A former municipal employee is suing the City of Deltona for discrimination leading to the termination of her employment.
Kimberly Castro, who served as a full-time project manager for Deltona from January 2023 to November 2023, filed the lawsuit May 6 with the 7th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida in Volusia County. Castro is seeking at least $100,000 in lost wages and benefits, in addition to reimbursement of court costs.
According to the complaint, former City Manager Jim Chisholm hired Castro to seek grant funding for infrastructure upgrades in Deltona related to emergency preparedness following hurricanes Ian and Nicole. Within six months on the job, Castro says she secured about $15 million in funding through the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, as well as $3.5 million in state disaster relief. The monies were to be used toward a number of projects, including roadway elevation at Elkcam Boulevard to prevent flooding, and improvements to the Fisher and Eastern wastewater treatment facilities, according to the complaint.
Castro claims she faced discrimination after Chisholm resigned in August 2023 and she was not included in internal communications or meetings with other municipal staff, including the interim city manager, Glen Whitcomb, and directors of public works and finance. In addition, she says false claims were made against her to City Commissioners and documents she prepared outlining sources of funding for projects were made to look like she was “not following the budget process.”
Deltona recently hired Dale “Doc” Dougherty, the former city manager for Garden City, Michigan, as the new city manager.
In a recent phone interview with The News-Journal, Castro said she believed the reason city staff would turn away government grants was because it would require more work to manage and track the funding under grant requirements.
Catherine Barker, a City spokesperson, said Deltona officials could not comment on the pending litigation.
In addition, the lawsuit accuses City of Deltona employees of “gross mismanagement, malfeasance, misfeasance and gross waste of public funds,” as well as overlooking the critical infrastructure needs of the community.
Gary Wilson, the Maitland-based attorney representing Castro in the action, said, “Our firm is assisting her as she says she was the subject of whistleblower retaliation, and that’s why the City did not have just cause to terminate her.”
In her interview with The News-Journal, Castro went on to say she was eager to tell her story because “what they [the City] is doing to the 98,000 people that live there is a crime.”
Reached by The News-Journal Monday, Mayor Santiago Avila declined to comment on the case specifically but he did note, “I can tell you she [Castro] was very competent and effective at what she did.”
Avila said the City has not hired a project manager since the departure of Castro. Castro, who lives in Sanford, is currently employed elsewhere. She was paid an annual salary of $76,648 before her termination.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Deltona officials accused of ‘gross mismanagement’ of funds in lawsuit
