Beginning December 4, both gay and straight couples can file under the guidelines. Sarasota joins other Florida cities including Gulfport, Tampa, and St. Petersburg in establish a domestic partner registry.

The registry guarantees specific rights, including Health Care Facility Visitation and Health Care Decisions, Funeral/burial Decisions, and Pre-need guardian designation, among other things spelled out by the ordinance. Under the measure, “two persons are considered to be domestic partners if: They consider themselves to be members of each other’s immediate family. They agree to be jointly responsible for each other’s welfare. Neither of them is married under the laws of the State of Florida, is a member of another domestic partnership, or civil union with anyone other than the co-applicant. They are not blood related in a way that would prevent them from being married to each other under Florida state law.

Each is at least 18 years of age and competent to contract.”

WILTON MANORS – City commissioners approved a resolution to permit local businesses use of temporary signage to attract foot traffic. Wilton Manors Community and Business Development Czar Heidi Shafran says short-term regulations call for businesses to adhere to simple requirements, with an eye to easing the restrictions on use of temporary signage, like the a-frames that dot the commercial district on Wilton Drive. Safety is one issue, particularly during the rainy season, and Shafran notes that once a Hurricane Watch is issued, all temporary signs must be removed immediately.

In the June 3, 2010, issue of Florida Agenda, Fred Reissner states that my letter criticizing the actions of Mayor Resnick and the City Commission of Wilton Manors was not factual in regard to Wilton Manors taking over Wilton Drive from the State of Florida.  Mr. Reissner needs to check his facts.

I emailed my letter to both the South Florida Gay News and the Florida Agenda on May 5th, 2010, after it was published that Mayor Resnick and the City Commission had decided to put the decision before the voters rather than address the issue themselves.

My letter criticizing the mayor and commission was published in the South Florida Gay News AFTER that decision was made and BEFORE the May 25th City Commission meeting during which it was announced that the City Commission had decided to repeal the ordinance that would put the decision about taking over Wilton Drive before the voters.  My letter was not published in the Florida Agenda until after the City Commission changed it’s mind about not letting the voters decide the issue. It seems Mr. Reissner is incorrect in believing that the Mayor and Commission acted out of some sort of benevolence for the residences, businesses and tourist to Wilton Manors by changing their minds instead of because of published criticism.

In his letter, Mr. Reissner chose to ignore the fact stated in my letter that in spite of several hit and runs on Wilton Drive, the City of Wilton Manors has not regularly placed any marked police patrol vehicle on busy weekend nights in the areas of the Drive where the hits and runs have taken place.

This lack of police presence definitely seems at odds with the Gay community as many Gay men and women pay property taxes which go to educate children in Broward County public schools where marked police patrol vehicles are regularly seen parked in the morning before school starts and in the afternoon when the schools let out, often times with police officers in uniform holding radar detection devices in their hands aimed at approaching vehicles, in order to try to prevent school children from being run over by speeding vehicles, yet this same type of police presence isn’t seen along Wilton Drive where several hit and runs have actually taken place.

I think the message that gets sent here is that the lives of tax paying Gay men and women don’t have the same value in Wilton Manors as school children do and since the fact stands that marked police vehicles are not regularly placed by orders of city officials in Wilton Manors in any of the areas where the hit and runs have taken place on Wilton Drive, I ask that Mr. Reissner not only check the facts about the Mayor and City Commission in Wilton Manors reversing their decision about the take over of Wilton Drive from the State, but also to check the facts about the lack of police presence along Wilton, along with the fact that Broward County has the highest incident per capita of hate crimes against Gays in the State of Florida.

Sincerely.

Richard Claycomb
PO Box 1676
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33302
richardkclaycomb@hotmail.com
954-773-4860

The Wilton Manors City Commission voted 4 to 1 to rescind an ordinance that would put to a public vote in November a plan for the city to obtain control of Wilton Drive from the Florida Department of Transportation. Wilton Drive is officially known as S.R. 811. The commission felt that they could not wait until November to address the problems of safety, parking and beautification.

Obtaining control of Wilton Drive is the first of several steps to decrease speed, reduce the number of lanes from two to one in each direction, increase parking and landscape the main road through the city as proposed by Wilton Manors Main Street. This will be the first major renovation to The Drive since 2000 when it was widened and the landscaped median strips were added. At that time, trees were added to the medians which were removed shortly afterwards by order of the FDOT who declared the trees a safety hazard.

WMMS’ plans call for the renovation of Wilton Drive to take place in three distinct phases, the first of which would be the restriping of the road and rearranging the parking from the current parallel to head-in configuration. Before any changes can be made, the city must have control of the road.

The city will now study the feasibility of obtaining the road from the FDOT and the costs involved including road maintenance. The state had already planned to resurface Wilton Drive in 2013.

Wilton Manors is currently operating under a $1-million budget deficit.

Instead of a public vote, a town meeting will be held on June 15 to discuss the plans with the public and get their opinions.

—BK