- October 31, 2024
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The county administration and the county clerk of court, Tom Bexley, have been at odds for months over the allocation of space in the courthouse building: The county has asked Bexley to cede more space for the Flagler County sheriff’s operations in the building, and Bexley has said he doesn’t have space to cede.
Bexley has now changed his mind, saying he’s willing to give up some space — although doing so, he said, will impact his own operations.
“It’s going affect me; I’m going have to move records and people,” he said. “But I think I have a plan that’s going to allow me to serve the taxpayers in this interim period until all our space is returned to us.”
The change of direction comes after County Administrator Jerry Cameron, on July 17, sent Bexley a letter stating that the county would prepare to sue him if he did not respond favorably by end of day Friday, July 19, to a request by the county to have a space study conducted on the building, and to abide by its recommendations.
The FCSO’s staff has been evacuated from the FCSO’s Operations Center on State Road 100 since June 2018 because of mold there, and has since been divided between the courthouse and the jail administrative building while the county has new facilities built. But the sheriff has repeatedly implored the county to provide him with more space, saying the agency’s current space limitations are impeding its ability to function. The County Commission on July 15 directed Cameron to instruct Bexley to agree to a space study or face litigation.
“It is the opinion of the BCC and County Administration that, while creating additional inconveniences to your operation, the accommodation of the Sheriff’s minimal functional needs can be achieved without unduly impacting the efficient operations of the Clerk’s office,” Cameron wrote in his July 17 letter to Bexley. “Please consider that any alternative to a mutually agreeable resolution will result in a substantial expense, which will ultimately be borne by the taxpayers we serve. ... I ask that you doubt a little of your own infallibility in your opinion that no further accommodation can be accomplished, and join with the BCC, County Administration, and the Sheriff’s Department in forging a long overdue solution to this crisis.”
Bexley on Friday afternoon called County Commission Chairman Donald O’Brien and asked to schedule a meeting for Monday, July 22, with O’Brien and Cameron to discuss the matter.
O’Brien said the meeting, which was about half an hour long, left him feeling much better about the likelihood for a resolution.
“It was a really good meeting, very productive, and I appreciate the clerk doing that,” O’Brien said.
Bexley said that the fact that the county had issued an ultimatum, itself, hadn’t bothered him.
“What bothered me was the ‘or else,’ and that was the possibility of litigation,” he said. “If I was a taxpayer, I don’t think I would want two local government entities ... to be suing each other with taxpayer dollars.”
He added, “I don’t see this really as a concession; I see it as a continued partnership with the county and with the sheriff.”
The county had previously, before Cameron’s July 17 letter, asked Bexley to provide an additional 5,000 square feet of space in the courthouse for the sheriff’s operations. Bexley declined to specify to a reporter July 23 exactly how much space he was willing to turn over, explaining that he had not yet given the county a formal letter and draft interlocal agreement laying out his terms — he was planning to do so July 24 — and that he wanted to do that before making the details public.
But the amount of space involved would be less than 5,000 feet, he said, and would be on the first floor of the four-story courthouse, contiguous with space the FCSO is already occupying, to prevent further fracturing the sheriff’s operations.
“We’re not trying to make this difficult; we’re trying to make it as easy as possible,” Bexley said.
The space adjustment would also involve adding walls to segregate certain areas, he said, and will contain a deadline for when the arrangement would end.
“I, like everyone else that’s been involved with this, am ready for this to be resolved so we can move forward to a possible solution,” Bexley said.
