PANAMA CITY BEACH — Panama City Beach Police have issued the first ticket under a scooter rental law that is being challenged in Circuit Court.
Police on Thursday gave California Cycles a $50 ticket for allowing two customers to drive off the Front Beach Road scooter rental business without wearing bright green fluorescent safety vests, which the city is requiring in a new law that soon will be tested in court.
Until now, police have balked at enforcing the scooter rental law as the city battles California Cycles in civil court over a challenge to the law.
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Owner Rick Roof said he has the vests but is not forcing riders to wear them. He said many scooter riders don’t want to wear the vests, so the requirement is hurting his business. He has a petition with signatures of riders opposed to the vest requirement.
Four out of five spring breakers interviewed randomly at the California Cycles business at 13416 Front Beach Road on Friday afternoon said they oppose the vest requirement.
“It takes away from the people’s rights, and also takes away from your style of who you are and forces you to be the same as somebody else,” said Vorjas Borjas, a spring breaker from Houston. “If another shop doesn’t [require the vest], everyone is going to go to that shop. You are creating a monopoly.”
Roof said the city has overstepped its authority with the vest requirement because vehicle safety gear is under the control of the state.
Classy Cycles, doing business as California Cycles that has five scooter rental businesses on the Beach, has sued the city and Bay County, stating the regulation requiring insurance coverage and a mandate that riders wear fluorescent green safety vests should be dictated by state law. Classy Cycles contends in court documents that state law supersedes local laws, and state law does not require the insurance coverage or vests.
Since the lawsuit was filed in June, the council amended its ordinance so safety vests must to be worn only on city streets. Because Front Beach Road is a state road, scooter riders don’t have to wear the vests on that road, which is popular with the scooter riders. The ticket was issued on the grounds the riders left California Cycles without wearing the vests.
City officials “are just trying to nuance (the law) to get it by the court and it’s not going to work,” said attorney Robert Sale, representing California Cycles in the lawsuits.
On March 2, Panama City Beach Police Chief Drew Whitman warned scooter rental businesses in a letter that “enhanced enforcement” would be occurring this week of the new vest and helmet ordinance. The ordinance states that scooter rental businesses also must have helmets available for riders to wear if they request them. Roof said he has those on his property.
Whitman said in his letter the enforcement is occurring “to ensure the ongoing safety of both our community and visitors during Spring Break 2015.”
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Sale said the city law requiring the vests is invalid and California Cycles does not want to be complicit in endorsing safety equipment that has not been approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or the state of Florida.
Sale said the city citation could mean the case now will go before a county judge on the ticket and a Circuit Court judge on the lawsuit.
“This could wind us up in front of a county court judge with the same issues we’re arguing already in Circuit Court,” Sale said. “So they decided to open up a two-front war.”