Title: Local Administrative Action to Abate Public Nuisances and Criminal Gang Activity

Summary: Authorizes local administrative board to declare place to be public nuisance if used on more than two occasions within 6-month period as site of storage of controlled substance with specified intent; authorizes administrative board to hear complaints regarding pain-management clinic declared public nuisance; prohibits county or municipality from declaring place or premises public nuisance unless county or municipality gives notice to owner of place or premises of intent to declare place or premises public nuisance & affords owner opportunity to abate nuisance; provides that order entered against person for public nuisance expires after 1 year or earlier if so stated unless order violated; requires that board conduct hearing to determine whether person violated administrative order; authorizes administrative board to seek injunctive relief against pain-management clinic declared public nuisance; authorizes board to extend term of order by up to 1 additional year & to impose penalty if board finds order violated; authorizes county or municipal ordinance to include fines for public nuisance activities outside specified period; authorizes local ordinance to provide for continuing jurisdiction over place or premises that are subject to extension of administrative order.

Full Text:
An act relating to local administrative action to abate public nuisances and criminal gang activity; amending s. 893.138, F.S.; authorizing a local administrative board to declare a place to be a public nuisance if the place is used on more than two occasions within a-month period as the site of the storage of a controlled substance with intent to unlawfully sell or deliver the controlled su bstance off the premises; authorizing an administrative board to hear complaints regarding any pain-management clinic declared to be a public nuisance; prohibiting a county or municipality from declaring a place or premises a public nuisance unle ss the county or municipality gives notice to the owner of the place or premises of its intent to declare the place or premises a public nuisance and affords the owner an opportunity to abate the nuisance; providing that an order entered against a person for a public nuisance expires after year or at an earlier time if so stated in the order unless the person has violated the order during the term of the order; requiring that the board conduct a hearing to determine whether the person violated the administrative order; authorizing an administrative board to seek temporary and permanent injunctive relief against any pain management clinic declared to be a public nuisance; authorizing the board to extend the term of the order CS/CS/HB 1443,Engrossed 2012 by up to additional year and to impose a penalty if the board finds that the person violated the order; authorizing a county or municipal ordinance to include fines for days of public nuisance activities outside the 6-month period in which the mi nimum number of activities are shown to have occurred; authorizing a local ordinance to provide for continuing jurisdiction over a place or premises that are subject to an extension of the administrative order; providing an effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1. Section 893.138, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 893.138 Local administrative action to abate drug-related, prostitution-related, or stolen-property-related public nuisances and criminal gang activity.-(1) It is the intent of this section to promote, protect, and improve the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of the counties and municipalities of this state by authorizing the creation of administ rative boards with authority to impose administrative fines and other noncriminal penalties in order to provide an equitable, expeditious, effective, and inexpensive method of enforcing ordinances in counties and municipalities under circumstances when a pending or repeated violation continues to exist. (2) Any place or premises that has been used: CS/CS/HB 1443,Engrossed 2012 (a) On more than two occasions within a-month period, as the site of a violation of s. 796.07; (b) On more than two occasions within a-month period, as the site of the unlawful sale, delivery, manufacture, or cultivation of a any controlled substance,or as the site of the storage of a controlled substance with intent to unlawfully sell or deliver the control led substance off the premises;(c) On one occasion as the site of the unlawful possession of a controlled substance, where such possession constitutes a felony and that has been previously used on more than one occasion as the site of the unlawf ul sale, delivery, manufacture, or cultivation of a any controlled substance; (d) By a criminal gang for the purpose of conducting criminal gang-related gang activity as defined in by s. 874.03; or (e) On more than two occasions within a-month period, as the site of a violation of s. 812.019 relating to dealing in stolen property,may be declared to be a public nuisance, and such nuisance may be abated pursuant to the procedures provided in this section. (3) Any pain-management clinic, as described in s. 458.3265 or s. 459.0137, which has been used on more than two occasions within a-month period as the site of a violation of: (a) Section 784.011, s. 784.021, s. 784.03, or s. 784.045, relating to assault and battery; (b) Section 810.02, relating to burglary; (c) Section 812.014, relating to dealing in theft; CS/CS/HB 1443,Engrossed 2012 (d) Section 812.131, relating to robbery by sudden snatching; or (e) Section 893.13,relating to the unlawful distribution of controlled substances, may be declared to be a public nuisance, and such nuisance may be abated pursuant to the procedures provided in this section. (4) Any county or municipality may, by ordinance, create an administrative board to hear complaints regarding the nuisances described in subsections subsection (2) and (3). Any employee, officer, or resident of the county or municipality may bring a complaint before the board.Upon receiving a complaint, the county or municipality must give written notice to the owner of the place or premises at his or her last known address of the complaint and afford the owner an opportunity to abate the nuisance before taking any of ficial action against the place or premises pursuant to this section. If the nuisance is not abated in the specified time period, the board may conduct after giving not less than days' written notice of such complaint to the owner of the place or premises at his or her last known address. After a hearing at in which the board may consider any evidence, including evidence of the general reputation of the place or premises, and at which the owner of the premises shall have an opportunity to present evidence in his or her defense., After the hearing, the board may declare the place or premises to be a public nuisance as described in subsection (2) or subsection (3). (5) If the board declares a place or premises to be a CS/CS/HB 1443,Engrossed 2012 public nuisance, it may enter an order requiring the owner of such place or premises to adopt such procedure as may be appropriate under the circumstances to abate any such nuisance or it may enter an order immediately prohibiting: (a) The mainta ining of the nuisance; (b) The operating or maintaining of the place or premises, including the closure of the place or premises or any part thereof; or (c) The conduct, operation, or maintenance of any business or activity on the premises wh ich is conducive to such nuisance. (6) An order entered under subsection (5) expires (4) shall expire after year or at such earlier time as is stated in the order unless the owner of a place or premises that has been declared to be a public nui sance has violated the order during the term of the order.Upon receiving a complaint of recurring public nuisance activity or noncompliance and after providing at least days' written notice to the owner of such place or premises, the board shall conduct a hearing to determine whether the owner violated the administrative order entered under subsection (5). If the board finds that the owner of such place or premises violated the order, the board may extend the term of the order by up to additional year and may impose an additional penalty to the extent authorized by this section and by a supplemental county or municipal ordinance. (7) An order entered under subsection (5) (4) may be enforced pursuant to the procedures contained in s. 120.69. This subsection does not subject a municipality that creates a board under this section, or the board so created, to any other CS/CS/HB 1443,Engrossed 2012 provision of chapter 120. (8) The board may bring a complai nt under s. 60.05 seeking temporary and permanent injunctive relief against any nuisance described in subsection (2) or subsection (3).(9) This section does not restrict the right of any person to proceed under s. 60.05 against any public nuisan ce. (10) As used in this section, the term "controlled substance" includes any substance sold in lieu of a controlled substance in violation of s. 817.563 or any imitation controlled substance defined in s. 817.564. (11) The provisions of This section may be supplemented by a county or municipal ordinance. The ordinance may include, but need is not be limited to, provisions that establish additional penalties for public nuisances, including fines not to exceed $250 per day for each day that the public nuisance activities described in subsections (2) and (3) have occurred, including days outside the-month period in which the minimum number of public nuisance activities are shown to have occurred. The ordinance may also;provide for the payment of reasonable costs, including reasonable attorney fees associated with investigations of and hearings on public nuisances; provide for continuing jurisdiction for a period of year over any place or premises that have has been or are is declared to be a public nuisance,subject to an extension for up to additional year as provided in subsection (6);establish penalties, including fines not to exceed $500 per day for recurring public nuisances; provide for the rec ording of orders on public nuisances so that notice must be given to subsequent purchasers, successors in CS/CS/HB 1443,Engrossed 2012 interest, or assigns of the real property that is the subject of the order; provide that recorded orders on public nuisances may become liens against the real property that is the subject of the order; and provide for the foreclosure of the property that is subject to a lien and the recovery of all costs, including reasonable attorney fees, associated with the recording of orders and for eclosure. A No lien created pursuant to the provisions of this section may not be foreclosed on real property that which is a homestead under s. 4, Art. Xof the State Constitution. When Where a local government seeks to bring an administrative action, based on a stolen property nuisance, against a property owner operating an establishment where multiple tenants, on one site, conduct their own retail business, the property owner is shall not be subject to a lien against his or her property or the prohibition of operation provision if the property owner evicts the business declared to be a nuisance within days after notification by registered mail to the property owner of a second stolen property conviction of the tenant. The total fines imposed pursuant to the authority of this section may shall not exceed $15,000. Nothing contained within This section does not prohibit prohibits a county or municipality from proceeding against a public nuisance by any other means. Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2012.