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2008 Florida Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (2008)

handle is hein.sag/sagfl0033 and id is 1 raw text is: Florida Attorney General
Advisory Legal Opinion
Number: AGO 2008-01
Date: January 9, 2008
Subject: City temporarily holding meetings outside city
Mr. Paul J. Marino
City Attorney
City of Belleair Beach
Post Office Box 344
Indian Rocks Beach, Florida 33767
RE: MUNICIPALITIES - GOVERNMENT IN THE SUNSHINE - MEETINGS - whether city may
temporarily locate official meetings to venue outside municipality. Art. VIII, s.
2(c), Fla. Const.; s. 286.011, Fla. Stat.
Dear Mr. Marino:
As City Attorney for the City of Belleair Beach, you have requested my opinion on
substantially the following questions:
1. May the Belleair Beach City Council temporarily locate its chambers for public
meetings in an adjacent municipality while a new city hall is being built, provided
adequate notice is given to city residents?
2. If the answer to Question One is in the negative, may the Belleair Beach City
Council enact an ordinance for a referendum to amend the city charter to allow the
city council to meet outside its jurisdiction?
The City of Belleair Beach is in the preliminary stages of razing and reconstructing
a new city hall on the site of the existing city hall, as it appears that the
current structure does not meet building codes. You have advised this office that
the City of Belleair Beach is a residential community without any commercial
property within the city limits. According to newspaper reports, there are no large
meeting facilities within the city. An additional consideration is that the city
records its meetings for rebroadcast on television which requires sound and video
recording and editing equipment in the meeting room.[1] You state that there is no
place within the corporate limits of the city where the city may lease a facility as
a temporary city hall for the conduct of public meetings and have asked for my
opinion on whether the city may conduct public meetings outside its jurisdictional
boundaries.
Article VIII, section 2(c), Florida Constitution, requires that the exercise of
extra-territorial powers by a municipality shall be as provided by general or
special law. This constitutional restriction is reflected in section 166.021(3)(a),
Florida Statutes, in which the Legislature recognizes that municipalities are
authorized to enact legislation concerning any subject matter upon which the state
Legislature may act, except [t]he subjects of annexation, merger, and exercise of
extraterritorial power, which require general or special law pursuant to s. 2(c),
Art. VIII of the State Constitution[.] (e.s.)
Based on these constitutional and statutory provisions, this office in Attorney

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