As the Legislature began its annual session on Tuesday, most reporters focused on high-profile bills such as the one that would ban abortion after six weeks.
Other proposals, however, renew the attack on cities and counties by Republicans in Tallahassee. Indeed, this year’s attempted blitz might be the strongest yet.
Here’s a look at some of those bills and what they could mean for Boca Raton and Delray Beach:
Sovereign immunity
This topic would be a snoozer at cocktail parties, but there’s a lot at stake.
Under current law, direct payments from negligence claims against cities and counties, school districts and sheriff’s offices cannot exceed $200,000 per person or $300,000 per incident. Unless the defendant agrees to pay more, any higher award must go to the Legislature as a claims bill.
Because some awards run into the millions of dollars, it’s hard to get Tallahassee’s approval. Some plaintiffs hire lobbyists to push their cases.
Senate Bill 604 and House Bill 401 would raise those limits, but by greatly different amounts. The Senate bill would bump them to $400,000 and $600,000. The House bill calls for limits of $2.5 million and $5 million. Last year, an attempt to set new limits of $1 million and $3 million failed.
In addition, the House legislation would increase from three years to four years the amount of time from an alleged accident that plaintiffs could sue. This comes as the Legislature is shortening the period after hurricanes when homeowners can sue insurance companies that don’t pay claims.
As the staff analysis understates, HB 401 would have “an indeterminate, significant fiscal impact on state and local governments.” Most cities self-insure up to the current limits. With a limit of $5 million, some small towns could face a judgment equal to half their budget.
Boca Raton and Delray Beach are hardly small, but drastically higher limits could invite waves of lawsuits, given the more lucrative payouts. Cities also might incur new, significant insurance costs to protect themselves against all that potential new litigation.
The Florida League of Cities opposes both bills. League officials have said they are willing to modify the current limits, but much more modestly.
Vacation rentals
This is another case of an industry seeking to get around local regulations by asking the Legislature to put the state in charge.
It began in 2011, when Airbnb and others successfully lobbied to preempt rules to the state. Any local ordinances in place could remain.
This year, there are dueling proposals. The League of Cities supports Senate Bill 92 and House Bill 105. They would allow cities and counties to require operators of short-term rentals—properties rented for at least three times a year for no more than 30 days at a time—to designate someone to handle complaints.
Residents of Boca Raton and Delray Beach have told city officials about 24-hour parties at vacation rentals that make life miserable for single-family neighborhoods. Absentee owners make things worse. These bills aim to make those owners more accountable for rowdy tenants by having someone on call to calm things down or take care of tenant damages.
Two other bills, SB 714 and HB 833, would further restrict what cities and counties can do. They also deal with how owners advertise vacation rentals. Local governments have complained that some websites advertise unlicensed properties. The League has not taken a position on those bills.
To understand how vacation rentals have expanded, there are roughly 4,700 licensed hotels and motels in Florida. There are almost 40,000 licensed vacation condos and homes.
Local elections
Boca Raton and Delray Beach hold non-partisan elections. It makes sense. Whatever else is convulsing state and national politics, city council and commission races turn on non-partisan issues: development, pensions, budgets.
Republicans in Tallahassee, however, want to change that. House Joint Resolution 405 would place on the 2024 ballot a constitutional amendment to prohibit cities from holding non-partisan elections.
Worse, the legislation also would restrict turnout in what already are low-turnout elections in Boca Raton and Delray Beach. If two candidates running in Boca Raton were Republicans, no Democrats could vote. It would be the same if two Democrats were running in Delray Beach.
It’s a terrible idea. Fortunately, there is no companion bill in the Senate, so the proposal could die.
Unfortunately, the Legislature doesn’t stop there. Senate Joint Resolution 94 and House Joint Resolution 31 would put on next year’s ballot an amendment to make school board races partisan.
Supporters claim that voters should know as much as possible about all candidates. Opponents respond that most school issues are non-partisan. At least, that’s how it was until the COVID-19 pandemic.
Then Gov. DeSantis went after school boards that approved mask mandates. He targeted school board members last year. He intends to do the same next year.
Three Palm Beach County board seats are on the ballot in 2024. Chairman Frank Barbieri, who represents Boca Raton and West Boca, has said he will not seek another term. If it passed, the amendment would not affect local races until 2026.
Regulations
Last year, bills that would have made it almost impossible to enact local restrictions on businesses failed. The idea is back in different form.
Companies already can challenge ordinances on the grounds that they are unconstitutional. Senate Bill 170 and House Bill 1515 would expand that to ordinances that plaintiffs consider “unreasonable.” As with sovereign immunity, local officials worry that the law—with its vague terms—could encourage lawsuits.
Local governments aren’t Tallahassee’s only target. So are local citizens.
Senate Bill 540 and House Bill 359 would require that individuals or groups challenging changes to city and county comprehensive plans would have to pay the developer’s legal fees if they lost a challenge to a plan change.
Such a requirement could come into play with the debate in Palm Beach County over proposals for more development in the Agricultural Reserve Area. GL Homes wants permission to trade land outside the reserve for the ability to build more homes inside the reserve. The swap would be unprecedented.
I’ll follow these bills and others throughout the session.
Outside money investing in Boca term limits vote
Outside money has come into what seems like a fairly straightforward Boca Raton election.
The only item on the ballot is a proposal that would extend terms for the mayor and council members from three years to four years. Mayors and council members still could run for no more than two consecutive terms.
This week, mailers arrived on both sides. One stated that this single-issue election is costing the city $255,000 and urged a vote against the change. Two open council seats were decided when only one candidate qualified. That mailer came from a group called Parents Taking Action.
The second mailer argued for a yes vote, claiming that four-year terms would bring more “stability” and “more focus on long-term public policy.” The mailer came from a committee called All For One.
Brian Stenberg, who serves on the city’s housing authority board and ran unsuccessfully against Councilwoman Monica Mayotte, acknowledged that he “used” Parents Taking Action “to help receive contributions and disburse funds to produce and send out” the mailer. Stenberg has criticized the charter amendment before the council.
Mayotte voted to put the measure on the ballot. So did Mayor Scott Singer, who first raised the idea, and Yvette Drucker. All would get longer terms. Singer has defended the proposal by saying that only Boca Raton among Florida’s largest cities still has three-year terms.
All For One’s only recent contribution is $1,500 from a Fort Lauderdale company called Gelin Benefits Group. I could find no obvious connection to Boca Raton. I’ll keep looking.
Delray receives grant for protection against rising seas
Delray Beach, which faces a nine-figure bill for improvements to protect against rising seas, has received grants to cover a sliver of that cost.
According to Public Works Director Missie Barletto, the city is getting $10 million for seawall and pump work on Marine Way and $2.5 million for the Thomas Street pumping station, which is on the oceanfront.
The money comes from the Resilient Florida program. The city, Barletto said, got $22.5 million from the program in 2022.
