- May 1, 2024
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The Flagler Beach City Commission is considering a three-year contract for New Year’s Eve firework shows with My Three Sons Fireworks Company.
In December, Flagler Beach held its first ever New Year’s Eve firework show to celebrate the end of 2023. For the celebrations, the Flagler Beach commission commissioned an oversized surfboard from Tango Surfboards that was lit with LEDs and lowered from a fire truck ladder in Veterans Park during the countdown to the New Year.
Because the initial celebration was such a success within the city, Flagler Beach has drawn up a contract for the next three New Year’s Eve celebrations. My Three Sons is the same company that performed the New Year's Eve show and Flagler County’s 2023 Fourth of July fireworks show.
The contract would cost a total of $94,338 for the three shows, according to meeting documents. The contract was not officially approved at the commission’s Jan. 25 meeting, as Commission Chair Eric Cooley noticed the contract did not include a cancellation policy.
“I think based on the unpredictability of everything that we have going on, it would behoove us to put an escape clause into this contract,” Cooley said, referring to the beach renourishment project set to begin in July and the pier construction project which will begin in the fall.
The commission agreed that, ideally, if the city has unforeseen circumstances that prevent a New Year’s Eve fireworks show, the city would be able to delay the show to another year. The contract will return to the commission for approval after City Attorney Drew Smith irons out the language of a cancellation policy with My Three Sons.
Commissioner Jane Mealy did ask about the ability to use one of the three contracted New Year’s Eve shows for a July Fourth firework show, if there is a need to cancel a New Year’s Eve show.
City Manager Dale Martin said any discussions about a firework show for July Fourth would have to be for 2025, not the 2024 holiday.
“We wouldn't be able to do that this July because the pier construction,” Martin said. “…There's no money budgeted for fireworks [this July 4] even if you wanted to reallocate for this.”
The proposed $94,000 contract would be budgeted in the fiscal year 2025 budget. But former commissioner Ken Bryan expressed concerns about the overall cost a fireworks show, outside of the fireworks themselves, like traffic and safety costs.
“There's a lot of hidden charges that we don't know about," he said. "So the contract itself might be $30,000. But when you crank in all the other things you may be looking at $50-,$60- or $70,000."
Bryan asked the commission for information about the total overall costs of the event and said that he would be submitting a Freedom of Information Act request on that data.
The show on Dec. 31, 2023 cost the city $33,000, according to commission meeting documents, which does not include any of the peripheral costs, including extra personnel hours for law enforcement and the fire department.
Bryan sent the Observer a copy of the FOIA request, where he requests the city detail how much the additional employee costs were, as well as the process for purchasing the commissioned surfboard, including what other vendors were consulted besides Tango, if any.
City Clerk Penny Overstreet told the Observer that city policy is that a purchase must be $20,000 or more to trigger a bid process. Below that amount, the city manager has the authorization to approve purchases, she said, and the oversized surfboard cost $5,000.
Likewise, the city manager does not need to request quotes from other vendors if the item is a sole source purchase, which Overstreet said she believes the Tango surfboard was, because it had to be specially commissioned.
The city had previously budgeted $20,000 for a July 4 fireworks show that did not happen. In the special Nov. 21 meeting, City Manager Dale Martin was requesting a $10,000 contingency added to the budgeted amount from the city’s reserves.
Cooley asked Martin to add a review of the total costs and impact of its first New Year's Eve celebration to an upcoming agenda item for discussion. The discussion should include feedback from city staff and the safety teams, he said.
"One of the purposes of doing the New Year's Eve event was a learning experience and experiment," Cooley said. "It would just be a good discussion point. Just to weigh costs and benefits."
