JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Since 1912, volunteers helped city-paid lifeguards patrol four miles of Jacksonville Beach when the city did not have lifeguards on duty, mainly on Sundays and holidays.
In 2021, the US Department of Labor fined the city of Jacksonville Beach for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum wage and overtime laws for allowing Ocean Rescue lifeguards to volunteer without pay.
On March 9, 2022, the city sent a 9-month notice to the Volunteer Life Savings Corps (VLSC) about the end of the agreement.
Less than a month later, on Tuesday, April 5, the City of Jacksonville Beach sent another notice to the volunteers that their service would be terminated immediately due to "disruptive behavior".
The city also barred VLSC from access to the Station by changing the locks on the building.
According to the notice, the "disruptive behavior" stems from a graduation the VLSC was holding at the Red Cross Lifeguard station. The city claimed the graduation event was disruptive and that people in attendance were bothering the city's lifeguards. The volunteers sent a letter to the city that disputed the city’s claims.
The Volunteer Life Saving Corps took legal action April 14 when they filed a lawsuit against the City of Jacksonville Beach for allegedly breaching contract by locking them out of the lifeguard station. The lawsuit is seeking damages and declaratory relief for an amount in excess of $30,000.
That lawsuit will head to court in September.
Fast-forward to August, and members of the VLSC have collected over 3,800 signatures on a petition asking the Jacksonville Beach city council to put the future of the American Red Cross Volunteer Life Savings Corps on the ballot.
The proposed ballot referendum would give voters in November the chance to approve having volunteer lifeguards go back on duty alongside paid Jacksonville Beach Ocean Rescue guards.
But on Aug. 15, city council decided the amendment would not go to a vote.
A move that Charles Bond, the VLSC's past president of the board of directors, calls "anti-democratic."
"The City of Jacksonville Beach has decided to ignore their voters and this is becoming about the rights in the democracy, democratic process now," Charles Bond/VLSC board of directors past president," he says.
Council members said in that meeting they were concerned that the referendum as written would have forced it to go against the Department of Labor ruling. The ballot initiative would also require the city to give title or interest of the building and property to the American Red Cross — something that Mayor Chris Hoffman said could put the future of the building in jeopardy.
"The citizens need to feel, though that the amendment before them is legal, is enforceable, is implementable and won't have any unintended, negative consequences," Mayor Chris Hoffman/Jacksonville Beach, said.
Following the city council meeting, a circuit court judge ruled that since the volunteer group had collected petitions signed by at least 10% of voters, the city has to put the issue on the ballot.
The city will have an opportunity to make its case again, this time in a court hearing before the judge on Thursday.