County Commissioner Dave Sullivan was looking for the right word to describe what it’s taken to, after eight years, get to this morning’s groundbreaking at the latest in a string of hoped-for, planned, rebuilt, vacated, misplaced and built-from-scratch Sheriff’s operations Centers.
“I came up with one word,” Sullivan told a socially-distanced gathering of some 50 people standing on a road by the 8-acre site near Commerce Parkway in Bunnell, just south of the Government Services Building. “Difficult.”
He then traced–not in nearly as much detail–what has been nothing short of the disturbingly clumsy ordeal that since 2013 had the county hunting for a new sheriff’s headquarters so the agency could get out of its cramped facility off Justice Lane, near the jail: the consideration of the old courthouse in Bunnell or building on a site across from the GSB, what even then was considered by many to be the ill-advised acquisition, for $1.23 million, of the disused Memorial Hospital off of State Road 100 and its top-down, $6 million reconstruction into an operations center; employees’ reports of illnesses associated with sick-building syndrome; the county’s clumsy and at times dismissive response, which eventually cost County Administrator Craig Coffey his job; the evacuation from the building less than three years after it opened; the sheriff’s nomadic set-up since at the courthouse and elsewhere; this commission’s timid acquiescence in the purchase of yet another bad building with designs to temporarily house the sheriff there–the embarrassing purchase and sale, at a big loss, of the Sears building; the county’s supposed decision, on County Administrator Jerry Cameron’s watch, to build a new, $12 to $15 million operations center on vast acreage it owns near the library in Palm Coast–a decision that proved to be little more than a scheme to fence in the property and rid it of a homeless camp–and finally, after endless delays, the decision, fingers crossed and recrossed, to settle on the acreage in Bunnell again and greenlight the design and imminent construction.
“We’ve come through an extremely difficult process,” Sullivan said, obviously downplaying the successive commissions’ errors, missteps, hubris and colossal waste of money along the way–his own commission included–money taxpayers will be paying for many years even before accounting for the cost of the new building. Two sheriffs have been mostly bystanders to it all since their agency’s facilities are at the mercy of county decisions and county-funded construction or rent payments. Sheriff’s roles are advisory only.
“In the end, looking at the possibilities, this particular piece of land became available because we had already purchased it in hopes of building what will be across the street now, a southern library,” Sullivan said, referring to what, for years, has been a windmill tilting in the county’s winds.
“Despite of all that here we are today, and it’s a great day, because we’ve come through an extremely difficult process, it’s very difficult for the sheriff to operate that way, and now is the time to sit back and say: great, we’ve made the decision. But it’s still not the end. I call it the old victory at sea. It’s the beginning of the end.” There was scattered laughter in the audience, at least a third of which sheriff’s personnel, recent history being still raw. “But it’s a very significant beginning of the end, because here we are, and within about a year and a half or so, we’ll be reopening this up.” That is, perhaps by June 2022, four years–the equivalent of a sheriff’s entire term–after evacuation. Sullivan called it “a great day for Flagler County” as a drone buzzed with the sound of a thousand mosquitoes above the scene.
Calling the groundbreaking “a monumental step,” Sheriff Rick Staly then addressed the gathering, paying tribute to agency employees who were impacted by the lack of a building while continuing to bring down the county’s crime rate. He thanked commissioners for their decision “to replace the old and unsafe operations center with a professional building,” a decision he called an investment in the county’s future.
“Finally, I think I speak for my entire team when I say we cannot wait until eviction day comes from the Courthouse and the GSB building and is replaced by move-in day,” the sheriff said.
The plan is for what will now be, with financing, just short of a $23 million, 51,000 square foot building, expandable to 81,000 square feet, not including the cost of a 6,000-square foot, separate building on the same grounds for purchasing and logistics. The costs assume that current estimates for lifting the grounds three feet from what is otherwise wet, boggy ground will be accomplished within budget: the county cannot afford another shoddy project.
The difference this time, as Staly pointed out, is that the architects hired for the project–Orlando-based Architect Design Group–has a track record specializing in designing law enforcement agencies in dozens of states, and has worked closely with the sheriff on the current, two-story design. That was not the case when the county rebuilt the old hospital. The sheriff signaled that there are no intentions to cut corners, especially when apparent savings up front are likely to turn into larger costs down the line.
As late as October 2019, Cameron was saying that the county was not prepared to finance a building costing more than $15 million. “I’m looking at a cost of $300 a square foot and not $325. We anticipate we’ll be able to get it within our budgetary goals,” Cameron said at the time. The cost per square foot for the coming buildings: $368.
The county on Monday approved a $20 million loan with a local bank to finance the project, which will add to the county’s debt and further narrow its maneuvering room for other capital projects–like the southern library. (see “$21 Million Sheriff’s Building Would Be Financed With 15-Year CenterState Bank Loan at 1.83% Interest” and “$21 Million Flagler Sheriff’s Operations Center Unveiled, But Questions About Financing Remain Unanswered.”)
The new project has drawn criticism for its size and cost–going from the small administrative building on Justice Lane in 2015 to the 27,000-square-foot refurbished hospital, and within two years, to a facility nearly twice that size. The sheriff addressed both issues in an interview after the groundbreaking.
“Here’s what happened: it was never done properly when they bought that old hospital,” Staly said. “There was never a space study done based on current needs and growth. It was–we’re going to buy this old building and we’re going to cram the sheriff’s office in there and make it work. So the day they moved in, and I was not sheriff, OK”–Staly had been undersheriff in Jim Manfre’s administration until his resignation in early 2015, six months before the building he’d eventually refer to as “Mold-Ops” opened— “it was filled to capacity the day they moved in. And since I became sheriff, we started remodeling that little separate building, which was about 4,500 square feet, and then of course we had to abandon everything, there was asbestos found in that building and stuff like that. So it was never done right. So I give credit to the county commission, because when we abandoned the building, I asked them to do three things, because if I was going to be a part of this, I wanted it done right, and as the sitting sheriff I feel it’s my responsibility to prepare this agency for the future and for future sheriffs. I’m not going to be here forever. I hope to be here quite a while yet, but at some point I’m going to retire. Hopefully closer to 2030.”
The three elements the county agreed to was conduct a space study, which projected a need for a 65,000 to 81,000-square-foot building by 2030; hire an architect with rich experience in law enforcement designs; and hire an “outside” contractor, a recommendation the county did not quite follow.
“They’re finally doing something I said,” Charlie Ericksen, who just ended two terms on the county commission, said. He was the only commissioner past or present–who attended the groundbreaking–who’d been on the commission in 2013, when it voted to acquire the old hospital building in Bunnell and transform it into a sheriff’s operations center. Ericksen alone had voted against the proposal, considering its execution less than transparent and ill-advised. “I told them not to take the other building six or seven years ago. They’re finally doing the right thing.”
All five current commissioners were present of course. Commission Chairman Donald O’Brien emceed, describing the occasion as “a new chapter in the history of Flagler County.” No one from Palm Coast showed up. Mayor Milissa Holland was not aware of the groundbreaking when asked about it this afternoon, and after checking, said the city administration did not receive invitations to pass along to city council members.
The event drew Bunnell Mayor Mayor Catherine Robinson, Bunnell Commissioner Tonya Gordon and Bunnell City Manager Alvin Jackson, a reflection of the importance of the building’s presence to Bunnell, and Flagler Beach City Police Chief Matt Doughney, who works closely with Staly. Doughney said the centralized location of the future operations center will benefit all local law enforcement–just as the location will make it more proximate to the courthouse, a few minutes away, the county’s Emergency Operations Center and its 911 center, and the county’s fleet maintenance and fuel depot.
To Bunnell officials, it’s expected to be a boon to the economy, though the three years’ presence of the old Operations Center just off State Road 100 did not appear to have had the desired economic impact.
“I appreciate the fact that the county commission made this decision because we always felt it needed to stay in the city of Bunnell, it’s part of who we are,” Robinson said, “it’s part of our identity as the crossroads of Flagler County, and we’re excited about it.” Robinson and her colleagues on the commission had not at all been pleased when, for a time, the plan was to locate the building next to the library in Palm Coast.
“From an economic development standpoint,” Jackson said, “what it does is it expands that, helps our local businesses, restaurants, retail by having the sheriff’s department here, as well as having that law enforcement presence in Bunnell, which helps also.” The operations center is on acreage alongside the future Commerce Parkway, the highway that will bypass Bunnell from State Road 100 to U.S. 1, a plan in discussion for a decade.
When will it happen? “That is the question,” Robinson said.
“I’d say in the next two to three years we should have the Commerce Parkway in,” the ever-optimistic Jackson, who still answers his phone with his trademark “it’s a great day in Bunnell” greeting, “and it really becomes our catalyst for economic development for the city. Then you have the sheriff’s operations center sitting right in the middle of that also.”
Don’t expect construction on the operations center to begin immediately. “I know expectations are high that we’ll begin in about 30 days,” Architect Design Group’s Susan Gantt said. “It’ll take a little bit longer than that.”
k. Mineau says
Who is paying for this.
Korean vet says
Santa Claus is paying for it , he is also paying for the plantation bay water debacle the Bings landing the Sears building the first sheriffs building …. should I go on ??????merry Xmas … scroooge
Lou says
Good things:
Three sick buildings are out of the market .
Bad things:
Nobody is accountable for all this fiasco. What a great system we have.
How long can it last?
Jimbo99 says
Exactly, so they intend to build up the tract of land with fill dirt on swamp land before building this next location ? Anyone else see this as a building that will eventually have similar mold issues ? The original location that was bought couldn’t have been remediated ? That wouldn’t have cost nearly as much as this building is going to cost. And the experts, none of them had an estimate for doing that ? I bet if you go to anyone’s house, they find mold in Flagler County, yet they’ll still live there ?
palmcoaster says
That is my biggest concern k.Mineu! And in the middle of a pandemic that causes a diminished tax revenue. Nothing against the sheriff just to be realistic.
Pogo says
@A picture worth a thousand words
Did they have enough shovels?!
“The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
— Finley Peter Dunne
https://www.google.com/search?d&q=Finley+Peter+Dunne
Better still
https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2014/today-in-media-history-mr-dooley-the-job-of-the-newspaper-is-to-comfort-the-afflicted-and-afflict-the-comfortable/
As ever, thank you FlaglerLive.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Evansville Indiana just built their new Sheriff Operation center for their city of 117,000 residents – fully equipped state of the art total 10,000 square feet. Builder chosen in business 50 years in Indiana and Kentucky. Wonder how difficult it is for them to manage in a building 1/4 size of the Taj Mahal we are gonna get stuck paying for. The county can change the terms of the loan according to the 61 pages of loan blah blah which means they will be able to manipulate the bucks to take from ad valorem taxes which they are swearing up and down ( and sideways) is never going to happen..
Who is to blame for all this squandering of our hard earned tax dollars?
We are….we have ourselves to blame. Apathy is the root of it all.
How do you all see it?
Skibum says
Just because another sheriff’s office in Indiana decided that their “operations center” was going to be 10,000 sq ft of space for their needs, doesn’t mean squat for a different law enforcement agency in this state. Obviously they had a completely separate set of needs for their space. Was theirs designed to accommodate many different segments within that particular agency such as detectives, evidence techs, narcotics, K-9, search & rescue, civilian volunteers, etc? You probably have no idea what they intended to put in or exclude from their “operations center”, so your comparison really has no value to what the need is here in Flagler County. I, for one, am very glad the county finally came to its’ senses after the debacle with the old hospital building and the regretful purchase of the old Sears bldg, both of which were seriously defective and unsuitable for the purpose the county had intended to use them for. I believe Flagler County could have saved so much taxpayer dollars initially had they made the right decisions in the first place and avoided the mess they caused, but then again, people like you probably would have lambasted the county and the sheriff’s office for spending so much “unnecessary” taxpayer dollars on a new building then too. We need to recognize that as the county population increases and the need exists for newer and larger buildings to house important government functions such as law enforcement to keep the community safe, money will have to be spent. I’ll be glad to see and tour the new sheriff’s operations center when it is completed and open to the public.
Pro PC says
Well said Skibum. Some people need to complain about everything despite what it brings to a safer better community.
Progress is Good says
2. What are the three most critical issues facing the county, and where do you stand on each?
1. Sheriff’s Operation Center: It is my firm opinion that nothing, not even an A+ rating from the CDC will ever convince the public safety personnel to willingly return to work in the former hospital/current Sheriff Operation Center. It is a matter of health and welfare of our valued public safety employees as well as an issue of overall well being and morale. Having heard testimony from some of our valuable employees that many of them are looking elsewhere to serve the public rather than return to this building infected with bad ‘karma,’ at the very minimum it is imperative that they are given a ‘home base’ which they are comfortable working in and where they are happy to come to work and take care of the serious crime issues. Without decently taken care of (and properly paid) public safety personnel, including fire fighters and emergency personnel, our county will suffer serious consequences we cannot afford.
Was it you who said this?
Willy Boy says
You need a lot of shovels when you’re shoveling crap. Got to admire the parking of the cruiser.
Come on man says
This a bargain at $23 million. Based on 41,000 households in Flagler County (2019 Census Number), it will only cost each household about $560 for the new building. With the loss at the old building, etc,, this “Difficult” thing probably cost EACH household well over $1,000. What me worry? An extra $1000 is a small price for you to pay to ensure that the folks responsible are NEVER held accountable. At least the are giving it to us with a golden shovel, I wonder if they will use lube.
Trump/Covid2020 says
“County Commissioner Dave Sullivan was looking for the right word to describe what it’s taken to, after eight years, get to this morning’s groundbreaking at the latest in a string of hoped-for, planned, rebuilt, vacated, misplaced and built-from-scratch Sheriff’s operations Centers.
“I came up with one word,” Sullivan told a socially-distanced gathering of some 50 people standing on a road by the 8-acre site near Commerce Parkway in Bunnell, just south of the Government Services Building. “Difficult.”
I’d argue a better word would be “Incompetence”.
James M. Mejuto says
All this . . . $21+ millions for a building in a city that’s just a little larger than a town. What could be going
on in that building that requires this expenditure?
Concerned Citizen says
The Sheriff has been hell bent on getting a new Operations Center regardless of cost. And I am sure it will cap off his legacy as “The New Rick Staly Operations Center”.
Both the Sheriff like it or not and our useless and corrupt BOCC have been responsible for this mess from day 1. The Sheriff just did a better job in distancing himself and playing wo is me. But you better believe he was responsible for a lot of the decision making process. And that included the old Operations Center. He may of “inherited” it as Sheriff but was around as Manfre’s under Sheriff. As second in command you are still involved in day to day operations and decision making.
I was no fan of Craig Coffey. But I see he still gets blamed. Why? When we have an entire BOCC and County Attorney that have continued to be unethical and shadier than a lamp store sales person. Craig Coffey has come and gone. And his “Interim” successor is even worse. Did anyone do a background check on Cameron? And now we need to look at what is continuing to run this county into the ground.
At the root of it all is the voting public. You folks are so resistant to change you would rather keep rehashing the same folks. Letting them build empires. And bleed this county dry.
Jane was right. And as we don’t always agree I agree that the voters need to share some of this failure. A lot of us wanted change. But yet here we are.
James M. Mejuto says
re: New Operations Center . . . We all know where Republican disinformation is going.
We will pay dearly for a sheriff and his friends who want a commodity that has no
relationship to the problems facing Palm Coast. We are in debt !
Now is the time for everyone to clear their heads and figure-out what we have to do to bring
sanity and fiscal responsibility to solve our problems. There is no solution when one political party
completely controls our lives.
Flagler Drama says
The “Orlando based architect” is the same firm the Sheriff has been lobbying for since Day 1. Good to see he finally got his way, you know being he’s only “advising”! I’m sure nothing to see there.
Resident says
We will all regret this decision, first of all it will empty our pockets and then breath on our backs and tell us how to live. Build something useful instead like a cancer treatment facility.
Worst decision ever!
Doug says
Ceremonial ground breaking requires all those shovels and hardhats for a group of inept commissioners who have wasted so much money? One can only hope that the wasteful spending hasn’t continued for the purchase of those items shown in the photo that will be used one time. Unbelievable.
James M. Mejuto says
Well . . . how does it feel folks to wake up one morning to see, we the people have no power
to decide how our County functions.
We elected these scoundrels, all Republicans and now we will pay for it.
51,000 to 81,000 square feet = $31 + millions .
And . . . how many people live in Palm Coast ?????
Doug says
Too many and they can all go back to were they came from. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.
deb says
I always felt the city of Palm Coast with over 80k residents needed its own city police. The county outside of the city limits has something like 30k residents . Flagler Beach has a population of a little over 6k and has its own police department. Bunnell, with its 2800 or so residents has its own police department. Maybe its time for a change in Palm Coast. Would Palm Coast be better severed using its own police department and structuring its budget and operating structure to protect the residents within its city limits vs the County providing that support. Is there money to be saved vs money being spent on a huge county operated buildings. Maybe be, maybe not.
Come on man says
Why does Bunnell or Flagler Beach need their own police force for? The top police officer in each of these cities is appointed, not elected. We are fortunate that both of them are pretty good. I really like the idea of the sheriff being elected. If he does a lousy job, then we can replace him at the ballot box. With exception to wasting money on prostitute stings and banning alcohol too long during the aftermath of a hurricane, he seems to do a pretty good job. The blame for the SOC issue is squarely on the County staff who administered the construction (the highly overpaid engineering department) and the Commissioners who used the issue to gain political points. This fiasco will cost every household in the County over $1000 each. What would you prefer to spend $1000 of your own money one?
Lou says
80% of Flagler County population resides in Palm Coast. (Fact)
Palm Coast continue to grow more than the County. (Fact)
At one point in the near 10-15 years, Palm Coast will have their own Police Department. (Very likely)
Question, that need answering now is: What will the County do with such huge building when the demand for services and co-payment no loner needed and available?
Is Palm Coast -Flagler is in our future, just as Miami-Dade exist South of us?
James M. Mejuto says
re: Ready shovels: I’m sorry but the celebration of breaking ground for a $31+ million deal is not a cause to celebrate.
In fact, it’s a fate we taxpayers have to put up with when incompetent commissioners deal with
the peoples’ money.
We should regret politics and banks have taken control in a bad way.
Republican politicians have not given us a representative government!