CLUCK requests reasonable protection for chicken advocates

The following was sent to County Administrator Harmer (with copies to the five Commissioners) on November 20th in an effort to clarify that citizens should be able to speak freely, without fear of reprisals, on the matter of backyard chicken keeping in Sarasota County, even if they currently have chickens illegally.

County Administrator Harmer:

Based on recent concerns, I drafted and circulated for comment among several CLUCK leaders the following communication:

Upon review of Ann McAvoy’s presentation during Open To The Public on Tuesday afternoon, I noticed she desribed her petition as being one that “many others support, but have not signed, for fear of retaliation”. 

Similar concerns have emerged on social media -- that is people being afraid to advocate on behalf of backyard chickens because they currently have chickens in zoning districts where they are not allowed. This morning I saw the following online query: “Might our signatures/address serve in generating citation notices if it doesn't pass?”

I don’t believe this is a particularly warranted fear, because I don’t believe our local government is vindictive or retaliatory and my understanding is that our code enforcement strategy is primarily complaint driven. 

However, it is unfortunate to think that the community support for backyard chickens is being artificially depressed out of fear. 

CLUCK has never advocated that people deliberately violate zoning codes in the hope they will not be noticed. Too many times we have heard the poignant anguish of people who had to give up their hens and consequently we don’t believe it is worth the risk. Nevertheless, some Sarasotans naively (like the Kormans) or defiantly choose to raise backyard hens in areas where they are currently prohibited. 

It is worth observing that these households represent valuable real-world experience that could inform the commission. If these chicken outlaws have been able to keep hens for a protracted period of time, their experience suggests backyard hens can be easily integrated within a neighborhood. And if neighbors do find fault and code enforcement gets involved, the genesis of the complaint can be instructive. In the Korman’s case, the chickens were a convenient proxy for what was actually a property boundary dispute between neighbors. We suspect this is a relatively common pattern – illegal chickens being used as pawns in ongoing neighbor chess matches. 

Therefore I am writing to request two things: first that the county temporarily suspend enforcement actions against chicken owners for a few days (except in cases involving suspected cockfighting, crowing roosters, health concerns, animal abuse, or animal hoarding) until the commission clarifies its intent (which probably needs to be on the agenda December 9^th or 10^th in order to respond in a timely manner to Special Magistrate Zack’s December 19th deadline). 

Second, reassure citizens that the county will not use their participation in this needed community discussion as a means of identifying people for possible enforcement action. 

Sincerely,

Jono Miller

On behalf of Sarasota CLUCK

One of the City of Sarasota residents that kept chickens illegally who sparked the successful campaign to
legalize chickens in the City. No citizen should fear reprisals for participating in our democracy.

Below you will find the County Administrator's response, and my reply.

Tom Harmer
to me, BCC, Thomas

Jono,  thank you for your email.  I wanted to respond to your specific request that the

county suspend enforcement actions against chicken owners that are violating the 

county’s current ordinance.  

I understand your concern and there is no intent or plans to target individuals that

are coming before the Board of County Commissioners to request a change in our 

current ordinances.  I have discussed that specific concern with our Planning and 

Development Services Director Tom Polk and he confirms that approach.  

It would be inappropriate for the County staff to not enforce the current ordinance 

but currently our enforcement efforts are focused on complaints that are received 

from the public by the County.  

Sincerely,

Tom

Thomas A. Harmer, ICMA-CM

County Administrator

Sarasota County 

1660 Ringling Blvd. 2nd Floor

Sarasota, FL   34236

941.861.5111 (phone)

941.861.5987 (fax)

tharmer@scgov.net

www.scgov.net

Tom et al.

Thanks for checking with Tom Polk and getting back to me. As I suspected, the

County does not target individuals questioning county poultry policies for 

possible enforcement actions. And I can see that the decision to suspend 

enforcement is a significant one with ramifications. I understand the County's 

situation, but note and appreciate that the county has exercised discretion and 

common sense in relation to the Kormans. We will get the word out.

My guess is the December 9 and 10 agendas are quite full, but in light of two 

things I hope you will be able to squeeze chickens onto the agenda. The first 

reason is the December 19th deadline imposed by Special Magistrate Zack. 

At the least, it would seem appropriate to discuss whether adjustments need to 

be made to allow sentinel chickens in zoning districts that don't currently

allow chickens. 

The second reason is that during the November 18th morning discussion at 

least three of the commissioners asked for a better understanding of support 

for change as a condition of further county action. It seemed both clear and 

reasonable that any consideration of a zoning change reflect a genuine desire 

of a demonstrated constituency and not merely a few squeaky gears.

Indeed, in June of 2011 CLUCK provided the following unsolicited advice to 

decision-makers in St. Lucie County: "Please don't change your chickens 

laws for just (a) handful of people. Citizens get justifiably upset when it 

looks like one or two people can get laws changed to suit their special 

circumstances. Make sure there is a diverse group with sizable 

numbers that support the changes."

No magic threshold number was mentioned by the Board that would warrant 

county action, although it seemed clear that twenty was too few. A few hours 

later, Ann McAvoy presented her petition with 270 county signatures and 86 

comments to the Board. Is 270 enough? That question probably warrants 

Board discussion. My understanding is that additional signatures will be 

forthcoming. 

CLUCK is aware that more than two years ago Commissioners Robinson and 

Mason endorsed a different test, one we believe to be impractical and onerous. 

We applaud this fresh approach based on gauging public interest. We note that 

since CLUCK formed, the City of Tampa as well as Hernando, Pinellas, 

Manatee, and Duval counties have all changed their ordinances to allow 

backyard hens. Sarasota chicken advocates have been patient, but believe the 

time has come to allow people a few pets hens and stop the heart-rending 

scenarios that unfold when families are forced to surrender pets whose 

transgression is solely being crosswise with county code.

If the Commission will vote to initiate a change in the zoning code, CLUCK 

will work with staff to develop an approach that will allow backyard hens 

without creating additional neighbor problems. In addition, CLUCK will work 

to educate the community regarding the proposed changes. 

Tom Harmer

Tom Harmer

to me, BCC, Thomas

to me, BCC, Thomas

Sarasota County Commission Re-Engages on Backyard Hens

Nov 18th, 2014  Sarasota County Commission Re-Engages on Backyard Hens

Today four Sarasota County residents addressed the new County Commission regarding backyard hens and appeared to shift the Board's position on the issue. 

In the morning, Tyler Korman explained his family's time-sensitive situation with a Special Magistrate and in the process introduced an aspect of urgency as well as highlighting the irony of his hens serving an important public health goal of the county while being in violation of county zoning codes.  He was followed by longtime CLUCK supporter, Jennifer Cortez, who explained how a few hens would fit in with her sustainable approach to her yard. 

Prior to lunch the new Commission reviewed a prior Board's previous action on this matter (see letter below). Commissioners Hines, Robinson, and Mason remembered the challenge to CLUCK to secure prior approval ("buy-in") from a wide variety of non-govenmental entities and seemed to want to return to that position.
                                                                  --------------------

Backyard hen supporters were flabbergasted two years ago when a group of parents asked the County Commission why their families couldn’t have backyard hens and, instead of answering the question, the Commission directed CLUCK to solicit approval in advance for keeping backyard hens. There were two problems with their direction, aside from not answering the citizens’ questions.

In more than three decades of watching our County Commission, I’ve never seen the commission require a group seeking to initiate a change to secure permission from a wide variety of non-governmental organizations prior to even considering that change.

Not only would their challenge require a superhuman effort, but it was destined to fail for a very simple reason: no group would sign a blank check and a chicken proposal without specifics would constitute a blank check.

How many chickens are we talking about? What kind of setbacks? Basic questions such as these could not be answered because there is no proposed ordinance at this point.

And it would pointless for CLUCK to propose specific language in the absence of 1) any direction from the Board regarding what they might find acceptable and 2) language development and review by County Planning and legal staff to make sure the form and content of the proposal met county standards.

                                                               --------------------

Today, and partially in response to Commissioner Caragiulo’s questioning, the Board’s position seemed to shift a little from requiring prior blank check approval from numerous non-governmental entities to wondering if there was sufficient public interest to warrant committing county resources to exploring a possible change in the zoning code.

SELECTED EXCERPTS FROM THE BOARD DISCUSSION

Commissioner Mason: "I'd like to see just how much interest there is out there before asking staff to look into this further."

Commissioner Robinson: ". . . we got an email (shown below) of an action we took asking CLUCK to start educating the homeowners associations, neighborhood association and community organizations and to obtain community support and then to come back to us with that community support."

Commissioner Caragiulo: ". . .we don't want to put a burden of basically get everyone to agree to a point and then bring it back to us."   "I think it's a worthwhile discussion certainly. -- Frankly you do have gauge if there's any interest."

Commissioner Hines: "Before we change our zoning code, I think we ask is there a public interest in doing this beyond, you know,  five, ten, twenty people -- is there a public interest to do this?     And, so, rather than us trying to go out and explore that public interest. . ."  "We asked the folks to go out and maybe get some petitions signed or some information -- not necessarily bring in a bus of two hundred people (interruption)  and public comments to do it and to see if there's interest and that hasn't occurred . . "    "Maybe the timing is right, but if there's only twenty or thirty people in the county that wants this. . . that's what we've not heard". 

Commissioner Caragiulo: "Input is critical, I just wanted to make sure, you know what the standard was."

Commissioner Maio did not comment during the discussion.  

------------

The four commissioner's questions were partially answered after lunch when Ann McAvoy submitted eight copies of her petition with 270 county signatures and 68 thoughtful text comments from County residents. She was followed by Todd Logan, who moved back to Osprey (from Anchorage!) and was dismayed to find he could not keep chickens. 

CLUCK has been patient and Sarasota citizens have demonstrated that a significant number want the county to consider changing the rules. While we have waited, both Manatee and Pinellas Counties have legalized backyard hens.

So the first step is, and always has been, for the County Commission to vote to direct staff to work with CLUCK and other backyard chicken advocates to draft a strategy for single family residences to have backyard hens. They may want to use the City of Sarasota’s ordinance as a starting point, but that’s up to them. Then that draft language would move through public hearings with the Planning Commission and the County Commission. Once there is a draft approach, CLUCK will undertake an effort to educate the public regarding the proposed provisions, but in the absence of a specific proposal, talking in generalizations about chickens is a futile effort. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Christine Robinson
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 9:54 PM
To: Jono Miller; Carolyn Mason; Nora Patterson; Joseph Barbetta; Jon Thaxton
Cc: Randall Reid; Robert Kluson; Evangeline Linkous; Laney Poire
Subject: RE: chickens

Jono,

On behalf of the Commission, thank you for your e-mail and for your dialogue on this issue.    Community buy-in is an important aspect of a change like this.  The majority of the Commission would like to see CLUCK educate the HOAs, Neighborhood Associations, and Civic Associations on this issue and also get their buy-in before the county spends time and money to initiate a change in zoning rules.  Some felt it would be difficult to get that through county-held neighborhood workshops and that CLUCK should make these efforts before we start down that path.  

Personally, I thought your editorial was a good conversation piece that can be distributed to these groups to start the discussions.  I also look forward to listening to the community dialogue on this topic absent initial government involvement.      

Thank you for your efforts and for your approach to this issue.  We appreciated each of the speakers and their stories.

Best Regards,

Christine

Christine Robinson

Sarasota County Commission Chair

Sarasota County Government

1660 Ringling Blvd

Sarasota, Florida 34236

941-861-5727

Assisted by Robin Bayus

rbayus@scgov.net

--------------------------------

The editorial Commissioner Robinson referred to can be found here. 

Nokomis Chicken Issue Re-Ignites Push for Backyard Hens in Sarasota County

Three Barred Rocks have re-energized the five-year-old quest to legalize backyard hens in Unincorporated Sarasota. The three hens, Big Barb, Wendy, and Lucy, belong to Christina and Tyler Korman who assumed it was okay to have a few egg-producing pets in Nokomis.

On August 20th they were informed they had about two weeks to get rid of the birds or face a daily fine of $250 dollars. But instead of giving up or paying a fine, the couple got creative and secured permission to have their birds serve as "sentinel chickens", which provide a valuable service to the county. In addition the neighbor that complained, rethought things.

On Friday November 14th, instead of being directed to pay $18,250, Special Magistrate Robert Zack gave the couple until December 19th to see if the County Commission might be sympathetic to their plight and direct staff to work on changing the rules.

This deadline has motived Sarasota CLUCK members who have been looking for an opportunity to re-invigorate the campaign that started in June of 2009. After 18 months the group secured a three year trial period in the City of Sarasota. Meanwhile the group tried to interest the Sarasota County Commission in allowing hens in the Unincorporated County. One common question was: "What is the experience in the City?" That was answered in early 2014 at the end of three year trial period when the City Commission made the change permanent. Despite the City success, the former County Commission showed little interest in making a change.

Since CLUCK was formed backyard hens have been allowed in Duval County (Jacksonville), Manatee County, Hernando County, and Pinellas County. Their experience, combined with the realities in the City of Sarasota and Venice, argue that Sarasota County now needs to bring county rules into alignment with the City. 

On Tuesday the 18th a new Commission will be seated, one that includes Paul Caragiulo, who was a City Commissioner during the initial CLUCK campaign. The intersection of the Magistrate's deadline  with the new commission has county chicken advocates optimistic that the Commission will finally listen to their requests.

Read the Sarasota Herald Tribune story here.

CLUCK Looking for Volunteers for Sarasota County Fair

Volunteers are needed for the Small Animal Tent of the upcoming Sarasota Co Fair.  They are now in the process of assigning time slots for our volunteers.  FYI – we are in need of volunteers for 2 hour shifts from Friday March 14th to Saturday March 22nd.

If you are interested in volunteering, email Jamie Besselman at jbesselm@scgov.net

Sarasota CLUCK back in the News

It's been quite awhile, but it was worth waiting for the most recent Sarasota Herald-Tribune article dealing with backyard chickens and Sarasota CLUCK, which occupies most of the front page of the local section. The February 25th 2014 article titled Chickens pass their test by Ian Cummings features longtime CLUCK supporter Fran Tiner and, indirectly, Betsy, Pippy, Rose, and Roz, Fran's four hens.

CLUCK Milestone: City Chickens Pass Three Year Probationary Period

Three years ago, thirty Sarasotans attempted to convince four Sarasota City Commissioners that, despite the dire warnings of ten other Sarasotans, a negative vote from the Planning Commission, and a stalemated position from the important local neighborhood congress, CCNA, the sky would not fall if they allowed City residents with single family homes to have as many as four hens in their backyards. The Board discussion was tense until Fredd Atkins cut through the fog and made it clear that three votes were there, enabling Dick Clapp to make it a four-zero vote. 

THE SKY DID NOT FALL.

Three years and one month later, on February 18th, 2014 another commission, based on the recommendation of staff, voted unanimously to make permanent their three year experiment. 

No one was there to speak against making the ordinance permanent, in part because chicken complaint calls since passage have averaged just one-third of one percent of all code complaint calls.

In addition to the support of staff and the commission, special thanks are due longtime supporters Kafi Benz, Megan Jourdan, and Virginia Hoffman for their testimony. 

Virginia Hoffman, Ann McVoy, Fran Tiner, Arlene  Boyle, Jono Miller, Laney Poire
Missing from photo: Megan Jourdan, Betsy Roberts, Jodi John, Ray Sullivan,
Carolyn Loesch, Amy Boyd, and  April.

Now a new push is needed to bring the benefits of backyard hens to traditional neighborhoods in the Unincorporated portions of Sarasota County.

In the past three years, backyard hens have been allowed in Duval County (Jacksonville), Manatee County, Hernando County, and Pinellas County. Their experience, combined with the realities in the City of Sarasota and Venice, argue that Sarasota County now needs to bring county rules into alignment with the City. 

Despite no Roosters, CLUCK crows a little

Sometime between the first and second of February, 2104, our Sarasota CLUCK blog recorded its one hundred thousandth pageview, an average of about 59 pageviews a day since the first posting back on June 11th 2009. And with over 250 different blog postings, there is quite a selection of information. 

This milestone is a reflection of the role CLUCK has played, not just in Sarasota, but actually worldwide. Over 2,000 pageviews for both the United Kingdom and over 1,000 pageviews each for Germany, Australia, Canada, France and the Ukraine. 

Our listing of funky facts has been viewed 5,588 times and our advice about coop design in Southwest Florida has been viewed nearly 2,900 times. Perhaps more importantly, our annotated version of the City of Sarasota's chicken ordinance has been viewed over 2,800 times.

CLUCK News: Consumer Reports Dings Grocery Chicken

In a seven-page story that filled the cover of the February 2014 Consumer Reports, the magazine tested more than 300 raw chicken breasts and concluded "97% harbored bacteria that could make you sick".

CLUCK "Re-Coops" - Two Meetings in February

Sarasota CLUCK is back in gear with two important events in February. (And with 99,595 pageviews on January 26th, we're about to celebrate 100,000 pageviews!)

First, on Saturday February 8th, another Chickens 101 Workshop is being offered by our local Sarasota Extension Office. (See poster below for details). If you've been curious about chickens and or have some and need more information, don't miss this half-day workshop. 

Then, ten days later, on Tuesday February 18th at 5:00 p.m. we're holding a CLUCK meeting in downtown Sarasota for the purpose of "re-cooping". Yes, we're restarting the campaign to legalize backyard hens in suburban areas of unincorporated Sarasota County. We've been biding our time, and believe this is a great time to restart the effort. The location is still being determined. Leave a comment and we'll be sure to let you know where we're meeting.