JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The video attached to this story is from a previous, related report.
This story as originally reported by the Florida Times-Union.
A judge's ruling this week means Jacksonville Beach voters still might have a chance to decide the fate of the Volunteer Life Saving Corps. Volunteers had patrolled the city's beaches part-time since 1912 until recent legal concerns arose.
Monday the Jacksonville Beach City Council turned down a proposed ballot referendum that would have left it up to voters in November to determine if volunteer lifeguards could go back on duty alongside paid Jacksonville Beach Ocean Rescue guards.
Council members praised the work of the volunteer corps over the decades but said they were concerned the referendum was not legally valid for several reasons.
Circuit Court Judge Katie Dearing quickly reversed that decision. Since the volunteer group had collected petitions signed by at least 10% of the city's registered voters, as required, the city is bound to promptly put it on the November ballot, and "time is of the essence here," she ruled.
The city, however, will have an opportunity to make its case again, this time in a court hearing before Dearing on Thursday. Cory Nichols, a council member, said the city will have representatives there.
The volunteer corps had filed an emergency complaint Monday before the meeting, anticipating the city would rule against the group.
The corps said it had collected 3,820 signatures on a petition representing about 19% of registered voters — almost double the number required to get a referendum on the ballot.
Volunteer lifeguards have a history of tradition and service
For years volunteer guards, conspicuous in their old-fashioned one-piece suits, had lifeguarded at Jacksonville on Sundays and holidays during beach season.
Paid Jacksonville Beach Ocean Rescue members, some of whom overlapped with the volunteer guards, worked the other six days of the week.
Each group worked out of the historic American Red Cross lifeguard station on the oceanfront — until the city recently locked the volunteer guards out of the station and took them off duty on the beach.
The city has maintained its hand was forced after the U.S. Department of Labor fined it for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum wage and overtime laws for allowing Ocean Rescue lifeguards to volunteer without pay.
That federal investigation began after a former guard, who'd worked with the volunteer corps and with Ocean Rescue, filed a lawsuit against the city over the long tradition of unpaid work.
The controversy has roiled the beach city, where the volunteer corps has been a big part of local heritage and tradition.
Council fears the historic lifeguard tower could be at stake
Council members on Monday said they were concerned that the referendum as written would have forced it to go against the Department of Labor ruling. The referendum could have also affected the historic lifeguard station, council members said.
The tower was long owned by the American Red Cross, sitting on land deeded to the organization by the city. The ballot initiative would 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 American Red Cross could, she said, decide to sell the building for another use.
Jim Emery, president of the volunteer corps' board of directors, said he doesn't believe the Red Cross would take such a step. The corps is hoping it will be able to rent the building or have it deeded to them.
He anticipates further challenges from the city but is now gearing up for the vote.
"We'll campaign as hard as we can to get the referendum passed," he said. "We think we have overwhelming support, and we'll go from there."
This story was previously reported by the Florida Times-Union.