BRADENTON BEACH – The city commission voted 4-1 in opposition to adopting a proposed valet parking ordinance.
During their Aug. 6 meeting, the mayor and commissioners instead chose to increase enforcement of the existing rules against valet parking on public roads.
Commissioner Scott Bear cast the dissenting vote.
The ordinance, No. 26-571, would have required valet parking businesses to obtain a city license and submit a parking plan showing where vehicles would be loaded, unloaded and stored. Violations would have resulted in fines or license revocation.
“If they go outside that plan, it becomes a code enforcement issue,” City Attorney Erica Augello said. “They can get a daily running fine. They can get their license revoked. This gives you the ability to say, ‘We granted you that plan, you told us you would abide by that plan and now you’re not doing it.’”
Augello told commissioners valet parking is already prohibited citywide under current code, but the issue comes with enforcing the current rules.
“As it stands right now, the way that your code is set up, you don’t allow for valet parking,” Augello said. “This would just regulate it in the event you want it to be allowed for the ability to use public property for that.”
The proposed ordinance would not have applied to businesses offering valet parking on their own property.
“We’ve had no valet parking forever, and it hasn’t been enforced,” Commissioner Debbie Scaccianoce said. “It’s going on in rights of way. It’s going on in private property every single night. They park on the residential streets. They’re loading and unloading in through streets.”
In response, Augello said, “If you’re not enforcing it, then they’re going to do whatever they want anyway, whether you have the ordinance or not. Because if you have somebody that is not abiding by the law now, I don’t know if they’re going to abide by a new law that’s coming out.”
During the hourlong discussion, the commission noted Bradenton Beach has just one code enforcement officer, Evan Harbus, and he does not work nights when most of the parking violations occur.
Harbus said he would be willing to adjust his schedule to include some evening hours. Harbus told commissioners a violation case is already open against at least one property and that he is working with the city attorney and the property’s legal counsel to resolve it.
Lt. Lenard Diaz said Bradenton Beach police officers can issue tickets for vehicles obstructing roadways, but they cannot issue citations for code violations.
Augello then said, “It’s a code enforcement issue, but if you have a sworn officer that is designated as a code enforcement officer, you can have your police department enforce the code. The issue you’re going to have is a sworn law enforcement officer acting in the capacity of the code enforcement officer cannot act as a sworn law enforcement officer. That means if you see illegal activity, you don’t get to just take off your code hat, put on your PD (police department) hat and go after them.”
Diaz offered to have night-shift officers photograph parking violations and forward them to the code enforcement officer so cases could be built for violators ordered to appear before the city’s special master.
“This ordinance isn’t to target any particular person or property,” Augello said. “This is a forward-looking regulation. In your code regulations, you can’t park in rights of way, you can’t load and unload there. You already have those restrictions.”
During the Aug. 6 discussion, the commission did not name a specific business as a valet parking violator. However, during the April 16 commission meeting, Scaccianoce named SALT Bar & Table, which does not have a dedicated parking lot and has been the source of many valet parking complaints received from residents.
“The valet is using 26th Street as a staging area for the cars. When people come to SALT, the valet is putting the cars in the active driving lane facing east. If the person is leaving the restaurant, they’re bringing the car around in the active lane on 26th Street facing west,” Scaccianoce said in April.
“Every day I go home, there are cars facing in opposite directions waiting either for people to get out of their cars to go into the restaurant or coming out of the restaurant to their car, and you cannot drive down 26th Street,” Scaccianoce said in April.
During the Aug. 6 meeting, Augello said, “If you’re not enforcing them now, this is one extra thing that you have to enforce. The only time it really becomes a law enforcement issue is if you are stopping in the middle of the road and you’re causing congestion.”
“By the time a phone call is made to the police, the cars are gone,” Scaccianoce said. “So, the police get there and there’s nobody blocking the road anymore. You can’t enforce the loading and unloading because it’s temporary, but it’s constant.”
Commissioner Ralph Cole said he was in favor of enforcing the current laws rather than adding a new regulation.
Mayor John Chappie said, “We’re going to have to look at our budget and see what we can do about it. We know we need another code enforcement officer in the city.”
Bear said the proposed ordinance would be an additional enforcement tool.
Commissioner Robert Talham suggested the city hire an off-duty sheriff’s deputy who’s certified as a code enforcement officer to spend several hours documenting the city’s valet parking violations.
“If right now there’s no valet parking allowed, then there should be no valet parking and we need to put a stop to it and we need to enforce it,” Scaccianoce said.
