PANAMA CITY BEACH — People who try to climb over high-rise balconies or throw objects off them could be facing jail time and a criminal record if an ordinance given its first approval is finalized.
The ordinance came up for the first time at Tuesday’s Panama City Beach Council meeting, where council members approved it on the first of two readings. It was not initially among the new proposals the council was considering adopting to town down Spring Break next year.
The ordinance amends the city’s disorderly conduct ordinance, adding wording that it is an offense if someone “climbs up, down or over a balcony, or attempts to jump from a balcony, or spits or throws any object to or from a balcony.”
The ordinance is among a slew of new laws passed by the Beach Council to tone down next year’s Spring Break after a celebration this year that garnered negative nationwide media attention. The Beach Council on Tuesday approved another ordinance on the first of two required readings that would ban drinking on the sandy beach during the month of March, with the punishment being jail time.
City Attorney Amy Myers said Friday violating the balcony-jumping ordinance is also a misdemeanor violation punishable by an arrest.
“It is not a ticket,” she said. “There is no civil citation.”
The punishment could be up to 60 days in jail and up to a $500 fine, Myers said.
She said the law was drafted so people could not only be charged but prosecuted in court.
The problem with prosecuting balcony-jumping cases surfaced in June 2002. Dismissing a disorderly conduct charge against a Spring Break visitor, Circuit Judge Elijah Smiley said at the time that balcony climbing may be dangerous, but it is not a crime under state or local laws.
If Panama City Beach wants to make balcony climbing illegal, it could simply pass a separate ordinance banning that activity, defense attorney Jonathan Dingus said in court at the time.
The proposed balcony-jumping ordinance is supported by some in the hospitality industry, who have expressed opposition to other laws like the drinking ban, which they say could seriously reduce the number of spring breakers coming here.
Julie Hilton, vice president of Hilton Inc. that owns several hotels on the Beach including the Holiday Inn Resort, urged the city to pass the new balcony-jumping law.
“I just felt like we needed to do everything we can to encourage our students to be safe, and we need to make it clear that it is strictly prohibited to climb balconies because they are risking their lives,” she said.
The new law could have led to charges for fraternity students who allegedly spit on veterans in April from a balcony at Laketown Wharf. But Myers said she did not have that incident in mind when she drafted the proposed law. “It was not even in my frame of reference,” she said.
Linda Cope, founder of the Warrior Beach Retreat, said she supports the proposed new law making it a jail-time offense for spitting or throwing objects from a balcony.
“I’m just very pleased with (Police Chief) Drew Whitman’s stand on this,” Cope said. “I was very impressed with him at the City Council meeting because the police are wanting to send out a message that they not going to put up with this.”