- October 30, 2024
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Flagler County will offer the mold-ridden Sears building on Palm Coast Parkway, purchased by the county last year as a future Sheriff's Office precinct location, back over to the previous owner and the real estate agent and inspection company involved in the deal in exchange for reimbursement of the county's costs.
If those parties aren't willing to take back the building and pay back the county for the purchase price and for the remediation and legal costs the county incurred in dealing with the building, the county will sue them and place the building on the market.
"It's so clearly a preexisting condition. Clearly."
— AL HADEED, county attorney
County commissioners voted unanimously to take those steps during a commission meeting on Nov. 18 after County Attorney Al Hadeed explained to commissioners why county staff had recommended that option.
"It's so clearly a preexisting condition. Clearly," Hadeed said. He added that the engineering firm the county had hired to inspect the building, Universal Engineering, had initially presented the county with a report that hadn't evaluated the building for water intrusion. The county had ordered the firm to check it again. Universal Engineering then presented a report that did not disclose the extensive water damage, which was due to a gutter problem and attempted repair.
"We believe that those parties are more likely going want to resolve this in the least painful way," Hadeed said. "Should they decline to do that ... our next step that we reach is that we file suit against those individuals, those companies, to recover the loss that we’ve sustained."
"We believe absolutely that this was a known problem," County Administrator Jerry Cameron said.
The county had purchased the Sears building in part because Flagler County Sheriff's Office employees have been displaced from their Operations Center on State Road 100 in Bunnell since June 2018 due to mold problems in that structure, and have since been squeezed between the county courthouse and the jail administrative building.
But after the county bought the Sears building, county employees entered the building during a rainstorm and saw water pouring down an interior wall. Black mold covered the back side of the sheetrock. The damage was too extensive to remediate, and the sheriff said he was not willing to place his employees in the building.
The real estate agent who handled the Sears building sale, Margaret Sheehan-Jones, had also handled the sale to the county of the building that became the Operations Center on S.R. 100.
After the county discovered the water intrusion problem last spring, Hadeed sent letters to the former owner, broker and inspection company branch manager, notifying them that the county intended to pursue claims.
In a letter to Sheehan-Jones, Hadeed had noted the context of the county's interest in the Sears building.
"The County does not know whether you knew of these conditions. If you did not, the County believes it was your duty under the circumstances to be aware of the suitability of the building for public governmental purposes," Hadeed wrote. "You sold the County the former hospital in Bunnell. The County constructed a new Sheriffs Operations Center on that site. Dominating the news for at least two years are the media accounts and public hearings delving into the influence of water intrusion on the health of individuals who worked in the building. ... It is inconceivable to the County that this context would have escaped your attention."
Commissioner Greg Hansen asked if the county has something in place to prevent the county from dealing with the same engineering firm in the future. Commissioner Joe Mullins said he was uncomfortable with such a discussion while there is a possibility of a lawsuit.
