A Senate companion to a House bill designed to protect Confederate monuments was filed Thursday.
Sen. Jonathan Martin's SB 1122 would impose penalties on local officials who removed those and other historical monuments after July 1, 2024, mirroring a House companion in key ways, including potential removal from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis and civil penalties and required restitution for monument restoration from the responsible lawmakers' personal accounts.
The Senate bill also gives standing to any aggrieved party to sue if a monument was "removed, damaged, or destroyed on or after October 1, 2020," as long as they used the edifice for "remembrance," a loose term with a wide variety of meanings.
Martin's bill, a companion to a similar House bill from Rep. Dean Black, comes after the Republican legislator from Jacksonville watched his hometown remove a monument this week to the Women of the Southland from the city's formerly-named Confederate Park (now Springfield Park).
HB 395 likewise proposes state "protection of historical monuments and memorials" and authorizes "all actions to protect and preserve all historical monuments and memorials from removal, damage, or destruction."
There are some minor differences between the bills. The Senate version contemplates a $1,000 penalty for culpable officials in addition to restoration costs, while the House version envisions a $5,000 fine.
Black's bill seems to have been the impetus for the decision of the Jacksonville Mayor to authorize the removal of the Jim Crow era monument this week. The city's General Counsel tailored his argument around questioning whether the structure was even "historical" or a "contributing structure" to the Springfield historical district, a position based in local ordinance not making that designation clear.
The memo also notes regarding Black's bill, that Gov. DeSantis "cannot implement an unconstitutional statute retroactively to penalize the Mayor from exercising her exclusive executive powers over parks under the consolidated City's unique Charter."
DeSantis himself has said he's not "familiar" with the bill.
"Since this legislation is still subject to the legislative process (and therefore different iterations), the governor will decide on the merits of the bill in final form if and when it passes and is delivered to the governor's office," asserted Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern, who used language he's used previously when asked about bills that haven't passed yet when we pushed for comment earlier this year.
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