Overlooked facts in the faux controversy surrounding Coastal Cloud

Coastal Cloud employee and Planning Board member Jake Scully takes issue with reporting on city's relationship with Coastal Cloud.

  • By Guest Author
  • | 3:50 p.m. August 11, 2020
  • Palm Coast Observer
  • Opinion
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by: Jake Scully

Though intertwined, facts seem to (in my opinion) have gotten the lesser share of attention in the reporting of the Coastal Cloud/city of Palm Coast "controversy."

I moved my family to Palm Coast in 1991. I have been and continue to be involved with several organizations and have worked for Coastal Cloud for over six years — and the mayor works there, too.

The preceding are verifiable facts. It is a logical conclusion that I would not risk my reputation by misstating the following facts, and it is opinion that standing up for my employer and our community is a responsible, sane thing to do. 

On with the boring facts (unless stated, all emails):

  • May 24, 2018 — I was invited by Wynn Newingham to meet with the "Innovation Team" to discuss the implementation of a 311 system.
  • June 5, 2018 — Then-City Manager Jim Landon emailed me (to my personal email) a proposed Innovation Partnership Agreement between the city and Coastal Cloud. Same day, Mr. Landon replied stating, “Wynn Newingham will be your direct contact."
  • June 7, 2018 — I met with Jim Landon at 4 p.m. to discuss expectations (a fact supported my calendar).
  • June 19, 2018  — I met with entire Innovation Team with two of my teammates (calendar entries of the 15-20 staff members would support this as fact).
  • June 20, 2018 — I emailed Wynn and Jim, thanking them for the meeting, advising that Coastal would like some minor revisions to the agreement to ensure we would be able to use the intellectual property that arises from the partnership. I also explicitly advised that licensing was with Salesforce directly and was an ongoing expense and that we should "prioritize getting a feel for this as soon as we can."
  •  June 22, 2018 — Jim Landon emailed me asking for the contract verbiage I would like and acknowledged the licensing with Salesforce, asking to discuss when there is an estimate provided. Same day, I replied with the language we wanted in the contract stating that Coastal Cloud reserves the right to utilize the work products on other Coastal Cloud client engagements.  
  • July 31, 2018 — Wynn advised that the additions were approved by legal.
  • Aug. 14, 2018 — The Innovation Partnership Agreement was presented to the City Council in a workshop on Aug. 14, 2018.
  • Aug. 21, 2018 — City Council formally approved the agreement with Coastal Cloud. Later that day, Wynn Newingham visited Coastal Cloud for an update and design presentation. In a subsequent "thank you" email to her, I attached several documents, including the Salesforce quote for licensing at the currently proposed usage.
  • Sept. 18, 2018 — Jim Landon was terminated, four weeks after the initial quote for licensing was provided.

A fact that you will just have to take my word for: I have not been contacted by the FBI, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Ethics Commission or any reporter in the area. Further, no employee of our company has told me that they have been contacted.

Logical conclusions based on actual verifiable facts (these may not be the only conclusions, but they are pretty solid):

  • No viable investigation involving Coastal Cloud is going on by the agencies mentioned as I or someone at our company would have been contacted.
  • The Palm Coast Observer and FlaglerLive both investigated these facts and found "no evidence of unethical behavior" (Observer, February 2020).
  • Since Jim Landon did not express any concern or negativity to me (or apparently anyone else involved in making any decisions) regarding the possibility of the licensing in the three months of back and forth noted above, I can only logically conclude that he misspoke, forgot, or just was not being truthful when he told the Observer in December 2019 — more than a year after the fact — that he had opposed contracting with Salesforce.

The following is my opinion based on the above facts and conclusions:

Coastal Cloud’s commitment to Palm Coast and Flagler County has gone far deeper than providing careers paying significantly over the average median income of our county; Palm Coast Connect was just one example. 

There are those who would lean on opinion and supposition to conjure visions of smoke-filled rooms with bags of cash. It is an election year, after all. Their nonsense and hyperbole are detriments to the economic development of this city and county.

Press (the Daytona Beach News-Journal and the Palm Coast Observer, either by commission or omission) and local politicians scream for job creation yet continue to go after Coastal Cloud with nothing. Really business friendly, folks.

This, in a county where in 1985, shortly after leaving the U.S. Air Force, I got the highest paying entry-level job in Flagler with SeaRay Boats. The pay was $6.50 an hour, but it was the best out here.

Coastal Cloud is by far “the best out there” right now. The last thing this city and county need is to run them off a la SeaRay — no one will fill that void. 

Jake Scully is a resident of Palm Coast, an employee of Coastal Cloud, and a member of the Palm Coast Planning and Land Regulation Development Board.

 

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