By D. L. Norris
In the March 2020 archives of this blog, there is an article titled Okaloosa County’s Crab Island Vending…Liberal Attitudes and Conservative Magnitude which discusses the history of how illegal vending at Crab Island, a National Park, began and proliferated for decades. If you aren’t familiar with the history, you may want to read that article first before proceeding with this one.
At the April 19, 2022, Okaloosa Board of County Commissioner’s (BOCC) meeting, during the public comments portion, a Crab Island vendor, Mr. Jimmy Perkins, spoke: “Three years ago you guys wrote up an ordinance for vending on Crab Island, and put it in place that everybody that vends out there has to have National Parks before they can come to the county to get your $400 dollars a month pass. I pay $2,800 dollars a month with my ice cream boats, $1,200 dollars a month with my pontoon charters that go out there. There’s 23 vendors out there that pay this. We point out, on a daily basis, 53 illegal people out there. They don’t have time to collect it. Fifty-three times $400 dollars is $21,200 dollars times a six month season, $127,200 dollars to the county if you guys collected your money. By allowing them to vend the way that they do…without insurance, without paying the county, they can charge a charter $300 dollars for 4 hours where I have to go $600 dollars. $4,000 dollars a month I’m paying to go out there–and my lawyer is not even sure its legal the tax that you guys put on us out there; but, I’m not here to complain about that. I would like some enforcement out there because we can point them straight out to the officer and he doesn’t have time to collect it. But, let a Jimmy boat pull up out there on the Island, and they got time to call me and say you got to do this and this. Selective enforcement, targeting, and harassment. I’m just saying, if I’ve got to pay, everybody in the county that uses it… I’m not great on social media, but I can pull up on Facebook, right now, 53 people that are advertising to do charters on Crab Island. You can go to Get My Boat, the same thing. I’m just saying, you guys wrote this ordinance, it’s $400 dollars. Make it fair for everybody. You do the math on that…$127,200 dollars a year you guys are passing up and it’s coming right out of my pocket. I’m not a great speaker but I think we need to address this sooner than later before the season is over.”
Discussion ensued and Chairman Ponder, District 5, then asked if the county deputy administrator had Mr. Perkins’ contact information to which Mr. Perkins replied “Oh they got it. Everybody in this county has got it. They know where to get my money.” Vice Chairman Boyles, District 3, then chimed in and asked staff to give them an update on how that enforcement process has been working or has not been working.
Mr. Perkins then stated, “we can point them out.” He then gave an example of common violations and the Sheriff’s office refusal to enforce then added that he expected to get “slack back” for publicly complaining.
Vice Chairman Boyles then, very disingenuously, stated, “Ok. But are you talking about Sheriff’s office because I want to understand? It gets complicated who’s enforcing what. Is it code enforcement, is it Sheriff’s office? So that’s what I want to make sure.” Commissioner Boyles was a key driver behind this ordinance and knows perfectly well they intended for the County Sheriff’s department to enforce the ordinance.
At no time during public meetings on the drafting of the Floating Structures and Commercial Vessels ordinance in 2018, and subsequently in 2020 with additional amendments, was there any discussion by the BOCC as to whether code enforcement would be the responsible agency. The discussions were always focused on the County Sheriff as the responsible enforcement agency. Also, at no time did the BOCC ever discuss whether the County Sheriff’s department could even handle the additional workload. In addition, the BOCC made no provision in the budget for additional funding to the Sheriff’s department to provide for manpower, equipment and training in support of the new ordinance and Commissioner Boyles knew this.
Mr. Perkins then graciously helped Commissioner Boyles with his lack of recall and stated, “the Island is enforced by County Sheriffs out there. FWC [Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission] has their little thing and Parks has their little thing; but, to collect your guys’ money, the force for you guys’ money is the County Sheriff.”
Vice Chairman Boyles then again, very disingenuously, stated, “that’s a collaborative relationship and the Sheriff is independently elected. But I think we can certainly work with his folks to see if we have a gap somewhere, and what we might be able to do to better support his office to have the resources because I agree it needs to be an even playing field.” Although the County Sheriff is independently elected, Commissioner Boyles knows full well that the BOCC has complete oversight and control over the County Sheriff’s budget.
Mr. Perkins then added there is supposed to be a $600 dollar ticket and the violators are to leave the Island until they have the proper paperwork, but the Sheriff tells him they don’t have time for this enforcement. He then added, “it’s one vendor complaining, but if you start dropping $4,000 dollars a month, it’s a pretty good complaint sir.”
District 2 Commissioner Ketchel then joined the discussion, “we want an equitable playing field. If we’ve created a problem, we want to fix that problem. This is a new process this year, so thank you for bringing this to our attention. This is not what we intended so let’s see what we can do.” A new process this year? The BOCC has been regulating this activity since 2018. More disingenuousness.
Then another vendor, Ms. Madison Sullivan, spoke. “I’d like to echo that. I’m a charter boat out there. I have all my permits and I have called the Sheriff’s Office over to my boat while I was out there and pointed out the illegal charters…and they are just o.k. take a picture and send it in…but the fact that we point them out to them and we just get take a picture and send it in isn’t fair because we’re paying, it’s a huge percent.”
Chairman Ponder then concluded the discussion and said, “Obviously Mr. Coffey will get your contact information. We’ll be in touch. You clearly have the support of this board for this to be looked at.”
Since 2019, this blog has chronicled a systemic pattern of the BOCC drafting and enacting code (law) with no intent to actually enforce the law. If there was intent to enforce, then every meeting to enact a new ordinance would have a dedicated discussion section on manpower, equipment and training requirements for that particular ordinance to be enforced and it never happens. Citizens constantly have to show up at the public comments portion of the BOCC meetings and beg the county commissioners to help them get the code enforced. Some of us even have to go so far as to drop a lawsuit to get the code enforced.
According to the uscourts.gov, the Rule of Law is a principle under which all persons, institutions, and entities are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced, independently adjudicated and consistent with international human rights principles. Stanford.edu goes on to state, “when ordinary people call for the Rule of Law; they often have in mind the absence of corruption.”
When a government refuses to enforce the Rule of Law, that’s a telltale sign it is corrupt. Be it Crab Island vending, or barking dogs, or short-term rentals, or beach vending, or homeless men living in buses, or chicken coops in front yards, Okaloosa County does not enforce its laws; thus, Okaloosa County is corrupt.
You can contact the author at dlnorris@theparadisepatriot.com