by SC Reporter Emilie Alfino
Sanibel City Council on Aug. 20 held four public hearings on ordinances regarding interim City Council appointments, removing a solid waste franchise agreement from the Code, milestone inspections for condominiums, and school speed zones. All four ordinances were approved unanimously by the five-member Council.
The ordinance regarding interim City Council appointments was to allow greater flexibility in determining interim Council member appointments. This must come before the citizenry as a referendum in the March 4, 2025 election. The ordinance is meant to provide flexibility on when and if to appoint an interim member to City Council following a vacancy and the timing of any necessary special election following a vacancy. City Council detailed many reasons for the requested flexibility, including the significant impracticalities of making interim appointments for relatively short periods of time and the challenges for the Lee County Supervisor of Elections to conduct a special election within a tight window of time. The significant impracticalities of certain interim appointments cited by City Council include a short window of service (less than six months), and also the increased financial reporting burden to such interim appointees created by the 2023 legislative change in Florida law requiring City Council Members to complete and file a Form 6, rather than the Form 1 (which change is currently suspended by an injunction).
A waste-collection franchise agreement was removed from the Code of Ordinances. The City entered into a franchise agreement with Advanced Disposal Services Solid Waste Southeast Inc., for the purposes of solid waste collection and delivery service with an initial term of five years, and with two potential one-year extensions. The term of the franchise agreement, with both one-year extensions having been exercised, will expire September 30, 2024, and with the expiration of the franchise agreement, the appendix within the Sanibel Code specific to this franchise agreement will no longer be necessary or appropriate.
One ordinance was passed to bring the city’s Code in compliance with new Florida legislation. The City is authorized and has the power to inspect all buildings, structures, and facilities within its jurisdiction to protect the public’s health, safety, and welfare through enforcement of the Florida Building Code. During the 2023 Florida Legislative Session, legislation was passed and signed into law mandating maintenance inspections for certain existing buildings to avoid catastrophic building collapses, such as the collapse of the building in the Town of Surfside in 2021, which killed 98 people. During the 2024 Legislative Session, HB 1021 was passed and signed into law providing an exemption of four-family dwellings with regard to the mandatory inspection. Adoption of the regulations contained in Sanibel’s ordinance is in compliance with the recent 2024 changes to Florida law and is in the best interest of the City of Sanibel to promote the health, safety, and welfare of the City’s residents.
School speed zones will take effect in several months’ time as an automated Speed Detection System is set up by the Sanibel Police Department. The automated Speed Detection System will detect a motor vehicle’s speed using radar or lidar and capture a photograph or video of the rear of a motor vehicle that exceeds the speed limit in force at the time of the violation. The resulting speeding ticket will be $100 to vehicles going more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit during school hours. Violations will not add points to the vehicle driver’s license and cannot be used in setting vehicle insurance rates. There are no up-front costs to the city for this program.
The $100 fine will be distributed as follows:
• $60 to the City of Sanibel to administer the speed detection system
• $20 to the State General Revenue Fund
• $12 to the County School District
• $5 to the City of Sanibel for a school crossing guard program
• $3 to the Florida Criminal Justice Trust Fund
Vendors of the system estimate an 80 to 90 percent reduction in speed violations after the automated program has been implemented.
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