HOLMES BEACH – If you’re a driver who violates the parking rules in the city of Holmes Beach, beware. There are new penalties in place for violators.
City commissioners voted unanimously on Nov. 17 to approve increases for parking fines in the city. Here’s what those increases look like:
- Increase a general parking violation from $50 to $75;
- Establish a $250 fine for using a fraudulent parking permit;
- Charge a $15 late penalty for unpaid parking tickets 10 days after the parking fine is due instead of the previous five days;
- Increase illegal handicap and Purple Heart parking violations to $250;
- Increase the fine to $250 for impeding emergency access to the beach.
Parking fine increases aren’t the only change that drivers can expect.
During the Nov. 17 work session, commissioners heard a proposal from Police Chief Bill Tokajer to allow his officers to have a boot in each police vehicle and use it to prevent drivers with three or more outstanding parking tickets from operating their vehicles until delinquent fines are paid.
Tokajer said that currently there are two people with three unpaid parking violations and one with four unpaid parking violations in the city. Right now, he said the city’s regulations allow drivers to have 10 unpaid violations before the city’s officers can pursue the issue.
Under the proposed new regulations, parking tickets would have to be paid before the wheel locking device would be removed by officers.
The proposed ordinance states that the officer writing the citation would have the discretion to either boot or tow the vehicle once three or more unpaid parking violations have accumulated. He said it would be his officers’ intention to boot the vehicles unless they’re blocking traffic.
Tokajer added that his officers currently use the wheel locking devices on illegally parked golf carts because they’re not required to have a license plate so there’s no way to know who the owner or driver is if they’re not on site when the citation is issued.
Commissioner Carol Soustek said she has “no problem with enforcing adequate, responsible laws whether they’re friendly or not.”
Commissioner Kim Rash said he would be happy backdating the ordinance to an effective date of Jan. 1, 2020, and asked if the chief could look into determining a fee for unlocking a boot when it’s used on a vehicle.
Though Commissioner Jim Kihm expressed some concern about backdating the ordinance to the first of the calendar year, commissioners agreed to move the proposed regulations forward to a first reading at an upcoming meeting with an effective date of Jan. 1.
Beach renourishment parking requirement met
During a regular meeting held the same evening, Mayor Judy Titsworth and commissioners addressed comments from Manatee County commissioners made at their Nov. 17 meeting concerning the lack of beach parking in the city and possible withholding of funding if city leaders don’t meet the county leaders’ demands.
Soustek said that she would like to have one commissioner or the mayor attend the county commission meetings on a rotating schedule to have representation in case something like the Nov. 17 discussion, which wasn’t on the meeting’s agenda, happens again. She said that there’s a lack of communication between the city’s elected officials and Manatee County commissioners that she would like to see repaired, as evidenced by incorrect information cited by county commissioners during their meeting. During the Nov. 23 organizational meeting, Soustek applauded Titsworth for her quick reaction in sending two informational letters to county commissioners concerning parking in the city.
After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and a permit parking program for residents was enacted, city officials eliminated 497 on-street parking spaces; 1,261 non-permit spots remain available to the public within a quarter-mile of the beach, as well as 642 resident permit-only until 5 p.m. spots. Chief Bill Tokajer said the city has well over the approximately 500 parking spots needed to be granted beach renourishment funds.
During the city commission meeting, Titsworth addressed the comments brought up by county commissioners during their meeting.
Titsworth said that she was not given notice by county commissioners that parking in Holmes Beach would be discussed during their meeting and didn’t have a chance to speak on the city’s behalf to correct the statements made during their meeting. During her city’s meeting, she reiterated that she’d spoken with county officials when parking restrictions were being discussed and that they were comfortable with the 500 spaces offered for beach renourishment. She said the 500 spaces required per an interlocal agreement between Holmes Beach and Manatee County was approved by Florida state officials. The city is legally required to have 378 spaces to receive beach renourishment funds.
Tokajer thanked Titsworth for her quick response and clarification of the issue of parking spaces, adding “the way that county commissioners and county employees treated this city in their meeting today is just shocking and appalling at the least. I’ll leave it at that.”
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