City of Tampa and Hillsborough County officials spent nearly two hours on Wednesday discussing a proposed ban on panhandling in the county, and in the process were lectured by some homeless advocates who claimed nobody on the adhoc committee "got it" when it comes to addressing the homeless issue.
Tampa and Hillsborough elected officials have complained for months about the increased amount of panhandling, ever since the city of St. Petersburg passed an ordinance banning on street pan handling and solicitations in June. Combined with a Tampa law that went into effect in January that forces those soliciting to don reflective vests, and city & county officials have been outspoken since August about doing something about it.
But last month Tampa City Councilman Joseph Caetano, who brought up the issue at a City Council meeting, failed to elicit any member of the council to support his proposal to have city staff create an ordinance that mimics what St. Pete has done. Council chairman Thomas Scott specifically mentioned the large unemployment rate in believing such a law would be punitive against the less fortunate.
Caetano was one of nearly two dozen members present on the committee that meant for just the second time on Wednesday. He read aloud a statement (so he wouldn't be misquoted, he said). Caetano said the situation with people walking in the middle of streets to sell newspapers or to solicit for money make them "ticking time bombs," as he and others said their concern was public safety.
Representing Mayor Pam Iorio's administration was her Chief of Staff, Darrell Smith, who sternly said that the Mayor definitely wanted some type of ordinance to be enacted, and was prepared to go back before the city council to make sure that they did. "The feedback that we get is that there's a need to take action," he said, adding that panhandlers in the medians were a distraction and "we see it more and more."
The emphasis for the City Council to act was reinforced when the public was allowed to comment, and neighborhood activist Spencer Kass said that if need be, a measure banning panhandling should go before city voters in March when the next municipal election is scheduled.
"The citizens have a right to petition," he said. "Everybody's on the same page except the City Council."
Tampa Assistant Police Chief John Bennett busted out statistics because he said he wanted to make sure that "we want to make a data driven decision." He said that since St. Pete's anti-panhandling law went into effect, there has been an 83% increase in Tampa regarding the number of "street checks" with solicitors over the past 5 months compared to 2009 when St. Pete's law wasn't in place. In terms of aggressive panhandling arrests, he said there had been a 47% increase under the current ordinances in Tampa. The final stat he used was what he called was a "Signal 19 S" to track calls to the TPD regarding assertive behavior and said in only 20 days the department had received 66 calls, or 3 a day generated by street officers. "That demonstrates the energy which is going on in the streets," he said.
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2010.