This was the header for Debbie Boyd as a community blogger with NSBNews.net after she agreed to write it after stepping down from her post as executive director of the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Saying she was tired of the politics and the antagonism associated with unnamed persons trying to smear her reputation, former Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority Executive Director Debbie Boyd asked NSBNews.net to discontinue her community blog called "The Pelican Brief."
Boyd initially asked NSBNews.net to take the blog down in September, but she was encouraged to continue forging ahead, which she did for a few weeks, leading to her Oct. 3 request to again end her NSBNews.net affiliation.
NSBNews.net reluctantly agreed to honor her wishes with her final blog published several days earlier.
NSBNews.net will not share the contents of Boyd's request because it is private, but she has said she suspects at least one employee of the ad authority is badmouthing her. NSBNews.net queried the employees and Nicole Carni, who replaced Boyd as director and everyone denied any involvement.
"I loved Debbie Boyd," Carni said, but she too is aware of the back and forth antagonism on a neutral website, NSBShadow.com. There, people are allowed to write comments that appear on the site as soon as they hit "enter."
Nahum Litt, who calls himself the NSB Shadow, said he doesn't censor comments because he espouses freedom of speech, but he does not allow foul language or curse words.
On the NSB Shadow, Boyd over the last couple of years has been identified as "Waddies" Anonymous writers there during that time have taken issue with the perception that she was giving in to community groups double dipping, essentially getting funding from the SVAA and the New Smyrna Beach Community Redevelopment Agency.
Advertising revenue is supposed to be used for programs that put "heads in beds."
After an eight-year run, Boyd resigned her position in May and NSBNews.net was the first and only media outlet to report the news.
"Yesterday was my last day at the SVAA," Boyd told NSBNews.net in a 10:41 a.m. Friday, May 20 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 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 let go outright. Advertising officials were not willing to go into details about what led to Boyd's final days, but then-board chairwoman Carni praised her for her "eight good years."
NSBNews.net asked Boyd several weeks later to consider contributing a non-paid community blog, which the editor aptly named, "The Pelican Brief" because of Boyd's recent move from Holly Hill to scenic Ponce Inlet where pelicans flock in great numbers because of the ocean much like they do in New Smyrna Beach.
Boyd wrote light features that were very popular with NSBNews.net readers like her adventures in driving to the grocery store on the single-lane road behind elderly motorists who are slower than molasses. Another was on a pesky woodpecker that ripped on her kitchen window, drawn to the rotation of a fan inside.
In all, Boyd wrote six blogs. But she wasn't allowed to move forward in her life, with constant nasty comments on the NSB Shadow blog. Similar comments were sent to NSBNews.net, but because any comments seeing the light of day need approval from the editor, the public never saw them and neither did Boyd.
In order to illustrate the taunting of Boyd, NSBNews.net is printing a partial comment here that read: "Please get rid of Boyd... She was not normal. Why would she write in our beautiful county? She hates it."
There were others too, with half sentences or one-word descriptions such as "Ugh!" "Boyd is evil" and "Get rid of Boyd."
When she was running the SVAA through the New Smyrna Beach Visitor's Center on State Road 44, 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," again 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 three regional advertising authorities -- here in NSB, DeLand and in Daytona Beach -- into one to pump up the Ocean Center.
After Carni was hired by the SVAA board and given an annual salary of $110,000 in August, things really started to heat up with mudslinging against Boyd by unnamed writers and against Carni by others.
Here are some examples from the NSB Shadow site, none of which are substantiated:
Name: 2 558/559Number: 461Yep.
But Boyd had help.
Every trip, every expense had to be pre-approved.
Expenses equal Treasurer.
Treasurer equals Carmi (deleted by NSBNews.net as potentially libelous).
The above post referencing "Hodson" is Doug Hodson, who, until last year served on the SVAA board as well as the CRA for several years when he was general manager of the Pennysaver owned by the News-Journal and later when he worked for the weekly Observer newspaper. He remains on CRA, but is not employed by any media outlets.
NSBNews.net checked with Boyd and Carni and neither has information substantiating any of the allegations posted anonymously on the NSB Shadow website.
While agreeing to discontinue showcasing Boyd's "The Pelican Brief," as an active blog, NSBNews.net has exclusive copyright of the published works and they remained posted on the world wide web through NSBNews.net.