Today the Board of County Commissioners for Flagler County held their meeting. Their next meeting is set for February 6th at 9am, and they have a workshop meeting scheduled for January 17th.
The meeting covered many different points; but it started off with recognizing Flagler County employees for their years of service, by milestones. Two of the employees, George Miller, and Michael Pius were recognized today for their 20 years of service to our County.
The highlights of the meeting are as follows. This is not a full agenda, and it is a brief summary of the majority of issues discussed at the meeting.
January was recognized as human trafficking awareness month and stalking awareness month.
Public Comment was opened and a resident came forward and asked that section 6C of the agenda be pulled for discussion.
There was no one from the Elections Office in attendance, so a call was made to the office for someone to come by if possible and the agenda item was moved to the back of the line for discussion.
The next item that was pulled from the agenda was the increase in funding for the Dune Restoration Project. (7J)
The discussion of the Dune Restoration Project funding (7J) was brought up by Commission Sullivan initially, and commissioners Dance and Pennington both wanted clarification on it as well. This was because the amounts were higher than previously approved by the TDC (Tourism Development Board). One of the bids came in 140,890.20 higher than previously thought. This required approval to fund and waiting would delay the project from moving forward. The extra 2million dollars that was being asked of the BOCC, was for cash flow and would be reimbursed down the road. The representatives who were there to answer questions of the BOCC stated that they were in constant contact with the State DEP Department, and FEMA in constant efforts to obtain more funding for the Dune Projects. The requests were made by Faith Alkhatib, the County Engineer, and Robert Rounds, Purchasing Manager, and their reasoning was than any delay in these funds could set the projects back by months at a time. The commissioners said they could pull funding from the General Fund Reserve Account, as that is what the reserve account is for.
Public comment was opened on 7j, no one approached so public comment was closed and the motion passed 5-0. It will be brought back up in February, after the TDC holds their January meeting.
6c, was brought up next, and public comment asked about what the grant covers. The commenter asked about if the grant covered physical security or digital only. The grant covers Cyber security and will keep our digital Intel safe from hackers and malware and ransom ware. The grant is for electronic security only, it is for some equipment and accessibility. They are just seeking approval to apply for the 4million grant. The motion passed 5-0.
General business was next on the agenda. Plantation Bay final plat for unit 9a. This is an extension of bay drive that will connect the area and provide an access point. This will provide an entrance into Bay Drive. They want to make sure lights on the signage for Plantation Bay will not be shining in the eyes of drivers on US1. Any lighting will shine away from US 1. No one approached to make public comment on this motion, it passed 5-0.
Criminal background screening on county employees. This is an amendment to the ordinance to remove independent contractors, and any private contractors that are not employees of the county. The FBI asked the county to amend this and remove the private and independent contractors. Commissioner Pennington said that after checking into things, she noted the county had been using Vchecks, which was only to be used for volunteers and not employees, and that moving forward we are running employees through the proper channels for background checks. Public comment was opened on 9a, no one approached, so the motion was voted on. It passed 5-0.
