Thursday, June 17, 2010

St. Pete and the Times negotiating end
to legal challenge of solicitation ban

The city of St. Petersburg and Times Publishing Co. are negotiating an end to the newspaper's federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the city's ban on street solicitation.

Times Publishing Co., the parent company of the St. Petersburg Times, will drop its suit if the city agrees not to pursue legal fees, which the city attorney estimates to be in the "low" five figures for staff time and surveillance work.

In exchange, the Times would agree not to seek to overturn the ordinance in the future.

"After the judge's ruling last week, we examined all our options and decided against a legal challenge," said Times communications director Jounice Nealy-Brown. "We're still very concerned about the city ordinance but we had our day in court. We'll turn our efforts elsewhere."

Read the St. Petersburg Times report here.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home