When the $140,406 in salaries to city elected officials is added to the figure, the combined total, for elected officials in Flagler County, stands at $1.13 million for the coming year, not including benefits.
Bunnell
Fearing Ambush, Cops and Medics “Stage” Before Responding to Reported Shooting in Bunnell
The incident took place just after midnight Thursday in South Bunnell: 911 got several calls about an alleged shooting and a victim who’d been injured, but threats against police on social media led to precautions against an ambush.
Who Wants an Old Courthouse? County Opens Doors, and A Few Eyes
A county-hosted open house at the old Flagler County Courthouse drew dozens of people Friday, mostly local residents and perhaps three or four prospective businesses, as the county continues to study what to do with the old, 50,000-square-foot structure.
Bunnell Eliminates 40% Of Police Department as Part of Wider Cost-Cuts and Lay-Offs
Seeking to cut an $800,000 deficit that represents a fifth of the city’s budget, the Bunnell City Commission Monday cut its commission salaries by 10 percent, eliminated its grants department and laid off staff that have been mainstays of the Bunnell administration and police department over the years.
For 2nd Time in 5 Days, South Bunnell Is Scene of Violent Attack, This Time a Stabbing
Edward Godwin, a 68-year-old felon on probation and with a long arrest record, was arrested and charged with aggravated battery after allegedly stabbing a woman who interceded between Godwin and his wife as the couple were arguing in front of her house, and Godwin’s wife was calling out for help.
Man Is Shot and Wounded Near MLK Blvd. And S. Cherry in Bunnell, Suspect Still at Large
A man was shot just after 8 p.m. tonight (July 23) in the area of Martin Luther King Blvd. and South Cherry Street in South Bunnell, the city’s police chief, Tom Foster, said this evening. Authorities are investigating.
Find a Lawyer: Flagler Duo Launches Unique Web Venture Rating Attorneys’ Success Rate
CourtCaseResults.com, the brainchild of Trevor Tucker and Darren McGuire, is a freely accessible website that gives consumers full histories of lawyers’ success and failure rates in Flagler cases. Launched Monday, the site is gradually moving to include cases statewide.
Divided and in Crisis, Bunnell Begins Deep Cuts to Close $844,000 Gap But Police Department Survives, For Now
The Bunnell City Commission in a tension-filled, four=-hour meeting Monday voted 3-2 to eliminate code enforcement and the humane society, among a list of cuts, but delay eliminating the police and grants department for two weeks, giving department heads time to make their case for survival.
Citing Growing Deficits, Auditor Warns Bunnell Is On an Unsustainable Course
With recurring deficits of close to $1 million in the general fund, the Bunnell City Commission heard the bleakest audit report it’s heard in recent years, with no new revenue expected to brighten the picture.
As Committee Tours Old Courthouse, Size and Financial Viability Loom Larger Than Repairs
Wednesday’s tour was the first time most committee members had a chance to see the building from within. The Flagler County Commission earlier this month appointed the seven-member committee to recommend what to do with the 50,000-square-foot courthouse, as the county is no longer willing to be its caretaker.
Bunnell Planning Board Approves Ordinance Targeting Bible Half-Way House For Addicts
The Bunnell board’s unanimous decision, if ratified by the Bunnell City Commission, would likely prevent the half-way house from opening its doors, but the city and the targeted ministry are locked in a federal legal battle which the proposed ordinance could exacerbate.
Another Pit Bull Blamed in Mondex Attack, This Time on a 1-Year-Old Girl
A pit bull mix is blamed in an attack on a 1-year-old Bunnell girl who ended up with deep bite punctures and gashes on her face Thursday as she played in her front yard Thursday.
Bunnell and Christian Ministry Locked in Federal Battle Over a Recovery Home for Addicts
Bunnell city government passed an ordinance to prevent Open Door Ministry from opening an addicts-recovery center at the south end of town. The ministry sued in federal court, citing discrimination.
For $600,000, Bunnell Buys Former Heritage Charter School Campus For Its New City Hall
The decision was the result of ma 3-1 vote at a special meeting. Bunnell projects spending an additional $300,000 to prepare the three-building campus for its permanent offices, including the police department, all of which have been spread through three locations around Bunnell for the past five years.
With Revels Chairing, County Puts Its Imprint on Committee to Study Fate of Old Courthouse
The seven-member committee will to the commission recommend whether to sell, demolish or redevelop for local businesses the old county courthouse again saddling county taxpayers, after Bunnell rejected its ownership in April and the county angrily took it back in May.
Ordered to Unseal Secret Redistricting Papers, GOP Operative Seeks High Court Intervention
Pat Bainter on Wednesday asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to issue an emergency stay blocking an order by the Florida Supreme Court less than 24 hours earlier that granted permission for the documents to be used in an ongoing trial challenging the constitutionality of the congressional map approved by the Florida Legislature in 2012.
Tri-County Drug Sweep Nets 57 Arrests, 20 in Flagler, But Many Back On the Streets Swiftly
Dubbed “Operation Safe Summer,” the three-county drug sweep was conducted to reduce the amount of drugs available as summer break approaches, officials said, but by late afternoon several of those arrested were already back on the streets, and many more would likely follow.
Bunnell Cop Arrested Over Computer Porn Conducted Unauthorized Background Searches on City Commissioners
the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is still investigating the case, uncovered evidence that Michael Stavris conducted unauthorized background checks on three sitting city commissioners: Bill Baxley, John Rogers and Elbert Tucker. Stavris may face no penalty for doing so, for lack of a policy in Bunnell.
Angry But Cornered, County Takes Old Courthouse Back from Bunnell, Handing Its Fate to a Committee
Commissioners Barbara Revels and George Hanns bitterly criticized Bunnell’s decision to reverse course and reject the old courthouse, blaming the city for accelerating the building’s deterioration and leaving the county little choice. In the meantime, the county will again pick up the $60,000 to $80,000-a-year tab of maintaining the building to keep it from deteriorating more than it already has.
County’s Generosity To Bunnell Runs Out as Commission Imposes Rent and Exit Deadline
Bunnell city government has been occupying county office spaces for almost five years. On Monday. the county agreed to slap on $2,400-a-month rent and $100-per-meeting fees on the city, starting Aug. 1, and it will expect Bunnell to vacate the GSB by Dec. 1 regardless.
Charles Cowart Jr., Just Released From Jail on Dropped Charges, Is Arrested For Burglary
Charles Cowart Jr. was accused of breaking into a Cowart family-owned house in Flagler Beach Monday evening–the same house where part of the incidents that led police to investigate Cowart and three other men on rape and kidnapping charges had unfolded in March 2013. Those charges were dropped last week.
Supreme Court’s Decision Allowing Prayers at Government Meetings Reverberates Locally
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision today allowing explicitly religious prayers at local government meetings had two direct connections to Palm Coast and Bunnell. So the ruling had particular resonance locally—happily for some, not so happily for others.
Patron, Angered By Food, Arrested For Punching Chicken Pantry Owner; Woman Arrested Over Rogue Gunshot
Spencer Veney, 52, of Palm Coast, was arrested after getting upset over the food at the Chicken Pantry and allegedly punching out the owner. Ashley Ross, 27, of Bunnell, was arrested for firing a .22-caliber gun in public the following evening. Both incidents drew large crowds.
Wings Over Flagler Leader and Bunnell Director Arrested on Drunk Driving Charges Over the Weekend
Bill Mills, a lead organizer, with WNZF, of Wings Over Flagler since the event’s inception four years ago and its rejuvenation this past weekend, was arrested just before midnight on Friday night on the Flagler Beach Bridge. Mick Cuthbertson, Bunnell’s community development director, was arrested early Sunday morning after going against traffic on U.S. 1 and crashing into a car.
On Again: Carver Center Auction Opens Bids for Safaris, Bowling, Pizza in a Commissioner’s Home (BYOB) and More
The popular Carver Center Online Auction is back for the fourth year, with some 67 items to bid on through the rest of the month as Bunnell’s Carver Center foundation hopes to yet again raise at least $5,000. It has done so quite successfully in previous years.
No Thanks: Bunnell Votes 4-1 to Return Old Courthouse to the County, Citing Costs and Liabilities
The stunning reversal culminates months of doubt and disappointment about the building on city officials’ part as they discovered a structure in more serious disrepair than the county had let on and tallied far more expensive bills ahead than the city could afford, if it were to keep the building.
Bunnell Cop Michael Stavris Is Arrested on Charges of Computer Porn Involving Underage Boys
Michael Stavris, an officer with the Bunnell Police Department, was jailed Tuesday evening on two charges of computer porn and a charge of criminal use of someone else’s personal information following a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into several instances where Stavris is accused of soliciting naked images from underage boys.
Now Leery of Old Courthouse, Bunnell Fears Money Pit and Talks of Giving It Back
With two commissioners ready to give back the old courthouse to the county, Bunnell opted Monday to get more solid bids on what it would cost the city to turn the problematic building into its city hall, but the city administration drew a bleak picture of finances that cannot bear new burdens regardless.
Marco Rubio Flirts With Immigration Reform Then Capitulates to the Lunatic Fringe
Rubio placed a dismal seventh at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in a straw poll of likely GOP presidential hopefuls, where his kind of immigration talk doesn’t sit well with the GOP fringe, political or lunatic, writes Andrew Skerritt.
Bunnell City Election: John Rogers and Bonita Robinson Win, As Does Status Quo
John Rogers won re-election to the Bunnell City Commission Tuesday, taking the most votes in a four-way race, and Bonita Robinson won the seat formerly held by Jenny Crain-Brady. Rogers and Robinson defeated Daisy Henry, the former commissioner trying to make a come-back, and Randall Morris, who had been a no-show in most ways through the election period.
Ahead of Bunnell’s March 4 Election, Three Commission Candidates Battle With
More Blanks Than Bullets
Few of the candidates’ answers at the only candidate forum before the election grappled with actual issues, ideas or solutions, hewing instead to generally positive statements about wanting to do their best or speaking in generalities that would not distinguish them either from each other or from any well-meaning resident of the city they seek to represent.
On Old Haw Creek Road, a Confrontation So Hostile That a Cop Asks For It To Be Videotaped
Stuart Denison, who’d been arrested three times in the last few months on domestic battery charges, allegedly threatened to kill his girlfriend and the cops who arrested him Sunday; separately, Michael Testa was arrested for the ninth time.
Bunnell Names Tom Foster, Veteran of Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Its New Police Chief
Tom Foster, 57, retired as a captain from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in March 2012 after a year as head of the street crime section of the special operations division, which oversaw gang enforcement, juvenile arrests and “problem-oriented policing.”
In Bunnell, Crain-Brady’s Election Fiasco Becomes Fodder For Criticism of City Manager’s Leadership
Bunnell City Commissioner Jenny Crain-Brady Monday evening took responsibility for failing to qualify for the March election but was then joined by Mayor Catherine Robinson in an explicit and often unfair or unsupported attack on City Manager Larry Williams’ leadership and accountability.
Crain-Brady’s Disqualification In Bunnell Is Final, But Errors Were Far From Hers Alone
Bunnell City Commissioner Jenny Crain-Brady disqualified herseolf from the March 4 election when she failed to meet a fee deadline last week, but the error unraveled a series of errors and misjudgments that run through Bunnell’s election process, and go as far as documentation released by the Supervisor of Elections.
Jenny Crain-Brady, Not Paying a Fee, Fails to Qualify for Bunnell Commission Election; 4 Others Do
In an unexpected and significant reversal of fortune for an incumbent candidate for the Bunnell City Commission election set for March 4, Jenny Crain-Brady has not qualified for the seat she had gathered petitions to run for. Brady failed to pay the $96 state assessment fee required of all candidates, whether they have the necessary number of petitions or not.
Weeks After Bunnell Commissioner’s Residency Is Questioned, Lawmakers Float Tighter Rules
A pair of state lawmakers announced a proposal Thursday that would tighten the definition of residency for elected officials, but the measures don’t specify what the punishment might be or who would be responsible for enforcing the standards.
Commissioner’s Latest Move to Replace Bunnell Police With Sheriff May Be Stillborn
For the third time in five years, Bunnell City Commissioner Elbert Tucker wants the city to consider letting the Flagler County Sheriff’s office provide policing services to Bunnell, but this latest effort is facing stiff resistance even before being officially floated before commissioners.
Ex-Sheriff Veteran Lynn Catoggio a Finalist for Bunnell Police Chief, Burke and Clair Miss Cut
In addition to Lynne Catoggio making the short-list of four names for Bunnell Police Chief were Ronald Chapman and Thomas Foster of Orange County and FHP’s Harry Coates. Acting Chief Randy Burke, ex-Sheriff’s Captain Steve Clair and ex-Sheriff candidate John Pollinger did not make the cut from a list of 27.
A Flagler Farewell to 2013: The Local Year in Review
A tornado, plane crashes and mishaps, Flagler County going bonkers for clunkers, a spate of murders in Palm Coast, Flagler Beach’s firehouse follies, Bunnell’s reality show: 2013 is ending not a moment too soon. But first, a review.
Palm Coast Man Charged With Raping 8-Year-Old Girl; Bunnell Man Charged With Statutory Rape
Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Gregory Selts of Palm Coast and Dante Mobley of Bunnell in unrelated cases between Dec. 19 and 22 involving the rape of children—in Selts’s case, a girl who claims she was raped when in first grade in Palm Coast, and in Mobley’s, the case of an alleged statutory rape of a 14-year-old in Bunnell.
White Christmas in Bunnell: Snow Falls And Hearts Soar as City Caps Centennial
Bunnell marked the end of its centennial year Friday evening with the biggest Christmas celebration of its hundred years, including free barbecue, greetings with Santa, three musical groups and a surprise blanketing of snow.
An Attempt to Discredit a Commissioner Over Her Temporary Digs in Palm Coast Backfires
Bunnell City Commissioner Jenny Crain-Brady sold her house in Bunnell and temporarily moved to a friend’s house in Palm Coast, though she was rebuilding another house in Bunnell. The move triggered a complaint about her right to serve on the commission–or to run for re-election in March–and a fellow-commissioner brought the question to the full board.
A Divided Bunnell Accepts Old Courthouse Despite Mounting Questions About Mold and Other Issues
The 3-2 vote of the Bunnell City Commission was fraught with questions about the conditions of the 49,700 square foot building, which is in serious disrepair, shows evidence of leaks and possibly mold, and may cost upward of $5 million to be functional again, though Bunnell says nit would only refurbish a portion of it at a lower cost.
Bunnell’s Burden: A Photo Gallery of the Old Flagler County Courthouse and Annex
A photo gallery provides the first comprehensive inside look at the conditions of the old Flagler County Courthouse and annex, which Bunnell acquired at no cost on Nov. 26. But the city is now responsible for all repair and maintenance costs of both attached structures. The costs will be heavy.
Hunting Camp Rape Case: Conflicting Details Emerge as 4th Suspect Turns Himself In and 2 Bond Out
As Frank Goggans turned himself in at the Flagler County jail Wednesday and promptly bonded out (as had his brother Daniel), extensive and lurid details from investigators’ interviews with the two brothers and a third suspect have emerged in the case of the alleged gang rape of a woman in Flagler Beach and at the Cowart Hunting Camp on March 20.
John Pollinger, Steve Clair and Randy Burke Among 25 Candidates for Bunnell Police Chief
City Manager Lawrence Williams is in no hurry to nominate a chief. He’s frozen the position until Dec. 1, by which time he said he’ll announce his decision. John Pollinger was a candidate for sheriff in 2012, Steve Clair was just passed over for police chief in Flagler Beach, and Randy Burke is Bunnell’s acting chief.
Four Flagler Men Sought in Kidnapping and Gang Rape of a Woman at Cowart Hunting Camp
The Flagler County Sheriff is looking for four men accused of kidnapping a woman they’d encountered at Finn’s bar in Flagler Beach and gang-raping her at the Cowart Hunting Camp in western Flagler County on March 20. The men are Charles L. Cowart of west Bunnell, Daniel and Frank Goggans, and Kurt Benjamin, of Palm Coast.
In Vose Law Firm, Bunnell Picks Mother-Son Team as Its New Attorneys, for $7,000 a Month
Burned this summer by monthly legal bills of $24,000 and $35,000, and by its attorney’s resignation, the Bunnell City Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to hire Winter Park-based Vose Law Firm to represent it, for what appears to be a cut rate, relatively speaking.
Bowing to Hammock, Thrasher and Hutson Will File Bills to Restore Vacation-Rental Regulations
Sen. John Thrasher and Rep. Travis Hutson made their pledge to repeal the vacation-rental law during the annual legislative delegation meeting in Flagler Wednesday, which drew more than a full house because of that controversial issue. But repeal is unlikely as the 2011 law, which makes it easier to operate a house as a mini-hotel, passed the Senate unanimously, and the House overwhelmingly.
