Florence Detective on Those Malevolent Meters

 

READ BEFORE SIGNING

Shoalanda has been covering much of my work for me this week. I have been sort of stretched thin and I truly appreciate her reporting on the proposals of the Florence city council. The main issues this “go-round” were the metered parking area expansion and the raise in fees charged by the Florence Electricity Department. This agenda item entailed higher fees for a variety of services and a few infractions. The “metered parking” expansion was just that: adding parking areas that required a quarter to park in 30 minute intervals all over town. Let me report on the fee raise for the utility dept first.

It passed. Not without opposition from two council members. Jimmy Oliver noted the high cost of food, shelter and practically everything else these days and said he was basing his no vote on not causing further hardship to the citizens of Florence. I agree and applaud him for his stance. Kaytrina Simmons stated that she represented a district which had many living below the poverty level and could not see passing these fees now and especially at this level of a raise. Something tells me she had read Shoalanda’s blog post: Electric Meter Mayhem! Once again, this reporter commends her for thinking of those who could least afford a hefty increase in a reconnect fee at a time in their lives when they were suffering. Bill Griffin, Michele Eubanks, Dick Jordan and Blake Edwards seemed to only be concerned with passing the agenda item. Michele Eubanks did thank Mary McDuffa for agreeing to post places where someone who was about to get their lights cut off might go to get help in the form of charity on the FED webpage. But she still voted YES on the agenda item to raise fees, despite her “charitable” leanings.

Then there was the three-ring circus that became the discussion of the agenda item to expand metered parking area in the city of Florence. Chief of police Ron Tyler said in the work session there would be no additional physical parking meters installed. Never mind that the title of the agenda item had “regarding PARKING METERS” in the title! Chief Tyler gave a rather lengthy presentation with an analogy of expanding the parking area that could be charged to a Park Mobil Application on your smart phone was like building a house and wiring it for electricity. He used an example of wiring a garage although you may not actually install electrical outlets. Personally, the analogy seemed off to me. We were talking about parking spaces not electrical outlets but let each teach to their comfort level. Evidently, Bill Griffin did not understand the lesson.

Bill Griffin started the discussion on the agenda item at the council meeting by saying that East Florence would be exempt from additional parking fees. When the other council members started low key disputing this statement, Griffin assured them this came from Ron Tyler himself. He said he had talked to all the businesses along the Sweetwater area of Huntsville Rd, and they were 100% against metered parking. Jimmy Oliver stated that the parking lot could be used for “premium” parking in events like Sweetwater Days, but Bill Griffin stuck to his guns that East Florence was exempt. Blake Edwards even chimed in that a vote to approve making an area metered parking for an event would need to be approved by the council. The vote was taken and all but Griffin and Kaytrina Simmons voted yes. Here is the clincher, there is not language in the ordinance they had just voted on that...

1. prevented the police from designating at any time an area they were approving to be made into metered parking using the Park Mobil app.

2. the council did NOT have the power to approve or deny the action to “flip the switch” on the app at any time to make it metered parking. That authority was with the chief of police and NOT the city clerk as even the chief had said was written into the ordinance.

3. AND nowhere in the ordinance does it appear to be written that East Florence is designated as “exempt.”

On another note, for some reason a portion of “remarks from the public” and the closing remarks of each council member was cut from the live streaming video on the City of Florence Facebook page. Be this a conspiracy or incompetence, this reporter can relay that one of the “remarks from the public” involved a citizen going to the podium and reading the ordinance to the council members. His closing remarks were: Do any of you READ the ordinances you are to vote on before the meeting?