The Destin City Council approved a $3.3 million law enforcement contract with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office on Monday night after a nearly 45-minute debate over a 7.88% cost increase that several members said was difficult to justify.

• The contract, which runs from Oct. 1, 2025, to Sept. 30, 2026, represents a $241,363 increase from the previous year’s $3,063,695 agreement. Monthly payments to the sheriff’s office will rise from $255,307.92 to $275,421.50.

The increase includes a 6% cost-of-living adjustment for Sheriff’s Deputies, which drew criticism from one council member who noted city employees received a cost-of-living increase of just under 3%.

“So they want double the cost of living that we’re paying our local staff,” Councilman Torey Geile said. “It’s just hard for me to justify only approving a 3% cost of living increase there and then coming out and saying, okay, but we’re gonna give a contractor a 6%.”

City Manager Larry Jones told the council that Captain Jason Fulghum had confirmed the 7.88% increase was the sheriff’s office position and that reducing funding would potentially result in losing two deputies. Fulghum said matching the city’s 3% increase would eliminate one deputy position.

Sheriff’s office defends value proposition

Fulghum defended the higher cost-of-living adjustment and presented slides outlining the services provided under the contract. He emphasized that the sheriff’s office must stay competitive with other law enforcement agencies to retain deputies.

• “We have to have a 6% COLA increase in order to stay competitive with the market,” Fulghum said. “Otherwise, we’re gonna start hemorrhaging deputies to Walton County.”

The contract provides 21 positions, including 16 patrol deputies, two investigators, one deputy front desk position, one marine patrol deputy and one community resource deputy based at the Destin substation.

Fulghum argued that Destin receives significant value beyond what it directly pays for. He said the city benefits from supervisory personnel it doesn’t fund, including two lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, a beach marine lieutenant and a beach marine sergeant who oversee deputies serving other areas but spend about 68% of their time on Destin-related calls.

“You’re talking about $1,900,000 roughly in salary for those positions I just listed,” Fulghum said. “You take 68% of that, you’re talking about $1,325,000.”

He also highlighted support services not included in the contract cost, such as communications officers, records clerks, facility maintenance, mechanics, crime scene personnel, legal staff and financial services.

Cost comparisons with other cities

To counter discussions about creating a municipal police force, Fulghum presented data showing Destin pays approximately $92.66 per call for service with 35,000 annual calls, while other cities pay significantly more.

Niceville, with 16,000 residents and 29,000 calls for service, pays $4.5 million for 32 full-time officers through its own police department – about $152 per call, according to Fulghum’s presentation.

• Panama City Beach’s police budget is $17.2 million with 85 officers, while South Daytona Beach spends $4.5 million with 24 officers and Atlantic Beach has an $8 million budget with 29 officers.

“I can assure…y’all are not going to get a more professional law enforcement agency than what you’ve got for less money,” Fulghum said.

He noted that establishing Destin’s own police department was estimated to cost approximately $11 million just for infrastructure back in 2010.

Enforcement concerns

Geile expressed frustration with the Sheriff’s Office’s approach to enforcing city ordinances, particularly regarding beach vendors and ice cream sales.

Geile highlighted instances where Deputies were not enforcing beach vendor regulations, saying he had witnessed patrol units pass by violations without taking action.

• “I’m irritated with people. Me sitting on the beach telling somebody we just made something a misdemeanor and they need to pull their damn flags down, move their shit and then watching the Sheriff’s Patrol go right by me on a four wheeler, not doing anything,” Geile said.

Fulghum explained that deputies funded by the Tourist Development Council or county taxes aren’t trained in Destin city codes because they don’t work under the Destin contract.

He also defended the sheriff’s office position on code enforcement, saying deputies shouldn’t be diverted from serious crimes to handle vendor violations.

“I don’t want to stand on the beach and explain to a lady why her 16-year-old son got beat up, and she asks me, ‘where were you when my child got beat up down here on the beach,’ and I don’t want to tell her that I was 200 yards down the beach, arrested somebody for selling ice cream to a 4-year-old,” Fulghum said.

Tourism impact drives costs

The discussion highlighted how Destin’s tourist population affects law enforcement costs. While the city has about 14,000 residents, Fulghum noted that 65,000 or more people could be in the area during peak times.

Councilman Rodney Braden suggested that tourists should bear more of the cost through higher fees for short-term rentals and parking.

• “99% of that in our parking area, or maybe a hundred percent is tourists, because our locals can park there for free,” Braden said, advocating for higher parking fees and short-term rental taxes.

He noted that Destin charges $15 per day for beach parking while he had paid $65 for parking in Dallas.

Financial sustainability concerns

Councilman Jim Bagby argued the annual increases were becoming unsustainable and proposed linking future increases to either the Consumer Price Index or the city’s property value growth rate, whichever is greater.

“We’re not going to be able to sustain 7% because you’re just going to take a bigger chunk of the budget every year,” Bagby said. “There are a million things we wanna do for ball fields, for [underground] tunnels, and for bridges and all that.”

• He said a 5% increase based on property value growth would cost about $3.2 million and result in losing only one deputy position.

Council ultimately approves despite reservations

Despite their concerns, most council members said they felt the city needed to maintain law enforcement services with the OCSO, though several expressed interest in exploring alternatives.

“We need you, we need your team,” Councilwoman Teresa Hebert said. “It’s hard to stomach the increase of what we’ve got to pay you to keep you, but like you said, that’s the problem with most places.”

Councilman Kevin Schmidt said he felt the Sheriff’s Office had the city “by the cajones” with an ultimatum but supported continuing the partnership while exploring other options.

City Manager Jones confirmed that Fulghum would take any alternative proposals back to the Sheriff and executive command staff for consideration.

The motion passed 5-1, with Councilman Torey Geile casting the lone dissenting vote. Councilman Dewey Destin was absent from the meeting.