Dog Receives Mayoral Pardon

ST. PETE BEACH – He’s not a real dog. If you ask store owner Alan Ronay, he’s not a real sign, either. According to St. Pete Beach Code Enforcement Officer Heidi Hartsock, he’s not only a real sign, he’s a violation that Ronay needs to move or remove.

“He” refers to the giant inflatable dog perched atop the bright pink Best Buddies van at the southwest corner of Gulf Boulevard and 65th Street. Best Buddies, a dog accessory and bake shop, caters to dogs. Hartsock says the inflatable dog is a sign and told Ronay to move it. When he refused, she cited him for violating the city’s sign ordinance.

That’s when Mayor Steve McFarlin stepped in. Monday afternoon he issued a “Puppy Pardon.”

“By the common sense and community spirit vested in me,” he wrote in the pardon “I... hereby grant this puppy an honorable pardon.”

The pardon goes on to say that he hopes “the bureaucratic actions against its master in no way hinder the holiday joy it has bestowed upon our city.”

When told of the pardon Tuesday afternoon, Hartsock took a moment to reply.

“I don’t know if he can do that,” she said.

The festive dog – he’s wearing a red ribbon collar, a red Santa hat, and holding a Christmas stocking in his fangs – violates the city’s code dealing with prohibited signs (section 26.4), Hartsock said.

“When the inflatable dog is attached to a vehicle, it becomes signage,” she explained, adding that if Ronay removed the dog from atop his van and placed it on his property, it would be a decoration and no longer in violation.

The problem, Ronay said, is that he has no room. He can’t block the sidewalk or his entrance, and he won’t block a parking space. Hartsock told him she would allow him to place it on the side of the shop, even though it would block the sidewalk on the dead-end 65th Street, but he declined.

“There’s no law against what she’s telling me. There’s no language (in the city ordinances),” he said. He pointed to other shops on the beach that he claimed had similar signs.
Scoops, an ice cream shop a few blocks north, has a giant ice cream cone on a car. Hartsock said the cone can stay because its owners permanently attached it to the car.

“It’s going nowhere. He can drive with it,” she said.

PJ’s Oyster Bar has an inflatable Santa in its courtyard. That, too, is OK, because it’s not a sign, she said, it’s a decoration.

Ronay says there are plenty of others who are allowed and he should be, too. Hartsock is standing firm, despite the mayoral puppy pardon.

“As far as I’m concerned, he’s still going to the magistrate next month,” she said.

Ronay said he hadn’t received his official notice of a hearing yet, but he told the Gabber he had no plans to take the inflatable puppy off his car.

“The magistrate will decide,” he said.