Drew Moss is one of three Republican candidates for Flagler County Commission, District 4. He faces incumbent Leann Pennington and Anna Jones. Only registered Republicans may vote in the primary. The winner of the Republican Aug. 18 primary will still go on to the general because a write-in has filed, but the Republican who prevails is all but certain to win.
Two seats are up on the commission in this election cycle. In District 2, an open seat, Greg Feldman faces Theresa Pontieri in the Republican primary. The winner will face independent Raymond Royer in the general election.
Flagler County Commission members serve four years. They’re paid $77,000 a year, an amount that will likely go up by a few thousand dollars by next year.
The Live Interview format changed this year. Since 2010, FlaglerLive had submitted identical questions to all candidates, enabling them to answer in writing. There typically were a round or two of follow-up questions, also in writing. Artificial intelligence has made that approach obsolete now that candidates can run the questions through AI and spit out prefab answers. To get around that, candidates were invited to a video interview. The video and the transcript are provided below.
The candidates were provided the same basic question within half an hour or less of the scheduled interview, but obviously not the follow-ups, which all differed. The questions to county commissioners are here.
Following the interview and before publication, the interview transcript went through two rounds of editing at this end, once by AI (yes, the irony is inescapable) for spell checks, copy editing and to smooth out verbal tics or repetitive words, and once by me for the same purpose. The candidates were then provided with the interview transcript and the video to review–not to make substantial changes, but to verify transcription accuracy, and, if they so chose, to add a postscript: if they felt they may have misspoken, or not clarified a point, or preferred to revise an answer, they were given that chance in the postscript, without changing the original text in the transcript. The postscript window is remaining open for subsequent additions, until the election.
The interviews can be quite long–not a surprise for a site pathologically incapable of brevity, but the county is awash in candidate quickies. We offer a little more depth, seeking to draw a profile rather than check off boxes. The Live Interview’s aim is to elicit as much candor and transparency as possible, and to learn about the candidate beyond the basics in what amounts to extended conversations about the person, the character and temperament behind the candidate, the candidate’s seriousness, and the issues.
The rest is in the voters’ hands.
–Pierre Tristam
Flagler County Commission Greg Feldman (Dis. 2, R) Theresa Pontieri (Dist. 2, R) Anna Jones (Dist. 4, R) Drew Moss (Dist. 4, R) Leann Pennington (Dist. 4, R) Flagler County School Board Cathy Moon (Dist. 1) Jill Woolbright (Dist. 1) Will Furry (Dist. 2) Rob Wood (Dist. 2) Christy Chong (Dist 4) Ron Long (Dist. 4) Trevor Tucker (Dist. 4) Palm Coast City Council Tony Amaral Jr. (Dist. 2) Jeani Duarte (Dist 2.) Jimmy Hengy (Dist. 2) Dylana Dee Galery (Dist. 4) John Kvederis (Dist. 4) Ramon Marrero (Dist. 4) Darlene Shelley (Dist. 4) The candidates' interviews will be live-linked the day their interview publishes. |
The Interview Themes in Summary: Quick Links
- Basics
- Preparation and Character
- Grading the Commission
- Goals
- The homestead amendment
- Sales tax increase
- Blaise Ingoglia’s claims of waste
- Consolidation
- Environmentally Sensitive Lands
- Beach management
- Public safety budgets
- County airport
- Rap sheet
- Postscript
The Video:
FlaglerLive: Well, good afternoon, Mr. Moss, and thank you very much for taking part in the live interview. We’re going to start.
Drew Moss: Thank you for having me.
FlaglerLive: You’re very welcome, and we’re going to start right from the start with your place and date of birth.
Drew Moss: I’m in Palm Coast, and I was born October 11, 1978.
FlaglerLive: Where were you actually born?
Drew Moss: I was born in Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Spring, Maryland.
FlaglerLive: And what brought you to Flagler County and Palm Coast specifically?
Drew Moss: Growing up, since before I was one, I always visited Flagler Beach. My grandparents had a place down here at Ocean Beach Club Two. I think now it’s called Ocean Breeze, or its name has changed just a little bit. So I visited all throughout my life, a couple times a year, to come down here and see them. I just fell in love with Flagler—that older ’80s, ’90s, early 2000s Flagler. When I got out of the Army in 2001, I decided to move down here and make it my home.
FlaglerLive: Beforehand, what was your career work before 2001?
Drew Moss: Before 2001, I was an intelligence analyst. I worked at the NSA in Fort Meade, Maryland.
FlaglerLive: For how many years?
Drew Moss: For four years active—three years active, five years inactive reserves. So it’s eight years, but the last four years you’re really just not doing anything unless they call you.
FlaglerLive: So you were listening in on foreigners.
Drew Moss: It’s a different kind of intelligence. It’s a non-communications intelligence analyst. So if you think about whales and sonar, we didn’t have Google Earth like we have now. We used an oscilloscope back then, and we’d be able to see who’s moving what kinds of equipment—missiles, tanks, things like that—based on the feedback we’d get.
FlaglerLive: And starting in 2001 in Palm Coast, what did you do?
Drew Moss: When I first came down here in 2001, I was going to go work at Lockheed Martin.
FlaglerLive: In St. Johns County?
Drew Moss: I think the office I was looking at was in Orlando at the time—I could be mistaken. So I came down in May, took a few months off just to spend a little time alone, and then 9/11 happened, and there was a hiring freeze. So I took a job—I was like, “Okay, I’ve got to get something, I can’t not work.” I actually worked at Movie Gallery in Palm Coast, if you remember Movie Gallery.
FlaglerLive: Was that like a video store?
Drew Moss: It was like a Blockbuster, but it was Movie Gallery. So I worked there, helping manage that store a little bit, and got my real estate license.
FlaglerLive: Was that in the old Island Walk Shopping Center?
Drew Moss: It is a Pet Supermarket now, I think, by Taco Bell.
FlaglerLive: And how long did you do that?
Drew Moss: Not very long. I went and got my real estate license—not really a career choice.
FlaglerLive: Bring us up to the present. What did you do in between?
Drew Moss: All right. I did property management and finance. We had the crash back in 2009, 2010. You remember everything was going bad, and I went to apply at the Flagler County Clerk of Court for a finance position. HR reached out and said, “Hey, I really liked your interview, but we got somebody who’s got a degree in finance, so we went with them.” I said, “Well, if something comes up, it doesn’t matter to me what it is. Cleaning the toilets, I’ll take it.” They called me the next day and offered me a job in the recording department, which is where I started with the clerk’s office. From there, I went into board records, and after that, I was the records management liaison officer.
FlaglerLive: And then did you go into teaching?
Drew Moss: I went into teaching from there. I went and got my degree. You have to have a degree to teach, and it’s something I’ve always thought about doing. People would always say, “Oh, this teacher really impacted my life,” or “This one really did that,” and I didn’t have that person, so I thought, “Let me go try to be that person.” So I’ve been doing that. I’m in my eighth year now.
FlaglerLive: Where do you teach?
Drew Moss: I teach at Palatka High School. I run their career and technical education business department.
FlaglerLive: You commute every day on 100.
Drew Moss: Every day. Actually, I go through Hastings. Taking Hastings, you take your life in your hands every day.
FlaglerLive: Every day.
Drew Moss: It’s about 40 minutes each way, but it gives me time to gather my thoughts before I get to work, decompress, and get ready for the afternoon with my kids afterward.
FlaglerLive: Right, and you mentioned you teach IT, or…
Drew Moss: So I do CTE business, and that includes a course called Digital Information Technology. It’s really a 5,000-foot view of IT—hardware, software, applications, things like that.
FlaglerLive: You’re running, obviously, in the Republican primary, so you’re Republican. But have you always been a Republican?
Drew Moss: I have. It’s a funny story, actually. The first time I ever voted for president, I was 17.
FlaglerLive: Who did you vote for?
Drew Moss: I voted for Dr. Alan Keyes.
FlaglerLive: Oh, him! Alan Keyes, because in the primary—that was the primary, right?
Drew Moss: I was 18 by the time the general election occurred, and he had done the speech at my high school graduation. I kind of just believed in what he was saying. I thought, “I’m 17; they’re going to let me vote in the primary because I’m old enough to vote in the general.” So I went in there, voted in the primary, and voted for Dr. Alan Keyes.
FlaglerLive: I remember Alan Keyes, but I forget what election it was. Who was running back then?
Drew Moss: ’96.
FlaglerLive: ’96. That was Clinton and Dole. [Note: Alan Keys ran for president in 1996, 2000 and 2008.]
Drew Moss: Right.
FlaglerLive: How have you prepared yourself to be ready to succeed from day one on the county commission?
Drew Moss: Just reminding myself to keep an open mind. A lot of people go into the position and think, “I’m going to make decisions for our residents, for the public.” To me, it’s more like representing them to do their will—finding out what the people want and representing them through that vote, rather than just saying, “I think this is what’s best for you.” Actually speaking with them and remembering that I’m elected to serve those people.
FlaglerLive: How did you decide to jump in? What led you to do that, especially in the context of running against an incumbent, Leann Pennington particularly? What made you think, “Well, I can do a better job”?
Drew Moss: I see a lot of analysis paralysis over there, workshopping things. I don’t think every decision needs to be made hastily, but let’s do the research. If you’re going to order the studies, let’s not ignore the studies. When our CFO came and spoke about the gross overspending, I felt like our budget is outgrowing our government, our population, and inflation. There’s probably an issue there. So let me take a look at it and keep as many taxpayer dollars in their pockets as we can, rather than wasting it.
FlaglerLive: You do think you could do a better job than Pennington?
Drew Moss: Yes.
FlaglerLive: Where is the flaw in Pennington?
Drew Moss: I don’t really like to call out flaws in people—if they want to do that for me, that’s fine. But the amount of time they spend to make a decision or go against what the research has shown them, I’m not a fan. Losing institutional knowledge is crazy to me—getting rid of people who have 30 years of institutional knowledge.
FlaglerLive: Such as…
Drew Moss: That would be like Heidi Petito and a couple of people.
FlaglerLive: But you’re not opposed to workshopping issues.
Drew Moss: Absolutely not. You’ve got to workshop the issues. A lot of times these questions come up and people don’t want to take the time to research them. Everything needs to be a data-driven, research-based decision.
FlaglerLive: Speaking of flaws, what flaw would you say you have that might interfere with your work on the commission?
Drew Moss: I don’t know that it would interfere because I have stops in place to keep it in check, but I tend to want to solve things really quickly. You look at a problem: “Here’s the solution, let’s do it.” That’s the reason research and data-driven decisions are so important—it helps me slow things down.
FlaglerLive: How do you handle a misjudgment if you’ve made a mistake? What do you do next?
Drew Moss: You have to accept responsibility, look at it, and move on. Some people come up with a program and they’re married to it because it was theirs. But we do the research, mission, goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics, and then we implement it and forget about it. Well, it should be fighting for its life every year. They’re leaving off the evaluation piece, so evaluate it. Is this program serving what we said it was going to serve? Is it effective? Do we need to make tweaks or changes? If the evaluation says it’s not good, maybe we need to move on to something else.
FlaglerLive: Who do you admire in office today on any of the local governing boards?
Drew Moss: There are a few people I admire out there now. As far as the county commission is concerned—and these guys aren’t all in my party—I was always a fan of Frank Meeker, George Hanns, and Nate McLaughlin. Those were kind of my guys back then. Now I think our constitutional officers are doing a really good job.
FlaglerLive: Aside from the constitutional officers, I’m very interested in knowing who you think is a model of leadership working today on governing boards where you have to deal with others.
Drew Moss: I think Tom [Bexley, the clerk of court] does a great job. I think Shelly [Edmonson, the tax collector] does a great job. I think Jay [Gardner, the property appraiser] does a great job. I think Rick [Staly, the sheriff] does—all our constitutional officers are really doing a good job.
FlaglerLive: Aside from them, on governing boards—county commission, school board, city council—who stands out in your eyes as a model of leadership?
Drew Moss: It’s tough. I like Dave Sullivan. I think he’s got good ideas; I just think he got shut down a lot. I’m a fan of having a board that’s maybe a little more amicable than our current board.
FlaglerLive: What grade would you give the current county commission?
Drew Moss: Probably a C. Again, the budget has outgrown our population and inflation. The loss of institutional knowledge from directors and the county administrator… I think they’ve made some mistakes. I think some people wanted to do better, but they were just outnumbered.
FlaglerLive: Is there a specific example you might point to that would justify a C, which is a pretty mediocre grade?
Drew Moss: It’s pretty mediocre. Well, if you’re making $100,000 a year and spending $150,000, that’s like a C. So if we’re overspending where we could be keeping some of those tax dollars in the pockets of the populace, I think that’s a pretty big misstep.
FlaglerLive: Where are we doing that?
Drew Moss: It’s going to take a lot of research to figure out exactly where. I’ve been to some of these workshops, and they asked the interim county administrator, “Hey, what 10% would you cut?” They came up with two departments where we could lose a lot of money. I think we need to audit every department.
FlaglerLive: But they’re audited every year.
Drew Moss: Losing 10% of the budget with one department so that we can shift that money into two other buckets and still keep spending it—I think we need to look at where all the spending is happening and make a decision based on that.
FlaglerLive: Can you point to an example of waste?
Drew Moss: I’d want to look at it a little further to be able to give you that direct answer.
FlaglerLive: How fair is it to say, “Well, there’s waste, and I’m running because I’m going to help stop it,” when you can’t point out where the problem is?
Drew Moss: There are only a certain amount of things that we are required to do by our government. I don’t want to say pet projects, but there are places where the government does not fund a humane society. Some of these things can be privately done and maybe done better. I’m not saying that’s a specific example where I would say, “Hey, let me get rid of the Humane Society.” I’m saying I think we could stick to our core responsibilities rather than funding everything. There’s a better way to use public-private partnerships and try to attract businesses to take more of the tax burden rather than placing it on the taxpayer.
FlaglerLive: The Humane Society, of course, is its own private nonprofit, and the county contracts with it. What do you think about the county and the city’s idea of joining animal control services jointly, which would not eliminate their need for the Humane Society or another shelter? What do you think about that merging plan they’re working on?
Drew Moss: There are a couple times where a merging plan could be really good. You look at it—we don’t have city police for Flagler Beach, Palm Coast, and Marineland as separate entities. The sheriff takes care of most of it. Flagler Beach does have its own police department, but not all our cities do.
FlaglerLive: You’re okay with the plan on animal control that they’re working on?
Drew Moss: I have not read over that plan, but that’s something I would have to look at and make sure is a research-based, data-driven decision. If I haven’t done the research, I really don’t want to speak directly to it.
FlaglerLive: Are there a couple of examples where they have excelled?
Drew Moss: I think we’re doing a pretty good job with maintaining our land. I don’t see them pushing for data centers and getting rid of everything. Flagler is very unique: we’ve got the country, the beach, and natural estuaries that are absolutely beautiful. I think they’ve done a good job protecting some of that.
FlaglerLive: And another example?
Drew Moss: That’s the one I’m going to come up with for now.
FlaglerLive: What are a couple of goals in their so-called strategic action plan that you agree with—ongoing priorities that you support?
Drew Moss: It’s important that we do our beach renourishment, and it’s important to protect our good lands. The beaches provide a lot of extra tax benefit for us.
FlaglerLive: Are there a couple of goals that you disagree with?
Drew Moss: Not necessarily their goals, but I’ve heard people on our board say things like, “Hey, I’ve got a track record of lowering your taxes.” My taxes haven’t been lowered. Look at your tax bills over the last 10 or 15 years—not one time have they gone down. To lower taxes, you have to go past the rollback rate. If keeping taxes flat requires dropping to a 1.4 mill rollback rate, and you only lower it 0.1 mill—that’s 1/14th of keeping taxes flat—that’s a 7% failure. To say you have a track record of lowering taxes when your goal should be to lower taxes and you’re not, I think that’s a mistruth. For me, it’s about being transparent and saying, “Hey, we did our best, but we need all this money,” rather than claiming a track record of lowering taxes.
FlaglerLive: If I look at my taxes, I’m giving all of my local government agencies about 30% less in purchasing power than I did in 2010. So my taxes have actually gone down in real, inflation-adjusted terms. I’m paying $2,000 today, which is what I was paying in 2008 for a brand-new 3,000-square-foot house. So when you say taxes have never gone down…
Drew Moss: I just sold the house, but currently paying more every single year over the last. I bought in 2012, and every year my taxes went up under my homestead.
FlaglerLive: How will you vote on the Homestead Amendment this November?
Drew Moss: It’s a tough one. You know, you hate to tell people, hey, if you get rid of the homestead, you kind of think we got to see how it’s going to shake out a little bit before we really make hard and fast plans. But like, let’s say I took 80% of your budget. I think that, and the research. I’m trying to just remember now. Like I said, I’d like to be just looking it up as we’re speaking, but I want to say the number was like 80% of our Flagler County government budget is paid for through ad valorem taxes.
FlaglerLive: Property taxes account for the majority of the general fund, which pays for law enforcement, public safety, parks, fire rescue, and public works. So that fund will take a serious hit—possibly more than $20 million out of the $116 million total general fund revenue. Where are you if you were to vote today?
Drew Moss: My concern is that if they eliminate ad valorem taxes, they will just make that money up somewhere else. If we wipe out ad valorem taxes, instead of paying $5,000 in taxes, they might replace it with five or six other fees that end up costing $6,000. Ad valorem is something we know; it has been working, and we don’t have general fund debt. To say we’re going to get rid of it because we want everyone to have that cash. And trust me, I love it. I love the idea of paying no tax. I think that’d be awesome. But I like our schools. I like our roads. I like our safety. I love all those things, and in this day and age, taxes is what pays for it. So something that I’m still looking at, I’ve got to tell you, I’m kind of opposed to it. Like if I’m leaning for it right now, I’m opposed to it.
FlaglerLive: Neither Palm Coast nor the county has debt based on the general fund; both have utility debt from special funds for other projects. If the amendment passes and creates a tax shift, how do you think this county would make up the loss?
Drew Moss: I think they would come up with user fees, special fees, and assessments.
FlaglerLive: Would they have a choice?
Drew Moss: I don’t know what they’re going to do. I think we’re kind of putting the cart before the horse. I think we got to see what happens, see what shakes out, and make adjustments from there. We’re going to have to do it. It’s going to be a tough time, but that’s where the research, data-driven decisions. You know, we’re not the first people to face issues like this. I mean, this specific one, sure. People have done it. People have done it well, and people have done it poorly, and that’s that’s free to look at. We don’t have to even pay for, you know, a survey for that. We could just do the research ourselves.
FlaglerLive: So you don’t see them just doing nothing. You do see that there’s going to be a shift, and that they’ll come up with other means of funding what they’re funding today.
Drew Moss: I think that it’s going to be multifaceted. I think you’re going to look at cuts, and then you’re also going to look at other fees. My concern is just that I don’t want the other fees to end up costing the people more than the ad valorem that they’re saving. You know what I mean?
FlaglerLive: But we don’t know that right now.
Drew Moss: We don’t. We don’t have that information yet. No.
FlaglerLive: The commission has often flirted—not often, but a couple of times in the last several years—with the sales tax, an increase of half a penny. Where would you be on that? And you can address the question both whether the amendment passes or not, because they’ve considered it even before the amendment for that question.
Drew Moss: You know, we’re one of the only small counties that isn’t using a half-cent sales tax. When I’m talking to people about a half-cent sales tax, you know, where do you like to go shopping? And I get answers like St. Augustine, Daytona. Well, you’re paying it. You’re just paying it to them. So if they go shopping in Volusia County, they’re paying it. They go shopping in St. Johns, they’re already paying it. I’m not completely opposed to the half-cent. I just think we need to really take a look at it and see if we’re going to need it. Maybe that would be a good option for beach renourishment. I think there’s a couple ways to look at it now, but it has to make sense. We’ve got to make it make sense.
FlaglerLive: Do you see that as a tax shift if the amendment passes?
Drew Moss: I think that it would be pushed harder if the amendment passes. I think that they’d say, “Hey, let’s look at this half-cent.” Now, it does have positives to it because it’s not just us who pay it. Everybody who visits, you know, it’s offset. I believe the research I did said it would be offset by about 30% from out-of-towners and out-of-staters who also spend money here.
Blaise Ingoglia’s Claims of Waste
FlaglerLive: The CFO, Blaise Ingoglia, when he came here, you heard his claim that this county wasted $59 million over five years. Do you take that claim at face value?
Drew Moss: No. I think it’s a great headline, right, for him. “Hey, we found the biggest wasteful spender.” But the research I was looking at—and I looked at this weeks ago, and I don’t want to misrepresent or misquote it—was that a little more than half of that was actually wasteful spending, which is still a ton. But some of it is, like I said, they shift money from one bucket to another bucket, and now it looks like it’s the county’s budget. I think some of the sheriff’s budget was shifted into there, so it looks like the county overspent when it was the sheriff’s money being spent. Not that he overspent, just that the money moved from one budget to the other.
FlaglerLive: Are you talking about the 911 absorption by the county? The county absorbing the 911 staff and system, because it used to be under the sheriff and now it’s under the county. Is that what you’re referring to?
Drew Moss: I don’t want to misrepresent it.
FlaglerLive: But if it was half the $59 million, we’re still talking about $30 million in waste. Where is one example of where that waste is?
Drew Moss: According to Blaise, we’re spending way too much money. I look at it and I see that personnel is the biggest part of anything. People are what matters, and I look at their income and their salaries, and they seem to line up with other places. I don’t know if we’ve got duplicative jobs out there, like you were talking about earlier—maybe combining forces between cities and counties. Maybe there’s an answer there too, but I don’t think it’s going to be a one-size-fits-all fix. I think there will have to be audits to look at everything, and maybe we put five things in place to get us where we need to be, especially after this ad valorem thing goes through or doesn’t go through.
FlaglerLive: But I’m not hearing an example of waste.
Drew Moss: I look at the sheriff’s office over 20 years ago—officers per capita—and today, officers per capita, and it looks like he’s staying in line with population. I don’t know what that shakes out to over the last few years, but like I said, I think our constitutional officers do a great job paying for their stuff. I think we’re paying for things maybe we don’t need to be paying for, or maybe we need to revisit some of the public-private partnerships we’re using.
FlaglerLive: Like what?
Drew Moss: I’d have to look at it. Like I said, it needs to be research- and data-driven. My flaw is to just tend to go, “Hey, let me fix it,” and run right down there and get it done. But no, it’s going to take a fair deal of research.
FlaglerLive: I agree, but I just don’t want to leave it hanging that we’re saying there’s waste when we can’t actually show a single example of waste.
Drew Moss: Yeah, that I’d have to look at. There’s got to be one example somewhere out there, but I’m not going to disenfranchise anybody and say it’s you before I’ve done the research. No way.
FlaglerLive: But you are willing to say we’re wasting.
Drew Moss: I’m willing to say that Blaise said we’re wasting, and I think he said we’re wasting more than is actually being wasted.
FlaglerLive: What services would you consolidate between the county and the cities?
Drew Moss: I’d have to look at it and see what lines up and what makes sense. If it doesn’t make sense to consolidate those services, I’m not going to say, “Oh, let’s do it just to save money,” especially if it doesn’t save money. I think all of it needs to be done to try to keep as much taxpayer dollars in the taxpayers’ pockets as possible.
FlaglerLive: Is there a potential for consolidated services that you see?
Drew Moss: I’m sure there’s potential for consolidated services. It just has to make sense. I don’t have a specific example for you. I’d have to really look at it.
Environmentally Sensitive Lands
FlaglerLive: The Environmentally Sensitive Lands program—you’re familiar with it. It’s been on the books since the late 1980s, and it’s going to come up for renewal during the next term. If you’re elected, you’ll be responsible for either agreeing to put it on the ballot for renewal or not. The questions are: Would you agree to put it back on the ballot for renewal? The levy right now is 12.5 cents per $1,000 in assessed value, so a $300,000 house with a homestead pays $31. Would you be willing to raise that a little bit, to maybe 20 or 25 cents? And final question: Would you want to change the mission of the ESL? Right now it’s just environmentally sensitive lands, but that definition does not include the beach, for example. Would you want to expand the definition so that it could pay for things like beach renourishment?
Drew Moss: I’d have to look at the fund for that to see if it needs to be raised. If I look at it and it says 12.5 cents isn’t enough—I mean, if 12.5 cents is $31 a household and you upped it to 20 cents, it would be $42 a year or something like that. So is it an option if we see it has to go up? Yeah. But it kind of depends: Is it going to need to go up? I didn’t even consider expanding it as an option, like you mentioned for beach renourishment; I hadn’t even thought about that.
FlaglerLive: A couple of commissioners have raised that possibility, including Kim Carney. She said maybe we can redirect the ESL to include the beach. But you’re supportive of ESL, right, just to be clear?
Drew Moss: I love Old Flagler, and I love having our land not all built on, even though they’re doing the westward expansion. I like having our land be land and not blacktop everywhere.
FlaglerLive: Speaking of the beach, Flagler County has a beach management plan, but it’s not funded, so it’s not really a plan as long as it’s unfunded. Do you agree with the fact that the plan Heidi Petito presented was eliminated, and what would you propose as an alternative? How would we fund this beach management plan?
Drew Moss: Well, like we said, maybe the ESL or the half-cent sales tax could help it. Heidi had a lot of institutional knowledge. I haven’t looked over that plan to make sure everything lines up with my way of thinking.
FlaglerLive: In other words, you haven’t looked at the Petito plan when it was presented?
Drew Moss: I did not look over that entire plan. I’m not familiar enough with it to speak about her specific plan. The fact that Heidi came up with it makes me think it’s probably pretty good, though.
FlaglerLive: I take it you didn’t agree with the way she was semi-fired.
Drew Moss: No.
FlaglerLive: How would you have handled that situation?
Drew Moss: A little more amicability on the board. They lost three to two. I think some people were getting a little catty, and if I were on the board, she would still be there.
FlaglerLive: Would you have used that word, “catty,” had the three board members who voted her out been men who acted the same way?
Drew Moss: Men can be absolutely catty, 100%. In this instance, it may have been moved around a little bit, but yeah, men can absolutely be catty.
FlaglerLive: Would you have kept her on?
Drew Moss: Yeah. I think she was doing a good job.
FlaglerLive: The beach management plan she proposed was projecting a need of between $10 million and $15 million a year. How would you possibly raise that without the sales tax, for instance, and without some of those special taxing districts that early on in the interview you said you’re not too thrilled about?
Drew Moss: I’m not thrilled about them, but they may have to happen, especially if this happens with our ad valorem taxes. Could you repeat what you were saying to me, Pierre?
FlaglerLive: If the beach renourishment or protection plan were to cost between $10 million and $15 million a year, how could you possibly fund that without a special taxing district, the sales tax, and other revenue sources?
Drew Moss: I don’t think there’s a great answer for that. I don’t know that it needed $10 million or $15 million. Like I said, I hadn’t looked over that plan. I don’t know if money can be shifted from other places. You mentioned the ESL; maybe Carney’s onto something. I’d have to really look at it. I’m not well-enough versed on that to speak on it.
FlaglerLive: The sheriff’s budget has actually outpaced population growth. It has increased 87% in the last five years, although the county’s population has increased 22%. Fire Rescue has also increased, along with Emergency Management, 80% in that timespan. Even though the crime rate is very low, how are those increases defensible or sustainable?
Drew Moss: Over the last five years, I’m not as versed on it. I think that might be a little bit of a narrow view. I looked at it over the last 20 years when I was seeing people talk about it—why is he spending money on a helicopter, why is he doing this or that? I looked at it over 20 years, and it seemed that our population and officers are the same per capita now as 20 years ago, from 2002 to 2025. His budget seems to be in line as far as personnel are concerned—the same amount of officers per capita, which I think is the biggest part of that budget. We’ve got new technology they’ve got to spend on and things like that. I didn’t look over Sheriff Staly’s budget to be able to say why he spent this money here. I didn’t look at that.
FlaglerLive: You’re saying there was a need to catch up with ratios that were not sufficient over that period of time?
Drew Moss: If we’ve been a safe county for the 20-year span I’m talking about—one officer per this many people then, and we still have one officer per this many people now—I think he kept up with it well.
FlaglerLive: Speaking of consolidation, he bought the helicopter, and some of it was paid for by the donor attorney. But would there not have been an option to go 24 hours with FireFlight and save a lot of operational money rather than have two helicopters to operate and staff?
Drew Moss: Yeah, I didn’t look at the specifics as to why, but that was my first thought too: Why did we need another helicopter? I didn’t dig any deeper into that. I just kind of looked at it and thought Sheriff Staly’s been doing a good job for so long, he must have had to have it. I didn’t look at it and say he’s overspending, but maybe he did. I didn’t think we needed another helicopter, but the sheriff did.
FlaglerLive: The county airport isCD unquestionably an asset economically, but for surrounding neighborhoods, there have been recurring complaints about noise. A couple of flight schools operate out of there, and neighbors complain about the noise and pollution. Is there anything the county can do to help them out?
Drew Moss: I’m going to say something that might not be a popular opinion here, and I’ve talked to some people who live out there and are not fans of the county airport. But the airport was there before every person I’ve talked to bought their house there. You buy a place behind a restaurant, it’s going to smell like food. You buy a place at the airport, there’s going to be noise, right? I hear their planes from here in the Town Center. I couldn’t imagine purchasing a place over by the airport, but they made that decision to live there. Maybe the noise pollution has gone up—maybe it was 20 minutes a day and now they feel like it’s an hour and a half. But I think flight school is a good thing, and it’s great that we’ve got that opportunity for people right here in Flagler County. To me, if you don’t want to hear the flight noise, you can choose not to live by the airport.
FlaglerLive: So no changes as far as the airport is concerned?
Drew Moss: No, I think the airport is doing a good job.
FlaglerLive: That brings us to the last question, which is your legal background. Have you ever been charged with a felony or a misdemeanor anywhere in the state, county, country, or world—other than a speeding ticket—or faced any kind of civil action other than a divorce, including bankruptcies?
Drew Moss: No.
FlaglerLive: Completely clean?
Drew Moss: I’m clean, yeah.
Drew Moss: The security clearance I held when I was in the military was a TS/SCI. So yeah, I had to go through background checks, polygraph tests, and all that.
FlaglerLive: Have you faced any investigative or disciplinary actions within your jobs or disciplines, like Internal Affairs investigations or sanctions from professional associations?
Drew Moss: Nope. I’ve held a teaching license that was clean, and my real estate license was clean. I’ve never had anything like that.
FlaglerLive: Very good. Well, that brings us to the end. I very much appreciate the time you took, wish you the best of luck in the next few weeks, and we’ll speak again at some point. Thank you very much for taking the time.
Drew Moss: Hey, thank you so much for having me.
FlaglerLive: You’re very welcome.
None submitted.
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