The following was a letter to the editor of the Daytona Beach News from Howard D. Tipton.
Dr. Hart Long of Daytona Beach recently passed away. He was one of those outstanding citizens who could be described in a number of ways–I would say “Always there, always working for good government.”
He left a special Daytona Beach monument to my profession–A council-manager form of government as a city charter that has stood tall since the 1950’s.
Dr. Long would say that citizens of a community needed to have educated and experienced leadership in managing day-to-day city affairs; that city councils needed to stay out of management and remain as policy makers.
He would say local government should operate as much as possible as a business–imagine a CEO of a business with no experience in that business. City councils are elected today with little or no experience in city government.
Dr. Long saw the real corruption in the City of Daytona Beach Commission form of government in the 1950’s and did something about it. That monument still stands today as the City Charter of Daytona Beach.
