Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Fight brews on COVID-19 penalties
A battle over COVID-19 fines and safety enforcement is igniting in Florida.
Gov. Ron DeSantis just wiped away any COVID-19-related fines against people and businesses over the past year, saying such penalties were “out of control” and “heavy handed.”
But Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties pushed back Thursday, planning to work around DeSantis to keep enforcing safety-oriented rules to curb the spread of the virus.
■ Broward County wants to keep issuing new warnings and, if necessary, fines to businesses. It concluded that DeSantis’ order only stops governments from collecting fines on violations over the past year, but doesn’t ban the county from issuing new fines to businesses.
■ Palm Beach County will continue its normal code
enforcement efforts as it keeps evaluating DeSantis’ order. The county’s assistant administrator didn’t say whether it planned to still issue fines moving forward.
■ In Miami-Dade County, the midnight-to-6 a.m. curfew will stay in effect to help curb violations.
The counties say their efforts are necessary to help stop the spread of the virus, especially as throngs of people pack South Florida’s bars and beaches for spring break.
Broward County Mayor Steve Geller said Thursday that the community needs all the tools it can use to promote safety. “I’m disheartened by this,” Geller said. “If we’re going to protect the public, we need ways of enforcing our orders.”
“We’re in a dangerous moment in time,” agreed Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, noting how governors nationwide have moved to reopen. “They can’t be insensitive to the need to still keep people safe and protected.”
Doing away with fines
DeSantis’ new order dismissed fines that were issued against people and businesses for violating local COVID laws, including mask violations, between March 1, 2020, and Wednesday. Excluded from DeSantis’ order were fines imposed on assisted-living facilities, hospitals or other health care providers.
DeSantis described local governments’ fines as “unprecedented.”
“I just think those fines are out of control, and we want to make sure that folks are protected,” DeSantis said Thursday during a news briefing in Lake City. “Most of those restrictions have not been effective. That’s just the reality. The evidence is in on that. We want to go forward fresh, and we want people to make decisions but we don’t want it under the heavy handed government.”
Meredith Beatrice, a governor’s spokeswoman, on Thursday referred to past orders that were issued by DeSantis, in which he suspended the collection of fines.
At the onset of the pandemic in mid-March 2020, DeSantis deferred to local governments to set their own restrictions and mask mandates, saying the diversity of the state and the varying intensity of the virus meant a statewide mask order would be too harsh.
But by September he prohibited local governments from collecting fines related to pandemic-related mandates, such as mask requirements. At the time, cities and counties had doled out $1.9 million in penalties. Miami-Dade County and Naples at the time accounted for more than 85% of the fines, due to a variety of reasons, including disobeying mask ordinances, staying out past curfew and parking by the beaches when they were closed.
Counties in South Florida concluded last year that DeSantis’ orders stopped governments only from fining people, not businesses, over COVID-19 related violations. And Broward figured the latest order stops communities only from collecting previously issued fines — not any new fines issued after Wednesday’s order.
Broward’s Geller threatened to shut down businesses that don’t follow the rules. “That’s the only enforcement mechanism the governor has left us,” Geller said. After warnings, “they’ll have to be shut down.”
DeSantis’ order leaves it unclear whether local governments must pay back fines collected over the past year. But Broward officials said Thursday they won’t reimburse any money already paid.
Raising concerns about no fines
Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay was among many elected officials who complained that the governor’s new order sends the wrong message to the public. She cited how DeSantis called cities’ restrictions “unprecedented” in his order.
“Governor, you know what’s unprecedented? 32,000 dead Floridians,” McKinlay posted on Twitter. “You know what’s not? Requiring people to follow science, mask up (while providing required exemptions), & follow law. Would you rather have more dead people or be asked to wear mask?”
In Palm Beach County, while officials evaluate the governor’s executive order, Assistant County Administrator Patrick Rutter said they will continue their same approach to code enforcement.
“We still have a mask requirement in place and we’re still enforcing it,” Rutter said. “We’ll continue to go out and do our observations and enforcements. No change to that.”
Since passing its mask-wearing ordinance in June, Palm Beach County code enforcers have taken an “education-first” approach, handing out warnings to businesses that are first-time offenders. If they violate the rules again, then the county moves toward financial penalties.
One of the most notable instances came in August when the county levied a $15,000 fine against a West Palm Beach strip club for COVID-19 violations.
Playhouse 2 Gentlemen’s Club in West Palm Beach, which previously was given warnings, was slapped with the sizable fine and temporarily shut down after officers found the establishment full of maskless patrons crammed together with no signs of social distancing.
In Miami-Dade County, keeping the curfew during the “bewitching hour” helps fight transmission, said County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
“We regret the governor preventing us from doing what we need to do at the local level to continue the progress has been made to ensure the safety of our residents, our visitors and our businesses — and especially in the middle of spring break when we have thousands of visitors,” she said.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said he was frustrated. The fines were “to encourage compliance the same way we have the seat belt laws,” he said. “He’s sending out the wrong message. I’m not sure why it’s good governance to tell people to stop wearing masks. He has the most powerful voice in the state. Why is he using it to discourage healthy practices? Why is he the champion of unhealthy practices in the face of so much death?”
But it wasn’t all criticism Thursday.
West Palm Beach-based attorney Cory Strolla fired off an email to the governor Thursday afternoon asking him to make his order stronger. Strolla represents a Plantation gym owner who was put in handcuffs and taken away when one of his patrons was spotted without a mask. The gym has since closed and Strolla blamed the local restrictions.
Michael Carnevale was offered 10 days in jail in a plea deal, but could face more time if found guilty, according to Strolla.
“Sadly your newest executive order does not reach far nor wide enough to save and protect all innocent and law-abiding Floridians,” he wrote to DeSantis. “I wish you nothing but the best moving forward, I look forward to you leading the way on this issue of Americans and Floridians potentially losing their liberty and personal freedom from overreaching local government mask mandates.
“May your moral compass continue to lead the way.”