NEWS

Daytona commissioners OK new trespass law for city

Violators can be banned from a city property for up to two years

Eileen Zaffiro-Kean
eileen.zaffiro-kean@news-jrnl.com
Daytona Beach city commissioners adopted on Wednesday night a measure that would allow people who break city and state laws on public city property to be banned from those places where the violation occurred for up to two years. [News-Journal file/NIGEL COOK]

DAYTONA BEACH — Despite a parade of area residents and local ACLU leaders urging city commissioners to vote down a sweeping measure allowing the city to temporarily ban people from its properties, the proposal has become law.

City commissioners voted unanimously at their meeting Wednesday night to crack down on people who violate city or state laws while on the city's property.

The new ordinance allows the city manager and Daytona Beach police officers to issue a trespass warning to anyone who violates any city ordinance, rule or regulation as well as state laws while in a city facility, building or outdoor area. That includes city parks, but exclude sidewalks, streets and public right-of-way property.

Lawbreakers who come back to the city property they're cited on before their ban expires can be arrested for trespassing.

The new measure comes as city leaders continue their heightened efforts to battle problems connected to vagrants and the homeless. But City Attorney Robert Jagger said Wednesday night the new trespassing law isn't aimed at any particular group.

"It's not an ordinance which addresses homeless issues," Jagger said. "It's content neutral. It's an enhanced penalty if you break other laws. On its face, it's really not intended to address homelessness whatsoever."

The 11 people at City Hall who spoke out against the new city power, several of whom were visibly angry and emotional, weren't buying that contention.

"To sit there with straight faces and say this is content neutral is disingenuous and laughable," said George Griffin, president of the ACLU of Florida's Volusia-Flagler Chapter.

Griffin expects the new law is going to create new costs to arrest and jail people, and to defend the measure if it's challenged in court. But he appeared most concerned about what it will do to the homeless people he suspects are most likely to be given city property bans and charged with trespassing.

"There's only one purpose to this particular ordinance, and it's not even being hidden," said Griffin, who lives in Deltona. "The purpose of this ordinance is to target and discriminate against homeless people."

Griffin said homeless people are "our brothers and sisters who have fallen on harder times than we have."

"We're treating them like a pack of vermin that need to be cleared out of public parks by trying to chase them away for a year or two at a time for doing nothing worse than not having a permanent residence," he said.

Jeanne Tanke, secretary of the Volusia-Flagler ACLU Chapter, is also dismayed by the new local law.

"It is making harassment of the homeless legally permissible," Tanke charged.

"Where would you have them go?" asked Daytona Beach resident Bonnie Deigh, who pointed out that the new homeless shelter won't open until at least next year.

On the first violation, the trespass warning for lawbreakers on city property could be for up to one year. A second or subsequent violation could result in the person being issued a trespass warning for up to two years.

The trespass warning will be limited to the specific property where the violation occurs. If someone under a property ban is found within the particular city facility, building or outdoor area in violation of their trespass warning, they could be arrested for trespassing.

"The city manager may authorize a person subject to a trespass warning to access such public facility for purposes of First Amendment expression if there is no reasonable alternative location," Jagger wrote in a memo to the mayor and city commissioners.

Jagger noted that exceptions could also be granted to people who needed "to conduct necessary municipal business."

"Such authorization must be in writing, and shall specify the duration of the authorization and any conditions thereof, and shall not be unreasonably denied," Jagger said in the one-page memo.

The ordinance also provides an opportunity to appeal and have a special magistrate appointed by the City Commission consider the appeal. The trespass warning would remain in effect during the appeal and review process, including any judicial review.

The measure comes after years of complaints from tourists, local residents and business owners about vagrants who spend their days and nights in city parks and on other city-owned property. Some are homeless and just need a place to be, but others have regularly engaged in illegal activity on city property ranging from doing drugs to harassing people who won't give them money.

The proposed ordinance is modeled on trespass warning regulations adopted by the city of St. Petersburg, which were upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. In that case, the trespass warning was challenged on First Amendment and due process grounds. The court ruled that the regulations were not a restriction on access to a traditional public forum for expressive activity in violation of the First Amendment, and that the plaintiff failed to show that he received the trespass warning as a pretext to suppress his speech.

City Commissioner Rob Gilliland said the new measure will create an opportunity to separate the criminal homeless from those who want help. Gilliland also pointed out how much the city of Daytona Beach has spent in recent years to help the homeless, and the efforts that have been established to help them. City Manager Jim Chisholm said his city does more than any other in Volusia County to help the homeless.

"It's not a simple problem, and it's not just a Daytona Beach problem," Chisholm said.

Jim Cameron, senior vice president of government relations for the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce, said his organization hears complaints from businesses and locals and backs the measure.

But several local residents are vehemently against it. That includes Holly Hill resident Cynthia Fisher, vice president of the local ACLU chapter.

"I'm concerned about the impact this has on the dignity of a human being," Fisher said. "As a social worker, I'm afraid it'll further destabilize the homeless."

She accused the police chief of just wanting "to herd the homeless out of Daytona."

"This might be politically expedient, but it's not a solution," Fisher said.

Tammy Sandrowicz said she was homeless for five years, and recently moved into an Ormond Beach shelter.

"If something like this passed when I was on the streets, I would probably have wound up suicidal," Sandrowicz said. "It's hard to pick yourself back up when everyone is passing rules to hurt you. This is going to throw them over the edge, and it's going to make the problem worse."

Ronald Stepp of Ormond Beach said he was also homeless until recently.

"Where is your morality? Where is your compassion?" Stepp asked.