St. Pete Beach decided to table all three ordinances on the agenda at their City Commission Workshop Meeting on April 14 at the recommendation of City Manager Wayne Saunders. The ordinances concerned outdoor drinking and dining; off-premise and commercial parking; and amendment of the current alcoholic beverage ordinance relating to public consumption or possession of alcoholic beverages.
“The Sheriff’s Department is concerned about the language in the third ordinance especially as it pertains to our beaches,” said Saunders.
Earlier on the day of the meeting, St. Pete Beach reps met with the Sheriff’s Department to try to come up with suitable revisions that would give the department the “comfort level they needed for enforcement,” said Saunders.
Since the other two ordinances were impacted by the alcoholic beverage ordinance, it was agreed that all three ordinances would be tabled until the next commission meeting on April 28 to give the commission time to revise the language.
Mayor Maria Lowe instead used the workshop time for comments and discussion of all three proposed ordinances with a 25-minute period each.