After violating Florida’s preemption statute, the City of Okeechobee ignored a warning from Florida Carry, Inc.
The five-member Okeechobee, Florida city council, and Police Chief Donald Hagan may each be forced to pay $5,000 personally – without using taxpayer dollars – for violating Florida’s powerful preemption statute, which only allows the state legislature to regulate firearms.
As previously reported, the city adopted an illegal ordinance shortly before Hurricane Helene made landfall, which banned the sale of guns and ammunition and prohibited firearm possession in public by anyone other than law enforcement or members of the military.
After learning of the civil rights violation, Florida Carry, Inc. sent a demand letter titled Written Notice of Preemption Violation and Offer of Settlement, to the city council and Chief Hagan, warning the recipients they have violated Florida’s preemption statute.
The letter, which was written by Florida Carry, Inc. General Counsel Eric J. Friday, spelled out that the pro-gun group has sufficient standing to bring a lawsuit if the ordinance is not repealed within 30 days, and demanded the payment of $30,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees to “resolve this matter prior to initiation of litigation.”
Okeechobee City Attorney John J. Fumero, in a response sent Wednesday, claimed that the city’s Second Amendment violation was merely an “inadvertent mistake in using an outdated emergency ordinance form that, legally and factually, did not apply to the circumstances at hand regarding Hurricane Helene.”
Besides. Fumero wrote, no one ever enforced the illegal ordinance….
“At no time did the City, or the Police Chief, contemplate, nor take any action, to prohibit, confiscate or otherwise regulate firearms or ammunition in any fashion or manner. This was never the intention of the City. This was never implemented by the City. Moreover, to ensure this never happens again, the City has developed and implemented a new emergency ordinance form and process,” the city attorney wrote.
Fumero’s boss, Okeechobee Mayor Dowling R. Watford, Jr. and police spokesman Detective Jarret Romanello, gave numerous interviews to local media claiming city officials were reviewing the entire incident to determine how the “mistake” occurred. Romanello also claimed he looked forward to “providing more answers as soon as the review is complete.”
In his response, Fumero also balked at Florida Carry’s monetary demand.
“We see no legal, factual or public policy basis for your organization demanding payment of taxpayer dollars to satisfy your assertion of ‘damages and attorneys’ fees. The City is a rural small town that fundamentally believes in gun rights and the Second Amendment. From any standpoint, for Florida Carry, Inc. to take legal action against the City, under the circumstances described herein, is patently inappropriate and unjustified,” he wrote.
In an email reply to Fumero, Friday advised the city attorney to re-read Florida statute Sec. 790.33, which does not require actual enforcement of a preemption violation since enactment itself is enough to prove liability.
“Inadvertence and ignorance of the law by government is no more of an excuse for violating civil rights than when a citizen ‘inadvertently’ violates the law and is arrested and prosecuted,” Friday wrote. “I will begin drafting my Complaint seeking relief, including personal fines against the city officials under whose jurisdiction this knowing and willful enactment occurred. You may want to inform the relevant officials that they are not allowed to use tax dollars to defend themselves from such liability, and that any fine assessed will be personally payable by them, to alleviate your concerns about tax dollars.”
Respectfully,
Your Florida Carry board of directors.
About Florida Carry, Inc.:
Florida Carry is a Florida nonprofit, non-partisan, grassroots organization founded in 2010. Florida Carry is dedicated to advancing the fundamental civil right of all Floridians to keep and bear arms for self-defense as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Florida. In 2016, Florida Carry was named the Grassroots Organization of the Year by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Florida Carry, Inc. was organized in order to coordinate activities better, effectively lobby the state legislature, and to provide a legal entity capable of filing suit to demand compliance with state and federal law. Florida Carry stands to represent our members, millions of gun owners, and the countless knife and defensive weapon carriers of Florida. We are not beholden to any national organization’s agenda that may compromise that mission. Florida Carry is the state’s largest independent Second Amendment advocacy organization.
Go Florida Carry! This is the kind of occurrence that is needed to slow down those who would infringe on our rights. I hope you get everything you are asking for!
Just imagine if ALL the gun groups had descended on this town with a massive lawsuit they all signed on to?
That would have been awesome, Nick!
I know GOA’s stretched thin with their lawsuits and get out the vote efforts. I don’t like them, but I know SAF is involved in a few big lawsuits. You’d think… I don’t know much about them, let alone their name, NAGR? Maybe I got that name wrong. Or maybe the state affiliate of the NRA(Negotiate Rights Away), would come in and join this little 2A group.
Somebody?!!!
“I don’t like them, but I know SAF is involved in a few big lawsuits.”
“A few big lawsuits?” You mean like Heller and McDonald? THE BIGGEST LAWSUITS in forever? Those lawsuits?
You apparently don’t know squat, boy!
There’s a “South Park” episode with your name on it,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc39s7_Iwo8
Go pull some teeth or something Bruce.
Notice how DDS always calls me “boy” now? He’s a angry angry man… LOL.
When I said involved, I meant, currently, you know, like 2024…
Heller was, 2008. And McDonald was 2010.
And yes, I do know how to squat, I squat very well, and I even know how to wipe and flush, thank you.
I used to be a big fan of NFA Freedom Alliance; but they went silent seversl years ago.
I think they ran out of funding.
The founder was a long time board member of the NRA… Crooks run the NRA so… Maybe he took all the money? Just a thought.
I’d never heard of them. I did find this, apparently this guy started the group.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_J._Rathner
Your odd interest in firearms is difficult to explain badge-kisser. After all, the pigs provide your firepower! Isn’t that right badge-kisser? Yeah, just call up old Johnny Traffic-Ticket and boom here he comes huh. Now isn’t that right again badge-licker???
Take a long walk on a short pier.
Ok, let’s take this point by point. 1.Odd interest in firearms? You mean my being curious about what type of finish(blued, or parkerized) your Remington pump shot gun(I assume you mean 870) had on it in Vietnam, and how well it held up to rust, is, somehow odd? I have an interest in mid twentieth century Remington firearms. I’m sure many here have particular areas of interest in firearms, since this is… A GUN website… Geewhiz. But your refusal to answer just proves you were never a soldier, never in Vietnam or now your latest claim Panama. And never can… Read more »
Yup… I just find it amusing to make him squirm.
By the way, GETOUT is on a tear… He’s telling me he was a MARINE!!! Hahaha!
Imagine if all the real gun groups descended on Florida Carry and demanded they tell the truth instead of the lies that they have been using AmmoLand to spew. Okeechobee did not ban any guns — the state of Florida did. Okeechobee did not violate the state preemption law because it was the state that banned guns in Okeechobee, not the city PD or city council. The Florida state law that banned all gun and ammo sales and public carry of firearms in Okeechobee and several other places in Florida was Florida Statute 870.044 — that law has been on… Read more »
He signed it. Then unsigned it.
Thank you Florida Carry.
How about increasing the THUMBS UP by one more after I clicked it! It should be 13 now.
Oh, so they might have to pay a 5,000 dollar fine out of their own pocket. Whoopty doo. How about adding, and lose their job and pension. That would be a real penalty. 5,000 isn’t squat to someone making over 100,000 a year and if it is, they should control their funds better and not live to the edge of their means. Taking away pensions and jobs would send the right message to the leftists. Play with the bull (We the People) and get the horns.
That’s in there too.
790.33 (3) (e)
“(e) A knowing and willful violation of any provision of this section by a person acting in an official capacity for any entity enacting or causing to be enforced a local ordinance or administrative rule or regulation prohibited under paragraph (a) or otherwise under color of law shall be cause for termination of employment or contract or removal from office by the Governor.”
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0790/Sections/0790.33.html
I like. We need to assure that starts happening.
I’ll start.
You’re all fired and you don’t qualify for Unemployment.
Your pension is divided up and sent to “We the People of that town…
If you vote blue you get nothing.
Now find someone with at least a 6th grade education who can teach Florida Carry’s so-called Board of Directors how to read. Or just read the law to them. Not F.S. 790.33 — instead someone needs to read F.S. 870.044 Read it to Florida Carry Board of Directors. Read it slowly so they can follow along. Then explain it to them in small words. Guess what? Okeechobee didn’t ban anything, and they did not violate 790.33(3)(e) because they did not enact or enforce any local ordinance or administrative rule or regulation… All they did was quote Florida statute 870.044 That’s… Read more »
Since you apparently know how to read Florida statutes (which obviously Florida Carry doesn’t) how about reading 870.044
Then you can come back to admit Okeechobee didn’t violate 790.33
The campaigns of these bureaucrats may be funded by Soros’ groups.
These “mistakes” may be recon probes to test reactions, and to qualify
for bonus funding.
I prefer the FINES and JAIL time the ATF BUREAUCRACY FORCES UPON Americans when, according to the atf, they break one of the atf’s ILLEGAL AND PHONEY RULES, REGULATIONS OR DIRECTIVES which are dreamed up out of thin air.
I.E. :
Fines = $250,000.00 FOR EACH INFRACTION,
Jail time = 10 years for EACH INFRACTION.
That works. I think they would become unemployed when they go to jail and lose their pension so your idea would be a bonus.
“The City is a rural small town that fundamentally believes in gun rights “
Those two words spell it out… (in otherwords, “we don’t, but would rather call it a privilege”
“… but somehow managed to step on our private parts in public anyway.” This is exactly the kind of situation that Florida’s preemption act 790.33 was written and enacted to address. It brings to mind a line from Capt. Rhett Butler in “Gone With The Wind.” “You should be spanked, often, and by someone who knows how.” I know that tar and feathers have gone out of style, but if more of “our leaders” were properly punished for stepping out of bounds, they’d be more circumspect about who they really report to and where their limited powers actually come from.… Read more »
accurate response.
If even ONE local citizen had read about that illegal ban, gone out about his business, unarmed per this false edict, and gotten in a situation where he was needing defense and did not have it because of this lawbreaking edict, his harm would greatly exceed the Five Large each of the culprits are being fined. THEY broke the law, THEY need to pay… their own sweat and blood, not that of the ones they already have harmed.
Sorry DDS and Tionico, but actually you both missed the real problem.
Okeechobee didn’t ban anything, and didn’t violate the state preemption statute. The ban in Okeechobee was not local, it was STATE LAW.
Florida state law (statute 870.044) that bans sale or firearms and ammunition and both open and concealed carry, automatically whenever an emergency is declared.
Then what piece of paper did the police chief sign?
He signed a notice telling people that an emergency had been declared for the hurricane. That notice quoted the state law which automatically banned sale of guns and ammunition as well as banning public carry of firearms. The city didn’t ban them and the city could not un-ban them because the ban is automatic whenever an emergency is declared.
Bottom line: Florida Carry is lying to you.
He signed the notice.
Mayor Ray Nagan and the New Orleans Police Department did the same thing down here after Hurricane Katrina. As I recall they were forced to rescind the edict several weeks later. But who knows what misery it might have caused by limiting only the citizens and NOT the criminals and looters.
Not to forget mass amounts of lawfully owned firearms were consfiscated, stored improperly and many not returned to the rightful owners..
“TRUE DAT” as they like to say done here in NOLA.
The 5K fine out of their personal pocket is exactly what is needed. Lose job, second offence and lose pension third offence. Way to go Florida Carry!
Too lenient.
I agree.
They should pay $5000 PER PERSON VIOLATED, which should be in the tens of thousands of people. So that’s about $100 million they each should be fined. Traitorous tyrants need to feel very real pain.
Clearly the town government is a bunch of wannabee tyrants that need to be kicked out and if I had my way locked up.
I’d sure like to see this lawsuit go through and they each have write a PERSONAL check.
Never trust the government.
Awesome! It’s past damned time we starting taking our ounce of flesh from tyrannical bureaucrats
Take 2 oz. For knows they’ve earned it.
These ‘officials’ who have sought to deny US citizens their rights and privileges as defined in the US Constitution and its Bill of Rights should be fined much more heavily and banned from ever holding a public office again. What ever happened too THEIR DUTY to defend and uphold the Constitution? That’s also the problem with the current crop of DC officials.
Having to pay $5k for constitutional violations in leu of the normal penalty for treason and tyranny is not the deterrent it should be. It is my personal belief that only when the righteous, legal and well deserved penalty for capitol crimes such as treason and tyranny is strictly enforced will there be a return of our rights and freedoms that are guaranteed under the constitution. Hopefully this is done through the courts which are already so corrupt that the chances of this are almost nil, otherwise we are likely to revisit and replay the revolutionary war and for the… Read more »
We are taxed far more extensively than our colonists were.
Excellent response.
I hope they are forced to pay.
Next time they should pay 10x that amount personally and spend 1 year in jail.
Don’t get too excited, we don’t KNOW the miscreants here (the city council and police chief) actually WILL be personally fined $5000 each. But the fact that they MAY have to – as individuals – come up with the cash is gratifying. One of my pet peeves is that though there are many laws that “require” government to do something, it’s rare that anyone in government is held personally responsible when it doesn’t happen. (Or when they blatantly overstep the law – and not just when it comes to firearms.) This law is a step – admittedly, a tiny baby… Read more »
Isn’t it the city attorney’s job to stay abreast of changes to Florida laws? This was not a “mistake” the city council and mayor had to vote to pass this in order to have sent it to the Chief for his signature, which also means that this proposed action should have been read aloud during the open to the public city meeting. Why is the Chief just rubber stamping anything that’s laid upon his desk without reading it? Laughable, the city attorneys excuse of pleading “ignorance of the law” he apparently wasn’t so ignorant of the law that he advised… Read more »
>”…to take legal action…under the circumstances described herein, is patently inappropriate and unjustified…”<
I was thinking the same thing the last time G-Men surrounded me and took action by taking my guns under the color of law. It seemed inappropriate at the time.
HLB
If this reply gets any attention I’ll be surprised! First, Radio Research Group-Vietnam background. Carried M-79, M16A1, 1911A1, defended myself as needed with all possible manner including MaDuece, 81mm & 4.2″ while receiving 122mm rocket fire constantly in MR 1. No bullshit so moving on. Second, at least the discussions here are enigmatic at times with name calling etc. which is not needed. Third, at least by reading all the articles posted has given me hope that people still care about firearms, laws, details, and enjoy their firearms. Sometimes with hassle, sometimes not. Growing up with firearm in my hands… Read more »
Apparently Florida Carry, Inc. General Counsel Eric J. Friday has never read Florida Statute 870.044
Or is he just totally incompetent?
Instead of placating this clown, the Okeechobee PD should just file a complaint against him with the Florida bar.
This PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY MUST BE BROUGHT INTO CONGRESS IN ORDER TO STOP THE INFRINGING “BILLS – NEW LAWS” THAT GO AGAINST LEGAL LAW ABIDING AMERICAN CITIZEN’S RIGHTS to OWN, CARRY OR DEFEND THEMSELVES WHEN THE NEED ARISES WITHOUT FACING CIVIL LAWSUITS (QUALIFIED IMMUNITY)!!!
Whoever wrote this nonsense needs to wake up and actually read both the Florida statute and the notice put out by the Okeechobee PD before spewing more gross stupidity. Guess what? Neither Okeechobee PD nor Okeechobee city government banned anything! That’s right. And, no they did not violate the state’s worthless preemption statute! How could they not violate the preemption statute? Because (as I already mentioned) THEY didn’t ban anything! It was the state of Florida that banned public carry of firearms in Okeechobee. The only thing that the local Police Department did was put out a notice quoting the… Read more »