- October 29, 2024
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The Flagler Beach City Commission wants to ask the Flagler County Commission to table an upcoming vote on a beach management funding proposal that only impacts unincorporated Flagler County land.
Commissioner Eric Cooley brought up the Flagler County Commission’s recent discussion on implementing a tax to the 11 miles of unincorporated Flagler County shoreline that will begin funding the county’s beach management plan. Cooley said that the county has once again held discussions on the beach management plan without inviting the other cities to the table.
“The county is having extensive meetings about the beach management plan that we were not invited to, even though we've sent communication that we wanted to have a joint meeting about this,” Cooley said.
Flagler County first explored implementing a county-wide tiered tax to help pay for the county’s planned beach management plan over the summer. The idea met immediate push back both from county residents and the elected officials of its municipality.
At its Oct. 21 meeting, the County Commission considered a much more focused version that only applies to the 11 miles of shoreline between the Marineland southern town limit and the Beverly Beach northern town limit. The proposal, which will be voted on at the county’s Nov. 4 meeting, will combine funding from the county's Tourism Development Tax, a one-tenth mill of ad valorem revenue and the proposed additional tax for the residents in that 11-mile stretch, which will be based on a resident’s property value.
During the meeting, County Administrator Heidi Petito said the county is waiting to schedule and host a joint meeting with the county’s municipalities before discussing a beach maintenance plan for those areas of shoreline that are in Flagler Beach, Beverly Beach and Marineland’s jurisdictions.
“The reason why this does not include, right now, the city of Flagler Beach or the town of Beverly Beach or the town of Marineland, is because Flagler County does not have jurisdiction over those municipalities,” Petito said. But, Petito said, the county has a responsibility to maintain the beaches in the unincorporated areas on the island, including in the six parks that fall under the county’s jurisdiction.
City Manager Dale Martin said he attended the Oct. 21 county meeting and said several of the county commissioners directed Petito to continue reaching out to the municipalities and schedule meetings.
He assured the Flagler Beach Commissioners that the proposed tax does not apply to Flagler Beach.
“It doesn't affect us directly. It doesn't affect city of Flagler Beach or the town of Beverly beach,” Martin said.
“My concern is they're getting very deep into these conversations,” Cooley said. “And they're also putting this item on before the seat changes.”
Two Flagler County Commissioners will be ending their tenures on the board with the Nov. 4 meeting: Commissioners Donald O’Brien and David Sullivan. Sullivan, the District 3 representative, represents the east side of Flagler County, including Flagler Beach. District 3 candidate Kim Carney, a Flagler Beach resident, won in the primary election in August and would have won the seat in August if not for write-in candidate Jose R. Rodriguez Fabiani.
Cooley said that Flagler Beach officials need to be part of the conversation where beach management is concerned. A lot of the assumptions and concerns could be avoided, he said, if the county simply did not take “a silo’d approach.”
Cooley also said he wanted to know if Flagler Beach would be receiving any of the county’s Tourism Development Committee’s tourism tax funds, considering Flagler Beach is a large portion of where those funds are accrued.
“We’re the reason that TDC money even exists,” he said. “So we get all the wear and tear from the tourism … and then that money goes to Hammock for a bunch of private owners that are backed up to the beach. But the tourism area doesn't get any of the money.”
He asked his fellow commissioners what they thought about sending a letter to the county asking them to table the Nov. 4 vote on the proposal until after the newly elected county commissioners are sworn in.
Commissioner Jane Mealy said she understood his point but was hesitant to tell another government how to run their meetings.
“I understand the reasoning, and I agree with it,” she said. “But should we tell another government how to run their meeting or what they discuss?”
“It would just be a request,” Cooley said. “They can do what they've done traditionally and just throwing in the trash.”
Comparatively, Cooley said, the county has been “very active” in the city’s discussions on annexing the 899-acre development of Veranda Bay into Flagler Beach. Commissioner James Sherman agreed saying the county is “demanding we take their spine roads,” referring to the county’s request that Flagler Beach take over the maintenance of John Anderson Parkway within the development, should it be annexed.
The commission overall agreed. Mayor Patti King said that the commission should especially say something if all the TDC tax funds are going to be funded into the proposed plan.
“I think we make the request if they choose to disregard our point of view that's on them, but at least we can make our request known,” King said.
