Palm Coast Will Deploy Engine Company to Flagler Beach Fire Department, Bridging Staffing Shortfall For $54,000

Flagler Beach and Palm Coast governments are expected to sign a joint agreement next week that will temporarily send a Palm Coast fire engine company to Flagler Beach to help bridge a staffing shortfall provoked by the sudden and simultaneous resignation of more than a third of the personnel at the Flagler Beach Fire Department. 

Flagler Beach will pay Palm Coast $54,000 for the service. The Flagler Beach City Commission is meeting in special session Monday to ratify the agreement. The Palm Coast City Council is expected to ratify it at its regular meeting on Tuesday. 

Palm Coast Deputy City Manager Kyle Berryhill, who is also the city’s fire chief–a role he has temporarily ceded to Deputy Fire Chief Bradd Clark–worked with former Flagler Beach Fire chief Stephen Cox and current Acting Chief Jennifer Fiveash on the details of the agreement. Fiveash spent two decades in the Palm Coast Fire Department before Cox hired her as his deputy. 

Flagler Beach City Manager Dale Martin fired Cox earlier this month after Fiveash and four other firefighters resigned and most of the remaining firefighters signed a no-confidence letter against Cox. (See: “Turmoil at Flagler Beach Fire Department as 5 Firefighters, Including Deputy Chief and Morgan Rainey, Resign.”)

“One hundred percent of this is intended to support Flagler Beach through a transition, not to do anything other than that,” Berryhill said Friday. “We’re just going around the cover to our neighbors.” 

The engine company will be stationed at the Flagler Beach Fire Department “on an every-third-day rotation for a fixed four-week duration,” according to the joint agreement, commonly referred to as an “inter-local agreement,” or ILA. That means 24 hours on, 48 hours off, covering the C shift. When responding to incidents in  Flagler Beach, Palm Coast Fire Department personnel will integrate into the Flagler Beach Incident Command System and operate under the direction of the designated Flagler Beach incident commander. 

It is not much different from when Palm Coast or Flagler County Fire Rescue responds to incidents in Flagler Beach, where the incident commander is typically a Flagler Beach firefighter–or when Flagler Beach responds under similar “mutual aid” circumstances to an incident in Palm Coast and integrates under the Palm Coast incident commander’s direction. 

Currently, short-staffed Flagler Beach firefighters are running 48 hours on, 24 hours off, “which is the opposite of what’s supposed to be happening,” Fiveash said. She wanted a “formal plan put in place that way we’re not going day by day. That’s not conducive to anybody.”

The cost is based on Palm Coast providing 720 staffing hours at $75 an hour, totaling $54,000. The two sides will not go past those hours and that amount without an amended ILA. 

“Palm Coast is an asset that has not been tapped into, and they have the available resources, along with the apparatus to staff up,” Fiveash said, “so the willingness to share that burden between the other two agencies is best for all involved.”

Flagler County Fire Rescue has helped and was willing to help, but the county department has its own staffing challenges. 

For Palm Coast, the arrangement will not affect existing coverage in the city. The fire department, Berryhill said, has several standby or back-up engine companies that are typically activated in emergency situations such as wildfires or special events. This is a similar activation. 

Flagler Beach city commissioners briefly discussed the plan with Fiveash, who made an appearance before the commission at Thursday evening’s meeting and had spoken with some commissioners individually as well. The commission was handed the proposed ILA during the meeting. Martin, the city manager, said it had been completed just two hours before the start of the 5:30 p.m. meeting. 

“What this does is it basically takes that burden off while I work with our team getting us back to full staff,” Fiveash told the commissioners. “We do have seven applicants coming in tomorrow, and we’ll see what happens. I’m very hopeful that we’ll be able to fill several positions. The application postings are staying open until all positions are filled.”

However championed locally, Fiveash herself does not appear to be a contender for the chief’s position, as she has made a commitment to another job. 

“We should be able to make it through this transition with less disruption over the course of next month,” Martin said.

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