Rick Belhumeur, Flagler Beach City Commission Candidate: The Live Interview

Rick Belhumeur is one of three candidates running for two seats in the March 3 Flagler Beach election for the City Commission.

Belhumeur, a builder, is completing his third three-year term (only the first two terms were consecutive). Incumbent Scott Spradley is an attorney, completing his first term. R.J. Santore III is vice president of his family’s fireworks manufacturing company. Santore is running for the first time.

All three are at-large candidates. Voters of any party or non-party registered in Flagler Beach may vote for two candidates in the non-partisan election. The top two vote-getters will claim the seats.

FlaglerLive submitted six identical questions to the three candidates. As always, the aim is to elicit as much candor and transparency as possible. We have not put space restrictions on the candidates, as this is one of their only platforms to explain heir candidacy to a broad public. But we have asked them to refrain from making campaign speeches, make lists of accomplishments or use artificial intelligence in their answers for anything more than copy editing or spell-checking. We have also asked candidates to reasonably document their claims.

We have no way to positively verify whether the candidates have complied with the AI request. It is ultimately up to the reader to judge the quality and sincerity of a candidate’s answers, which are presented here as submitted. Here are Behumeur’s answers.

The Questions in Summary: Quick Links

• • Explaining your role and the job.
  • Justifying your candidacy.
  • Flagler Beach’s unique challenges.
  • Summertown and Veranda Bay annexations.
  • Growth windfalls?
  • If property tax revenue vanishes.

1. Explain your role as a city commissioner, as you see it–the responsibilities of the job, its limits, your relationship with and expectations of the city manager, and how you would interact with the staff.

The Commission hires two employees, the City Manager and the City Attorney. It is the duty of the Commission to hold these two employees accountable for performing their duties as expressed in their job description. For the City Manager this is done by the Commissioners completing an annual performance evaluation and personally sharing any concerns with the City Manager. If there are concerns that the City Manager has not resolved, it is incumbent upon a Commissioner to share their concerns with the other Commissioners during a duly noticed public meeting. Any and all concerns can then be discussed leading to a consensus to take (or not take) an appropriate action to assure the City Manager is held accountable with discipline up to and including termination. Commissioners do not engage in any other personnel matters, that is a duty of the City Manager. Commissioner duties also include reviewing a proposed City budget, approving one annually and making sure those tax dollars are spent responsibly. The Commission also creates, amends or rescinds City ordinances only after the required notice and allowed public participation. I personally meet with the City Manager weekly to share achievements and initiatives. I also air my grievances and we typically work together to try and find a path forward. I also meet with other senior staff periodically to get answers about ongoing projects or share my observations as a result of making my daily rounds around the City.

See how the other candidates answered:
R.J. Santore | Scott Spradley

 

2. If you are the incumbent, what specifically justifies another term for you–what can you point to in your last term as two or three signature achievements that would not have happened had you not been there? Why should R.J. Santore not replace you–what about him alarms you enough to tell voters: “I’m your better choice”? If you are the challenger, what justifies removing either of the candidates you are running against? Going past the assumption that they are fine people and that you would provide a fresh or different perspective, what do you cite as two or three specific examples for each that justify their removal, and how would you have been different?

After nine years of on the job training, I have learned that being a Flagler Beach City Commissioner can be a very challenging job and it takes years to get fully acclimated. I have also learned that it takes time to get initiatives across the finish line. I have been much more successful getting things done during my latest term as a Commissioner. Back in late 2023, after City staff and my fellow Commissioners had conceded to the fact that Palm Coast was going to annex the entirety of Veranda Bay into their City, I was single-handedly responsible for stopping that from happening. They would have gotten their water and sewer service from Flagler Beach and our City would have provided first response to the development by our Police and Fire Departments because of our Mutual Aid agreement with Palm Coast and Flagler County. Two years ago, as our TPO (Transportation Planning Organization) representative, I played a key role in potentially “closing the gap” in the FDOT(Florida Department of Transportation) Sun Trail multi-use path through Flagler Beach without costing the city a dime. That will include a sidewalk along South Flagler Avenue between Wickline Park and State Road 100 then going north on Flagler Avenue to North 10th Street and across to A1A.

Last year, I initiated submitting an application to the TPO and got a grant for a project development and environmental study for the reconfiguration and beautification of State Road 100 from Flagler Avenue to A1A. This application quickly moved to the top of the priority list and we will likely see this moving forward sometime this year. Why am I a better choice than R.J. Santore? Because of my experience and institutional knowledge, that without, I would not have been able to accomplish the above listed initiatives and others on a list too long to mention all of them.

What about R.J. Santore alarms me? First of all I think the words “alarms me” are too strong and going past the assumption that he is a fine person, I will answer this question with the words “concerns me” instead. His lack of institutional knowledge, that is information gained over time through experience. R.J. has not been engaged with City operations very long, less than a year. He has not participated by volunteering for any committees or boards, such as the parks committee or the Planning and Architectural Review Board. He hasn’t even participated in our own City Citizen’s Academy. It takes time(sometimes even years) to learn all the inner workings of the City. This limits the understanding needed to make decisions that could affect city operations or tax bills.

See how the other candidates answered:
R.J. Santore | Scott Spradley

 

3. Flagler Beach has unique challenges. What two or three issues or challenges do you see affecting Flagler Beach specifically that other local governments don’t have to deal with, and what specific, pragmatic and realistic solutions do you propose–solutions you could propose at the next joint meeting of local governments, for instance.

Flagler Beach does indeed have unique challenges. The most unique challenge is maintaining and protecting our pier without cost to our residents. The biggest cost over the last decade has been the cost of insurance. The insurance for the replacement pier should be considerably less than a wood pier, and that’s a good thing, but the pier should create enough revenue to pay for its existence. I suspect that when the new pier is completed it will return to being a destination that will attract many users and visitors. Fees for those users and visitors most likely will not be enough to cover the cost of the pier’s existence. I would suggest a reconfiguration of the pier’s accessory building to include enough space to have a welcome center along with a nice gift shop that would include some space for fishing accessories and some bait for those fishing from the pier. These amenities for the public will definitely increase revenue going into the pier fund.

Beach maintenance is another unique challenge that we are faced with. We as the Flagler Beach Commission were the first to accept the scenario where the half cent sales tax would have created enough revenue to protect our beachfront throughout the 18 miles of shoreline within the county. All the municipalities and the County would have participated but the oceanfront participants would have been required to give up their portion of the sales tax plus pay an annual $160 flat fee per property. The county commission ended up rejecting the scenario and has yet to come up with another. In the meantime, the city of Flagler Beach is committed to provide maintenance of the area of Shoreline inside the City where the Army Corps of Engineers recently completed rebuilding the dunes. As far as the City of Flagler Beach residents paying to fortify the shoreline outside our borders, I don’t believe that is fair without the support from all county residents. I would be a proponent of reinstating the first scenario that includes the half cent sales tax. Keep in mind that visitors that pay sales tax throughout the County will be helping pay for maintenance of the beach thereby relieving the burden to only those that pay property tax.

 

See how the other candidates answered:
R.J. Santore | Scott Spradley

 

4. Let us assume that Veranda Bay and Summertown clear all hurdles and are part of Flagler Beach. First, how are both the planned 850,000 square foot commercial side of Summertown, including a hotel, restaurants etc., and downtown Flagler Beach’s similar commerce simultaneously sustainable, when even Palm Coast’s Town Center is struggling after 25 years of trying? And what will you do specifically to keep the two sides of the river from becoming competing sides of the city, as opposed to part of the same cohesive unit, especially if (as in Bunnell with Grand Reserve) the new developments’ residents start claiming several seats on the commission?

I don’t vision that the commercial portion of Summertown will be at all similar to the downtown portion of Flagler Beach that’s on the island. Summertown will have larger high-end businesses that will attract shoppers not only from throughout Flagler County, but those beyond our county borders. The downtown businesses will cater more to the Flagler Beach locals, plus tourists and beachgoers. Summertown would help make Flagler Beach a destination to even more people which could potentially help the businesses on the other side of the bridge as well. As far as keeping the two sides of the river from becoming competing sides of the city because of the new developments number of residents claiming several seats on the commission; I would suggest that the city be broken down into districts (like Palm Coast does) and that problem would be solved.

See how the other candidates answered:
R.J. Santore | Scott Spradley

 

5. Based on your comments at the recent Woman’s Club forum and in previous public statements, each of you, to one extent or another, has put significant faith in growth not only paying for itself but potentially–regarding Veranda Bay and Summertown–generating a large enough windfall to underwrite capital improvements such as stormwater for the rest of the city. Yet none of the consensus documentation on the subject supports the claim that growth either pays for itself or generates a windfall, with clear evidence locally: Bunnell’s Grand Reserve, the largest single development in its history, was approved on high hopes that it would create a windfall. It has not. Palm Coast just approved the largest utility rate increase in its history–despite ranking among the fastest-growing cities in the state for some of the years since 2018. First, what independent documentation or analysis do you have (documentation not produced by the developer) showing the revenue you might expect from Veranda Bay and Summertown? Second, assuming, as is likely, that the new developments will not generate the sort of revenue you need to foot the full bill for the $46.5 million sewer plant, let alone the stormwater and other capital needs burdening your budget, what is your alternative revenue source?

The first part of your question compares Veranda Bay/Summertown to Grand Reserve. They aren’t very similar at all. Grand Reserve is full of cookie cutter, low cost houses. The Veranda Bay/Summertown development will have dozens of multimillion dollar homes along with hundreds more high end homes which will obviously generate much more tax revenue. Secondly, Grand Reserve has absolutely no commercial tax base other than the golf course.

Veranda Bay/Summertown will have a massive amount of commercial which will create revenue never dreamed of in Flagler Beach. You’re asking for independent documentation or analysis. Am I expected to pay my own consultant? Logic helps me make my conclusion. There are many things that make us different than your typical annexation. It is not an additional cost to the City to supply water and sewer service to Veranda Bay/Summertown. If Palm Coast had annexed this property, we would still be paying the exact same amount to provide water and sewer service to this development because of the water wars agreement. The same theory can be used when talking about Police and Fire protection for this development. The County and cities have a mutual aid agreement with each other to share public safety.

If Veranda Bay/Summertown was annexed into Palm Coast or remained with the County, the closest public safety provider, Flagler Beach, would still provide police and fire protection for this development. Road maintenance would be another difference because the traffic from Veranda Bay/Summertown will be accessing the development from State and County roadways. The interior roads(excluding the spine road)will generally carry light loads and will hold up longer than through roads. All of the infrastructure is brand new and will last much longer because of the higher quality materials used in this century.

Re: The cost of the Waste Water Treatment Plant; Impact fees from all the additional utility customers will put a big dent in the cost of it and hopefully we can still get some grant money as well. Re: alternative revenue source. The City has struggled with trying to find additional revenue sources for decades. That’s pretty darn hard to do when your City is nearly built out. However, there is an opportunity to build a beautiful new waterfront with the property down by the defunct Marina. That property is all commercial, so that would be a good source of additional revenue.

See how the other candidates answered:
R.J. Santore | Scott Spradley

 

6. Let us assume that the legislature successfully places a ballot initiative that eliminates non-school homesteaded property taxes and that voters approve it. Let us also assume that you would have to enact your first budget without that revenue in your second or third year. Provide three programs, divisions, departments, initiatives or employees you are currently funding out of your general revenue that you would reduce or cut.

It would be irresponsible for me to answer this question. First of all, no one knows what such an elimination of taxes would look like. More than half of our general budget goes to public safety.(Police and Fire departments) and most of what’s left is for personnel. Without knowing the amount of revenue lost because of such an action, it would be virtually impossible to decide how to structure downsizing our personnel and still survive as a City.

See how the other candidates answered:
R.J. Santore | Scott Spradley