- April 18, 2024
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On May 18, the Flagler County Commission decided to send the governor a letter opposing Florida Senate Bill 620, the Local Business Protection Act.
A number of local governments have sent similar letters about the legislation, which would let business owners sue local governments for damage to their business resulting from local government decisions.
But commissioners have since changed their minds.
Commissioner Donald O'Brien said at a May 2 County Commission meeting that he'd had misgivings, and wished that he'd spoken up at the previous meeting.
"That was a very controversial bill, " he said, "... I can see both sides of it. There's definitely issues with respect to home rule, but there was also a lot of protections to business. I'm a small business person."
Commissioner Joe Mullins agreed.
"I'd love to kind of see us pull back and maybe do something, write a letter that we support our senators, or maybe get a consensus on it," Mullins said.
Commissioner David Sullivan said the bill doesn't support home rule.
"It's my job as an elected member for Flagler County to support things that I think are good for Flagler County, and not support things aren't good for Flagler County," Sullivan said. "... My guess is the governor signs this bill. I would hope that we would just leave it alone: This should have been brought up last time, but cards laid, card played."
Commissioner Andy Dance has regularly warned his commission colleagues about voting on issues after only minimal discussion.
"We just we have to stop bringing stuff up at the end of meetings that don't get properly vetted," Dance said. "I assumed that we had vetted this beforehand, and come to find we didn't even vet this with our lobbyists, and that's concerning.
He suggested rescinding the letter and discussing it at a workshop before voting again.
"We've just got to stop doing things at the last minute," he said.
The commission decided to write a new letter saying it hadn't properly evaluated the issue before, and will be reconsidering.
