Hayward hires another outside attorney
The city of Pensacola has hired another attorney to fight its battles, leaving City Attorney Jim Messer on the sidelines.
John Trawick of the Coastal Association Law Group has sent on March 28 a letter to Robert de Varona stating that his Varona Enterprises of Florida must surrender the premises at the Pensacola International Airport at 11:59 p.m. tonight.
The penalty if he cannot get his equipment out of the airport? The city wants him to pay double rent if he doesn’t get all his personal property, improvements and fixtures out by midnight. I will post the letter later today.
Gulf Breeze will keep its red-light cameras, for now
The News Service of Florida reports red-light cameras won’t be turned off in Florida this year. House and Senate sponsors of measures that would repeal the traffic monitors put the brakes on what has become a perennial fight in the Legislature.
Senate Transportation Chairman Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, backed away from a repeal effort (SB 144) after it became clear he did not have the votes to pass it in his own committee. Instead, he proposed changes to increase regulations on red-light cameras, but the bill remained stuck in his committee.
Last Wednesday, the panel shot down attempts by Brandes to amend the bill. The committee rejected an amendment that would have allowed motorists to employ a “rolling stop” at speeds up to 15 mph when taking right-on-red turns if no pedestrians were in the crosswalk. The Florida Police Chiefs Association and Florida Sheriffs Association opposed that plan. And the committee also red-lighted an amendment that would have required warnings instead of tickets to be issued to owners of vehicles caught on camera going through traffic signals 0.5 seconds after the colors changed from yellow to red.
Brandes and Rep. Frank Artiles, a Miami Republican who is sponsoring a House companion, contend that the cameras are cash cows for local governments and are an invasion of privacy.
To keep his proposal on track earlier in the week, Artiles backed down from his original plan to ban new cameras from being installed.
The revised measure (HB 7005) would allow new cameras at intersections but only if their use is justified through traffic engineering studies.
But groups such as the Florida League of Cities have opposed legislative attempts to dramatically change red-light camera programs. Those groups contend the cameras are a public safety tool.
“It’s about revenue, it’s not about safety,” Artiles told the House Transportation & Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee on Monday. “What good is it for cities and counties and the state to collect this revenue and not implement it for safety purposes?”
Wahoo Manager’s daughter is Tar Heel star
Diamond DeShield is a star on North Carolina’s women’s basketball team. The 2013 State Farm/WBCA High School Player of the Year helped her team yesterday beat top-seeded South Carolina 65-58 in the Stanford Regional semifinals on Sunday night. She is the daughter of Blue Wahoo’s Delino DeShields.
