Sabatini calls for a sped up reopening
Meanwhile, Democrats press Gov. DeSantis to slowly ease restrictions
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis has consistently bashed some critics of his plan to reopen the state, but his “Safe, Smart, Step-by-Step” approach has more in common with those urging caution than with some Republicans who want to restart the economy more quickly.
The most vocal has been Rep. Anthony Sabatini, a Howey-inthe-Hills Republican, who wants every business to reopen immediately, putting in place the restrictions they see fit to keep customers and employees safe from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
“I strongly disagree with the governor’s shutdown of the economy,” Sabatini said. “I’m against any policy that results in the arrest of normally law-abiding people who are just trying to put food on the table for their kids.”
While there is some disagreement about how best and quickly to reopen, most public health experts, the White House guidelines for reopening and DeSantis’ own task force recommendations are opposed to immediately reopening all businesses. Such an immediate attempt to return to normal could spur another wave of massive outbreaks, they warn.
Democrats have mostly slammed DeSantis’ response to the pandemic, and on Friday 10 Democratic U.S. House members from Florida’s delegation, including Val Demings of Orlando and Darren Soto of Kissimmee, wrote to the governor asking him to go slower with reopening. Florida doesn’t have enough testing capability or capacity to trace contacts of those infected, they said.
“Florida is lacking essential tools that public health experts agree are critical to a safe reopening process: widespread testing, a robust contact tracing workforce, and supported isolation are interconnected pieces of the larger puzzle of reopening,” the letter states. “Without all pieces in place, it is unacceptable to reopen the state and expose our population to increased risk of infection.”
DeSantis’ own task force sug
“We measure COVID cases but who is measuring the widespread destruction of people’s personal and financial lives? We must understand this response will not be available to leaders next year. What then?” House Speaker Jose
Oliva, R-Miami Lakes
gests that testing should increase rapidly, with 30,000 tests per day by May 15 and 40,000 tests per day by June 15. On Thursday, there were just 20,000.
But the governor has noted the encouraging trend of declining positive cases. Florida’s positive tests have fallen from 10.5% last month to 7.6% in total, including just 2% of the 20,000 test results returned Thursday.
DeSantis has touted his efforts as beating the negative predictions of early models, which were based on the state staying open without restrictions, showing hospitalizations in the hundreds of thousands that would overwhelm the hospital system.
He’s also bashed the New York-based news media for mocking Duval County authorities’ decision last month to reopen beaches with restrictions.
DeSantis hasn’t specifically defended his shutdown decisions from attack from the right. Instead, he has couched his reopening plan as a cautious approach that prioritizes safety.
Phase 1 details
Most of Florida entered Phase 1 of the process under DeSantis’ plan on May 4. It allows restaurants to operate at 25 percent capacity and permits elective surgeries again. Miami-Dade and Broward counties remain under more restrictive orders but Palm Beach County was allowed to move to Phase 1 on Friday, DeSantis said.
“We wanted to be very measured about it, we want to be safe and we want to be smart,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Jacksonville on Friday. “It was an important step but admittedly it was a small step.”
DeSantis issued an order Saturday allowing barbershops, hair salons and nail salons to open up starting Monday with some restrictions.
There’s no specific timeline when the state will move to Phase 2, nor has
DeSantis outlined what the next stage will entail, but the recommendations from his task force argue for more capacity at restaurants, and opening nightclubs and bars, while still following distancing guidelines and sanitary protocols. Gyms could operate at 75 percent capacity; state parks could be opened to daytime use and beaches could be fully opened.
Sabatini, a lawyer, doesn’t think the shutdown orders issued by DeSantis are legal, and he represented a Pinellas Park businessman last month who was arrested for continuing to operate his shop selling board games and card games in violation of the order. The charges weren’t pursued by Pinellas County state attorneys.
He filed another lawsuit Sunday against Seminole County on behalf of David Leavitt, a former chairman of the Seminole County Libertarian Party, alleging the county’s ordinance mandating workers wear face masks if they’re within 6 feet of others violates the state constitution.
Sabatini also sent a letter to DeSantis on Friday expressing concern over a new website set up by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to receive complaints from the public about businesses disregarding the coronavirusrelated restrictions.
In a Twitter post, Sabatini called it “a snitch site that will be weaponized by people with ill-motives in order
to harm small businesses.”
Oliva raises issues
House Speaker Jose Oliva also has been skeptical of shutdown orders, and though he was a member of DeSantis’ reopening task force and is generally supportive of the plan, he has said it doesn’t go as fast as he would like to restart the economy.
“We are past the limit of acceptable government intervention in a free society,” Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, posted on Twitter Wednesday. “We measure COVID cases but who is measuring the widespread destruction of people’s personal and financial lives? We must understand this response will not be available to leaders next year. What then?”
However, Oliva later clarified that he still supports DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic response.
GOP legislative leaders have mostly deferred to DeSantis during the pandemic, but there’s been no indication they’re in a hurry to get back to the Capitol to address the crisis.
Democratic lawmakers have been pushing for a special session to address the flailing unemployment system, but their attempt to poll lawmakers to force a session was blocked by Republicans last week.
Still, if legislators are drawn back to Tallahassee to rewrite the budget in the face of revenue shortfalls, lawmakers could end up tackling other problems related to the crisis.
During task force meetings, Oliva suggested businesses reopening under the phased-in guidelines receive immunity from liability, fearing the specter of legal bills from lawsuits if customers or workers contract the virus would prevent employers from getting back to work faster.
And Sabatini has suggested he’d push to clarify the law so that a governor must meet a “much higher” threshold before issuing an emergency order that shuts down businesses.