Associated Press
Officials in Florida’s Panhandle are disputing allegations in a lawsuit claiming that racial bias was behind new ordinances designed to curb spring break mayhem.
Panama City Beach Mayor Gayle Oberst told The News Herald that she’s comfortable that the city passed laws that were legal based on their attorney’s advice, and she denied racial bias played a part in the council’s decisions.
“We were following the recommendations and the input of our citizens, and that’s what we did,” Oberst said. “We thought we were doing things that were best for the community as a whole.”
Councilman John Reichard also said there was no racial bias behind the laws, and Councilman Keith Curry said the lawsuit was motivated by greed.
“We’ve worked with businesses for over three years to try to correct problems they were creating during Spring Break,” Curry said.
Several Panama City Beach nightclub owners argue in the lawsuit filed Friday that city officials deprived business owners of their property rights and unfairly targeted events frequented by black spring breakers.
The new regulations were prompted by a series of problems that included three men charged with alleged sexual assault on a crowded beach and a shooting at a spring break house party this year.
The ordinances include restrictions on beach drinking during spring break, limiting the clubs’ hours of operation, requiring additional approvals to hold special events and regulations that target loitering in some areas of the beach and beach parking lots.
Attorney Luke Lirot, representing the business owners, said the ordinances are unfair to the businesses. He also said language used during public hearings about the ordinances clearly showed a racial bias.
