HOLMES BEACH – Commissioners agreed unanimously to move a draft ordinance raising parking fine violations to a first reading.
During an Oct. 13 work session, Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer presented commissioners with a plan to increase parking violations in the city. After Tokajer made his case for the increase in fine amounts, Commissioner Jim Kihm suggested a few changes, namely increasing the proposed violation amount for permit fraud to a maximum of $250 and increasing the fine amount for impeding emergency vehicle access to the beach to $250.
Here are all of the proposed fine amount increases:
- Increase a general parking violation from $50 to $75,
- Establish a $250 fine for using a fraudulent parking permit,
- Charge a $15 late penalty to be charged 10 days after the parking fine is due instead of the current five days,
- Increase illegal handicap and Purple Heart parking violations to $250.
Tokajer said that out of the 2,920 parking tickets Holmes Beach police officers have written year to date through September, about 100 of those, or 4.5%, were written to residents with 41 of those voided as a one-time resident education opportunity.
“Residents don’t get a lot of parking tickets in Holmes Beach,” he said.
Commissioner Carol Soustek said that she hopes that the larger parking fine amounts will discourage people from parking illegally to go to the beach, shrugging off the current $50 fine as a parking fee.
The draft ordinance goes before commissioners for a first reading at an upcoming city commission meeting.
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