festival Fiasco." Here is her first blog installment: 

DAYTONA BEACH -- The taxpayers across Volusia County just can't catch a break: Apparently Daytona State College's request for mediation over the $1.5 million owed by the Community Cultural Foundation to the college is now in limbo.

In a letter dated Sept.15, 2011, and sent to DSC attorneys Holland & Knight, CCF board member and attorney J. Lester Kaney of the Daytona Beach-based Cobb Cole law firm, states: "There is no point in scheduling a mediation with CCF unless the (insurance) carrier participates."

And then to add insult to injury, Kaney maintains: "We continue to reject the assertion that CCF is a public entity and reject that CCF was at any time acting on behalf of a public entity such that it is subject to public records request under Chapter 119, Florida Statutes." 

And then to add insult to injury, Kaney maintains: "We continue to reject the assertion that CCF is a public entity and reject that CCF was at any time acting on behalf of a public entity such that it is subject to public records request under Chapter 119, Florida Statutes."

So once again I checked with the Secretary of State Corporation Division and found that the correct name is Community Cultural Foundation, Inc. It is a Florida non-profit corporation. It has not filed an annual report for calendar year 2011.

At my request, Nathan Adams, the college's attorney with the Tallahassee-based law firm of Holland and Knight, provided me with two insurance policies for the Community Cultural Foundation, Inc. f/k/a Daytona Beach International Festival, Inc.

Policy No. NDO1072465 was written by United States Liability Insurance Company for DBIF and covered the policy period 2/8/10 to 2/8/11. Policy No. 105073846 was written by Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America for the Daytona Beach International Festival and ran from 2/8/09 to 2/8/10. Each policy is limited to $1,000,000 in liability.

Obviously, no one ever wants to sue a friend. But as Daytona State College Board Trustee Mary Ann Haas so eloquently put it, “The college needed to ‘eliminate from our minds’ the ‘highly recognizable names’ of the Community Cultural Foundation board, and not give them special consideration. The issue is they did accept our dollars and they spent those dollars.”

It seems that a lawsuit, which I suggested over a year ago, is now the only option. The so-called "elite" of Volusia County who were tasked with finding a solution more than a year ago have raised nothing. Mediation is senseless without "inviting" the insurance companies to participate.

By his letters to the Board of Trustees of Daytona State College, Jeff Feasel, who was formerly "chairman of the board" of the Community Cultural Foundation, Inc., bound the CCF and each individual board member to repay the college.

Feasel is CEO of Halifax Health, the umbrella for Halifax Medical Center, which receives public monies for indigent care.

Are these high rollers going to get away with the lowest behavior?

I have spent hundreds of hours researching and gathering documents. And, still the questions remain: Is Jeff Feasel's word worth the paper it's printed on or not? Is he an honorable man or not? Does he have integrity or not? Is he going to step up to the plate or not?

I have spent hundreds of hours researching and gathering documents. And, still the questions remain: Is Jeff Feasel's word worth the paper it's printed on or not? Is he an honorable man or not? Does he have integrity or not? Is he going to step up to the plate or not?

NSBNews.net, also known as VolusiaNews.net, provides Volusia County 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage, 100% free with breaking news, news of record and investigative reports from New Smyrna Beach, FL, for a 21st-century digital world.

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