There will no Vaccine Passport's allowed in the Sunshine State.
DeSantis signs bill banning vaccine ‘passports,’ suspends local pandemic restrictions
Lawrence Mower, Tampa Bay Times
Mon, May 3, 2021, 10:49 AM·6 min read
During a bill signing at The Big Catch at Salt Creek, a restaurant near downtown St. Petersburg, DeSantis said ending local restrictions was the “evidence-based thing to do” considering the availability of vaccines.
“I think folks that are saying that they need to be policing people at this point, if you’re saying that, you really are saying you don’t believe in the vaccines, you don’t believe in the data,” he said.
DeSantis on Monday signed Senate Bill 2006, passed by lawmakers last week that in part gives the governor the ability to override local emergency orders. That bill does not take effect until July 1, but DeSantis said he would issue an executive order suspending any local restrictions in the interim.
“The fact is, we’re no longer in a state of emergency,” he said.
Florida has been under a state of emergency for the pandemic since March last year. Last week, DeSantis extended the state of emergency for the state by another 60 days.
DeSantis had previously waived pandemic-related fines against individuals and businesses.
“The legislation creates a default legal presumption that during any emergency our businesses should be free from government mandates to close, and our schools should remain open for in-person instruction for our children,” DeSantis said.
Several restaurant and bar owners in Pinellas County who attended Monday’s announcement cheered DeSantis’ decision to step in against local emergency orders.
“It’s music to my ears,” said Mark Ferguson, owner of Ferg’s in downtown St. Petersburg. He said his bar has gotten five citations for violating mask mandates, four of which are outstanding.
Jon LaBudde, a partner in The Big Catch, said he felt that local governments have abused their emergency powers. He said enforcement of mask mandates felt selective, and said the potential for a business to lose afterhours liquor permits or other permits was troubling.
“Giving fines to businesses that are struggling doesn’t make sense,” said.
But some local officials expressed dismay over the decision.
“To say the least I’m disappointed in the governor’s decision because we’ve been really successful in helping people stay safe,” said Hillsborough Commissioner Kimberly Overman, the commission’s leading advocate for mandatory facial coverings.
“The message is ‘If you haven’t gotten a vaccination yet, you need to hurry up and go get one.’ It’s a way we can help people to protect themselves,” Overman said.
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, a Democrat, quickly took to Twitter to decry the executive order, saying that local governments stepped in to protect residents amid the pandemic in the absence of state leadership.
“Today, in preempting both local government AND businesses from keeping their establishments safe, Ron DeSantis decided he cares not about public health, but power,” Kriseman tweeted.
DeSantis said the executive order he signed Monday applies only to local government-mandated orders, not mask requirements or social distancing policies enforced by businesses.
“In terms of what a supermarket or some of them choose to do, a Disney theme park, this does not deal with that one way or another,” he said. “It’s simply emergency orders and emergency penalties on individual businesses.”
U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a Democrat who is widely expected to announce Tuesday in St. Petersburg that he’s running for governor, blasted DeSantis in a statement, saying that DeSantis “failed to lead during the pandemic, leaving local officials as the last line of defense against the pandemic, forcing them to make the hard decisions to save lives.”
In a phone interview, Crist added that DeSantis’ decision to announce the executive order and do the bill signing in St. Petersburg may be a signal that “perhaps he’s a little concerned about what we may talk about tomorrow” ― a reference to Crist’s announcement that he’s challenging DeSantis.
The Pinellas County Commission was scheduled to vote on the fate of its mask mandate on May 11, and several commissioners hinted at their plans to suggest the lifting of the restrictions take effect in June.
By then, officials expect at least 50 percent of the county to be vaccinated and students will be getting out of school for the summer.
Commissioners urged caution because the county’s seven-day average positivity is still lingering above 3 percent, the threshold a taskforce of Tampa Bay medical professionals recommended to remove mask requirements.
But DeSantis’ executive order now supersedes the county’s plan.
“I don’t think we are ready because we are still not at 3 percent or under in our infection rate,” Commissioner Rene Flowers said. “Gov. DeSantis and other registered Republicans always talk about less government, they always talk about less intrusion but here we are with this that impedes on the ability for municipalities and counties to be able to operate for the betterment of its communities.”
The bill DeSantis signed Monday is intended to update the state’s emergency powers in the face of a future public health emergency. The measure would make it more difficult for local governments to respond to public emergencies by requiring their emergency orders to be narrowly tailored and extended only in seven-day increments for a total of 42 days and gives the governor to invalidate an emergency order. Currently, such orders can be extended indefinitely.
It also makes permanent an executive order he signed earlier this month: It prohibits businesses, schools and government agencies from requiring people to show documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccinations or post-infection recovery before gaining entry.
“You have a right to participate in society ... without having to divulge this type of information,” DeSantis said Monday.
Rep. Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach, chair of the Pandemics & Public Emergencies Committee, said Monday that the legislation “balances safety and your personal liberties.” He said the legislation ensures Florida is planning for the next government health emergency.
The bill passed along party lines Thursday night, the second-to-last day of this year’s legislative session.
“We were paying attention during the pandemic about what went right and wrong,” House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, said Monday. He said there needs to be a check on the power on emergency orders, including by the governor (although DeSantis said Monday that he’d used his power “much more judiciously.”)
The global pandemic exposed how unprepared Florida was for a public health emergency. Although appropriations are the constitutional prerogative of the Legislature, the governor controlled most of the emergency funding during the pandemic with no legislative authority or oversight. The bill attempts to address that by imposing additional oversight while also giving the governor additional authority and also allowing him to override local orders if they are determined to “unnecessarily restrict individual rights or liberties.”
Hillsborough Commissioner Stacy White, who opposed the county’s mask requirement, said he thought some local government orders had gone too far during the pandemic.
“People are more than capable of making their own decision with respect to mask use,” White said. “It’s time to let the people of Florida to make that decision.”
DeSantis signs bill banning vaccine ‘passports,’ suspends local pandemic restrictions
ST. PETERSBURG — Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Monday immediately suspending local government pandemic-related restrictions such as mask mandates, in his latest action to speed Florida’s return to normalcy from the coronavirus. During a news conference at St. Petersburg’s The Big...
