- December 16, 2025
According to County Attorney Al Hadeed, in his report to the County Commission Monday, Aug. 15, Gail Wadsworth, Flagler County Clerk of Courts, will now have the sole responsibility of selecting a bank for county funds.
Since 2009, staff has attempted to work with the clerk to develop a competitive bidding process, he said. “Unfortunately, we have not succeeded.”
The county rallied for an open bidding process that selects a bank at the lowest possible price for citizens, County Administrator Craig Coffey explained, in an email. However, the clerk, with staff’s consent, already issued bid documents, and banks already provided proposals based on the clerk’s lower cost factor.
“It is not a question about power,” Hadeed stressed. “It’s about cooperation during extraordinary (economic) times.”
He recommended that the board seek no legal action to regain a group dynamic in selecting banking services.
The board agreed, but were nevertheless distressed.
“I’m somewhat shocked and disappointed,” Commissioner Barbara Revels said. But she thanked Hadeed, and the board chairman, for their negotiation efforts.
Board Chairman Alan Peterson agreed that spending public funds in a legal pursuit would be unwise, but he worried that placing this responsibility onto the clerk, who also audits banking services, was counter-intuitive.
“I’m very disappointed we do not have a collegial atmosphere at the moment,” he said, noting that all the board could do is hope Wadsworth handles her new responsibility well.
Wadsworth addressed the board.
“I can’t hand over my obligation to the public I serve to you, as much as you can’t hand over (yours) to me,” she told the board. “I can’t … comfortably hand you the services I was elected to perform.”
