Districts tighten grip on speed

EAST COUNTY — Speeders beware: Communities in East County are watching you.

But what they’re going to do to catch you remains under discussion.

Communities in the area address speeding in a variety of ways. Some use speed bumps to try to deter speedsters. Others have gone as far as hiring off-duty deputies from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office to pull over drivers and issue citations.

The Heritage Harbour Community Development District is the most recent group to consider the latter. Because the real problem, according to Heritage Harbour CDD Supervisor Rick Lane, is a lack of enforcement.

“I’m not sure what enforcement should look like, but we need a way to stop speeding,” Lane said.

Off-duty deputies are officials who are on the CDD’s clock rather than the Sheriff’s Office’s payroll.

Heritage Harbour CDD elected for Lane to discuss a potential contract with the Sheriff’s Office.

The CDD has dollars allotted in its 2014-15 fiscal budget to pay for such enforcement, should the board decide to move forward with an agreement. But, because of costs associated with police enforcement, the CDD has delayed a decision on the issue for the last year.

Hiring an officer could cost the CDD more than $30,000 a year, according to Heritage Harbour and Greyhawk Landing District Manager Greg Cox. Off-duty patrol services cost approximately $30 per hour.
Supervisors hoped to pay a maximum of $10,000.

The number of days and hours per day an officer is in the community will determine how close the CDD can stay to its figure.

Contracting with law enforcement to monitor speeding is a common practice in East County, including in Lakewood Ranch Community Development Districts 2, 5 and 6.

Other area CDDs, such as GreyHawk Landing and Waterlefe Golf & River Club, also have off-duty deputies on site each week to monitor speeding and provide residents with an extra level of security.
Whether deputies patrolling the East County communities can issue tickets, though, is decided by each CDD.

Deputies in Lakewood Ranch CDDs issue fines and potentially apprehend individuals for certain violations. The Ranch CDDs have partnered with the Sheriff’s Office since 2011, and receive law enforcement presence for nine hours per week at a rate of $30 per hour. Drivers can receive tickets for speeding, not stopping at stop signs, not having a valid driver’s license or proof of insurance, among other violations.

In September, the off-duty deputies in CDDs 2 and 6 issued mostly warnings for drivers who exceeded the speed limit or didn’t come to a complete stop at stop signs. Officers in CDD 6 issued 13 warnings and one citation, while officials in CDD 2 wrote five citations and issued 19 warnings.

To Heritage Harbour CDD supervisor Lee Bettes, though, services provided by the Sheriff’s Office don’t necessarily have to come with a binding contract and fees. He believes tax dollars should pay for at least once-a-week speed monitoring during peak speeding times reflected in reports.

“The sheriff’s office wants specifics, and we can hire an off-duty deputy to patrol for $30 an hour or so,” Bettes said. “If I’m Greg Cox, it’s easier to just hire the off-duty officer. But, we’re paying taxes, we should reach out to the deputy to see if someone can cover those hot-spot times.”

Dave Bristow, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said the Sherrif’s Office welcomes a partnership with CDDs to deter speeding, but by hire. The Sheriff’s Office doesn’t have the resources to send deputies to all CDDs that have speeding problems during regular shifts, he said.

If Heritage Harbour didn’t have gates, the Sheriff’s Office would routinely patrol the community, as it does in Tara Preserve, Schappacher said.

To Cox, off-duty deputies are a proven method, but still have drawbacks.

“Off-duty deputies work, but you can’t have them everywhere all the time,” Cox said.

Deputy discussion
Heritage Harbour South CDD supervisors will further discuss deputy enforcement at their next meeting at 4 p.m. Nov. 12.

Contact Amanda Sebastiano at [email protected].