The Holmes Beach Police Department has some new city codes to enforce.
City commissioners unanimously voted Sept. 16 to adopt three ordinances prohibiting smoking at public beaches and parks, adjusting sea turtle lighting regulations, and establishing a recovery management organization tasked with creating and fulfilling a post-disaster recovery plan.
Commissioner Kim Rash was absent with excuse.
The smoking prohibition was created to limit the improper disposal of cigarette butts and also secondhand smoke.
The city is preempted by the state from regulating smoking other than at beaches and parks in the city and the state exempts unfiltered cigars from regulation.
The prohibition declares smoking a “public health nuisance” at city field, the skate park, and Grassy Point Preserve, as well as the city’s several pocket parks and public beaches.
A city code citation for a first-time offense would cost $75.
HBPD Chief Bill Tokajer said his officers would treat the cigarette ban like the prohibition on alcoholic beverages on the beaches, with a warning followed by a citation. The citation fine would be paid at city hall and appeals would be to a special magistrate.
The ordinance amending the city’s sea turtle lighting ordinance lowers the allowable light transmittance value for tinted windows and glass doors facing seaward from 15% to 45%.
Sea turtle hatchlings use light reflected from the moon and stars on the Gulf of Mexico to navigate to the water, where artificial lighting can disorient them, sometimes leading to their death by dehydration or predation.
The city initially implemented the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s recommended 15% light transmittance value, but the Florida Department of Environmental Protection recommends 45%.
Mayor Judy Titsworth previously said the amendment would bring the city more in line with state standards and encourage more people to buy into new windows since the new rules would be more lenient.
The third ordinance tasks the RMO with preparing a recovery plan for commission consideration, which, if adopted, puts the organization in charge of coordinating and implementing post-disaster situations.
The RMO would be directed by the mayor, with the city’s public works supervisor serving as deputy director and the city attorney as legal adviser.
The ordinance authorizes the RMO to implement some temporary regulations if deemed “reasonably justifiable” for recovery or the protection of public health and safety.
Such temporary regulations could include prohibiting public access to damaged or hazardous areas, establishing a moratorium on new building permits or allowing the RMO director to issue permits for the temporary use of property as critical facilities.
There was no public comment on the three items.
Plastic straw prohibition
City commissioners also reached a consensus to table an ordinance that would have prohibited the distribution and sale of single-use plastic straws within city limits to add considerations for biodegradable plastic straws.
Plastic straws, one of the most common types of single-use plastics — plastic products generally used once and then disposed of — contribute to pollution and are small enough to become lodged in sea turtle noses or ingested by marine life.
City officials wanted to regulate single-use plastics as a whole but state laws preempt local municipalities from regulating any single-use plastic or foam other than straws.
However, Titsworth said a company that manufactures biodegradable plastic straws that would be prohibited under the proposed ordinance reached out to her ahead of the meeting.
Titsworth said the commission should consider allowances for such products since they are biodegradable and do not contain PFAs, or polyfluoroalkyls, which are long-lasting and often cancerous chemical compounds.
Many paper straws use PFAs to provide resistance to liquid absorption.
Commissioner Jayne Christenson said she supported putting the proposed ordinance on hold to consider changes but said biodegradable plastic straws also might not be environmentally friendly.
Christenson said if it takes too long for such a straw to biodegrade it could still cause damage.
City attorney Erica Augello said an amended measure would need to go again through the city’s ordinance adoption process.
The commission will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, at city hall, 5801 Marina Drive. Directions to attend can be found at holmesbeachfl.org.