PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 08/11/09
Twenty unlicensed, untaxed and unregulated vendors on the Plaza de la Constitution are selling the same product as she is, Carrie White of Carrie's Beads, 162 St. George St., said Monday night.
White told St. Augustine City Commission that her business is 15 percent of what it was before the city allowed the Plaza to become an open-air flea market.
"One day there were five vendors. The next day there were 20," she said. "We pay high rent, insurance, taxes and have non-compete clauses. They don't. It's putting us out of business."
Several other merchants echoed her problem.
Kimmarie Bouza, also a merchant, said she saw vendors selling marijuana pipes called bongs, food and drinks ,and posting handwritten signs.
"Business owners can't even put (little signs) in front of their shops," Bouza said.
The commission voted 5-0 to pass on first reading an ordinance rescinding City Code 22-6, which regulates vending on the Plaza.
City Attorney Ron Brown said 22-6 is unenforceable because of "a federal injunction that it's unconstitutional as applied. (However) the effect on business is a criteria that the federal courts look at. We're going to eliminate this ordinance and get another one ready to go."
This one will be more focused and not allow specific products, such as jewelry, sunglasses, food, beverages, housewares, appliances, clothing, oils and incense, perfumes, stuffed animals and toys, with more items possibly included.
Mayor Joe Boles said the commission regretted the situation as much as the merchants.
"We've had our hands tied," he said. "We can't enforce it and the county court is not going to enforce it either."
Brown said his office will write a new ordinance ready so by the time of the second reading of the ordinance deleting 22-6, a new ordinance controlling sales on the Plaza will be read on second reading at the same time and go into effect immediately.
Gina Kabamba, whose parents have an African art shop on St. George Street, said cheap knockoffs of African masks and drums are being sold on the Plaza and her family's shop had no sales at all.
"That's not fair to my parents," she said. "People don't know the difference."
Lorraine Bender of Sanford Street said she counted 35 tables in the Plaza on Saturday.
"I called the state Department of Revenue (which collects sales tax) and I'm going to have these people checked," she said. "This shows disrespect for us as merchants. A friend on St. George Street sells silver jewelry but sold nothing in the last month because there are three tables of silver jewelry set up in the Plaza.
Mitchell Levy, a new businessman on King Street, said the vendors block sidewalks in the Plaza, don't pay taxes or obey city regulations.
"It's gotten out of hand," Levy said. "This (delay in regulation) is making things worse. I don't feel like the city is backing us."
White said that now is the merchants' busy season.
"It drops off in September and that lasts until March," she said. "We're being strangled."
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