On a 6-1 vote, The Hillsborough County Commission on Wednesday adopted an ordinance to amend their ban on solicitation on public roads to include state roads. Commissioner Les Miller was the only dissenter.
The board voted that way despite some members professing sympathy to the calls by attorneys for the Tampa Tribune and the Florida Sentinel-Bulletin to allow for soliciting on certain days of the week. A county staff attorney said that the ban much be "content neutral," meaning that such a ban has to be uniform at all times and for all people.
County Attorney Renee Lee said some local governments in Florida do limit solicitations to certain days or times, but Commissioner Ken Hagan said he wondered about the constitutionality of allowing such variances.
"In my opinion this issue has proliferated throughout Hillsborough County, " Hagan added, saying,"it's grown to epidemic proportions."
But the board's vote won't ban panhandling throughout the county. That's because it's biggest city, Tampa, has failed to come up with a law of any sort to address the issue, despite several attempts to do so over the past few months.
The council's failure to push through a ban became an issue that prompted one woman, Susan Long, to engage in a run against incumbent Mary Mulhern in the District 2 city council race. Mulhern, who had said at one point she questioned if panhandling was harming public safety, changed her mind and voted for a "partial" ban last month, banning the practice on major roads, after a Tampa Police official testified before the Council that there was legitimate public safety concerns.
Mulhern also was criticized by her other opponent in her race for her stand on the issue, Scott Strepina. But despite their criticisms, she beat both decisively Tuesday night, avoiding a runoff election.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2011.