- April 25, 2024
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Three additional deputies will be assigned to patrol Palm Coast starting in fiscal year 2021.
The Palm Coast City Council at an Oct. 20 council meeting agreed to fund two of those positions at a cost of $86,029 per deputy for the first year — prorated for nine months — and $114,000 per deputy thereafter.
The third deputy will be assigned to the Town Center area and funded through a public-private partnership with the Town Center Community Development District for $114,000. The additional deputies will raise the total assigned to Palm Coast to 31.
"I want to highlight the partnership between the Sheriff’s Office, the city of Palm Coast and the Town Center CDD in a public-private partnership to fund a dedicated deputy in the Town Center with the growth that is occurring there," Sheriff Rick Staly said at the meeting. "That’s the business community coming together, recognizing the need to support the community, along with the city of Palm Coast."
The city will also revisit its funding for law enforcement services in a joint workshop with the Sheriff's Office and the Flagler County Commission in January.
The city has so far budgeted $4,036,881 for law enforcement services in fiscal year 2021.
Staly noted that his agency, seeking to quantify what Staly considers a shortage of deputies in Palm Coast, had contracted a study through the University of North Florida. The study had stated that the FCSO would have needed 31 more deputies to meet preferred staffing levels for Palm Coast in 2018.
Staly said he hoped that the coming workshop in January would provide an opportunity to "take a longterm look at how can we fund law enforcement in the city of Palm Coast and in Flagler County in a joint partnership that’s fair to everybody."
Holland thanked Staly and his deputies. Staly has touted a 47% reduction in crime since 2017.
"We have to keep the momentum going," Holland said. "Public safety is a top priority in this community and needs to remain so."
Councilman Nick Klufas thanked Staly for the reduction in crime.
"We have shown through our own statistic-gathering that our citizens feel safer today than they did in 2017," Klufas said.
"Sometimes ... we have to spend in order to save, and I feel like that’s what we’re doing."
— EDDIE BRANQUINHO, city councilman, on spending money to investigate potential Public Works facility sites
