Pinellas County mayor wants more Floridians to understand how preemption laws are affecting them

Redington Beach Mayor David Will in the state Capitol on Jan. 19, 2024 (photo credit: Mitch Perry)

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Over the past several years, Redington Beach Mayor David Will has made the four-hour trip to Tallahassee on numerous occasions during legislative sessions to testify against the short-term vacation rental bills that have gone before the Legislature.

He’s extremely pleased that Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed this year’s proposal, but is aware that a similar proposal come surface next year.

His lobbying efforts have made him an evangelist of sorts in advocating for home rule and a huge critic of preemption – bills presented by the Legislature that take away authority from local governments and give it to the state.

Now he’s created a nonprofit organization called the Home Rule Coalition , which he said is all about bringing more awareness to the general public about “something that affects us all,” a legislative practice which he maintains is an insult to basic functioning of democracy.

“What I’m trying to do with this is spread the word,” he said. “This is advocacy through education to inform people about what preemption is, and to ask their legislators how they feel about preemption and that they would like to be part of the process to give their opinion.”

Local lawmakers from all political stripes (Will is a Republican) have blasted state lawmakers for years for what they say is running roughshod over their communities, to little avail.

Former Tampa City Councilman Joe Citro spent the last part of his term in office bemoaning what preemption had done to his city. He’s quick to cite specific proposals that had received approval at the local level but ultimately were thwarted by preemption legislation from the capital.

Tree ordinance

One of those was the city’s tree ordinance.

After more than year of deliberation involving citizens, builders, activists, and attorneys, the Tampa City Council produced what some members labelled an “historic compromise” on providing protections for its tree canopy. But that ordinance imploded after Gov. DeSantis signed legislation in June 2019 banning local governments from regulating tree removal and re-planting on private property.

“On the tree ordinance, we had the builders. We had the community. We had attorneys. We had so many people working on that ordinance and, like I said, it was the best tree ordinance in the whole damn country,” Citro reminisced bitterly on Friday. “And with one little swoop of the pen, it was gone.”

Then there was the resolution Citro sponsored in 2021 to bring Tampa in sync with at least ten other local governments in Florida to commit to a 100% renewable energy portfolio in city operations, which would later evolve into a similar mandate for the whole city. Citro withdrew his proposal even before state legislation prohibiting local governments from committing such actions was passed and signed by the governor.

“Here’s the problem,” Citro says. “We all have codes, laws, and ordinances in every city and every county in the state. And when somebody doesn’t like it, it’s like a small child. When mommy says no, they go up to daddy in Tallahassee, hoping that daddy will say ‘yes.’ And that’s not the way that it should be.”

Will says most members of the public that he encounters aren’t familiar at all with preemption, which is the raison d’etre for his new organization.

“We want to educate people on what preemption is, that it is actually happening and to pay attention to that, and also what to ask when you talk to your legislator,” he said.

“Whenever there’s a new bill that is proposed, I always ask myself, ‘What problem exists and what will this bill solve? And then who benefits from the bill?’ And hopefully there are good answers to that. Hopefully, it’s our community that benefits. The actual residents who benefit. Also, I would like our residents … to be involved at your local level and ask your officials how they feel about preemption.”

National trend

The issue is hardly unique to Florida.

According to a report issued last month by the Local Solutions Support Center, nearly 500 preemption bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country this year. More than 100 of those proposals regarded education, with 62 targeting LGBTQ+ issues coming in second place.

The report found a “serious efforts or underway” to advance home rule reform and make it more difficult to abuse preemption laws in Ohio and Virginia.

Longtime Tallahassee lobbyist Jack Cory applauds Will’s new organization. Preemption has become a pronounced problem over the past decade in the Capitol, he said, attributing part of the problem to term limits that prevent legislators from accumulating the knowledge to become better lawmakers.

“If they want to serve on a city council or county commission, I recommend they serve on a city council or county commission,” he said of the Tallahassee lawmakers behind the rash of preemption bills introduced in recent years.

In an interview with the News Service of Florida , incoming House Speaker Daniel Perez said he’s going to put more pressure on House members to justify some of their legislative proposals, which could perhaps reduce the number of preemptions bills next year.

“Are you fixing or are you creating a problem?’ Or are you finding a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist?” Perez said.

Perhaps the most notable preemption bill the Florida Legislature approved this past session was HB 433 , banning local governments from requiring employers to provide protections for outdoor workers who toil in extreme heat, as well as preventing local governments from controlling what their contractors pay their employees.

In his letter explaining his veto of the short-term vacation rental bill last month, DeSantis wrote , “I encourage the Florida Legislature and all key stakeholders to work together, with the understanding that vacation rentals should not be approached as a one-size-fits-all issue.”

Redington Beach Mayor David Will said he couldn’t put it better.

“Having the Legislature removing the ability for you to weigh in on the decision-making process in your community I just think is wrong,” he says. “A one size-fits-all does not work for our state.”

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