- March 14, 2025
Charles Ericksen Jr.
AGE: 69
FAMILY: married to Shirley, five sons, 10 grandchildren
QUIRKY FACT: Sixty percent of the way to riding the equivalent distance of the equator on his bicycle
BIO: Born Hartford, Conn., January 1943. Distinguished military graduate, University of Connecticut, 1966. Served as an officer in the U.S. Army, 1966-72. Awarded Army Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service. Thirty-five years as customer service center director in several cities.
How can the county work more effectively with the city of Palm Coast and other regional entities?
The best way for any particular group is to sit down and define what the particular needs of the area are, and how each one of those municipalities fits into the picture. … Have an individual goal for your municipality and also a big picture for the county. I don’t think we know right now how to put all of those ingredients together. We’ve got Flagler Beach with the beach, we’ve got Bunnell with the land, we got Palm Coast with the population and housing, and we’ve got Marineland with its attractions. We’ve got all the ingredients to be successful, but for some reason, we don’t seem to come together. When we hold those intergovernmental meetings, we all talk about ourselves; we don’t talk about what the common goal is.
Palm Coast has got a pretty aggressive plan in mind. I’m convinced that they’d like to see the population double in the next 10 years. If that’s the goal of the city and they’ve already got 20,000 to 30,000 land lots already plotted — which would suggest they’re going ahead with it — they’ve got to get the county on board, because the county provides supporting services. … We have to do a better job coordinating, and all it means is sitting down and relaxing a little bit on what your particular individual needs are …
Right now, I think that the city manager and the county administrator run those two particular areas with very little direction from the elected officials. … We draw too many lines in the sand, that this is mine and that is yours. I think that’s flawed thinking … (and) the penalty is the solution (to real problems) is late for the costumer, and the customer’s the voter out there.
What should the commission do to make Flagler County a better place to do business?
They’ve done a good job in selecting Helga (van Eckert), I think. ... I’d like to see, again, this melding of all the ideas in the county coming together. Palm Coast has got a good (Business Assistance Center) ... and that helps with the existing people, because that’s where we have instant employment ups. … But I’d like to see Palm Coast again step up and say where they are on this outside economic development. They’ve been silent on the issue. And again, that’s not being a good partner in resolving county problems. …
Our job as elected officials is to support the customer in Flagler County, and that customer is everybody that lives here. And that’s who we work for, and we shouldn’t forget that. …
Is the Flagler County tax rate appropriate? Why or why not? / What is your approach to the county budget?
As far as I’m concerned, we have tried political budgets in the past and they aren’t working. We need a business budget and a going-forward budget. The other day when (County Administrator Craig) Coffey finally unveiled his budget, which most of the commissioners said they were seeing for the first time, (it) was missing some things. First of all, I’m not a politician; I’m a businessperson, so I look for solutions … and I think that’s one of the reasons why I didn’t get elected when I ran previously. I tried to be a politician and I’m not one. I’m a businessperson, and a damn good one, too. I look for solutions; nobody puts a meaningful budget together without knowing what their customers want. Nobody puts a budget together without knowing what their bosses want. I think it’s wrong that Mr. Coffey is told to put a budget together with no guidelines, with no input from the commission and with no input from the residents … about what’s important to them. Is it public transportation? Is it sidewalks? Is it keeping taxes down? …
But the budget system as I see it is a political one. Right now, they put together a budget and once they get it, they nitpick it for savings. That’s not the way to do a budget. Anybody can do that. Anybody can go line by line. .... You (need to) look for where inefficiencies are. The other day, the county commissioners said “There’s no more inefficiencies here.” Baloney. Baloney! There’s always a smarter way of doing something. And the solutions come from your employees, the people that have to deal with it day in and day out. It seems simple to me.
What is your vision for Flagler County in the next four years?
I think we need to embrace the true costumer — the resident — and we can solve problems a lot easier. We’ve got a trust problem, not only in Flagler County but at the national government level. We don’t trust our elected officials. We don’t trust what government’s doing for us. You have to have all the parties at a table, and I’m not saying at the same time, but you need to start getting these people to meetings. …
I believe in town hall meetings. … (Commissioners) should be almost required to have a minimum of four (a year) and even go into some of the neighborhoods and listen to what (residents are) saying. Because if people aren’t coming to you, guess what, you go to them. …
No one person’s got all the answers. Get as many people in a room as possible and try something. Trying something and having it go wrong is still a hell of a lot better than doing nothing at all to solve the problem. We just seem to be spinning in place right now. That’s it.
