Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 11-14-2006‎(workshop)‎ — reading text

to business regulation and amends the City 44 Code Licenses, Permits, and Miscellaneous Business Regulation, any violation Chapter regarding 45 of any provision hereof shall be punishable pursuant to Section 14-81 of the Code of Ordinances. 46 47 Page 5 of 6  1 SECTION 5. PROVISIONS OF rnIS ORDINANCE SUPPLEMENT At. It is the legislative 2 intent of the city council in enacting this Ordinance to provide an additional or supplemental 3 means of obtaining compliance with the City of Destin Codes and Ordinances. Nothing contained 4 in this chapter shall prohibit the City of Destin from enforcing its Codes and Ordinances by any 5 other means provided by law. 6 7 SECTION 6. INCORPORATION INTO CODE OF ORDINANCES. This ordinance shall be 8 incorporated into the City of Destin' s Code of Ordinances and any section or paragraph number or 9 letter and any heading may be changed or modified as necessary to effectuate the foregoing. 10 11 SECTION 7. CONFLICTING PROVISIONS. Special Acts of the Florida Legislature applicable 12 to the incorporated of the City of Destin, City Ordinances and area City Resolutions, or parts, 13 thereof, in conflict with the provisions of this ordinance are hereby superseded by this ordinance to 14 the extent of such conflict. 15 16 SECTION B. SEVERABILITY. Each separate provision of this ordinance is deemed independent 17 of all other provisions herein so that if any portion or provision of this ordinance is declared 18 invalid, all other provisions thereof shall remain valid and enforceable. 19 20 SECTION 9. EFFECTIVE DATE. This ordinance shall become effective upon its adoption by the 21 City Council and signature by the Mayor. 22 23 ADOPTED THIS 10th DAY OF TVLY 2006. 24 25 26 By: 27 Craig H. Barker, Mayor 28 29 30 ATTEST: 31 The form and legal sufficiency of the foregoing has 32 been reviewed and approved by the City Land Use 33 Attorney. 34 35 36 Dana L.S. Williams, City Clerk Scott Shirley, City Land Use Attorney 37 38 First Reading: 6/ 19/ 06 39 Second Reading: 7/ 10/ 06 Page 6 of 6  Craig Barker From: Craig Barker [ craig. barker@cox. net] ~ ~ ent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 4: 52 PM ~ . j: patrick@fox1120. com' . . 1~ II... _ / 1~ Subject: Hi Keith, Ri7' p~ I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to write to me and I F;r ~ ~ apologize that I am just now getting back with you. You have touched on an issue that is very concerning to me. And, like you, to me the issue has nothing to do with race, religion, or any of the other demographic factors that are oftentimes " labeled" upon those of us with objective concerns. In fact, I happen to believe that legal Guest-Worker ( or work visa) programs are essential in this country, and further that the framework of bureaucracy within these programs needs to be streamlined. But that said, I first saw the affects of illegal immigration in Destin about seven years ago when J began receiving calls from parents of teenagers who could not find work in our community. The parent' s recommendation was that the City of Destin needed to work with the Chamber of Commerce to develop a solution to the problem. I did my own extensive research into the matter by interviewing large and small employers in the area and the parents of the teens. What I learned was alarming... It is not ( as opponents of strengthening the laws immigration would suggest) that American' s will not do the work that foreign laborers will. Instead, they will not do the work for the same pay rate and there are certain socioeconomic reasons for this. So when presented with a viable alternative, employers will - by and large - seek to reduce the wages they pay by hiring the cheapest labor available. And, with no threat of recourse for hiring potentially iIIega/ laborers, many of Destin' s employers ( and the employers across the country) have become comfortable in turning a blind- eye and " outsourcing" those jobs to the lowest wage- rate earners they can find. This situation has manifested itself as an artificial cap on the costs of a typical basket of goods and services as prices 3ve remained fairly static from the early 1990' s. This is good for consumers ( and the short- term economy) because rices are held low. But, look what it has done to the quality of life to the average " Destinite". You' d be hard pressed to make an objective argument that it has improved as a consequence of the employment practices we have become accustomed to. I am not an economist, but I cannot be convinced that short- term price regulation ( fixation) is advantageous to the long- term health of our nation' s economy. In the long- run, I believe it is orders of magnitude cheaper to pay $ 5 more for a hamburger if that additional $ 5 is being passed along to a wage earner who contributes a portion of that additional wage in taxes and social security, as well as reinvests his/ her net profit back into the gross domestic product of the US. From a macro- perspective. the problem seems so easy to fix at the Federal level, and we wouldn' t even need to pass any new laws, deport anyone, or even create a burden on the taxpayers to do so. AI/ you really need to do is set up a Federal enforcement office charged with the responsibility of identifying and fining any employer that hires illegal aliens. You simply make the fine substantial - say $5, 000 per illegal worker identified, and the fine revenue is collected by the Federal enforcement office so that it pays for itself. It would take about one month for Amer.ica' s businesses to police themselves. With no job potential the illegal workers will deport themselves and immediately enlist in a legal guest- worker program. Problem solved. I spoke with Congressman Miller' s office about this proposed solution, and while I sensed frustration on their part, they were lukewarm at best and what I heard was finger pointing at the Senate and the typical left-wing targets. I just don' t see a true desire to fix the problem from anyone in Washington. Upon resigning to the fact that a Federal solution wasn' t forthcoming, my first impulse was to follow the example put forth by a few cities in the northeast (I can' t recall the specific name{ s) of the cities as it has been a long time ago). Their leaders implemented local ordinances that make it illegal for businesses within the jurisdictional boundaries of their city to hire illegal aliens. But, in conducting my due diligence, I learned about the Employer Sanction Provision of INA Paragraph 274A [8 U. S. C. A Paragraph 1324a] which " expressly preempts any state or local government from passing a Jaw imposing civil or criminal sanctions upon those who employ, recruit, or refer for employment, unauthorized aliens," This means that state and local legislations may prohibit the employment of unauthorized aliens. but they may not impose any criminal or ivil penalties on those who do. Criminal and civil penalties can only be imposed by Federal Law. Furthermore. local law enforcement may arrest those who employ, recruit, or refer for employment, unauthorized aliens; but the loca/ law enforcement must immediately turn over those individuals to Federal Authorities. ll l/ 31) i ~ A~d J. 3. ' 4:g 1 fl.;,1>~ Keith. in - 1998 I heard the plight of the Okaloosa County Sheriffs Department as they responded to a complaint at a local apartment complex in Destin. Turns out there were 25 illegal aliens and one legal guest worker (for a total of 26) living in the two- bedroom apartment. The Sheriffs Department gathered the entire lot and transported them to the detention facility nd called INS. After a lengthy wait, the INS responded by telling the officers to release the prisoners and strongly advise em to immediately return to their country of origin. I couldn' t believe what I was hearing. Nonetheless, as you can 1agine, the Okaloosa County's Sheriffs Department has no inclination to dedicate the resources necessary to aggressively pursue enforcement of those Federal laws and frankly, after that event, I can' t say I blame them. After learning more about the Federal preemptions placed upon local governments, I was even more