Sheriff’s Operations Center May Be Renamed for Rick Staly in Recognition of His 50 Years in Policing

The late Philip Roth had his eponymous Nathan Zukerman in one of his many bookish appearances joke that if “you write thirty books, and you win the Nobel Prize, and you live to be white-haired and ninety-five, it’s highly unlikely but not impossible that after your death they’ll decide to name a rest stop for you.” 

The Flagler County Commission may do Sheriff Rick Staly one better. 

Staly is nowhere near 95–he’ll be in his 60s until the last day of the year–he can still boast a few wisps of non-white hair and could run again in 2028. He’s also marking 50 years in policing. So the commission is considering–and will likely approve–renaming the Sheriff’s Operations Center in Bunnell as the Sheriff Rick Staly Law Enforcement Center in recognition of that service. 

Sheriff’s Chief Mark Strobridge, a colleague and friend of Staly’s going back to their many years together at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, conceived and proposed the idea to some commissioners. There’d been discussions with County Administrator Heidi Petito, who sought a legal brief from County Attorney Michael Rodriguez, but did not expect to hear the matter discussed at Monday’s commission meeting. 

Commissioner Leann Pennington brought it up as “a good opportunity for us as a board to do something in the community.” She cited Staly’s long tenure in Flagler County, the 50 percent reduction in crime, his reputation in the state and the community. “Everywhere I go, everyone loves our sheriff, and he is very well respected, and he’s done a tremendous job in our community,” she said. She sought consensus from her colleagues to rename the Operations Center for him. “It’ll still be a sheriff’s office, but it would be Sheriff Staly’s office.”

“I kind of think that’s something to do at his retirement,” Commissioner Greg Hansen said. ”That would be the appropriate time. I’m all for naming the building after him, but I think it should be done at his retirement.”

The county has a naming policy, adopted in 2015. The policy calls for the naming of places or buildings to be “a rare event,” for the person to have made  “exceptional contributions to Flagler County,” whether by way of monetary gifts or public service (white-haired novelists are not mentioned), and requires “a well-defined connection between the contributions and the facility to be named.” The policy does not require the person to be retired or dead. 

Commissioners Pam Richardson and Kim Carney were quick to align with Pennington. They sounded ready to sign off then and there, though a few questions arose, prompting Strobrudge, who was still in the chamber for a very different reason, walked down to the well to address the commissioners. 

Neither the commission nor Petito were aware just then of what the human resources department had earned from Jorge Salinas’s children: that Salinas and his wife Nancy had been killed in a car crash the previous Saturday. Strobridge was aware, and alluded to it: “I can just hit the highlights and be done and get out of here, because we do have a couple other critical issues we need to talk about later,” he said.  

Strobridge summarized the process as he understood it. He’d looked up the policy, and noted that Staly checked every box to qualify for a naming honor. “There’s absolutely no cost for the entire process to the county,” he said. The entity requesting the renaming would have to bear the costs, and the building can be renamed yet again in the future. “We have hit every piece of the criteria. The question becomes, do we do it now as we get close to his 50th celebration? Is it something everybody wants to wait?” (There is, it appears, to be an actual celebration.) “Tomorrow is not promised to any of us,” Strobridge said, words heavy with the moment’s undertone, “and this is one chance that I wanted to bring forth an idea that Commissioner Pennington championed for me, that we can say: thank you.” (just before midnight, he’d sent Adam Mengle, the county’s growth management director, a summary of the issue, a proposed resolution and Staly’s list of accomplishments.)

Commission Chair Andy Dance said while there is no stipulation against naming a building before a person retires, “I think if you read the policy, the intent is very clear in that it’s for recognizing somebody for their period of service at the completion of their service.” 

Dance said the policy was written after the county courthouse was named for Kim Hammond when he was still a circuit judge there, if also approaching retirement. “But that was before we did the facility naming policy, and one could probably assume that something like that occurring could have been the genesis for the naming facility,” Dance said. (He meant policy.) 

“If we’re going to do this, I think we have to take a look at the policy,” Dance said. “ The policy is going to have to be reviewed, because if there’s a loophole in there for existing recognizing existing elected officials, that is what we need to be looking at absent from any names associated for it. It needs to be analyzed as a policy decision, regardless of whose name is attached to. I’m the biggest supporter here for Sheriff Staly and the things that he’s done. He’s been exceptional in the improvements that he’s done and is working with the county on many different fronts, especially with that building. But from a policy standpoint, this would set a precedent that’s not specifically named within the policy.” The commission, he said, needs to consider the “unintended consequences” of such a change. Staly could not be reached before this article published. 

Pennington said she was comfortable with the renaming. The Operations Center would continue to be known as the Operations Center for most, she said (most people still don’t know that the county jail is actually the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility), but “I’m comfortable moving forward of getting the application submitted and bringing it back to the board.” 

Dance still wanted to look at all options, plaques and “other ways” included. But Carney, Pennington and Richardson’s majority meant the application would be taken and considered at the Oct. 20 meeting. “I hate to see a policy hold us up, so I’m willing to move forward,” Carney said.