UPDATE Monday: Jane Gentile-Youd’s full response has been added to the end of this article.
UPDATE 7:06 pm: A statement provided by Jane Gentile-Youd on Facebook reads as follows: “He threatened to sue the county so they cut $600,000 from transportation budget. Took money from reserves.. Cut other programs and in addition to his inflated 50% increase from 2016 his maintenance expenses for his cars boats and buildings are EXTRA depletions from the general fund budget. He also keeps all money from fines he collects. He pays over $2.280,000 for 24 employees average $100,000 each. I HATE untruths.”
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly issued a statement on Friday rebuking Jane Gentile-Youd, a candidate for the County Commission, for her comments during a Tiger Bay Club forum about law enforcement. Asked for her stance on the Sheriff’s Office’s budget, Gentile-Youd advocated for a degree of budget cuts.
Specifically, Gentile-Youd pointed to a perceived lack of funding for the county fire department as being indicative of the need to show restraint with Staly’s budget. She advocated for the improvement of fire department facilities and for some belt-tightening at the Sheriff’s Office as opposed to a budget increase.
“I think it’s a disgrace,” Gentile-Youd said of the state of the funding comparison between the two departments. She suggested the Sheriff sell some or all of the department’s boats in order to fund the deputy pay raises that Staly has recently sought. Staly himself was seated in the crowd, looking mostly stoic during Gentile-Youd’s critique of his department.
It took eight whole days for Staly’s response to drop, and it marked his first public statement about a candidate’s merit in this election cycle. “The ‘defund the police’ candidate is NPA Jane Gentile-Youd,” Staly said, playing off the county’s overwhelming support of local law enforcement.
“She has no clue how law enforcement operates and is listening to the wrong people,” the Sheriff continued. He relayed experiences having met with Gentile-Youd and answered her questions, and accused the candidate of having listened to ‘failed law enforcement officials’, as well as county staff whose opinions he calls into question.
Staly’s full remarks are displayed below. Jane Gentile-Youd has been reached out to for comment, and any statement she provides will be added to this article.
Jane Gentile Youd’s full reply, exactly as submitted on Sunday:
“My replies at the candidate forums, and not at any of the official budget hearings were as a FISCAL CONSERVATIVE and wanting to be a GUARDIAN OF OUR TAX DOLLARS . When asked I responded and spoke of the Sheriff’s use of his funds to pay over 6 of his staff an average of $100,000 and 18 of his staff an average of $90,200 each ; buying expensive( Boston Whaler) boats and the Sheriff’s crying about not having funds to pay deputies decent salaries. , Both forums were AFTER the final budget hearings. His allegations that I want us to return to the pre Staly days of high crime are untruthful and scandalous at best .I offer proof of his intentions to slander me as as Candidate as follows:“FACTS: I, Jane Gentile-Youd, candidate for County Commission, NEVER once commented or mentioned the Sheriff’s budget at the County Budget workshop on September 12, nor at the Final Budget Hearing on September 19th. The board minutes of both meetings reflect my requests to cut ONLY the county attorney’s budget down from the $915,000, to raise the rent from $8,000 a year to $50,000 a year for Captain’s Bar-B-Que , in support of finding $350,000 funding for 2 additional paramedic pilots for the Fire Rescue helicopter o be available 24/7 because we have no trauma center in Flagler County and we only have the helicopter available 1 shift a day, in addition I suggested cutting $90,000 from trips and memberships of the BOCC.“FACTS: TWO COMMISSIONERS NOT JANE GENTILE -YOUD SPOKE IN OPPOSITION TO THE SHERIFF’S DEMAND FOR $700,000 ABOVE the county’s PROPOSED BUDGE of $35,922,750. At the first Budget Public Hearing September 7th Commissioner Andy Dance stated: “ There was a record amount of new funding going to the Sheriff this year and that it is the Sheriff’s responsibility to set the salaries as he had the opportunity and ability to pay his people first. ” The system between the Sheriff’s operations and the county was broken and that he wants to fix the process moving forward”. Commissioner Dance further stated taking money from reserves was not the answer. Commissioner Dave Sullivan also spoke in opposition to giving the Sheriff the additional $700,000 he wanted stating that would mean less money to run the county. The Sheriff’s final county budge granted is $700,000 above the county’s original proposed $35,972.750, which he finally was given after he threatened to sue the county if they did not agree HIS.TOTAL BUDGET: $ 36,622,750 . Both the aforementioned commissioners were concerned about cutting $600,000 funding from our much needed transportation budget among other cuts in order to satisfy the Sheriff’s demands for an additional $700,000.“ADDITIONAL COSTS OUT OF OUR POCKETS not disclosed by the Sheriff in his untruthful biased ‘unofficial endorsement of my opponent” include:** The entire cost of the new Sheriff building between $21,000,000 and $22,000,000 is being paid from our General Funds which funds also pay for the maintenance of all buildings used by the Sheriff including the new one in Palm Coast. The General Funds ( our tax dollars reserved for all other county departments) also pays for the maintenance of his boats, cars and all the buildings he uses (which are all owned by us). He failed to disclose that he purchased a new Boston Whaler boat with 2 expensive outboard motors last year as well as got an extra $400,000 from our General Budget for a new command center he ‘claims’ he needs. He failed to disclose that he gets grant funds and is able to keep a portion of all the fines he collects.** If our deputies are leaving the county because they are underpaid it i because as Commissioner Dance stated ” it is the Sheriff’s responsibility, not the county to set salaries of his staff”.
” ** Why doesn’t the Sheriff have enough money to pay his deputies a decent starting salary when in 2016 the Sheriff budget was $18,700,000 and today it is $36,722,750. That is a 100% increase in 5 years. IS THIS AN EXAMPLE OF BEING FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE TO HAVE DOUBLE THE FUNDING IN 5 YEARS AND NOT ENOUGH TO PAY DEPUTIES WHAT THEY DESERVE? Does ‘Fiscally Conservative” apply to everyone except the Sheriff in Flagler County?** The Sheriff was the only constitutional officer who refused to meet with county staff, beginning in January 2022 to discuss his budgetary wishes ; he just threatened to SUE THE COUNTY IF THEY DIDN’T GIVE HIM WHAT HE WANTS.
” The Sheriff’s October 14 ” WHAT VOTERS MIGHT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE FLAGLER COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICT 4 ELECTION”,in addition to being untruthful, I ALLEGE is in violation of Florida Statute 104.31 (1) (a) which prohibits such behavior from an elected official from endorsing or interfering or swaying an election is a misdemeanor of the first degree punishable for up to one year in jail. I ALLEGE F.S. 110.233 ( 2) and (3) (b) also prohibit such behavior. His allegation of my wanting to DEFUND his department is knowingly totally false and unsubstantiated in public records. Every one of my statements were in answer to questions at forums after the final budget hearings were over:“In closing, the Sheriff’s letter PUTTING WORDS INTO MY MOUTH is a scandalous document in violation of 2 current state statutes , above,and which public records can AND PROVE that I NEVER made any attempt whatsoever to cut or defund his budget. Again, both meetings, at the September 12 Budget Workshop nor at the Final Budget Hearing on September 19th did I EVER EVEN UTTER THE WORD ‘SHERIFF’. I AM A PROUD FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE NPA candidate DESIRING TO GUARD OUR TAX DOLLARS FROM ABUSE BUT I NEVER COMMENTED ONE WORD ABOUT THE SHERIFF’S BUDGET DEMANDS AT ANY BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING IN WHICH DECISIONS WERE MADE.“I wish to thank the hard working staff of the Sheriff’s department, many of whom have been dedicating many years of their lives before the current Sheriff took office and will hopefully be with us after he is gone from office. I have supported the efforts to vacate the old smelly hospital and spoke against the original purchase back in January, 2013. It takes a lot of guts , especially in today’s world where guns are available to everyone combined with so much disrespect against law enforcement personnel , to get up in the morning and never know for sure you will be going home at night. It is a shame that so much money is being spent on luxurious buildings, fancy boats, unnecessary command centers instead of buckling in the belt and paying those out in the streets what they are worth. God Bless you deputies out there in this cruel world protecting us even though many of you are not paid what you are worth. Thank you for your service. My retort against the Sheriff’s scandalous untruths has nothing to do with my respect for his staff. An added final note: Sheriff says he ‘encourages voters to do their research on my opponent” however I am unable to find anything she has done.”
Jerry
October 15, 2022 at 11:23 am
We don’t need a defend the police candidate our sheriff is doing an outstanding job law enforcement must grow with the population
TR
October 15, 2022 at 11:33 am
Please people do not vote for this idiot of a candidate. She must know someone personally that is part of the fire department. It’s bad enough we do not have enough police deputies to patrol Palm Coast/ Flagler County now and the response time is (IMO) way to long for anything. Case in point, I had to call the sheriff’s department about a month ago and it took them 3 hours, (yes that’s correct) for anyone to show up. By then the person cause a problem was already long gone even though he waited a half hour for a deputy to come.
If the fire department needs more funding then let the Fire Chief plead his case to the council to get more funding. But I hope Jane never needs the help from the sheriff’s department if she is successful in de-funding the police and she has to wait for them.
Keep Jane off the council. We need people that will help the citizens and not take away from them. That’s what we have now, to many with personal agendas.
Me
October 16, 2022 at 12:57 pm
Do not vote for her. She is terrible and mean person
Montecristo
October 15, 2022 at 7:57 pm
Jane Gentile-Youd is nothing but the most vile disgusting person I know. I even like Joe Mullins more that her.
She wants to not only de-fund the police she wants to un-fund them with some made up bullshit of her own propaganda.
She says she does her homework and is speaking on behalf of us the citizens of the county. Well Jane Gentile-Youd just shut the fuck up. You need to completely shut down your rhetoric.
You are not the smartest SOB in the room.
You can’t even understand and comprehend that we the people like this Sheriff and his Deputies. They are doing an awesome job cleaning this crap up, and you, you stupid self-centered fool want to go against the people that will never elect you because you’re simply stupid.
We the people will vote for Leann Pennington a person that is clearly supporting the Sheriff and his Deputies a person that will listen to the people that will elect her.
If anyone votes for you they are as not in touch with reality as you are.
Please shut up and drop out before you are defeated far more worse than Joe Mullins was!
The dude
October 16, 2022 at 6:02 am
She’s got my vote.
Until the day comes that you can drive around this city and not come across two patrol cars parked in the shade somewhere, I’d say we’re well covered.
Jordan Brown
October 16, 2022 at 6:40 am
I agree. You can always find a car parked some place. Just another leader of PC to put money away for their personal use.
TR
October 16, 2022 at 8:09 am
Do you even know what the reasons are for two patrol cars parked together somewhere? There are plenty of reasons that are why they do this, but I can tell you that one is not to waste time. Your comment is a bit of a stretch being I drive the streets every day and the times I do see what you’re saying the deputies are being productive.
Robert Joseph Fortier
October 17, 2022 at 8:18 am
The Sheriffs department does an awesome job for its citizens.
This woman is a delusional nutcase.
Who the hell votes people like her into office?
Do some research before you decide to vote…voting has consequences.