Butt Violation May Get Cheaper
By Pru Sowers
Konk Life Staff Writer
Unlike other prices in Key West, the penalty for flicking your cigarette butt to the sidewalk may be getting cheaper.
City commissioners had previously passed on first reading a change to the litter ordinance to specifically prohibit the disposal of used or unused cigarette butts in any public or semi-public areas. The penalty approved on first reading was a $100 fine payable within 10 days. If a violator did not pay the fine, the punishment ramped up to a potential $500.
But when the ordinance came in front of city commissioners for a second and final vote on Feb. 17, Commissioner Richard Payne had a problem. Worried that a $100 ticket wouldn’t be worth the paper it was issued on, Payne suggested lowering the fine to $10.
“How many people that you give this citation to are going to pay $100? If it would be lower, like $10, you’re probably going to get some people to pay it,” he said.
Payne had proposed lowering the proposed $100 fine to $25 at an earlier meeting. But after thinking about it, he wanted to bring it down even further, to $10.
“Out of 10 people, you’d probably get two or three that would pay $10. But out of 10 people who get a $100 citation, you’re probably not going to get any,” Payne said. “If we had a smaller amount of money as the payment, then people would grudgingly pay it.”
City Attorney Shawn Smith said he could rewrite the ordinance and commissioners voted unanimously to postpone the second reading of the ordinance until the March 1 meeting.
But even a $10 fine might not get the respect it is due, said Commissioner Margaret Romero.
“How effectively are we going to be able to enforce it,” she asked, suggesting tongue-in-cheek that police officers have a “Square” installed on their cell phones, the small plastic square that pops onto a phone allowing the user to swipe a credit card for instant electronic payment.
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If I were a smoker who could afford to pay -what – $10-20 a carton for cigarettes. I’d be laughing now about the $10 fine! Why not just drop it on down to $1? It would have as much incentive value.
What the hell? The goal is to discourage littering, not make money from it! Stupid. What difference does it make, since no one enforces the ordinance anyway! Might as well leave it as is, though, and devote more time to issues that really matter. This one’s a goner.