Florida knows best? In 2024, the legislature overruled a host of local laws

Amid a battle with Orlando’s code enforcement office over an electric fence it installed at an auto repair shop lot in Parramore, a national company turned to Florida lawmakers for help.

Seven months after a trial court backed the city’s removal order, legislators this month signed off on a bill that essentially prevents local governments from regulating such fences altogether.

The increasingly common tactic flummoxes local officials, who bristle at what is known as “preemption,” an approach in which the state blocks cities and counties from regulating various matters. Over time it’s touched on everything from firearms to medical marijuana dispensaries to the placement of 5G cell towers.

This year preemption was used on a host of issues, including preventing bans of gas-powered leaf blowers, blocking local rules for electric vehicle chargers, banning citizen boards from probing police misconduct and rolling back city rules requiring contractors to pay above the minimum wage.

Most of these preemption bills haven't been signed into law yet, and local leaders hold out hope for a reprieve from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ veto pen.

“These preemptions continue to proliferate. And the problem is that you have legislators who don’t have as much experience and they don’t seem to understand or appreciate local home rule, which is in the state Constitution,” Seminole County Commissioner Lee Constantine said. “Miami is not Gadsden (County) and Dixie County is not Orange County.

“At some point legislators need to understand that they can’t govern the other 467 cities and counties and local governments around the state in 60 days,” he said, referring to the length of Florida’s annual lawmaking session.

In favoring across-the-board rules, lawmakers – and some big-business groups – often argue there’d otherwise be “a patchwork of regulations” that make it difficult to operate in communities around Florida.

In applauding one such preemption — blocking local rules that could require employers to provide shade and water to people who work outdoors and that require contractors to pay higher than the minimum wage (HB 433) — the Florida Chamber of Commerce made the case.

“One of the Florida Chamber’s top priorities this legislative session was to provide regulatory certainty and consistency for local businesses by addressing local policies that have a detrimental impact on local businesses and their employees,” it said in a news release. “The Florida Chamber . . . does not believe a patchwork of regulations around the state leads to our end goal – being the safest state in the country.”

If signed by the governor, the wage bill would throw out Orlando’s “Responsible Contractor Policy,” which requires vendors with city contracts worth at least $100,000 to pay workers at least $15 per hour. The city objects to the move.

“We believe that contractor policies such as ours are best made at the local level where locally elected officials can take into account the unique circumstances of our regional economy and the needs of community,” said Ashley Papagni, a city spokeswoman.

The under-the-radar fence dispute is another example of how it works.

In 2017, following a change in state law – thought to preempt rules on the electric fence industry to the state – the company Amarok applied for a permit for the fence through the city of Orlando as the new law required, according to court records.

But in 2021 and 2022, the property at West Church Street and South Westmoreland Drive was slapped with a code enforcement violation, with the fence being deemed illegal because city rules banned electric fences from the Parramore neighborhood, the court records show.

Amarok, contending local rules were blocked by the state, went to court. Ultimately, a judge sided with the city, saying that because of the way the legislation was written, Orlando’s rules for Parramore were OK.

Then lawmakers in both chambers – lobbied by Amarok – voted definitively to block all local governments from regulating the industry. Policy analysts cited court cases in Orlando and Hillsborough prior to the legislature’s unanimous votes.

“The demand to remove this existing electric security fence more than a decade following its installation was not consistent with prior interpretations of the law nor the intent,” said Kerry Gibson, Amarok vice president of marketing. “AMAROK supports this legislation because we believe that businesses should be allowed to protect their employees, customers, and property with a safe, effective security solution.”

The city declined to comment on the bill, citing the litigation, which Amarok appealed.

Other city laws also faced preemption during this year’s session.

In 2021, Orlando officials ushered in requirements for new construction: electric vehicle charging stations needed to be offered at 2% of all parking spaces, with between 10% and 20% of spaces including infrastructure for more charging stations. The move was cheered by clean-energy advocates who want the state to transition to all electric transportation.

But tucked in a package for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (SB 1084) was a preemption of all local rules relating to charging stations, said Kyle Shephard, Orlando’s director of intergovernmental relations.

“Sadly it appears … it will preempt our ordinance,” he said.

In Winter Park, city commissioners, who approved a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers that was set to take effect this year, found themselves at odds with Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Lake Mary. Brodeur blasted the city for pursuing the ban, and moved to block it and others in cities including Miami-Beach and South Miami.

An eventual deal with Winter Park led commissioners to consider putting a repeal of the ban on the ballot next year. But the commission delayed a second vote on the measure this week to see if DeSantis would veto language added to the budget by Brodeur to block new bans for the next year, according to the Winter Park Voice.

Among Orange County’s top legislative priorities this year was opposing all preemption – though it still found itself in the crosshairs of several pieces of legislation.

The Legislature passed HB 1451, which forbids local governments from accepting so-called “community IDs” issued to undocumented immigrants, a program proposed to Orange County last year by the Hope CommUnity Center in Apopka.

On its website, the center, whose mission includes helping immigrants, said it wanted to provide a card to help individuals prove they live here and “enable them to access county facilities and services such as getting a library card … ” The cards would not allow people to vote, drive or travel in and out of the U.S.

But Republican lawmakers pushed for preemption, saying the IDs would encourage illegal immigration. DeSantis signed that bill on Friday.

Lawmakers also passed SB 1420 to invalidate a possible charter amendment in Orange County Charter Review Committee aimed at protecting rural lands from development.

The bill targeted a citizen panel’s unfinished work that proposed new rural boundaries and made it more difficult to win approval for development inside those areas.

“Restricting a citizen-initiated process that is currently authorized is a preemption,” Kelley Teague, Orange County’s director of legislative affairs, said through email. “The county opposes all preemption.”

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(Martin Comas and Steven Hudak of the Sentinel staff contributed.)

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