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Senate moves legislation to make it easier to challenge local ordinances

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Rep. Jay Trumbull

Rep. Jay Trumbull

A Senate panel on Wednesday approved a measure that would make it easier to challenge local ordinances in court.

The  Community Affairs Committee voted to approve SB 170 by Sen. Jay Trumbull, R-Panama City. The measure has one more committee stop, in Rules, before reaching the Senate floor. There is currently no House companion.

“Sometimes the ordinances that local governments enact can be questionably lawful or have unintended consequences,” Trumbull said.

The measure would allow courts to award up to $50,000 in attorney fees to a plaintiff after determining a local ordinance is “arbitrary or unreasonable.”

Enforcement would be suspended while the courts resolve the challenge on an expedited basis. Local governments would also be required to post “business impact” statements.

The bill contains exemptions, however, such as for emergency ordinances.

Critics warned that large corporations would be more tempted to intimidate local governments and that cities and counties would be too cautious to regulate threats to health, safety, and quality of life.

“This is going to make local leaders afraid to work with our unions, to work with our local churches, our local businesses, to make our communities better,” said Florida AFL-CIO lobbyist Rich Templin.

Noting that the bill fails to define “arbitrary and unreasonable,” Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, asked Trumbull who would make the determination.

“That would be up to the courts,” he said.

Given the uncertainty, Berman said, local governments would be too fearful to protect sea turtle nests or enact local noise ordinances.

“We’re talking about basically stopping our local governments from being able to function,” she said. “It’s going to chill local lawmaking, because of the threat of litigation.”

But Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Ft. Myers, said the measure would protect local business owners from “garbage legislation” and a city or county commissioner’s “thumb-your-nose mentality.”

“If it costs the taxpayer a single dollar, it’s only because a local government did something that is arbitrary or unreasonable,” he said.

Trumbull accused critics of confusing his bill with SB 620, a measure the Legislature approved last year that would have allowed businesses to sue a local government for enacting an ordinance that reduces annual profits by 15% or more. Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed that measure, saying its “broad and ambiguous language” could lead to “both unintended and unforeseen consequences and costly litigation.”

“This is different,” Trumbull said.

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