- April 19, 2024
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Addressing a proposal that the Flagler County Sheriff's Office's staff take over the first floor of the courthouse to consolidate the FCSO's operations — which are now divided between the courthouse and the jail administrative building — Clerk of Court Tom Bexley was blunt.
"Using the courthouse and taking the first floor away from me and my operations is unacceptable, and it is not any more than a Band-Aid on the larger problems," Bexley told the commission during a special commission meeting Feb. 21. "I am not in favor of this, and you do not have my support on this in any way."
"What should take 15 minutes now takes 30 or 45 minutes. Tasks that should be done on site now can not be. ... This all costs a lot of extra time and money."
— RICK STALY, Flagler County sheriff
He added that the county government has an obligation to provide adequate facilities for the Clerk of Court's operations. Already, he's had to sacrifice because the sheriff, displaced from the evacuated Sheriff's Operations Center, has moved part of the FCSO's operations into the courthouse, impinging on Bexley's space.
"I’m not going say you’re in violation of statute, but you’re in violation of statute," Bexley said to the commission.
Bexley's objection was enough for the commission to decide not to move forward during the meeting with the proposal to have the sheriff take over the first floor.
That would have been the least expensive of three options county staff and the sheriff presented to the commission at the special meeting, which commissioners had called in order to find a better temporary solution for the sheriff.
THE PROBLEM
Neither Bexley not the Sheriff Rick Staly are satisfied sharing the courthouse. The sheriff has been displaced from the Operations Center for nine months, ever since the Operations Center on State Road 100 was evacuated over concerns that the structure is a sick building.
The division of the FCSO's staff between the courthouse and the jail administrative building since the evacuation has strained the agency's operations, Staly said at the meeting.
"What should take 15 minutes now takes 30 or 45 minutes," Staly said. "Tasks that should be done on site now can not be. ... This all costs a lot of extra time and money."
"Some nine months ago, we sat in a conference room in my office and we talked about a 90-day solution, and this was in good faith. I kind of feel like my good faith is being tested right now."
— TOM BEXLEY, Flagler County clerk of court
There are other problems: Some equipment and evidence is still stored in the Operations Center, so some FCSO staff members still have to enter that building. New evidence has been stored at the jail administrative building, but it wasn't constructed to contain evidence, and it now reeks of marijuana. FCSO staff members have been using a jury deliberation room for meetings. Sometimes, they're displaced because a jury needs the room. The agency also has no access to a firearms training facility for shoot-or-don't-shoot scenarios, Staly said.
"What was once a very difficult situation is now a crisis, and it cannot continue," he said.
Meanwhile, Bexley is no longer able to use the wedding chapel at the courthouse, or provide passport photos and fingerprinting services.
"Some nine months ago, we sat in a conference room in my office and we talked about a 90-day solution, and this was in good faith," Bexley said. "I kind of feel like my good faith is being tested right now."
"I don’t disagree with anything that the clerk has said," Staly said. "My staff and I and my employees are frustrated, just like the clerk, just like the court administration, just like the judges. And it’s been well spoken that this was designed to be a courthouse. … This is not a Sheriff’s Office design, and that’s what we have to get to."
OPTIONS
Of the three potential options the Sheriff's Office and the county administration presented at the Feb. 21 meeting, the option to consolidate the sheriff at the courthouse, referred to as "Option 3" in a staff presentation at the meeting, would have been the quickest and the cheapest: It could be done in two weeks, for about $10,000.
Staly said he believed it was the best option for taxpayers. The additional money that would be spent in either of the other two options, he said, "would have been better spent building a new Sheriff's Operations Center. Because I personally don’t think you can fix the one that's current."
The county is still waiting on the results of some environmental testing of the Operations Center to determine how to proceed with the evacuated building itself. If the county decides to build a new building, that would take years, and the sheriff needs more adequate space now. And coming up with the money for a new building, County Commissioner David Sullivan added, might require a referendum.
The other two options would move the sheriff's operations into modular office buildings or office space elsewhere. The sheriff has to have his operations in the county seat — Bunnell — and that limits the number of potential spaces.
Option 1 would involve adding 13 modular office trailers in front of the Government Services Building on State Road 100. County staff expected that it would cost $3.92 million over five years, and would not create additional evidence storage. It would take four to six months to implement.
Option 2 would involve leasing space at 7 Otis Stone Hunter Road, and adding some construction there, for a combined cost of $2 million over five years. It would take six months to implement.
Commissioner Joe Mullins proposed creating a steering committee that could study the matter and make a recommendation to the commission.
But Commission Chairman Donald O'Brien suggested letting the county's newly hired interim county administrator, Jerry Cameron, meet with Bexley and Staly to find a solution.
Bexley, Staly and Cameron were all willing to do that.
"If we were playing cards, we’ve been dealt a bad hand, but we still need to play the hand," Cameron said. "In my assessment of this, nobody is going to come out of this in an ideal situation."
The solution, Cameron added, is "probably not going to make anybody happy, but it’s absolutely necessary.”
