Daytona Beach commission debates cybersecurity ordinance that would let manager suspend elected officials' network access

Daytona Beach — Commissioners on the Daytona Beach City Commission spent more than two hours Feb. 5 debating an ordinance to adopt a cybersecurity policy for elected officials that, as drafted, would allow the city manager or a designee to remove an official’s access to the city’s information-technology network if the official “fails to comply with the policy.”

Supporters framed the proposal as a narrowly tailored safety measure. Hassan Rezika, the city’s chief information officer, told commissioners, “Should we see that an account is compromised, we would certainly first reach out to the city manager to get his approval to be able to stop the accounts ... and then, until the account is remediated, we provide access back.”

The ordinance was introduced on first reading; the commission set final action for Feb. 19. The first-reading discussion exposed deep divisions among commissioners about delegation of authority, the scope of state law and the privacy implications for officials using city email on personal devices.

Why it matters: City staff and the mayor said the policy…