July 10, 2008
Followers of this blog will note that the issue of Cumberland Island access has generated a lot of local interest. For more detailed information on this controversy, see the links below.
The first is an article in the Florida Times-Union, a Jacksonville metro area newspaper.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/070108/geo_297859610.shtml
Three of our interns, Andrew, Emily and Lindsey, helped Coleman Langshaw (Fernandina beach Marina director) draft a response to the newspaper article. That link is
http://userpages.wittenberg.edu/jankrom/response.pdf
On a lighter note, the interns recently had a fun weekend on Cumberland Island. And, as the photo below shows, the faculty are subjecting them to a lot of academic stress.
Prof. Ankrom
July 8, 2008
For this update, I think I’ll make an efficient use of existing resources (can you tell I’m a quick learner?) by pasting an email I sent to 32 Florida cities that summarizes the research I turned into the CDD Director, Marshall McCrary, on June 30:
“…. I was asked to prepare a comparative analysis for the purpose of developing a policy that the city could follow in accepting and processing requests to the commission for fee waivers.
A general email was drafted to over 50 Florida cities. The email generally inquired about the types of fee waiver your city granted, if any, and the policy available to process fee waiver requests. To date, 32 cities have replied.
With your assistance I was able to collect the attached information using online resources, email and phone interviews.
Please note that most of my comments and recommendations have been deleted from the packet. However, the raw data is available for all to review. The responses are organized in alphabetical order, but do not show the cities that responded post the June 30 2008 submission date. Instead, those cities can be seen on the attached spreadsheet. Finally, in addition to more specific recommendations based on the policies collected, the document at the end of the packet was used to propose the following to Fernandina Beach:
In order to process requests from not for profit organizations that directly benefit city residents, Fernandina Beach should move to adopt an application similar to that of Leeseburg, Virginia’s land development application. It has been formatted to fit what I think would be an appropriate application for Fernandina Beach to begin using to supplement staff memos explaining the request, the cost, the options available to the commission per code, and actions that the commission has taken in the past for similar fee waiver requests.
A formal policy has not yet been drafted for Fernandina Beach. Thank you all for your contributions. You have made my research a huge success!”
After discussing the comparative analysis with the City Attorney, Tammi Bach, we decided to meet with Chuck Hall, a representative of the Historic Fernandina Beach Business Association (HFBA), once more to discuss our findings. During this meeting Tammi informed Mr. Hall that the city was bound by the First Amendment and could only regulate time, place and manor, but certainly not content. We proposed for discussion the possibility of heavily regulating street performances along Centre Street to alleviate congestion on the heavily trafficked downtown street and the Waterfront in anticipation of its future development. We also discussed the possibility of mandating a $100 annual permit fee to be required for all street performers, including those in Mr. Hall’s Street Entertainers program, currently approved by the city as a special event, that auditions licensed street performers. But, the program itself might only be responsible for a $100 annual fee for the program, essentially making it cheaper to perform under the HFBA. After drafting an email to Mr. Hall asking that he address the issues discussed with the downtown merchants, to my dismay, Mr. Hall later informed Tammi that he wished to postpone a first reading of the proposed ordinance until August. I was really looking forward to seeing this policy go from draft to implementation. I suppose I will just have to call Tammi in August and find out the results of this very interesting policy.
Although further discussion on this topic has been postponed I will share one of the many court cases I found that speaks to the topic of regulating street performers:
“In 2003 a Seattle ordinance required buskers - or street performers – to get annual $5 permits, wear badges, perform in one of 16 locations and refrain from asking for money. In April 2005, a lower-court judge sided with Berger, finding that the rules violated the First Amendment. The city settled with Berger for $22,000. The city then appealed and the 9th Circuit majority agreed with the city, writing that the rules further significant city interests, by keeping street performances from posing threats to the flow and convenience of Seattle Center patrons in heavily congested areas.”
Whatever the outcome of this ordinance, the city and Tammi both are very aware of the countless street performance advocacy groups and the possibility of litigation (something we learned a lot about in class) especially with regards to protecting the First Amendment. Is it any wonder then that Tammi repeats “time, place and manor” most probably on a daily basis? In my opinion, the city is very fortunate to have a city attorney who very stringently follows the letter of the law. Her number one priority is to keep the city out of trouble and from what I have observed she is an excellent resource for this city! I commend her for all of her hard work and her strength. Her job isn’t an easy one, but she does it exceedingly well. No doubt Fernandina Beach would be lost without her. I also thank her for teaching me a great deal about city government.
Final Note: In other news, I don’t want to leave Fernandina! Like I told the Mayor, I learned more from the last commission meeting than I have in all three years of my internship experiences. My personal response blog on the topics discussed during the meeting totaled a mere ten pages! Needless to say, this town has a way of keeping everyone on their toes!
July 3, 2008
After meeting with the National Park Service on June 24th, 2008 I am able to more accurately gauge the challenges this project will involve. Not only were the marina director and interns I met helpful, but each had a very objective standing on the National Seashore. Visitation levels were discussed along with suggestions on how to improve the current decrease of thirty-four percent. Most importantly, the National Park Service stressed their ultimate mission of protecting Cumberland Island’s natural resources while allowing individuals to visit and enjoy its treasures. Timothy Stone, the current superintendent of the park, was particularly helpful answering many of the questions about the environmental impact of an increase in attendance. In addition, the City of Fernandina and the City of St. Marys will soon be exploring and examining how each community will be impacted and what type of effort will be required in order for access from Fernandina to be worthwhile. This past Friday a select group from Fernandina made a trip to St. Marys and Cumberland, explaining the benefits that Fernandina had to offer to each community. This trip was crucial to providing direct evidence on how much of an asset the Cumberland National Seashore could be if only more were educated on its unique beauty. A triangle taxi system between the three communities could only benefit St. Marys, Cumberland, and Fernandina, since locals and tourists would have an opportunity that is currently unavailable. Progress is expected to continue, with many individuals in each community curious as to what positive result this access will bring. Further analysis and a survey will be conducted to determine pressing factors that will show substantial significance in obtaining access.
27 June 2008
My name is Emily Beaugh and I’m a junior at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. My project with the City is to develop programming for the government access channel, number 29. I’m gathering information from all of the different departments in City Hall as well as information about the Community. From a media/public information perspective, access to Cumberland from Amelia Island would be really interesting and fun to communicate to the residents and tourists of Fernandina. I think this has potential not only for a great television program but also a new asset to the community.
Today we guide the Tourist Development Council of Fernandina Beach on a voyage from Fernandina Beach to St. Mary’s and then the exotic and rarely explored Cumberland Island. Our mission is to convince the TDC, various media reporters, and lobbyists, that Fernandina is missing out on a spectacular opportunity not only for tourists but the community of Amelia Island at large.
I’m writing now on Monday morning (the 30th) to follow up on the trip to Cumberland with the TDC & Co. The day was a success at large and everyone parted optimistically, believing that Fernandina Beach deserves access to Cumberland Island just as much as St. Mary’s does, and eventually FB will have that access. Coleman assigned everyone some homework to spread the word and continue to keep the momentum going on the project. Sadly, the legislation bit can’t happen for at least a couple more months, so the interns won’t get to see the project fully through.
It’s hard to believe that we only have two and a half more weeks here. This weekend was fabulous. All the interns went out to Coleman’s house on Cumberland. We went land sailing and did a million other fun things. I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown. Six weeks gone already! I’m not ready to go home. Maybe we can arrange an extended stay with the City?