State law changed in July to allow counties to use tourism sales surtax revenue to pay for lifeguards.
That’s good news for Flagler Beach: last month Flagler County said it was ending the annual contribution that paid for half the city’s lifeguard personnel costs. The county backed down after an outcry from Flagler Beach and from some of its own county commissioners, but only to extend the payment–$106,000 this year–one more year. That left future funding in doubt.
The county money represents almost a fifth of Flagler Beach’s parks and recreation budget, and a third of its salaries and benefits.
“I don’t think that’s what we as a county really want to see, is less lifeguards on the beach,” Flagler Beach Commissioner Rick Belhumeur said.
At a joint meeting of local governments Wednesday, County Chair Andy Dance announced the change in law. He and Commissioner Pennington said they will bring up the possibility of Tourist Development Tax dollar funding for lifeguards at a future commission meeting. The TDC board would have to recommend the change, and the commission would have to approve it.
It’s not a given: TDC revenue is not high: $4.3 million last year, most of it allocated, much of it used for beach protection, lessening money available for promotion of the county or for capital grants to pay for tourism-related infrastructure. The revenue is generated by a 5 percent sales surtax charged to hotel, motel, and short-term rental rates, RV stays and other visitor-related activities. It is overwhelmingly paid by out-of-county visitors.
The Flagler Beach officials at yesterday’s meeting liked what they heard. A dedicated source of funding for the lifeguard program would remove uncertainty and possibly expand lifeguards’ presence beyond Flagler Beach’s boundaries, which could in turn lessen the crush of beachgoers in the city.
“It’s a good use of money. A lot of the tourists that come here tend to flock towards the guarded areas,” Flagler Beach City Commissioner Eric Cooley said. “It is a benefit to the city, but it is not nearly as much a benefit to the city as it is to the county, just because of who visits the guarded areas and who makes use of the lifeguard.”
The county has an ongoing agreement with Flagler Beach–a so-called “interlocal agreement–that spells out the county’s role.
“When it was amended in 2020,” County Administrator Heidi Petito said of the ILA, “it allowed for a three-year commitment, and then after that three-year commitment, it would automatically renew unless we gave notice, and that was part of the budget process, was providing that notice in case we weren’t doing it.”
The amendment states: “This Agreement shall renew automatically on an annual basis unless either party provides written notice of termination at least ninety (90) days prior to renewal.”
“What I’d like to see is just that we end up with some type of ongoing agreement so that it doesn’t become a budget battle issue. Nobody wins with that,” Dance said. “I think it’s appropriate for the TDC funds to probably be able to pay for some of this.” But not the whole bill, he said.
Cooley was at the origin of the joint government meetings. He wanted Flagler Beach to explain to neighboring governments that the city alone could not–and should not–bear the entire financial or infrastructure burden of managing beach-goers, the majority of whom are not Flagler Beach residents. The joining meetings have since become a semi-regular forum to discuss any matter of joint concern. On Wednesday,
Cooley reminded his colleagues of those meetings’ intent, and raised the possibility of extending lifeguard coverage to non-city portions of the beach to relieve visitor pressure on Flagler Beach. The county had previously rejected the idea. Dance said the proposal could be revived this year.
Members of the joint-government panel are especially interested in knowing from available zip code data what visitors are visiting which beaches, and where drownings are happening. “I wouldn’t want to–unless it’s purely strategic–to focus on areas that don’t have a problem,” Palm Coast City Council member Ty Miller said. “We don’t fix a problem that doesn’t exist, so to speak.”
There have been no drownings in Flagler Beach’s guarded beaches since 2009, the earliest year for which data is preserved. There have been drownings in non-protected areas. The United States Lifesaving Association calculates the chance of a drowning off a protected beach at 1 in 18 million.
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