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Post by Chuck McCue on Apr 30, 2022 10:56:48 GMT -5
Taking the emotion out of the historical legacy of the volunteer Lifeguard institution in Jacksonville Beach, Why are all City of Jacksonville Beach officials marching in lockstep to run off the VLSC? Could it be COJB is trying to aquire the building and real estate at 2 Oceanfront and put the entire operation under city control? Ultimately get the property back on the tax roll to bring in more money for the city. Could their plan be?: 1.Kick out VLSC 2.Aquire the entire building and property from American National Red Cross. 3.Lease or sell to campaign contributors
Do you have any theories? It is crystal clear that no city officials respect the volunteer Lifeguard History or legacy.
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Post by Chuck McCue on May 1, 2022 20:48:25 GMT -5
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Post by Chuck McCue on May 3, 2022 9:34:44 GMT -5
It is interesting to watch the people that are defending the Volunteers and those who are silent.
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Post by Chuck McCue on May 3, 2022 10:05:23 GMT -5
Letter from Tim Saggau , President of the Board of Directors of the VLSC after reading several posts about what happened that caused the city to cancel negotiations. Tim’s Letter:
"My name is Tim Saggau and I am the President of the Board Of Directors for the Volunteer Life Saving Corps (VLSC). As you may be aware, the VLSC is under attack by the City of Jacksonville Beach. The VLSC has provided Volunteer Life Guards on Jacksonville Beach since 1912 and has recruited and trained every paid lifeguard hired by the City since the early 1930’s. This valuable partnership has resulted in highly trained lifeguards making Jacksonville Beach one of the safest beaches anywhere. For 90 years the Jacksonville Beach City Managers and Council have recognized that partnership as one of the City’s most valuable assets. That has come to a screeching halt due to City Manager Mike Staffopoulos and City Attorney Sandra Robinson’s actions.
Last year in October or November the Department of Labor (DOL) notified the City that they had finished their investigation into the city’s 90 year practice of having paid guards on Monday thru Saturday and many of those paid guards then volunteering on Sundays and Holidays. The DOL concluded that such a practice was illegal and offered to resolve the issue if the city would agree to voluntarily comply with the DOL’s recommendation of paying back pay to volunteer guards for the past two years and to discontinue the 110 year practice of using VLSC guards on Sundays and Holidays. The back pay alone would amount to about $250,000. You would think that before making a decision that would put taxpayers on the hook for $250,000 the City Manager would gather all involved parties, including the VLSC, to review the DOL findings and discuss possible solutions. However, he did not. Instead he called VLSC representatives to a meeting on December 7 to inform us of the settlement and notify us that on 1-1-22 paid life guards would take over guarding the beach on Sundays and Holidays. The City Manager may tell you that he had no choice. But the truth is we will never know. We very well could have worked out a solution. We then began a series of meetings to see if we could restructure the VLSC to continue our mission of guarding the beach on Sundays and Holidays. The City and VLSC exchanged proposals that would put us back on the beach! We were making progress. At the same time existing VLSC members were going thru refresher training, new VLSC recruits were in our 12 week winter class and former VLSC members were going thru certification training. All this training would ensure we had a sufficient number of qualified VLSC members once we reached agreement with the City. Our Winter Class was set to graduate on Sunday April 3, 2022 and we were conducting an Orientation for new recruits for the Summer Recruit Class. New recruits were told to come to the lifeguard station on April 3 at 2pm for the orientation. Both of these activities should have been viewed favorably by the City, as the VLSC was moving towards an agreement to begin sitting the beach on Sundays and Holidays. However, the City told us we could not have an orientation meeting at the VLSC STATION because the paid lifeguards were training three new guards that day. We told the city that our recruiting info stated the orientation class would be at the station and we could not change. We told them we would use a different part of the station so as to not interfere with their paid guard training class. They did not object to the graduation ceremony for the Winter Class because that would take place on the beach and bulkhead in front of the station. Recruit graduations and new recruit orientations have taken place at the Station for 90 years. About 50 people attended the graduation which took place on the bulkhead. In attendance were the recruits families and VLSC members past and present. It was a joyful occasion as these recruits graduated from their 12 week training class! The celebration ended about 12:30 and attendees started to leave the station. A short time later we were told that the graduation had been disruptive and the paid guards training was cancelled. These ceremonies have taken place at the station at least twice per year for nearly 90 years and have never interfered with lifeguard services. On April 5, we received a letter from the city manager. He made charges that on April 3 the VLSC had disrupted and interfered with the paid guards…..that the paid guards felt uncomfortable, intimidated and harassed……that the VLSC was unprofessional and disrespectful. I was present for the ceremony and nothing happened that would justify the city managers charges. It was a normal graduation. The city manager terminated negotiations on a new agreement and changed the door locks at the station. In effect locking us out of our station we have always used. He has no right to change the locks. The building is owned by the American Red Cross. The City and VLSC have separate station use agreements with the Red Cross. Those agreements do not allow one party to lock out the other! So, the VLSC is under attack by the City Manager. The City Council could step in and settle this issue but so far have been reluctant. The next council meeting is Monday April 18 at 6pm. This is a chance to influence our elected city council by having a huge crowd rally in support of the VLSC. Come early and bring a chair as we hope to have a crowd overflowing from council chambers to the lawn outside the chambers. SAVE THE CORPS. #savethevlsc
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Jax Beach Lifeguard
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Post by Jax Beach Lifeguard on May 3, 2022 11:53:06 GMT -5
If anyone wants to know any true facts related to lifeguarding in Jacksonville Beach, maybe they should consider talking to the Lifeguard supervisor, rather than just listen to people who haven't lifeguarded in decades. The lifeguard station is not for sale. No one will gain money from this, except for young people who want to work as a lifeguard. The residence and visitors of Jacksonville Beach stand to gain more professional lifeguards.
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Post by Chuck McCue on May 3, 2022 13:35:24 GMT -5
If anyone wants to know any true facts related to lifeguarding in Jacksonville Beach, maybe they should consider talking to the Lifeguard supervisor, rather than just listen to people who haven't lifeguarded in decades. The lifeguard station is not for sale. No one will gain money from this, except for young people who want to work as a lifeguard. The residence and visitors of Jacksonville Beach stand to gain more professional lifeguards. Would be glad to do a interview to get some first hand answers. Would you want to do that?
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