- April 26, 2024
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Flagler County government staff and the Flagler County Sheriff's Office have worked together for months to come up with options to add additional evidence storage space for the FCSO, which has been evacuated from its Operations Center building on State Road 100 since June 2018.
But Flagler County commissioners said they were not ready to consider those options when county General Services Director Heidi Petito presented them during a County Commission meeting Feb. 18.
Commissioner David Sullivan requested that the commission table the matter, noting that the commission will meet on Feb. 21 and could discuss the Operations Center then.
"I just think pulling money out of the budget … and doing a Band-Aid approach to the problem is not the way to go," Sullivan said. "My feeling is, we need to get the big picture plan of what we’re going to do to replace or go back into the Sheriff's Operations Center before we make piecemeal decisions."
The county owns the Operations Center and is obligated, under state law, to provide facilities for the Sheriff's Office.
"We are kind of busting at the seams, because we’re not putting evidence into the old facility at this point in time, and that’s where the critical need is today."
— MARK STROBRIDGE, FCSO chief
Since evacuating the Operations Center due to concerns that the structure is a sick building, the FCSO has divided its staff between two locations: the jail administrative building and the county courthouse.
New evidence has been stored at the jail administrative building. But it wasn't built to store evidence, and the building now smells of marijuana and is out of space.
"We are kind of busting at the seams, because we’re not putting evidence into the old facility at this point in time, and that’s where the critical need is today," FCSO Chief Mark Strobridge told the commission at the meeting. "It’s very critical, and this is the most cost effective for the citizens of this community that we can come up with."
Sheriff Rick Staly has also previously told the commission that the agency needs a new arrangement for its staff and for evidence storage.
But other commissioners agreed that they needed more time to discuss the proposals.
There was a hitch when they voted to table: When County Commission Chairman Donald O'Brien called for the yes votes, only four of the five commissioners said aye, while one, Greg Hansen, stayed silent. O'Brien did not ask for nay votes, and moved on to other meeting business. But Hansen said after the meeting that he had been planning to vote no: He thought the commission needed to get moving on finding a solution. But he also said he didn't object to having a bit more time to discuss the options.
Because Hansen didn't state his vote, County Attorney Al Hadeed said, the vote will be recorded in meeting minutes as unanimous in favor of the motion to table.
