To the Editor:
On June 25, the City Commission unanimously passed a resolution directing the City Attorney to analyze legal avenues to challenge the state’s Live Local Act.
The City Commission was apparently unaware of the fact that (1) on March 6, Hillsborough County filed a lawsuit in Leon County (where Tallahassee is located) against the State of Florida challenging the constitutionality of the Live Local Act, and that (2) on April 22, the state filed a motion to dismiss the case.
If the City Commission was not made aware of the lawsuit prior to passing the resolution, it should have been made aware of the lawsuit and the motion to dismiss.
The motion to dismiss the lawsuit cites Florida case law and indicates that Hillsborough County is barred from filing suit because Florida’s public official standing doctrine bars local government entities like the county from filing lawsuits seeking to declare state statutes unconstitutional.
The City Commission could be using this time to have an analysis performed as to how the City of Miami can lobby the State Legislature to limit the scope of the Live Local Act so that the objections of many of the commissioners and Miami residents (including me) can be adequately addressed.
The City Commission doesn’t have a Plan B to oppose the Live Local Act as it currently exists. It needs a Plan B that has a much better strategy of succeeding than challenging the constitutionality of the Live Local Act. No way the Leon County judge sitting in Tallahassee is going to hold that the Live Local Act (which passed the State Legislature 140-6) is unconstitutional.
Barry Subkow
Coconut Grove
