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🔨 Commissioner Dan Curry laid out a multi-pronged case to fire County Administrator Stan Sunday, citing ordinance delays, HR dysfunction, code enforcement lapses, and nepotism.
💼 Commissioner Brad Drake defended Sunday, warning against politicizing public service and contrasting Sunday’s work ethic with former leadership.
🎤 Tensions escalated as residents, commissioners, and Sunday’s estranged wife publicly clashed, culminating in Sunday’s termination amid accusations and personal revelations.
The Board of County Commissioners (BCC) met in DeFuniak Springs this week for what appeared to be a regular agenda with a customary welcome, pledge, and service recognition awards for outstanding employees.
But when Chairwoman Donna Johns invited an employee to come forward and lead everyone in prayer, a pall of animosity draped the chambers.
The prayer referenced the story in The Gospel of John about the woman caught in adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.
The employee, Jason, harped in on the most famous passage of the scripture where Jesus tells the Pharisees, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.”
Jason continued in his prayer by intimating to the audience that someone in the audience was there to throw stones. “And I pray that you would deal with their heart right now, God. And that you would help them. That everybody would drop their stones. I pray for unity because we cannot have unity when we have stones in our hands.”
In the hours after the prayer ended with a collective “Amen“, the stone-throwing started from every corner of the Commission Chambers.
By the end of the night, now-former Walton County Administrator Stan Sunday would be out of a job, confronted by his estranged wife – and the deep divisions on the Walton County Board of Commissioners would be laid bare for everyone to see by personal attacks with a side of accusations of nepotism.
Editor’s Note: Bear with us on the procedural stuff that precedes the firing—it’s important to the story. You can skip down to “Drake’s ‘Not Like Us’” Moment where the action happens.
Following the completion of most of the agenda, Vice-Chair Dan Curry (District 1) began his motion to dismiss County Administrator Stan Sunday by lining gup his arguements for him to head to the door.
Curry started by recounting a recent outing to the beach with Walton County Sheriff’s Deputies, during which they inspected the state of the “beach wars” between beachfront property owners and, well, everyone else.
RELATED: Florida’s Legislature Passes SB 1622 to restore previously-held Customary Use Rights to the Public.
Commissioner Curry followed up on the issues resulting from public and private beach access. He indicated that he wanted to see firsthand the problems that residents and tourists are experiencing when they go to the South Walton County beaches.
As they got to the beach, they witnessed a verbal dispute between an agent of a property owner and a family on the beach. The agent argued that the family was in the dry sand and had trespassed on the owner’s land. As the argument dragged on, a wave reached where the family set up and soaked the sand under the group. Someone asked the owner’s agent if they were still on the owner’s property. “A rogue wave doesn’t count,” Curry said the agent told the family.
In Curry’s mind, the public just hadn’t gotten clarity about the rules on beaches. He argued that no definitive standard existed to determine what was public or private – a failure by someone in authority.
Policy, Procedures, and Ordinances”
After a discussion on policies and procedures in which Curry reminded the rest of the board and the general public about how he’d been trespassed on a county bridge and road, Curry began his assault on another issue—the poor upkeep and maintenance of the ordinance books in Walton County.
Curry pointed to a recent fire at Grady Brown Park and noted that a 1995 fire prevention ordinance hadn’t been adequately updated. The Commissioner told the rest of the board he’d made multiple inquiries about the ordinances on Sunday, but claimed he received unacceptable answers.
Sunday responded to Curry that answers hadn’t been given because they were not yet available. Chief Tracy Vause, of Walton County Fire, said the opposite was true – that he and his agency had prepared fire prevention documentation.
Curry then noted that he’d made records requests, sent them to their legal counsel, and received a draft of the documentation from the fire inspector. The Commissioner then added that he pushed again and got a draft for 2024. “Why is this stuck in limbo?” Curry asked, “In other words, why isn’t this getting done? A business can not be done this way.”
The Freeport Commissioner announced his third angle of attack – lack of code violation fine enforcement. He told the rest of the commission he’d found out that $3.9 million in fines for code violations, about $8,000 per day, hadn’t been collected in Walton County. “That doesn’t count [include] the $200,000+ that we have settled on in magistrate or court,” he said.
Curry had a couple more points to make before the vote that would eventually end in Sunday’s termination.
He announced to the commission that he’d looked into the massive number of unfilled positions in Walton County at the time of the meeting. He singled out positions for engineers that commanded six-figure salaries but did not come with a job description. He piled on by noting that the three positions that report directly to the board (the county attorney, administrator, and Chief Financial Officer) don’t have a description, either.
Curry’s argument for Sunday’s termination was based on the lack of specificity and clear job duties. He then barbarically criticized nepotism, uneven discipline application, and mismanagement from the County HR Department.
All county Commissioners get a county vehicle for their official use. Dan Curry said that his smelled like “the Marlboro man himself made cigarettes in the car.” So when he juxtaposed the fact that the man he says smoked up the car continues to have employment with Walton County next to the fact that former County Administrator Quinn Robertson was fired, in part, for vaping inside County buildings, he saw hypocrisy.
To wrap it up, Curry pointed out to all in attendance a discrepancy in the hiring interview process that was brought to his attention when his son applied for a job at the County.
According to the commissioner, Sunday told him that HR policy was to give applicants a couple of dates to pick from for an interview so they could interview outside of their own working hours. Curry says his son, whom he says he discouraged from working for the county in the first place, only received a single interview date.
After Commissioner Curry laid out his arguments for termination, County Commissioner Brad Drake entered the ring to advocate for County Administrator Sunday
Drake reminded Curry that he ran on a platform that centered around ending the ‘good ole boy’ network in Walton County. Drake said Curry “referred to it as the Friends and Family Plan,” on the campaign trail. “So the question I have for you is: Are you ok with the friends and family plan now?”
In response, Curry’s launched a fusillade: “If you are talking about my son applying for a job – is that what you are talking about?”
“Yes sir,” Drake said.
Curry replied, “I did not want him to apply and I told him that, but he is a grown man and he wanted to apply anyway,” Curry recalled, “So I said, ‘Go ahead but I cannot and will not be a reference and if they come and ask me anything – all I’m gonna say is that you are my son.”
Drake then replied, “But that [family members working within the County] is not a criticism anymore? You would welcome anyone that is family to take the opportunity to join this prestigious County as an employee? You are no longer offended by that.”
“If we stop nepotism right now [in the County], Commissioner Drake, I don’t think we could get anybody to turn the A/C [air conditioning] on.”
Commissioner Drake blamed Former Administrator Robertson’s ‘failed leadership‘ for the County’s challenges.
Drake then highlighted his own decision to flout the chain of command and ask County Employees directly what they thought of Robertson as a leader. “I told them, ‘I want to ask you, – and this is confidential – it’s private and I will never repeat this. But, I just want to know what your opinion is of our County Administrator.‘”
Commissioner Drake says his non-scientific survey of employees gave Robertson a three-percent approval rating.
“I gave that man a chance. I tried several times. His style of leadership just didn’t work,” Drake argued, “I don’t know if that is what you want to go back to, but when he [Robertson] would come into my office, he would prop his feet up on the table. He would vape his cigarettes. He used the ‘F’ word. He had his staff taking care of his dog and running them on errands [using them to run errands.] and things like that…I was trying to give the man a chance to do his job without rushing him out the door…He demonstrated that he was not capable of holding it together. It was one of the most disrespectful things that I had ever witnessed that took place in front of a governmental body…I was convinced at that point…that his leadership was ever going to be effective.”
Drake said Sunday presented an alternative way forward for Walton County. “I hear all these nit-picks here and there…Organizations are big. We are not Bank of America, but we still have close to 500 employees. And management is difficult. But I have watched Mr. Sunday stay here [at the County Offices] til way in the night when we were going through challenges with weather and disaster and the most unfortunate of circumstances and working overtime…and I am not seeing this. I am seeing a lot of hypocrisy.”
To bring his counterfactual in for a landing and point out that he believed the county was moving in the right direction, Drake harkened back to his childhood. “I don’t understand this need to win. I’ll take a loss every now and then…But what is happening right now is a sport. What we are doing? We are dealing with people’s lives and livelihoods for sport. That is not something that I was taught in my Sunday school lessons.”
At this point, the reader may be thinking – “Is this going to end?” Or “Can this get any worse?”
Yes, just not soon.
And yes, it can.
Commissioner Curry countered with visuals in his verbal duel with Drake.
Curry pulled out his phone and shared a photo with everyone depicting an insult allegedly from Drake to Curry.
Drake apologized.
Alan Osborne, a resident with plenty of experience speaking in front of the commission, sided with Curry in his drive to fire Sunday. “There is no accountability,” he told the commission.
Last but not least was Tammy Sunday. She is in the middle of divorce proceedings with the now-former County Administrator. Before she was allowed to speak to the commission, Commissioner Tony Anderson, who acted as chairman because Chairwoman Johns and Vice Chairwoman Curry had motioned and seconded to fire Sunday, warned her to stay away from personal attacks against her soon-to-be-former husband.
Mrs. Sunday told the commission that she was going through what she described as the toughest time in her life.
Anderson attempted to cut Mrs. Sunday off – and after a heated exchange – Mrs. Sunday asked the commission, “How can he [Stan Sunday] perform his job to the best of his ability when it is going to put you all in litigation every damn time that he tries to reprimand a subordinate and that subordinate comes to you Mr. Anderson and says, ‘How can you allow me to be chastised by the highest person in your organization when you tolerate the wrong doing?’“
“[Are] you through?” Anderson asked.
“I guess I am because my time is up,” she replied, “But I have a hell of a lot more that I have [sic] to say.”
“Well say it in court,” Anderson snapped.
“I’ll take that as an invitation,” Sunday said with a parting shot, “challenge accepted.”
Pro Communi Bono
