No April Fools joke
Sometimes reality is funnier than fiction, so for this year's April Fools joke, we have dispensed with putting up some bogus story and instead have decided to dish out a dose of hilarious reality.

The below emails are REAL. This is not an April Fools joke.

After recent reports that Mayor Fred Hammett was unhappy with the Fish and Wildlife Commission patrolling the waters around Venice (and news reports that the mayor would counsel the officer to correct the officer's errant behavior), news stories surfaced that the officer was, in fact, enforcing boating laws correctly by informing boaters that they needed to get their boats legally registered. Note that in the linked-to story, very few boaters ever received any actual citations. The vast majority of boaters simply received warnings and information on how to stay legal in Florida waters.

Meanwhile, the city was taking notice that boaters in national forums were loudly complaining that they didn't feel the laws should be enforced in Venice. Some wrote that if the laws are continued to be enforced, they would take their unregistered boats elsewhere, presumably to where laws are enforced more casually.

Just why so many owners of unregistered boats find Venice so attractive remains a mystery. Why would anyone want to own an unregistered boat? Why would anyone want to use it to go in and out of Venice frequently? These questions are apparently never asked by anyone involved.

So last month, the mayor and Fish and Wildlife bigwigs had a powwow and aired their differences, which basically meant that Fish and Wildlife was going to continue to enforce the registration laws properly as they had been doing all along. The mayor allegedly began to correctly understand the state's boating registration laws during the meeting. Allegedly.

Publicly, the mayor acceded to FWC enforcement practices, but behind-the-scenes emails indicate that he is still trying to get the Commission to not enforce the laws in and around Venice.

This set up the email discussion reprinted below between the mayor and higher-ups in the commission in which our Mayor so exasperated the commission that an attorney for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission was finally forced to step in and issue an official opinion that Canada is not a state.

From: Fred Hammett [mailto:fhammet@ci.venice.fl.us]
Sent: Fri 3/9/2007 8:26 AM
To: Lieutenant Rob Gerkin, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission
Subject: Fwd: IN JUST A FEW HOURS ON ONE FORUM, THESE COMMENTS

There seems to be some conflict. You told me that all states require registration, this owner says that North Carolina does not. You had me convinced otherwise. What is that real fact?

I have been trying to defend the actions based on our meeting and now I am unsure. I had started to write the email that I promised to send, but have stopped it with this new information.

Fred Hammett

 

North Carolina may not actually be a part of Florida
On March 19, Gerkin replied:

Mayor
I'm sorry if there is some confusion.  You are right North Carolina does not require boats to be registered if they are federally documented.  The problem comes when they leave the state of North Carolina.

According to Florida State Statute below; the vessel would be illegal in Florida because it does not have a valid registration in full force and effect from another state. In these cases Officer Erickson only issues warnings.

If you have anymore questions please don't hesitate to call.

The 2006 Florida Statutes:

Title XXIV
VESSELS
Chapter 328
VESSELS: TITLE CERTIFICATES; LIENS; REGISTRATION
View Entire Chapter
328.58  Reciprocity of nonresident or alien vessels.--The owner of any vessel already covered by a registration number in full force and effect which has been awarded:

(1)  By another state pursuant to a federally approved numbering system of another state;

(2)  By the United States Coast Guard in a state without a federally approved numbering system; or

(3)  By the United States Coast Guard for a federally documented vessel with a valid registration in full force and effect from another state shall record the number with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles prior to operating the vessel on the waters of this state in excess of the 90-day reciprocity period provided for in this chapter. Such recordation shall be pursuant to the procedure required for the award of an original registration number, except that no additional or substitute registration number shall be issued if the vessel owner maintains the previously awarded registration number in full force and effect.

Lt. Rob Gerkin
Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
Tampa Field Office
813-272-2516  ext115

Please stop enforcing the laws in Venice
Which you would think would be simple enough.

Apparently, it isn't, as Hammett responds back to Gerkin on March 26 and urges Gerkin to back off from enforcing the law:

The confusion continues. By the regulation you sent, one has 90 days to "register". Transient boats, by definition, would be less than 90 days and would not have to register in Florida. There were several letters to the editor in Sunday's Gondolier on this ongoing subject, with some legitimate questions on the focus of FWC. Safety and safe operation should be of more importance than whether a transient boat is registered. I, further, think that execution of the inspections could be better handled. 

 I had a conversation with one of the sales reps and the General Manager of the local Marine Max on the taxing and registering subject and they indicated that they always register, collect taxes, including trailers on everything that they sell to Florida residents. Out of state residents are advised to follow their home state rules when they return home. Which brings it back to our visitors.

For us to look for "scofflaws" in our transient boaters might just be the wrong use of our time, especially at the expense of safety. Overzealous still seems to rise to the top. Obfuscation seems to have been used on me as well. It is gettng more and more difficult to reconcile the complaints to the benefits enough to support FWC position to the public.

Fred Hammett

Cc: Richard, Alan; Davis, Calvin; John Ryan

 

Dear Mayor: Canada is not another state
Gerkin apparently throws up his arms in despair at this point. Alan Richard, an attorney with the FWC, responds on March 26 by patiently explaining to the mayor, among other things, that Canada is, in fact, not a state:

Dear Mayor Hammett:

Perhaps I can clarify this matter. All vessels being used in Florida are subject to a license tax for their operation within this state. Art. VII, 1(b), Fla. Const. We call this license tax (or operating license on a vessel) the vessels registration.  327.02(35), Fla. Stat. The certificate of registration is a sea-going tax receipt.  This tax on operation applies across the board to all vessels, with four minor exceptions that do not apply to this matter. All other vessels, regardless of where they are home-ported, must pay this tax.

If there is any confusion, it is because Florida tries to accommodate people who have already paid this tax to another state. If a transient vessel has paid this tax in another state (any other state, even if that is not the vessels home state), Florida will not assess this tax until that vessel has been in this state for 90 days.  This, however, does not apply to vessels for which no annual license tax has been paid to any state. To qualify for this 90-day exemption, the vessel must already be covered by a registration number in full force and effect which has been awarded . . . by another state.  328.58(1), Fla. Stat.  The law is very specific concerning federally documented vessels to qualify for the exemption, even a federally documented vessel must have a valid registration in full force and effect from another state.  328.58(3), Fla. Stat.

Even if the home port state does not require documented vessels to register, the exception does not apply unless the vessel has voluntarily paid an annual registration fee (license tax) to the home state or to some other state. Even states that do not require documented vessels to pay a registration fee will usually allow them to do so voluntarily. If a person has already paid this annual registration fee to any other state, he or she need not pay it again in Florida until the vessel has been in this state for more than 90 days.

There is no 90-day period for vessels that have not paid this annual tax to some other state.  In fact, there is no grace period at all.  If the vessel is not currently registered in some state, once it is established that the vessel was using the waters of this state, the finder of fact will need to determine whether [30] days had passed between the purchase of the vessel and the issuance of the citation for failure to register the vessel.  State v. Efthimiadis, 690 So. 2d 1320, 1323 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997). Those are the only elements of this offense.  Without having paid elsewhere, the vessel becomes subject to Floridas tax the moment it crosses the state line.  This is why we enforce this requirement primarily through education and warnings, saving citations for the last resort to use only when education and warnings fail to work.

One last bit of confusion occasionally arises. Canada is not another state. It is a foreign country. Vessels with Canadian registration do not qualify for this exemption unless they are also registered in one of the other U.S. states.  Although the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the various U.S. territories and possessions are considered states, foreign countries such as Canada are not.

If you have any questions or if there is anything else that I can clarify, please do not hesitate to call me. My contact information is below.

Sincerely,
Captain Alan S. Richard
Assistant General Counsel
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
620 S. Meridian Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1600
Voice  850-487-1764
FAX    850-487-1790

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.