LARGO – Firefighters, kids with fund-raisers and other nonprofit interests also will have to stay off the streets and medians if the city adopts a revised code aimed at newspaper vendors introduced Oct. 21.
The ordinance is intended to protect solicitors and drivers from the dangers of the vendors selling newspapers at city intersections. Defeated City Commission candidate Curtis Holmes raised the issue last summer saying he found the vendors a hazard as drivers swerved to avoid hitting them.
Police Chief Lester Aradi said there have been no reports of accidents caused by the sales which appear to occur only on Sundays at major intersections. But, he said, state law forbids sales in traffic lanes and that several $50 summonses have been issued to the vendors.
Aradi said most of the vendors were homeless or unemployed earning pennies for each newspaper they sold.
The St. Petersburg Times challenged the code when it was introduced, suggesting it violated the vendors’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech. The newspaper added that the vendors were not its employees, but were hired by a vendor who bought the newspapers from The Times.
City Staff Attorney Mary Hale said state law already prohibited anyone from walking in traffic lanes but would allow a vendor to stand in the grassy medians. The new code bans pedestrians from the medians. When the new codes were introduced Oct. 7, they included an exemption for registered nonprofit groups.
Hale said further research, however, has shown the state attorney general has warned that such an exemption could leave the ordinances susceptible to a constitutional challenge. She recommended the exemptions be removed.
Largo Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Jeff Day said the city fire department expected it could still reach its goal of raising $15,000 for the
Muscular Dystrophy Association (through Jerry’s Kids). He said that until last year, all of the department’s fund-raising was conducted in parking lots and would have no problem ending the roadside boot drives.
Commissioners agreed with Hale’s recommended amendment and voted unanimously to make the change. City Attorney Alan S. Zimmet then ruled the change was “substantial” so another public hearing would have to be held before it could be adopted.
This led to another clash between Commissioner Mary Gray Black and Zimmet. Black insisted the changes required the commission to reject the original ordinance before voting on the amended one. Zimmet disagreed, saying the city could simply consider the Oct. 21 hearing as the first hearing on the amended version.
Words were exchanged and Zimmet said “we have had this discussion at least three other times and we will have to agree to disagree on this.”
Black then joined the other commissioners who took Zimmet’s advice over hers and the ordinance was approved by a 6-0 vote. The commission will consider adoption of the codes at its next regular meeting and a public hearing Nov. 5. The unusual Wednesday meeting was scheduled because national elections were scheduled for the regular meeting date of Nov. 4.
In other action, the commission approved introduction of an $11,000 employee bonus program that legalizes cash awards that have been given employees for many years for work “above and beyond.”
Only three of the city’s 16 departments would be included in the program if adopted after a public hearing Nov. 5. Assistant City Manager Henry Schubert said employees in most departments said they didn’t want to be singled out in an awards program.
