Replacing Mullins, Sheriff Takes Leadership of Public Safety Council and Pledges More Focused, Productive Approach

The council has little authority to enact anything of its own, but its advisory power can be substantial. Over the years it was instrumental in directing local felons who’ve served their time to a recovery house, it was instrumental, with Judge Raul Zambrano (now the chief judge of the circuit) in the creation of Sally’s Safe Haven in Bunnell, the  location for supervised visitations and exchanges for families in crisis. In 2016 it approved a proposal to decriminalize pot in some circumstances, though the County Commission never took up the measure. And it’s the only panel where judges, law enforcement and social service agency heads speak openly and publicly of how such things as the opioid crisis intersects between those different spheres, allowing each side to see it from a different perspective.

Over the past decade it’s been chaired by county commissioners Barbara Revels, Nate McLaughlin and Joe Mullins. Over the last few years, it’s been losing its focus even as meetings, on the rare occasions when they’re held, had been getting longer, taxing the time of judges and others who don’t have time to waste on rhetoric or well-meaning and informative presentations that just as easily devolved into grandstanding. Quorums were difficult to attain, and monthly meetings were routinely cancelled. After the departure a year and a half ago of Sally Sherman, the deputy county administrator who’d kept the council on the path it’s required to keep by law, it was no longer clear whether the panel was following the responsibilities set out in state statute.

So after Mullins this morning announced he was stepping down from the chairmanship and Circuit Judge Terence Perkins heard Sheriff Rick Staly as the only nominee to take his place, Perkins zoomed in: “Good! I’m good with that.” The membership voted for Staly unanimously, then did likewise for Trish Giaccone, who heads the Family Life Center–the agency and shelter for abused people–as vice chair. Carrie Baird, executive director of Flagler Cares, the local mental health services coalition, was appointed staff liaison or secretary.

Staly said Jerry Cameron, the county administrator, had been asking him for “five or six months” whether he was interested in taking over the chairmanship, though until now Mullins had not wanted to step down. Today Mullins said he wanted to focus on other things such as the opioid task force.

Staly said the panel needed more focus and a better use of time.

“It has kind of wandered, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing because it brings issues to light and allows a forum to get out in the community. But there wasn’t a lot of results from that, from my perspective,” Staly said. His intention as chairman is “to keep the council moving. None of us like long, drawn-out meetings, especially if we don’t feel like they’re accomplishing anything, especially if we want to be productive.”

She sheriff intends to return the council to its statutorily-required responsibilities, which include reports on the status of the jail and its population, mental health issues in the county and developing a public safety plan if the county is receiving related grant money. It can also delve into additional, more optional issues beyond that, but only if the membership agrees. In the last couple of years, the agenda frequently featured items that were not presented with the council’s consensus. The council will decide at its July meeting what additional issues it may take on.

“I don’t think we’ve really looked at pre-trial intervention programs, gain time schedules, bail bond schedules, those other kind of things, or at least they haven’t been looked at in a long time,” Staly said. “So I think you’ll see a more in-depth report on what’s going on at the jail. Mental health, we know there’s mental health issues in this community, and we’re kind of fractured I think on providing the services, so clearly we need to look at that and see what we as a council can recommend.” 

The meeting of the council was the first since February, and the second this year, meetings in intervening months having been canceled because of the coronavirus emergency. The meeting is usually held at the Emergency Operations Center. This morning it was held at the Government Services Building’s meeting chamber, with a total of 19 people in the room, including the council members and county staff members, all spread out across the room. Up to 50 would have been allowed in. (In what appeared to be his last act as chairman, Mullins was very effective in saying who should sit where.)

The council is also likely to move to a quarterly meeting, rather than a monthly meeting. Cameron, who attended the meeting, said by-laws will be developed at a subsequent meeting. “There’s some inconsistencies in the way this committee has been conducted,” Cameron said. He has been doing likewise at other advisory panel, most notably at the Airport Advisory Board earlier this year. Until the resignation of two of its members, that board had also become more contentious, its mission blurred by controversies over noise issues and potential new construction at the airport. 

One looming key question  is what money, if any, is the county administering that should fall under the advisory purview of the public safety council. “As you can tell from the meeting,” Staly said, “I didn’t know the answer to some of those and Mr. Cameron I don’t think was 100 percent sure either, so I’m going to have to meet with him and find out–OK, here’s what the statute says, do we get a) any of these moneys, and if the answer to that is yes, how much, and what’s being done with it.” 

Public Defender James Purdy, who is in the waning months of his 16-year tenure in that post, asked whether Zoom, or electronic, participation from remote locations would continue in the future. (Only Perkins and Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis participated by Zoom today.) Staly said he sees no reason why Zoom access should not continue, including Zoom for public access, particularly in the current climate, with public safety agencies under scrutiny.

“I think the public should be involved,” the sheriff said. “I can only talk for the policing side, really, but policing with the community, not policing the community, so part of that is transparency and involvement. But we’ll have to see if it continues to be legal. It sounded like the only way that you can legally do zoom is if you have at least a forum in person, outside the Covid-19 emergency.”