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!