The Flagler Beach City Commission in an emergency meeting Monday approved a resolution asking the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office to “exercise appropriate measures” regarding the State Road 100 bridge during the Hurricane Milton emergency. The resolution does not explicitly ask the sheriff to close the bridge if need be, but the commission’s discussion before voting on the resolution indicated that intent, even though it appears to clash with the county’s emergency declaration, state law, and the sheriff’s own position.
The resolution was the result of a staff meeting between City Manager Dale Martin and Acting Police Chief Lance Blanchette and Fire Chief Bobby Pace who “indicated the strong desire at a certain point may require the bridge to be closed, whether that’s before, during or after the storm,” Martin said. The city manager said, correctly, that only the county has the authority to do that. But the sheriff “wanted a unified statement endorsing the actions of whatever the county sheriff is interested in implementing at that time.” Martin said the closure, if it came to that, would “limit the spectators when first responders are responding or residents are trying to recover.”
Flagler Beach’s resolution took County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord, County Attorney Sean Moylan and the sheriff somewhat by surprise.
“Under the statutory scheme chapter 252 the incident commander, which in this case is Jonathan, takes command of the entire county including within the municipalities,” Moylan said. “That is pursuant to the county’s declaration of a local state of emergency.” Lord would have authority over such things as bridge closures rather than city officials or the sheriff, though in past emergencies, Lord has taken a very collaborative approach, avoiding any kind of edict-like declarations.
All such decisions have customarily been reached by consensus through the countywide executive policy group that meets during emergencies. The group consists of all the city managers, the county administrator, the county attorney, Lord, the sheriff and the school superintendent. Elected county and city officials are not part of the group, though at times they may attend meetings if they are joining their leadership team. That policy group “is supposed to to take account and concerns of all the stakeholders including the municipalities,” Moylan said, so “hopefully we’re on the same page.”
The group held its first meeting today at noon, and was likely to discuss the bridge issue.
“The bridge is a state [Department of Transportation] bridge,” Lord said. “Our policy now is, we will not close that bridge, but we will tell people when it is not safe to be on the roads. We’ll make an announcement when it’s not safe to be on the roads, and that will be inclusive of the bridge.” Lord was not aware of Flagler Beach’s city’s resolution. It is unclear if city officials were aware that during an emergency, the county’s emergency management director is the incident commander.
“If the city on their own wants to restrict access into their city, that is entirely on them,” Lord said. “But the county will only restrict access to a particular area for public safety purposes.”
Does the city have authority to restrict access on a state road? “Potentially if it’s because of public safety, like if there’s a hole in the road, if the road is flooded over, I don’t think that the DOT would have an issue with that, because it’s about life-safety,” Lord said. “Anything beyond that, I think they would need to talk to the DOT to coordinate something like that.”
“In the past, the county would restrict access on the bridge when winds got to a certain speed,” Lord said. “But that also meant putting responders’ life at risk to do that. So at the end of the day, we will not do that. I can’t attest to reasons that were things done before my time there. I’m sure there was very good reasons for that. We have restricted access on certain areas, like when A1A had a hole in it, then we would support the restriction of that. Initially law enforcement at the local level will restrict that access, and then DOT will come and put barricades up instead.”
The Flagler Beach City Commission’s discussion Monday evening included a few misstatements, as for example the suggestion that only the sheriff could close the bridg.
“Well, it’s not,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “There is a statut where I can enact an emergency as a sheriff for an X number of days, but I’ve never used it. I work in partnership with the Flagler County emergency management team as part of the policy committee, and that’s the way I’ll continue to operate as sheriff. Because it is a state road, there’s actually regulations that the FDOT has that have to be followed before a state road can be closed. So the belief is, if you’re trying to stop gawkers, that is not a legitimate reason to close a state road. If there are true hazards on the road like flooding, power lines down, unstable bridge, then clearly, that is a legitimate reason to close down a state road. So when the acting city chief reached out to me yesterday, I encouraged him to have the commission wait and see what the impact is before that decision can be made, and that’s what I reiterated today in the policy group meeting.”
Staly had heard of the city commission’s meeting and resolution, but was not aware of the details of the discussion during the meeting.
“I think it should be a combined decision. It needs to be our city has input and yes, the sheriff can have input too, but this is our city,” Commissioner Eric Cooley said Monday evening. The discussion lasted about 15 minutes.
“The issue is it’s not our road to close,” Commission Chair Scott Spradley said.
“The intent overall is to make it a collaborative decision, but the final authority rests with the sheriff,” Martin said, though in fact it rests with the emergency management director. “But the intent is that it would be a collaborative decision.”
The meeting had been called without 24-hour notice, under authority of the state emergency declaration. City Attorney Drew Smith was not in the commission chamber during the meeting, leaving several questions unanswered. The resolution was crafted by the city manager and City Clerk Penny Overstreet. “The way this is worded, this is putting everything on the sheriff,” Cooley said. “My fear is we get into this, and then all of us are going, Hey, what’s going on with the bridge? If there’s something going on, whether we want it opened or closed, either one. And then we get told: Well, it’s up to the sheriff.”
That led to an clause clarifying that the sheriff would carry out the resolution “after consultation with appropriate city officials,” though it does not clarify what officials those would be.
“There is a concern, and clearly they want to protect their residents from issues,” Staly said, “people wanting to prey on them. We will ensure the barrier island is sure from people that want to take advantage of a disaster and we will work with the Flagler Beach Police Department.”
This morning, Spradley was buoyed by a storm track that could make all the discussions of closing the bridge moot. “The city can’t pass power to the sheriff that the city doesn’t have,” he said. “We’re learning as we go. Things happened at the last minute. It was just simply they thought that, wait a minute, we want to make sure that this is done right. As it turns out, there wasn’t enough time to dig deep. But the resolution itself is limited to Hurricane Milton. It’s not a forever situation.”
Jim says
I fail to understand why Flagler City felt this was necessary to propose. I also don’t understand why they don’t know the protocol for these emergency situations. We seem to have a hurricane or two (or more) every year so I would expect those in charge of the cities and county to know how the emergency management system works. I also wonder why they didn’t just inquire about their suggestion with the appropriate people before going to this extreme.
That said, it looks like the sheriff and County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord have a much better grasp of the management system and it looks like it will be handled appropriately if and when closing the bridge becomes a situation to be decided.
I hope those that pushed this activity get more educated on the emergency system so that we don’t have any other suggestions made by going outside the management system in place. Typically that leads to chaos and regret. None of us here need that!
Nicki says
Sounds like by now they would have had more organized plans and agreements. Pretty scary that they don’t have it together. Not surprised this, this is what happens when the elect Republicans.
Laurel says
So, one hand, what is the other hand doing? It would appear that working together would be helpful. Flagler County always seems to be knee jerk and uninformed.
The Florida Highway Patrol said once winds are sustained at 40 miles per hour they consult with local agencies about the possibility of closing bridges.
With that knowledge, those who are evacuating the area should do so before winds obtain 40 miles per hour, simply to have a safe road to evacuate on.
Deborah Coffey says
The incompetence is incredible. A City Commission doesn’t know the laws? And, why would people in the middle of a hurricane on a barrier island even be there to be preyed upon?
Joe D says
Regarding of a “mandatory” evacuation order, not everyone leaves…there might also be access limits to
Prevent what is already starting in North Carolina S/P Helene disaster….looting of businesses and properties
Nicki says
This is what happens when people elect Republicans.