TAMPA — City Hall's four-year experiment in trying to strike a balance between fighting public begging and allowing street-corner newspaper sales is over.

The City Council on Thursday voted 6-0 to repeal a 2011 ordinance that banned panhandling along the right of way while allowing newspaper hawkers to work the road seven days a week.

Still, city officials say killing the ordinance doesn't mean the city's medians will again become havens for the down and out.

That's because Tampa will be covered by a Hillsborough County ordinance that bans standing on or within 4 feet of a public road to advertise, ask for money or distribute materials to motorists.

Thursday's vote came in response to a federal lawsuit filed in May by the nonprofit group Homeless Helping Homeless. The charity contends that Tampa's laws on panhandling are unconstitutional, overly broad, target certain types of speech based on its content and treat different groups differently.

While considered legally defensible when it was passed in 2011, Tampa's roadside solicitation ordinance now is seen as more vulnerable. In recent years, federal judges, including the Supreme Court, have ruled that not only does government lack the authority to regulate the content or message of expression in public places, but that when it comes to public safety, local officials have to try less restrictive and less sweeping methods before going to a total ban.

The council moved to rescind the ban after discussing legal strategy, costs and the possibility of a settlement in a closed session last month with city attorneys.

"This action is being taken to curb potential litigation expenses," City Attorney Julia Mandell said.

That seemed like a slim justification to one of the two members of the public who spoke before the council's vote.

"Because of an expense of litigation, you're going to put 100 people out of work that sell newspapers (on Sundays), that try to make some money for themselves," said David Driscoll, an independent contractor for the Tampa Bay Times. "It looks like we're pushing them to Homeless Helping Homeless by not being allowed to work. … My understanding is that there's been no safety issue."

Council Chairman Frank Reddick, who voted against the repeal June 25 and has said some newspaper vendors needed to be out on the street in order to make a living, was absent for Thursday's discussion and vote. Afterward, at council member Yvonne Yolie Capin's request, the council asked for a staff report in September on possible options for allowing some sidewalk solicitations.

"I would like, in the future, to look at it very seriously," said Capin, who worked with Reddick to craft the original compromise allowing newspaper sales. "We've had a tradition of people selling newspapers on street corners all over this country."

Homeless Helping Homeless also is suing Tampa over a second panhandling law, passed in 2013, that the City Council has decided to defend. The second ordinance bans panhandling in downtown and Ybor City, as well as near banks, ATMs, sidewalk cafes and bus or trolley stops.

It aims to curtail behaviors that officials said might make people feel vulnerable or unable to walk away from someone asking for money. It does not apply to solicitations that merely involve holding a sign. City officials have indicated that they think they have a better chance of successfully defending that law.

Contact Richard Danielson at rdanielson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3403. Follow @Danielson_Times.