Consequences of Reneging On Agreements

The City is one of the last to continue a ban on tattoo parlors, despite a plethora of legal opinion that such a ban is unconstitutional and a violation of the First Amendment. The City Commissioners, including Commissioner Bill Verge, who represents the district in which Truman Annex is located, seem to agree that the ban is unconstitutional, but he has stated that he will vote to keep the ban even though he believes the City will lose the litigation. What he left out in conducting his poll of his district that he relies on for his stated intention to vote to keep the ban was to ask his constituents whether they favor paying the attorneys for the tattoo parlor several hundred thousand dollars of the taxpayer's money because of his vote. If and when the City loses the tattoo parlor lawsuit, as most surely it will, the City will have to pay the parlor's attorneys' fees. We'll bet the answer of his constituents would be different if he'd asked this question in his so-called poll.

Verge has shown that in this instance he is willing to spend the taxpayers' money rather provide leadership to help his constituents face hard choices. It's all (and only) about politics and that's what's wrong with the City Commission. We would have hoped that Verge would have been more of a leader in this situation and have said to his constituents, " I'm unwilling to let the City keep being stupid with its revenue, and keep losing cases (like the Duck Tours case) that are not even close calls. I understand your frustration and I don't want tattoo parlors on Duval street any more than you do, but we are going to lose this and need to cut the loss to the taxpayers and save that money." But, that is too much to ask, isn't it?

On the other hand, we can understand that after trying and getting nowhere with his fellow operatives at City Hall when he sought to broker a compromise with TAMPOA on the Southard Street case, even when the City would have come out unscathed and smelling like a rose, we are not surprised that Verge would take a let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may attitude on the tattoo battle. The lessons for the City Commission for not considering the favorable settlement offer from TAMPOA and for their machinations in the Southard Street dispute may well be painful for the taxpayers.

Now when the City loses the tattoo parlor lawsuit, or thinks it will, and wants to settle, what makes the City Attorney and City Commission think the tattoo parlor will trust the City to honor any out of court settlement in light of the City's behavior in the dispute with Truman Annex? Add to that Commissioner Bethel's outrageous statement that just because one commission makes an agreement for the City, another Commission does not have to honor that still existing agreement.

The attorneys for the tattoo parlor should be warned to make sure that they get an enforceable judgment or Consent Decree against the City, just as the transient rental attorneys did, rather than trust the City to honor any settlement agreement, a mistake that TAMPOA made that it will likely never make again in dealing with the City.