City Commission Workshop Meeting (2025-03-06)

CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING MINUTES Thursday, March 06, 2025, at 5:30 PM City Commission Chambers – 105 S. 2ND Street, Flagler Beach, FL 32136 Present: Mayor Patti King, Chair Scott Spradley, Vice-Chair James Sherman, Commissioners Rick Belhumeur, Eric Cooley and Jane Mealy, City Attorney D. Andrew Smith, III, City Manager Dale L. Martin and City Clerk Penny Overstreet. 1. Call the meeting to order: Chair Spradley called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 2. Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence to honor our Veterans, members of the Armed Forces and First Responders. Commissioner Sherman led the pledge. 3. General Business a. Discussion regarding Flagler County Beach Management Plan. Chair Spradley reviewed the meeting process advising the public that it is a business workshop, and no formal decisions will be made. Chair Spradley suggested to begin each official express their opinion and concerns regarding the proposed Flagler County Beach Management Plan. Commissioner Cooley feels the sales tax and the 160 fee is nominal vs the risk and potential impact if we had to do this ourselves. He continued and said not agreeing to the proposal benefits no one. The resources are being pulled from multiple platforms. Chair Spradley stated to summarize what you just said, you are open to the ½ percent sales tax and the property fee. Commissioner Cooley stated yes, I am all in, the nuts and bolts we can hash out. Chair Spradley stated his feelings are equivalent to Commissioner Cooley’s. Commissioner Mealy inquired when the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) did the project we agreed to do the maintenance. What does the maintenance consist of and where did the 2.5 million amounts come from, where did the six (6) year maintenance come from. She remembers 10 years unless a named storm removed the sand. Commissioner Mealy stated she is a little uncomfortable with Palm Coast getting half of the tax back. Lastly, Commissioner Mealy stated she is not opposed to the proposal, she would just like the questions answered. Commissioner Sherman commented he is on the same wavelength with Commissioners Cooley and Spradley. It is a hard pill to swallow, but this is a Flagler County asset, this is something that could work and some fine details need to be worked out. Commissioner Belhumeur stated he is okay with the proposal as received. Yes, Palm Coast and Bunnell will get half back, but Palm Coast will contribute a massive amount of revenue. He would rather do this than scramble to try to get funds to renourish the beach. Mayor King expressed her opinion that everyone shares this plan, and she feels it makes sense. She does have questions about logistics, and how our walkovers come into this. Chair Spradley commented looking for a way to fund this; it’s outside the capability of Flagler Beach to do that. Anxious to hear details of further tweaking. Chair Spradley advised the walkovers will remain under the City’s control.

Commissioner Belhumeur commented that with this we do not have to worry about maintenance, it goes away. Commissioner Cooley when we talk about control of the beach, referred to the escarpment after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, and the cost to add sand were outside of our means and we were able to get Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to place the sand to protect the road. Feels the opposition is putting their entire city at risk. Heidi Petito, Flagler County Administrator, thinks there is an opportunity to tweak some of this. Regarding Palm Coast and Bunnell, the idea of half of the 1/2 cent sales tax would come from them since they are not coastal cities. This is how we came up with something that would be seen as fair. We tried to come up with common ground that everyone could support. When we looked at Flagler Beach, you have 6.2 miles of beach, we have the ACOE Project, they will come back if destroyed in a named storm, there is still an additional three miles of beach in the city limits. This is how Coastal Engineers came up with the costs. Mrs. Petito referred to the condos by Gamble Rogers Park that have severe erosion issues. Mrs. Petito spoke of a grant they have found that is 50/50 or a $4.4 million match. They have applied for a mitigation grant to purchase undeveloped oceanfront land. The grant is in the amount of $40 million. A portion would be to purchase land, and portion would be to nourish it. Commissioner Mealy inquired what about the 10-year maintenance vs 6-year. Mrs. Petito stated what the coastal engineers are seeing is that the nourishment will not last 10 years as initially thought. They see the erosion happening faster than projected. Mrs. Petito stated they would not spend the money unless we need to, the monies will be in a restricted fund for this purpose. Mrs. Petito feels it would be helpful to have an oversight board with representation from each jurisdiction to oversee the progress and accounting. This could be discussion item at the next joint meeting. Mrs. Petito reported they went to Beverly Beach on Monday and received good feedback, they spoke of the low-income elderly in Beverly Beach and felt they could tweak the amount of the $160 fee and possibly establish a grant for those unable to pay. Commissioner Mealy asked about Mr. Harrah’s attendance at the FB3 Meeting, stating he didn’t get specific, but thought there may be more ACOE projects coming. Mrs. Petito expressed opinion, as there is more erosion, there are more areas the ACOE would designate as critical. This is another reason the County is looking at acquiring those properties so it would qualify for federal funding. Commissioner Belhumeur inquired about the condo area and the secant wall, and why it would need to be maintenance when FDOT agreed to maintain the sand on the secant wall. Mrs. Petito responded, “Yes, they will do the wall but not the beach. Mrs. Petito spoke of discussion with FDOT, John Tyler, the issue is the sand will only go in front of the seawall, so the area has sand in front of the seawall there would be no beach, feels it is only fair that everyone receives the same benefit, and she feels a discussion needs to be held with FDOT to secure a better contribution. Commissioner Sherman started FDOT said their priority is to protect A1A, and they are not in the business of renourishing beaches, we do not want a hodgepodge of areas that have beaches and some not. Commissioner Sherman asked if the area South of the City not being nourished would have an impact on us. Mrs. Petito responded as the sand goes offshore it travels south; we do and will have coordination with Volusia County Commissioner Cooley stated tourism drives two different taxes, sales and bed tax, this plan benefits from both. He does not want residents to look at it like no one else is contributing. We are leveraging tourism at a high rate. He believes that there is a way to come up with a graduated scale tied to the $160 fee would alleviate some of the low-income concerns and keep it a fair contribution. Mrs. Petito spoke about creating different taxing districts and the need to have a conversation with the State Park. Commissioner Belhumeur inquired if the Hammock Dunes Community was contributing. Mrs. Petito responded currently they have a permit for a dune only. The HOA is meeting on the 17th to see if they can get support for their contribution and Mrs. Petito mentioned the need to have an interlocal with them as well, and added they are working with us.

Mrs. Petito stated going forward we need to access if we have partners that want to come together to address this. Do you want an oversight committee, etc., we need the feedback to create the Interlocal Agreements. They can take over the maintenance of the beach, if we want to retain it that’s fine. We certainly were not planning on parking or dune walkovers; we just want feedback. Who are our partners and how do we make it better. Chair Spradley opened public comments. Comments were received from Steve Dalley a, Scott Crone and RJ Santore. Chair Spradley closed public comment. 4. Adjournment: Motion by Commissioner Belhumeur to adjourn the meeting at 6:42 p.m. _______________________________________ Scott Spradley, Chairman ______________________________________ Penny Overstreet, City Clerk