Jimmy Hengy is one of two candidates for the Palm Coast City Council, District 2. This is a non-partisan race. All registered voters in Palm Coast may cast a ballot in the Aug. 18 primary. If none of the candidates get a majority of more than 50 percent, the top two vote-getters will go on to the runoff in the Nov. 3 general election, when again all registered voters in Palm Coast are eligible to vote.
Three seats were up on the Council in this election. District 3 was to have a special election for a two-year term. Ray Stevens was elected to that seat in 2024. He resigned soon after for health reasons. Dave Sullivan was appointed. Sullivan opted not to run for it. Stevens recovered, filed to run and was unopposed, thus winning the seat outright. He will be seated in November. The seat will be up again in 2028.
The District 2 and District 4 races are for open seats. Four candidates are contesting the District 4 seat: Dylana Dee Galery, John Kvederis, Ramon Marrero and Darlene Shelley. Charles Gambaro was appointed to that seat in 2024 after Cathy Heighter resigned. Gambaro is running for the congressional seat that represents Flagler County, and will vacate the council seat in November.
City Council members serve four-year terms, except in the case of the District 3 seat for the next two years. Council members are paid $24,097 a year plus a $1,200 car allowance and a $910 communication allowance. They may also opt into full health benefits.
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 was 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 questions 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 reader’s 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 Sheley (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
- Evaluating Council’s performance
- Mayor Norris
- Goals
- The homestead amendment
- Sales tax and other revenue levies
- Development
- HBA lawsuit over impact fees
- Westward expansion
- Traffic
- Public safety budgets
- Rap sheet
- Postscript
The Video
FlaglerLive: Good afternoon, Mr. Hengy, and thank you for being part of the interview process. And congratulations of course on your candidacy. So, let me just start with a couple of basics. Where were you born, and when?
James Hengy: So I was born in Garden City, Detroit, Michigan, in 1961. Though my first memories are of South Florida, I moved to Florida in the early 60s. I was probably in preschool when we first moved here.
FlaglerLive: Do you know what prompted you to move here?
James Hengy: My father’s work. His job transferred him to South Florida here, and we had family down here also. Both my grandfathers were living in South Florida at the time.
FlaglerLive: And you retired from what jobs?
James Hengy: So I’ve been self-employed since 25 years old. I owned a contract printing company back in the early 80s. We did contract work on apparel programs, both retail and corporate promotion. We had retail companies such as Sears, Kmart, and JC Penney’s that we did work for, also corporate accounts such as Budweiser, and Sports Authority. We even printed Super Bowl shirts for the Miami Marlins when they won the World Series. I sold that company in 2001 and bought a retail operation in Sebring, Florida. I relocated from South Florida to Sebring, Florida, after an opportunity from somebody within the same type of industry. At the time, my daughter was just born, and I was happy to get her out of South Florida into a quieter place. Sebring’s population at the time was just like 10,000 people, so it was a small town and everybody, you know, it was like South Florida was when I first grew up, where not only did you know your neighbors, you knew everybody in the neighborhood. When we left South Florida, we didn’t know our neighbors and didn’t want to know our neighbors, it was so transient and everything, so I was happy to leave South Florida.
After the downturn in 2008, things got really tough there economically. Sebring is more of a retirement community. It’s not a place to launch, grow, or sustain a business. In the end of 2018, I sold the business in Sebring, moved back to South Florida, and started a fishing rod manufacturing company. In 2018 and 2019, of course, COVID hit, so that kind of put dampers on things. We grew to a certain level, and come 2025, I decided to retire. My fiancee wanted to get out of South Florida. She was born and raised in South Florida. The Fort Lauderdale area was like cow pastures and farmland when we first moved there, and we watched it grow into what it is now. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Fort Lauderdale area.
FlaglerLive: Only in passing.
James Hengy: We definitely saw a lot of different types of growth there, some well thought out and some not so well thought out. I saw the same type of thing in Sebring. Sebring being a small town, I got to know the mayor there and some county commissioners, and attended meetings. I actually was on a citizens advisory board that evaluated employees’ performances and recommendations for advancement, either pay or positions, so I was familiar with the inner workings of local city government and actually county government with the commissioners.
FlaglerLive: So it’s all been Florida all your professional life?
James Hengy: Over 60 years. Yes.
FlaglerLive: And you’ve been here since 2023 or 2025?
James Hengy: Actually, 2025. I’ve been here just a year.
FlaglerLive: How did you choose Palm Coast, particularly?
James Hengy: So we scoured the northeast of Florida. We looked from Port Orange to New Smyrna, and we even went inland and looked at Deland. We have family in Green Cove Springs, about an hour north of us here, and just really fell in love with Palm Coast. I mean, the well-kept, well-manicured streets, and the size also—not so much, you know, it’s not a Jacksonville or an Orlando, so the size intrigued us, and the surroundings, you know, all the green spaces and stuff, we really fell in love. Also, a lot of people talk about the affordability. Compared to some of the other places, we were looking for a specific type of home, which we found here in Palm Coast, and it was less expensive than the other areas that we looked at. A lot of people question the affordability of Palm Coast, and my answer is there’s a lot of places in Florida that I can’t afford to live in.
FlaglerLive: How would you overcome the potential criticism from voters who might say, “Well, Mr. Hengy hasn’t been here but a year. How come he’s already running for office?
James Hengy: My answer to that is there’s 365 days in a year, and if you can’t familiarize yourself with an area or local operations or see what’s going on in 365 days, if it takes you longer than that… And then also the concern of the direction that we’re heading in. I followed a lot of the city council meetings online on their YouTube channel, and seeing and hearing about the rampant development, and just looking at it from a common-sense type of situation, all the high-density development to me didn’t make any sense.
FlaglerLive: What do you mean by the high-density development, especially since you’ve been here, though, since 2025 specifically?
James Hengy: What we liked about it… we live in the L section, and most of the homes in the L section are on at least 10,000 square foot lots; ours is about a third of an acre, so we like how it’s spread out. Down in South Florida, they have the zero lot lines where you basically don’t have a side yard, you have a front and a back, but you’re butted up against the neighbors, and I just don’t view Palm Coast as needing to be that kind of community. For one, we don’t have the jobs that would require high-density development. I’m not against development; we need it economically, we need to grow, we can’t be stagnant. I don’t understand all of the high density. I hear talk of 2,500 square foot lots, I mean, why do we need that type of situation? We don’t have the jobs here.
FlaglerLive: Where have you seen that actually happening? Because the overwhelming majority of developments, even now, the very largest majority of them are on larger lots, they’re not that small.
James Hengy: Yes, so there’s a lot of the new developments on smaller lots. There’s one right out here by us called Lakeview Estates; they’re smaller lots. Basically, the ones out west, Sawmill Branch, just west of us, are on smaller lots, and then also the proposed westward expansion. I read the MPD. I didn’t get the latest version of it, but I did read, I think it was the second draft of it, and that switched from 12,000 homes to 22,000 homes, so of course the lots are going to be smaller. I would like to see more developments like the Conservatory or like Grand Haven, ones that would preserve our property values.
FlaglerLive: Would you have been able to move into those developments yourself? Would those not have priced you out?
James Hengy: Those developments might have priced me out. Yes, that’s why we didn’t look in there for one, but my point for that, or my contention for that, would be this is the first year in 14 years that our property values have decreased. Part of it is, yes, the market is cooling off some, but now the comps from these smaller homes being built everywhere mean lower prices. I saw off of US 1, I think they have townhomes that are starting at $200,000, and then a lot of them like to tout their prices starting at $300,000. I see how that makes it affordable for your regular working-class people, but it has had an effect in dragging our values down, or at least making our values stagnate because of the lower cost. I mean, they’re building… I heard at one council meeting one builder state that smaller frame homes on smaller lots with single-car garages are going to be more affordable, and I thought, well, why do we need that? Right now you hear everybody complaining about having to travel to St. Augustine or Daytona to find halfway decent work. High density is usually in areas like a Jacksonville or an Orlando, where your workforce benefits by being closer to where their jobs are, so I don’t see that here with us.
FlaglerLive: We jumped right into the meat of some of the material we’re going to deal with a bit later, but just let me finish the thought. Because what you’ve described brings up a bit of a contradiction. You came here because you were able to afford a place that you could not have afforded elsewhere, but at the same time you don’t want to see the sort of affordable or more affordable housing that might enable others to move in. How do you square the contradiction?
James Hengy: So there are, from my understanding, already 19,000 approved home sites. 6,000 of those are infill lots, and 13,000 are part of the new developments, so those are already approved and already underway. In fact, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I have, that a lot of those infill lots are being built on now, and a lot by builders, not by homeowners; they’re spec homes.
FlaglerLive: And those are regular quarter-acre lots.
James Hengy: Those are, yeah, 10,000 or some of them are a little larger, like here in the L section, there’s some that are larger than 10,000, but the average would be… I don’t know if a quarter-acre is quite 10,000 square feet, close to it, but yeah, that to me should be the minimum, a quarter-acre lot.
FlaglerLive: But how do we make that affordable for folks like you who want to retire here?
James Hengy: I did a Zillow search and I put in there for Palm Coast houses, maximum selling price $300,000, and over 546 homes are readily available in Palm Coast under $300,000. So with that amount of homes available, and if you don’t put a limit on the search, there’s like some 2,000 homes for sale—some of them might be to be constructed, but a lot of them are existing—and so adding all these new homes… I’ve seen houses in our neighborhood that were for sale when we were looking in this area and are still for sale now. So, how does all the new development protect the homeowners that have been here or that own homes that are trying to sell them? I could understand if we had the work, if we had the workforce here, if we had a lot of industrial manufacturing jobs that require a lot of people and we’re hiring tons of people. Shoot, the largest employer here in Palm Coast is the city, so I don’t see the need at this time to focus on high density.
FlaglerLive: Actually, it’s the hospital. Whether private or public, other than the school board, the hospital is the leading employer with well over 1,000 employees. We’re going to have a chance to talk about development again. But how have you specifically prepared yourself to be ready to succeed from day one as a city council member?
James Hengy: Well, I studied the city charter and I studied the MPD that there’s a lot of concern about now. I looked into the aspects of the DC Blox that they’re proposing, or which is already underway, the data center, which from my understanding is a cable landing center. It’s not like one of the huge data centers that a lot of people are concerned about. I followed the council meetings on YouTube, even looked at past meetings. I went back to last year’s budget hearings and listened to the different challenges that they had with the budget back from last year. So, I don’t know if that answers your question.
FlaglerLive: Tell us about your character, your personal character. What might be a character flaw, and what unique perspectives would you bring to the council?
James Hengy: I don’t know if I could pinpoint a character flaw, nobody’s perfect. I’m sure if you ask my fiancee, she might be able to pick out some flaws.
FlaglerLive: What would she say?
James Hengy: What would she say? A flaw that I talk too much. But I mean, a substantial flaw, like something that really affects dynamics, relationships, your connection with other people? Honestly, nothing comes to mind. I mean, we have an excellent relationship, we’re very compatible. I don’t think in the 10 years we’ve been together, I don’t think we’ve had an argument.
FlaglerLive: In your professional life, have you noticed something along the way that would trigger you or would cause you to have difficult responses to a coworker or colleague?
James Hengy: I guess one of my flaws would have been, which I think I’ve addressed now, is I have an extreme amount of patience now, but I used to be very impatient with impatient people. And also with dealing in customer service in some of my businesses with the retail stores, people that treat my people badly. I’m not a violent person at all, so there’s no issue with violence, but I’ve been known to have the hair in the back of my neck raised up with unreasonable people.
FlaglerLive: But you know that happens on the council from time to time. There is unreason, there are tense moments, and if you’ve looked at past meetings, you’ve certainly seen how sometimes there are difficult moments to deal with. How would you handle some of those moments?
James Hengy: From experience, I wouldn’t say that I’ve had too many of those circumstances. I believe that I’m very rational and reasonable. I am very attentive to people’s feelings. I like to listen and learn new things, and I understand that there are differences of opinion. I like to deal in facts and not hearsay; to see something firsthand or experience it firsthand to me is better than just being told.
FlaglerLive: I guess that in part answers the rest of the question, which was the qualities you would bring to the council. What would some of those be?
James Hengy: I’m very analytical. I like to break things down and see it from a granular level. I like to research, and again, that research brings firsthand knowledge. I don’t like to just go by hearsay. I’m a problem solver. Having been in business for 40 years, I’ve had to deal with not just employees or unruly customers, like we said, but equipment failures. Being in business for 40 years, we went through various downturns, some would call recessions, to definitely volatile markets and stuff, and had to adjust and make changes to survive. So I believe that the council or running the city is very much attuned to running a business, dealing and managing with people, dealing with budgets and balance sheets. In business, you can’t outspend your revenue or you won’t be around. Seems like that’s a common thing with cities, outspending.
FlaglerLive: Who would you, among all the local elected officials that you know, who would you consider to be a model of leadership?
James Hengy: So, being here just a year, I really don’t know personally a lot of the leaders. I believe from watching the council meetings and seeing some interactions, or seeing the mayor, Mike Norris, I believe that he really has the finger on the pulse of what the community wants, the direction that we want to be headed in.
FlaglerLive: Now, you can be that way, you can have your finger on the pulse of a community, but would you also consider him a model of leadership?
James Hengy: I don’t know his exact leadership. I know that he’s got a military background. I know he was a drill sergeant, and I know drill sergeants can be very abrasive. I mean, I don’t know firsthand; I’ve seen it in movies and stuff. Unfortunately, I never was enlisted in the military at all, so not knowing exactly how he operates, just seeing snippets here and there… Outside of that, I’d say some of the council members seem to be very astute. I don’t know if there’s anyone that I would pick out and say that they’re a standout in my opinion. As far as the Flagler County Commission, I’m not very familiar, again personally, with their operations. I haven’t really followed the commission’s meetings, opposed to the city council here, again just being here a year and kind of focusing on the city itself, wanting to step in.
Evaluating the Council’s performance
FlaglerLive: What letter grade would you give the city council at this point? If we look at their performance in the past year.
James Hengy: At this point, yeah, probably a D, because there’s some areas that stand out as being a success, but all the turmoil, trying to oust the mayor, doesn’t seem to be… it almost seems like it’s us against them. I know in the past from my experience in talking to people that the council members have always been somewhat pro-development, of course. Everybody has a conspiracy, “Oh, they’re all corrupt, they’re all bought, this and that,” which may and may not be, I mean, I really don’t know.
FlaglerLive: May or may not be?
James Hengy: I experienced in Sebring knowing firsthand the good old boy network, and there’s a good old boy network in small towns and big towns. It happens everywhere. And I’m not saying that it’s a corrupt good old boy network, but it’s definitely a network of individuals, either politicians or business owners or landowners, that are in cahoots that seem to make decisions to help each other.
FlaglerLive: Do you have an actual solid example of something that’s happened on the council that told you, “Oh well, this is untoward here, here’s a case of what you’re describing”?
James Hengy: The ICI Homes, how they wanted to expand the amount of homes that were already approved. They wanted to add additional… I forgot what the exact number was.
FlaglerLive: It was to increase to 71. That was to add 13 from the originally approved.
James Hengy: And supposedly it was for low or affordable housing.
FlaglerLive: Not initially. The initial plan was to just add the 13.
James Hengy: Right. The 13 supposedly were going to be pigeonholed for affordable housing.
FlaglerLive: At second reading is what we learned. What you described is at second reading, the plan was to transform the entire project into more affordable housing for some professional—
James Hengy: Right. Yes, some professionals. That seems to be a common talking point when talking about development, is affordable housing for teachers and nurses and first responders, and my question is, how many of those do we have here? I mean, you mentioned 1,000 people work for the hospitals.
FlaglerLive: But before we get there, you were showing examples of where you thought that there might have been untoward or improper acts by the elected, and you mentioned the ICI project. You’re saying that in that case there may have been something improper?
James Hengy: Well, the rationale for the decision… again, I don’t know why the decisions were made. I just hear through the grapevine, and I don’t like to base my opinions on the grapevine, I like firsthand knowledge, but on its face, it didn’t seem right or didn’t make sense to me. Again, to mention first responders and teachers, and so on and so forth, the 546 homes that are already available under $300,000 and the 19,000 homes to be approved that seem to start building at $300,000, I think we’ve already addressed that here. So for that cause, I heard it said when they talked about the smaller homes with the one-car garage for teachers and first responders… when I first started off in business, I couldn’t afford a home, I rented for a while until I built up enough worth and savings to purchase my first home. So it’s not like you get a job or you start a career and you should be able to afford the house of your dreams. There are stepping stones into getting into your house, and with a career as well. I know many teachers, and first responders and people in the medical field, that do very well for themselves. Of course, they didn’t start off there; you have to start off, and you need the training and the experience and so on and so forth, but they are actually doing very well for themselves, even into retirement.
FlaglerLive: But as far as a D grade for the council, you’re pointing out the issue with ICI, the development of the east, and also the removal of the mayor, the attempted removal of the mayor, which followed of course his attempted removal of a council member. Do you not see a problem with that part of the equation?
James Hengy: Yeah, and that sort of thing with the council, it seems like you’re not working together. It seems like, again, it’s us against them, or four against one.
FlaglerLive: Has it improved?
James Hengy: Not that I’ve seen. Let me scratch that, I think because we have certain ones that are running for further office, it has calmed down some, the rhetoric with the mayor and stuff. So it has calmed down because I think they aspire to move on to other offices and stuff, so that could be part of it. And then I think they know that a few of them, their terms are up, and I don’t think anybody is running again.
FlaglerLive: Speaking of Mike Norris, do you see yourself as a check, a balance or an ally of the mayor?
James Hengy: Oh, definitely checks and balances, but I do agree with some of his positions. Mainly the overdevelopment. I think we need to catch up with our infrastructure, looking into these past bonds that were taken out, and looking into the numbers, mainly water. Water is an issue everywhere, and we’re still in a water shortage or in a drought, and we have our water restrictions. The bond that was taken out to approve the water facility wasn’t taken out by choice; from my understanding, the state made them upgrade because it was lacking in service. And then doing some research and doing some math, the upgrade is not going to handle the 19,000 homes that are already approved, and we’re going to have a 4% increase every October through 2029 in our utility bills to help service that bond, but it’s not going to cover what’s already approved to be built, so are we going to have to take out another bond to do infrastructure for just our water here now?
FlaglerLive: I don’t know that it’s entirely correct to say it’s not going to handle the 19,000 in the sense that the 19,000 aren’t all going to be built up in the window within which all of the improvements that are going to happen over the next several years are going to take place. There are still going to be further developments beyond that, which would require, of course, additional improvements, but the window of the bond itself and the improvements that are going to take place are going to address a substantial portion of existing and near-future needs.
James Hengy: By the math, there’s a CUP—Consumptive usage permit, right. Right now from St. Johns Water Management we’re approved for 11.9 million gallons a day. Currently, we are using 9.3 million gallons a day. If you do the math on the homes that are already approved, the 6,000 infill lots and the additional 13,000 homes, it requires almost 2 million, over 2 million gallons a day above what we’re permitted to use, and above our capacity. So if those homes are above our capacity, how do we prepare for those homes outside of the westward development?
FlaglerLive: But those aren’t going to be built tomorrow, they’re going to be built over a long period of time, right?
James Hengy: So my point is, let our infrastructure catch up. Let’s focus on getting caught up, and that’s just water. Look at our roads. I mean, all our roads in the L section that I live in are cracked and splitting, and they even have grass growing up in the cracks throughout the whole neighborhood. But we lobbied for what was a $125 million bond to build that loop road.
FlaglerLive: It was not a bond, it was a grant [a state appropriation].
James Hengy: They lobbied for the grant, and that was all the taxpayers in Florida, it’s not just people in Palm Coast. But that money might have been redirected toward our water shortage or toward our existing roads, opposed to a new loop road that, from what I understand, is going to benefit the developers in that westward expansion, which they originally had said that they would pay for.
FlaglerLive: Let’s talk about the strategic action plan. In your homework that you’ve done, have you had a look at the current strategic action plan, which is basically the list of goals that the council has. I was going to ask you if you were aligned, if there were a couple of examples with which you’re aligned as far as the goals are concerned, and a couple that you disagree with, or a couple that you would bring to the table. So not having looked at the strategic action plan, you might not, or are you able to address any of these questions?
James Hengy: Not at this time, not from a knowledge standpoint. I mean, to me, a lot of it is going to be determined by this proposed new bill for the property tax.
FlaglerLive: Yes, we’re almost there. So, aside from the strategic action plan that is in place, are there a couple of goals that you yourself would want to bring to the council?
James Hengy: Economic development, for sure. Number one, I would like to see commercial development, and I would like to see development on the north end of the town. Everything is built on Route 100 or on Palm Coast Parkway or that area along Belle Terre, that’s where our worst road congestion is. For instance, Home Goods; I think a Home Goods on the north end of the city would have been perfect because a Home Goods is almost like a destination-type retail store. My fiancee and I drove to Jacksonville to go to a Home Goods, and drove to Port Orange for a Home Goods, so that’s about a half-hour or 40-minute drive, a 45-minute drive to go to a Home Goods.
FlaglerLive: That’s certainly in line with what the council wants to do currently, but of course you can put the infrastructure in place, the roads, the water, everything else, and you can even approve, as the planning board just did, a big medical office building up at the north end, and the planning board members said this is great for the north end precisely for some of the reasons you’re describing, but you can’t, as a council member, you can’t force any companies or doctors or professionals to move into that building. So, how does that bridge get crossed?
James Hengy: Well, it would be getting with the EDC and finding out what their goals are. I know we want to attract tech jobs or higher-paying jobs.
FlaglerLive: We no longer have an economic development council.
James Hengy: Well, they like to tout the CRA as being economic development. So maybe it’s getting with the CRA or getting the—
FlaglerLive: The CRA is Town Center, that’s the heart of the city, they can’t go beyond their boundaries.
James Hengy: And that’s why all the development is going on there. So, right, it would be something to dig into and to address. From my understanding, we don’t have the commercial land available, so it would have to be getting with some of these landowners to see.
FlaglerLive: There is commercial. There’s a lack of industrial, but there is quite a bit of commercial land.
James Hengy: 3 pecent, yeah, but on the north end from the maps that I’ve seen, there’s very little for commercial. I think Matanzas Parkway and US 1, there’s a small tract right there that is commercial. It seems that they’re building storage warehouses. I’d like to see something like the airport little strip mall that’s got the Bronx Pizza in the north end, where I think that would kill two birds with one stone. For one, I think—
FlaglerLive: One of the tracts for the development in your area, what used to be the golf course, one of those tracts is precisely to do what you’re describing. But of course you’ve got to have a developer willing to build there and develop, right?
James Hengy: Correct. So I think that would alleviate a lot of the traffic downtown there along 100, and also provide jobs on the north end, and alleviate some of the problems that we’re facing now with everything going on in that one area.
FlaglerLive: So like you said, now this is a lot of what we’re talking about, and the next two years are going to hinge on what happens with the Homestead Amendment. So, how will you vote on that proposed amendment?
James Hengy: For it. I think it’s a double-edged sword, but I’m for saving money. I’d like to see the different municipalities cut back, tighten their belts. I mean, there has been a lot of overspending or undue spending, so we tighten our belts. And then if we are lacking in revenue, it would be coming up with other ways of making up that revenue. I like the idea that our homes won’t be attached anymore, so in other words, you will truly own your home and there wouldn’t be able to be a lien put on it for any type of unpaid property tax. Now, property tax is not going to go away 100%. We have our schools, utilities, infrastructure, first responders, and the police force.
FlaglerLive: The amendment would affect the general fund that pays for everybody, including the first responders. Half of the general fund goes to first responders, police, fire, and public safety, and so on. So there’s definitely going to be some significant—
James Hengy: Not so much cutbacks, but possibly a break on expansion. Like I know the sheriff wanted to add nine new deputies. I know there’s talk about the 30 cameras, which that’s Flagler County, that’s Flagler Beach.
FlaglerLive: That’s Flagler Beach, right, but it’s a minor expense in the scheme of things. But in any case, it’s Flagler Beach.
James Hengy: Right, so, but you’re saying that it’s not going to affect the current budget so much as expansion, but that’s not what the math says. The math does show that it’s going to reduce actual revenue into your general fund by somewhere in the range of 40 to 50% in year two. So it’s going to be a challenge, and we’re going to find out where our shortcomings are going to come from and how we make up the loss.
FlaglerLive: How do you make up for it?
James Hengy: I would be not totally opposed to a sales tax. With the sales tax, we have visitors here, tourist visitors that come, they use our roads, they use our infrastructure, and they use our facilities, so they could help pay for it. And also with the sales tax, you’re not forced to buy something; it’s your option. So I think with an increased sales tax, it helps some of these visitors offset the burden on just the local residents.
Sales Tax and Other Revenue Levies
FlaglerLive: You’ve basically answered the following question, which was precisely this. Because the increase in the sales tax has been considered a couple of times in the last few years, it would be something that the county would have to do. Where are you on that half-penny use for things such as beach management—in other words, to contribute some of that money to the county for beach protection?
James Hengy: Yes, so the beach is an attraction, it does bring tourists here, which in turn spend money here. They use our restaurants, they use the facilities, and they shop here, so I’m all for preserving the beaches. I would like to make sure that wherever we raise and spend additional money, it’s not being wasted, that there’s not wasteful spending, and that the contracts being signed and the bids that go out make the most sense. I’ve experienced the sales tax in Highlands County; in Sebring, they had a half-cent, and they had an additional one on hotels, also.
FlaglerLive: Yeah, the tourist tax, right?
James Hengy: Tourist tax, as well, for the local infrastructure that was voted on.
FlaglerLive: So you would consider approving an increase? You would be supportive of the county if the county came and said, “Let’s increase by a half-cent”?
James Hengy: Matter of a need and not a want, yeah. I mean, if it was, “Let’s increase it a half-cent so that we can frivolously spend it,” no. But if it’s for infrastructure, if it’s to make up whatever shortcomings the general fund might have, well, then to me that’s a no-brainer.
FlaglerLive: Still in line with making up for the revenue loss from the property tax, Palm Coast is one of the very few cities in the state that does not have either a public service tax or a utility franchise fee, both of which our surrounding cities do have, and you can charge from 6% to up to 10% on your utility bills for either of these taxes or fees. Palm Coast has refused to adopt them, or has declined or rejected adopting them three or four times since 2012. Now, with this proposed amendment, that might bring the question up yet again. Where would you be on either of those fees or taxes?
James Hengy: Right off the top of my head, I would be against them. Our citizens or our neighbors are already complaining about the utility fees and the cost of utilities and electric, and I think that would be one of the last avenues. I think if everybody knew that it’s a necessity, that we must do it, it’s something that might be difficult to get them to agree upon. But pointing out that we are saving on our property tax and we do need to maintain the quality of life that attracted us here, these are some necessities. Whether it be a tax on utilities or an increased sales tax—I’m more of a fan of an increased sales tax, again, if you’re on a tight budget and you’re purchasing what you must have instead of what you want, you don’t have to spend the money on the things that you want, like the big-screen TVs which would be a higher tax rate. Your groceries are for the most part tax-exempt. So the utility fee is something that out of necessity I would be for, but in the very beginning, I would have to look at it very hard.
FlaglerLive: The next question you’ve addressed quite a bit at the beginning when you went into the sort of developments that you’re not in favor of, and the question goes to that: it’s about the way that our population has continued to grow very rapidly, at least between 2020 and 2025. We added 16,000 people—you were one of them—and so how would you evaluate the quality and quantity of development in the last few years, and what sort of land use or development would you oppose if it were to come to the council for a vote?
James Hengy: I would oppose the westward expansion as is proposed now. I don’t see the need.
FlaglerLive: Sorry, we’re actually going to have a more direct question about that particular expansion coming up, but I was curious if you could direct your thoughts on the current Palm Coast. If you had land use decisions or development decisions that came before you for the existing Palm Coast, how would you address those now?
James Hengy: For existing land use, it would be more of preserving the green spaces, being that we already have the 19,000 to grow into already. I know the big increase was Covid-related; it was that way with a lot of cities throughout the country. I know it’s starting to taper off now. I know when we were looking in 2025, I think the average time a house was on the market was almost 100 days, 120 days. I think it’s a little lower than that now, but the rate of growth has tapered off some, although we could see it if the property tax thing does go through. Of course, people moving in will have that five-year window, but I think that would entice more people to move here. But we do have a lot of infilling to do. 19,000, as you mentioned, they’re not going to be built overnight. If it were from 2020 to 2025, a 16,000 increase, well, we’re already prepared for the next five years. So any more land use at this point would be more maybe parks or just preserved green spaces, or again, commercial.
FlaglerLive: Continuing along the same theme, also as far as existing Palm Coast is concerned, what percentage of housing stock should be single-family houses on traditional lots like the ones you’ve described, as opposed to apartments or other multifamily complexes?
James Hengy: I’ve seen a lot of apartments go up here, a lot of new construction on apartments, and it’s funny… we have a family member that is looking to move from South Florida up to Palm Coast to be closer to family here now, and they’re actually looking at apartments. There’s a glut of apartments available. In fact, there’s some units that are offering two months’ free rent to get people to move in there; it’s one of the ones that they’re looking at. So I don’t see the… usually renters are for service workers type situations, and again, going back to the jobs, if they’re building these multifamily apartments and they’re having problems filling them, why would you want to build more until there’s a need for it?
FlaglerLive: It wasn’t long ago when we were talking in council meetings and community meetings about a serious crisis in the availability of rental space for working families. It’s the first time I hear of a glut of apartment space right now. If anything, there might be a balancing going on, but a glut, I’m not so sure. You’re saying that we don’t need any more apartments in Palm Coast?
James Hengy: In my opinion, at this time, we don’t. I mean, if they’re having problems filling them now. I actually just drove by today; our daughter’s friend spent the night and we dropped her off over by Town Center, and there’s a lot of those apartments in Town Center that are available. And again, we have family members looking and they see there’s a lot to choose from.
FlaglerLive: They just opened, of course, they just became available.
James Hengy: There’s the one off of US 1—the big sign says “move in today” and they’re still building—so at what point… you said there’s a leveling off and they’re still building, so at what point do you say, rather than approving more, do we take a wait-and-see approach?
FlaglerLive: Still along the lines of development, this has to do with the Home Builders Association’s lawsuit against Palm Coast. Are you familiar with it and the impact fees?
James Hengy: Yes.
FlaglerLive: Let’s imagine that you were a witness in that case and you took the witness stand. On whose side would you be? Who would you argue for?
James Hengy: I would argue for the citizens, I would argue for the city. I think the impact fees are only fair; those impact fees are to help address the shortcomings in the infrastructure. My opinion is the impact fees should be at the maximum level, opposed to trying to knock it down to recouping impact fees from the city.
FlaglerLive: Are you familiar with the rationale? What’s the rationale of trying to recoup impact fee money from the Builders Association? I mean, we know that we have shortfalls in our roadways and our water system and utilities. Why wouldn’t I want to help contribute to rectifying that problem with the impact fees?
FlaglerLive: Are you familiar with the argument that the HBA has put forth against the impact fees that the city approved?
James Hengy: The exact nuts and bolts of it? No.
FlaglerLive: In other words, they were not opposed to impact fees per se; they were opposed to the degree to which the city increased impact fees. The city made the argument that those were extraordinary circumstances, so they could go beyond the limits of the law, which allowed you to increase impact fees 50% and no more unless you showed extraordinary circumstances, such as population explosion, costs in building going beyond inflation, and that sort of thing. The city did increase these impact fees for fire, roads, and I think parks a little bit over 100% instead of 50%. So the HBA said, “No, we disagree, we think that your math is wrong, and that the justification for extraordinary circumstances is not there in that sense.”
James Hengy: Find out in the court of law, hearing the argument for both sides. I mean, I see, of course, and understand both sides, but the 16,000 people in five years is a big increase. We already know our shortfalls in our water and our roads, so I think both sides may have an argument, and it would be to see how it weighs out in the court of law.
FlaglerLive: Where would you fall at this point in time?
James Hengy: I would align with the city because I see firsthand our shortfalls and our shortcomings. Why wouldn’t we want to address those?
FlaglerLive: Now we get to the west side and the westward expansion, obviously. You’ve read the MPD, the master plan development, the second version, and there are additional versions coming, but in the main, you had it right: it’s what used to be an 11,000 house or housing unit plan has now doubled to 22,000, but the acreage has also increased very substantially, so it’s not on the same amount of land. The acreage has increased enormously, if not exactly proportionately, but it has increased. It’s about 22,000 acres as well, but the plan is for this to sort of build out by 2056. So you’ve already answered this, but the question was going to be, are you supportive of the plan as it stands today, and you said no.
James Hengy: There are a couple of reasons, not just the one already stated, which was the high-density development; I don’t see the need for that.
FlaglerLive: I’m not sure that I saw the high-density development in that plan, because the plan as it stands now does not actually go into the details of densities in particular neighborhoods within it.
James Hengy: The other point would be wanting the city to pay for the infrastructure, which their original plan stated that they were going to pay for the road, which is being built now, and they’re not, and they were going to address all of the infrastructure—fire, schools, water—and now they’re wanting the city to come on board with that.
FlaglerLive: To some extent, they are obligated to build a lot of the infrastructure. They’re going to be donating some land for fire stations or schools, and obviously they will be building the basic infrastructure for water connections and all of this, that’s what their impact fees are going to pay for. But you were right on the roads, for instance. The roads and the sports complex that was discussed in the original plan, those were going to be built by them. Now they’re saying, well, no, this is a different vision, this is a bigger complex that we did not envisage, and they’ve never quite addressed the fact that they’re not paying for the major roads, but they’re not; it’s the state grant that is paying for that. So, in that sense, they are assuming some responsibilities, but they’re not assuming some of the responsibilities that they had assumed previously in the previous plan. In that context, you’re saying that you’re not supportive of which parts?
James Hengy: I understand the timeline; it’s not, again like you mentioned with the 19,000 homes, going to be done overnight. The nuts and bolts of the infrastructure… there are parts that they propose to pay for, but there’s parts that they want the city to step up and be obligated to. Also, we’re already complaining about our rates right now for utilities, and they’re already going to be increasing to address where we’re at now, as we discussed before. The total amount of people that will be impacting our roads here also impacts the existing roads in the downtown area or throughout the existing developments. I believe that we need a well-thought-out mission statement of what we want, what the residents of Palm Coast want the city to be. Do we want to be a Jacksonville or an Orlando and have all of this massive development? Which in turn, you bring in that many people, you’re going to need some sort of industry.
FlaglerLive: That’s right. There’s several million square feet of industrial, there’s obviously a lot of commercial.
James Hengy: If you build it, they will come. So do they already have commercial? Do they have corporations that want to move here?
FlaglerLive: That goes back to the earlier question, where you can certainly build, you can certainly make it ready, but you can’t force anybody to be there.
James Hengy: Just because you allocate it doesn’t mean that they’re going to be flying in here, and for what reason would they fly in here to be a part of the community? Of course, we’re considered part of the Space Coast, so I think high-tech jobs and stuff like that, but I don’t know if there’s that volume of high-tech jobs that would require us to evolve into a Jacksonville or an Orlando.
FlaglerLive: So as things stand today, if that MPD came before you as a council member, you would vote no.
James Hengy: I would like to see the final draft, but from my understanding as of today, I would vote no, not at this time. I would like to see our infrastructure catch up.
FlaglerLive: How would you balance the expansion with the needs on this side of Palm Coast, where we are, and you’re saying that there is more to do on this side?
James Hengy: Yes, our drainage. People complain about the flooding and drainage, which, being in Florida my whole life, every area I lived in had drainage problems, even after they put in sewers and tried to rectify it. I mean, we’re not that much higher above sea level, so certain storms… I remember being a kid back in Lauderdale Lakes, a tropical storm came through, and there were canals and drainage all set up, and the whole neighborhood flooded, and we were taking canoes to the corner store down the middle of the road. So, Florida’s—
FlaglerLive: We talk about drainage problems, but specifically in Palm Coast, where have you seen those problems affecting homes?
James Hengy: So I’ve only heard; I haven’t seen it firsthand. I heard there are certain areas that are low-lying that people complain about the homes being added being at a higher elevation, and the water runoff comes into their homes. So I haven’t seen it. There are some areas here in the L section that during a heavy rain the water would stretch across the street, but it dissipates fast.
FlaglerLive: Which is as it’s intended to be, it was designed that way, and there’s been, I think, over the history of the city, there’s only been like maybe a handful of homes that have had in-home flooding, it’s very, very few. And the drainage committee that was set up in order to address some of the problems you just described, it seems, has taken care of a good deal of that problem.
James Hengy: Yeah, but there are still some areas that need to be addressed. There are still some, and again, I haven’t seen them firsthand, so I’m going off of what… some people like to complain about anything. If it gets flooded or it holds water for longer than they like, they complain, even though it’s intended to.
FlaglerLive: Traffic. It’s routinely one of the top complaints that you hear about, whether you’re on or off the council. What would be your solution?
James Hengy: It would be to address again all of that development going on in that 100 corridor. It’s already overbearing, and for the Walmart that they’re putting here now, I would have liked to see that Walmart go on the north end of town to alleviate some of that traffic there. I don’t think that they have the space to widen the roads anymore.
FlaglerLive: There is a long-term plan, actually, to go six lanes with 100. It’s a little bit further off, but it is in the works.
James Hengy: You know how long it takes for them to address the roads; they need to start now, prepare for it, instead of after it’s already done and after it’s already a problem. It’s already a problem right now, so why aren’t they addressing it, or starting to address it right now, especially in those areas that do get congested, which is where all of those retail stores and facilities are?
FlaglerLive: And you think the six-laning will take care of it?
James Hengy: Well, it’ll help. Yeah, it’ll help for sure. Will it totally, after they keep building commercial there? If they keep focusing everything in that one area, how long will it handle it for?
FlaglerLive: And the rest of Palm Coast, the way it’s built and the way it’s designed and engineered, there doesn’t seem to be a way that the city could alter traffic flows or volumes from what we have now, and yet those 6,000 lots are going to fill up little by little, and that traffic is going to flow in there. So is there any solution you see to that mounting problem, or is this, as some candidates have said, we’re a city, and we do have traffic, we do have congestion, this is what being a city is?
James Hengy: So, you’re exactly right. You’re exactly right. Coming from Fort Lauderdale, my house was 12 miles from my office. In those 12 miles, there were 22 traffic lights, and to go 12 miles on a six-lane road with 22 traffic lights, it would take me 45 minutes. So traffic here, really, compared to where I came from, is not… but it’s headed that way.
FlaglerLive: Yes.
James Hengy: So if we want to address it before it happens, to me, it seems like economically it would be less money to do it now instead of after the fact, or at least have plans developed to start it soon instead of after the fact, so that would help that area. And then again, too, I really believe that if we can move some more retail, commercial retail opportunities to the north end… everybody here goes to those areas. I was at BJ’s today, so I was down in that area today because that’s where we have to travel to go there. Same thing with grocery stores; we’ve got Publix on Belle Terre and Aldi’s, but everybody on the north end of town has to converge either on 100 or on Palm Coast Parkway, where there is that major congestion. So I think if we bring grocery, shopping, and restaurants to the northern end, it will alleviate traffic and probably draw some people from even those areas to the northern end to alleviate traffic there.
FlaglerLive: Those private companies do their studies and see where best can we position our business, and they’re choosing that area. You obviously wouldn’t want the government to come in and say, “Well, no, we need to somehow have the businesses…” They certainly can’t be forced to be anywhere else.
James Hengy: We could have incentives for them to address it, again like I mentioned with the Home Goods.
FlaglerLive: What incentives might there be to geographically reposition businesses?
James Hengy: So it may be… for one, at one point I was expanding my business, I needed more warehouse space, but it wasn’t a total necessity. We weren’t at capacity, but it was something that I had to address pretty quickly. The landlord came to me and across the street was a facility, a warehouse that was like 15,000 square feet, which was more than what I really needed, but he knew that I was running out of space, so we came up with a graduated lease. It was my idea of a graduated type lease, where in the beginning I didn’t pay for the full space, but towards the end of my lease, I made up for some of that in arrears when I grew in and had more capacity. Not to say that these places would come in and lease space, or maybe with a developer, maybe that’s the thing with the developer where we say, “Hey, here’s an incentive where we’ll encourage these people to open up here by offering something along those lines,” maybe help subsidize some of their—
FlaglerLive: Town Center has exactly what you’re describing. It has these incentives for new businesses to come in and locate there.
James Hengy: I was part of an incubator program in Highlands County, and the concept of an incubator program was great, helping and nurturing these small businesses into becoming a success. Most businesses fold within the first three years of starting, and a lot of it is because they might not have the knowledge or the help in succeeding. That incubator program, in my opinion, was really just a glorified landlord. There were no incentives, really, to help these small businesses succeed except at the time… there was no email, there were computers and stuff but email was just getting started, and they proposed a common area where you would have a coffee station, a fax machine, and a copy machine, and all you people can have access to this common area, but you still paid the full force of the rent. You did get some mentoring but not a lot, but mainly it was one of the people within the good old boys that built this commercial space that was trying to get it leased out, so it was more or less trying to attract tenants for a landlord than it was really truly an incubator program. So I think if that’s there in Town Center, if that’s their goal is to help nurture these small businesses and not just try to fill rental space from the get-go… I mean, rent is one of your biggest expenses. When I first started at 25 years old, my rent, I think my warehouse was 1,000 square feet and rent was $350, and I remember in the first week generating money to pay the rent, and it was exciting. One week, so we got three weeks’ worth of income to make up here. $350 right now doesn’t sound like a lot, but in 1985 it was one of the biggest expenses.
FlaglerLive: Other than replicating, and I’m not sure how they would do incentives for the north end, I’m still not very clear on how we might be able to, as a city, as a council, push businesses to the north end.
James Hengy: Coming up with the idea, planting the seed of the idea, and then overcoming obstacles to help make it work. For one, you mentioned yes, these big corporations do their studies, traffic flow and everything, but if they know the intent or the growth, or to develop more of that commercial area, and to know… shoot, population is part of it. I read an investment memorandum for a company called Brooklyn Water Bagel Company, and part of their criteria to put up a new retail outlet was within a four-mile radius to have 40,000 people. Sebring’s population is 10,000 people, so it was out of the question there, but understanding in order for the model to work they needed this kind of draw. Well, we’ve had these developments out there off of US 1 right now that are going up—the KB Homes, and of course, we’ve got the Lakewood Estates that are going up here, and we’ve got the Sawmill Branch, which I drove through that development, and there’s going to be a ton of homes in there. So as far as having the traffic, and also US 1… US 1 is one of our major corridors through here, so to me, there are a few pluses of at least starting to entertain that commercial development going out in that area.
FlaglerLive: Let’s talk policing. You’re familiar, obviously, with the police contract that the city has with the sheriff’s office.
James Hengy: Yes.
FlaglerLive: So 10 years ago, the policing budget was $2.7 million for Palm Coast, and the fire department’s budget was $7.9 million. Today, the policing budget is $13.6 million, so it’s increased 404% in 10 years, and the fire department has seen its budget increase from $7.9 million to $16 million, a 102% increase. How is this defensible, considering that the population in that span, in that time period, has increased 23%? And how is it sustainable?
James Hengy: Yeah, that’s a good question. That’s a very good question. That is something that definitely needs to be looked at, and I don’t know if that’s part of the county, I don’t know if that’s in the council’s purview.
FlaglerLive: This is actually Palm Coast’s direct contract. And, of course, the argument from the sheriff’s office, in fairness, is that there have been many years when there were no hires and where the city, and in fact the county, were falling behind year after year because of a lack of proper policing, and that they were catching up in the same way that we’ve talked about catching up with infrastructure. They’re applying the same principle to policing, and this is what has been necessary in order to bring policing up to current standards. But the question remains, as far as the budget that this is controlling, how is it sustainable to continue at this pace? And they want to increase it again. With what’s happening with the tax reform, the potential tax reform, and even in the absence of tax reform, if even development were to slow down a little bit, how could this be sustainable over a long period?
James Hengy: So, you know, one thing: we are the second safest city in the state of Florida, so there’s, I guess, a benefit. But rationally, the amount of money being spent doesn’t make sense. Is it wasteful spending? Does that all go towards the actual force of the officers on the roads, the deputies? What part of this is overspending without seeing the sheriff’s office’s complete budget and the breakdown of where this money is being spent? I noticed that there’s going to be a lot of new transparency laws if this homestead thing is passed. I watched the video—I don’t know if you saw it—DeSantis had an interview with some podcast host and they were addressing these different issues, but there’s going to be a lot of published transparency for citizens to sit down and see where every dollar is going, line-item type transparency.
FlaglerLive: As things are today, you don’t have any specific example of anything where you would say: this money is being misspent as far as policing is concerned, or do you?
James Hengy: Yeah, so I couldn’t say right offhand. I mean, common sense tells me something doesn’t… the numbers don’t jive there. As you pointed out, the percentage of population increase and the percentage of the policing increase… what part of that is capital expenditure? I mean, what part is actually the workforce or police force?
FlaglerLive: These numbers don’t deal with capital. These numbers deal with just… the cost of a single deputy now is somewhere in the range of $150,000 when you consider salaries, benefits, equipment, insurance, everything adds up to just over $150,000, plus there are retirement costs and things like that. Mostly that’s what we’re talking about here. But again, you raised the question of misspending or something that didn’t add up, but where specifically would you see it?
James Hengy: So, no, I haven’t had the opportunity to physically go sit down with the sheriff or with the various department heads to see or to hear an explanation for the increase. Where was the money attributed to? Why do we need more? I would need to know offhand. I haven’t seen firsthand being here a year; getting up to speed with the past workings of the council, and then also with the development issues and stuff, I haven’t had time to really focus in on the sheriff’s office or the fire department.
FlaglerLive: And the numbers aside, you’re satisfied with the policing in the city.
James Hengy: Well, yeah, I mean, look at the track record. Being number two in the state, that’s definitely going to attract people to live here, it’s one of the things that we sourced out also, what we liked about Palm Coast. Now, the fire stations that are going up and stuff, beautiful facilities… is there a need to have a shining star facility for a fire department as opposed to—
FlaglerLive: As opposed to—
James Hengy: Part of the aesthetics instead of the mechanics? Of course, we want all the updated capabilities in a facility and in equipment, but the facade, the design, the structures themselves… I mean, they’re beautiful to look at, but how much is it worth?
FlaglerLive: The design is part of what has also made them healthier places for firefighters to work in, which was not always the case, and firefighters were paying the price.
James Hengy: I’m talking about the facade of it, the looks from the outside, the big, large station numbers, the need for something like that. I see it seems like the more revenue a city takes, the more they spend; it’s like there’s none in reserve. In fact, I heard recently that there was some million dollars saved on a parking lot project. I think it was at the Indian Trails Sports Complex. I think it was budgeted for a million-and-a-half cost, and it came out to half a million, and there’s a million dollars sitting in the coffers, and they’re like, “How are we going to spend this?” and they talk about a skate park. So I thought offhand, from what I read, why is it gung-ho to spend a million? Why don’t we, with what we’re potentially being faced with, why doesn’t that go into reserve or something at this point? Let’s see where everything nets out to be if this property tax bill passes.
FlaglerLive: I’m sorry, I’m not very familiar with that issue at Indian Trails. There might be a case of a particular kind of revenue that can only be spent in a certain way, which could typically be park impact fees, which can’t actually be shifted from park spending. So if it’s in the pot for parks, it has to be spent on an expansion of parks, and a skate park might be what they would have in mind. It’s not so much, “Well, how do we spend it just because we have it?” kind of thing.
James Hengy: Well, couldn’t they keep it in the parks and rec reserve fund?
FlaglerLive: They certainly can’t support the parks and rec budget for operations. They can only use it… if it’s impact fee money that we’re talking about, they can only use it for an expansion of one sort or another.
James Hengy: I’m not sure if it was from impact fees. I understand that it can only be used for certain things. Is a skate park the right choice? In the whole year I’ve been here, I haven’t seen one kid on a skateboard; I’ve seen them on e-bikes.
FlaglerLive: Wadsworth Skate Park in Flagler Beach is very popular. They just improved that quite a bit, and it’s always been very popular there.
James Hengy: Yeah, they built a skate park in Sebring. They spent a lot of money on a park because skating at the time… in fact, I had a skate shop as part of my retail store to address these skaters, and it was a hit for maybe three or four months, and skating has somewhat gone by the wayside from what it was back then, and now it’s empty.
FlaglerLive: So you’ve been very patient, and you’ve made it through. This last question is not difficult at all, although it’s a bit of an annoying question, and it’s about your legal past. Have you ever been charged with a felony or a misdemeanor anywhere?
James Hengy: No to all of that.
FlaglerLive: Including civil bankruptcies, all of that?
James Hengy: Yeah, never.
FlaglerLive: That about wraps it up.
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