Deltona mayor calls backlash for not signing pride proclamation ‘orchestrated politics’
DELTONA, Fla. – Deltona Mayor Santiago Avila Jr. called backlash for not signing a city pride proclamation due to his religious beliefs and because a local municipal government “should not be getting involved in divisive, partisan politics.”
Avila called the backlash “orchestrated party politics” because the city’s Vice Mayor JodyLee Storozuk, a registered Democrat, also chose not to sign the proclamation and “didn’t get any attacks thrown his way.” Avila is a registered Republican.
The mayor also called the pride proclamation “political pandering” because the commissioner who requested the document has allegedly been in office for over five years and “not once has ever requested an LGBT Pride Proclamation.”
“All of a sudden, she’s found herself in the middle of an election and she thinks it’s important when she didn’t think it was important before, which I think does a disservice for our residents at the end of the day,” Avila said.
Avila said former Deltona Commissioner Tom Burbank, a registered Democrat, “consistently” sent him “not only racist, but homophobic” letters and emails.
Burbank also “bombarded” one of the mayor’s former public information officers, Nick Lulli, who is a Republican and part of the LGBT community.
Avila said under his leadership, Burbank was censured.
Deltona’s former Democratic Mayor Heidi Herzberg sent a letter out to the Democratic Club of Southwest Volusia County, which pointed out how Avila did not sign the petition and urged the public to come to the June 3 Deltona Commission meeting and show support for the LGBTQ+ community.
During the June 3 meeting, Avila said he found the letter and backlash against his decision “hypocritical.”
“I never once said, I don’t want anyone to sign it,” Avila said. “I simply said, I can’t sign it. One of the reasons being my religious beliefs and for that to be diminished, and me be called hateful, I find it very hypocritical.”
“Some of those same people, when Nick Lully was being attacked because he was a Republican person that’s gay, did not stand up a single time,” he continued. “And that silence was so deafening, and it was so disgusting. I was the first person that stood up here and asked for a censure of this person. I consistently got emails, consistently got letters, not only being racist, but homophobic. Not a single word to come to anybody’s defense.”
Deltona Commissioner Troy Shimkus, a registered Democrat, presented the pride proclamation and made comments after the presentation about the mayor’s decision.
“The commissioner that read the proclamation who’s also in the middle of an election, decided to make a statement after he read the proclamation, and personally come and attack me and come after me as being hateful, which I found very hypocritical since the vice mayor, again, did not sign the proclamation either who would have been next to sign that proclamation,” Avila said during the meeting.
Avila said being inclusive and being able to bring a community together, “doesn’t necessarily mean” people will agree with one another’s lifestyles, but “it means that we can set our differences aside and we can come together for the greater good of the community to move us forward.”
“I think that’s where people are forgetting,” Avila said. “Our Founding Fathers gave us the road in our Constitution, that we were given God given rights, right? Amongst us are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I live my life, how I feel that my Creator portrays it and you know, they can live their life, how they feel that they want to live it.”
