Working around DeSantis: Miami-Dade won’t halt mask citations, even with fees frozen

Going out without a mask in Miami-Dade County still could cost you a $100 fine — someday.

Days after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis upended some of the county’s strictest COVID rules, Mayor Carlos Gimenez laid out his plan to continue cracking down on the nightlife industry and require people to cover their faces.

Even though a Friday order by DeSantis prevents local governments from collecting fines from individuals cited for violating COVID rules, Gimenez said the county would keep issuing mask citations and pursue the $100 fines once the governor’s freeze expires.

“We have to continue to wear masks in public places — indoors and out,” Gimenez said during an online press conference. “The enforcement will continue countywide.”

The statewide changes by DeSantis, including provisions letting some restaurants have full dining rooms again, took the Gimenez administration by surprise. Gimenez told reporters he still hasn’t spoken to DeSantis about the changes, with the governor’s chief of staff left to brief the mayor of Florida’s most populous county on the state’s decision.

Dr. Birx: ‘Deeply concerned’ about Miami-Dade

About an hour before the mayor’s media event, a senior White House health official weighed in against the DeSantis approach when Dr. Deborah Birx told Gimenez and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez she was “deeply concerned” about the weaker rules in Miami-Dade, according to multiple accounts of the private call with the chief medical officer for the White House coronavirus task force.

“Birx is very concerned about these restrictions being taken off,” Suarez said in an interview. “Everyone’s hands are tied. This is the governor’s decision.”

Gimenez, a Republican candidate for Congress, did not criticize DeSantis in the press conference but said he was concerned “opening too many things too quickly” will reverse the county’s progress.

“We’ve taken a very cautious approach. We’ve opened up little by little,” he said. “My concern is opening up too many things too quickly will lead us in the opposite direction.” Gimenez also said Birx said she was glad Miami-Dade could still impose stricter rules than what exists in other areas of Florida.

Halsey Beshears, a DeSantis appointee who heads the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation, said it makes sense to shift COVID rules from government fines to rules imposed by businesses themselves.

“You can still have a mask mandate and enforce it, right? Tell people to do the right thing,” he said in an interview. “If some businesses want to have their own thing, they have the right to let customers in and they have the right to refuse customer service.”

“To me that’s the best way to do it. Let the businesses decide that,” he added.

Masks on club dance floors

Bars can reopen under the new DeSantis rule barring local closures of any business under COVID restrictions. Even so, Miami-Dade can maintain a 50% cap on capacity for bars and comply with the governor’s order.

Restaurants in Miami-Dade can only go to 100% capacity if they have enough room to keep inside tables six feet apart and comply with other social-distancing rules.

The 50% capacity cap is in place for nightclubs as well, and Miami-Dade will require masks for club-goers when they’re not drinking — and that includes the dance floor.

“Public health rules remain,” Gimenez said.

Gimenez also said police would continue enforcing the 11 p.m. curfew, even though it cuts into prime serving time for devastated restaurants and bars enjoying some relief courtesy of the Miami Heat’s run to the NBA Finals.

“Remember, they’re playing in ‘the bubble’ precisely because it keeps those players safe,” Gimenez said of the NBA’s quarantined temporary campus in Orlando.

Even while emphasizing the need to keep rules that have helped push Miami-Dade’s hospitality industry into a crisis, Gimenez announced relaxing of some rules at parks and playing fields.

He said he would be signing an order soon allowing all sports leagues to resume organized games. While swing sets and playgrounds would remained closed at county parks, he said businesses could begin using the equipment again.

At a press conference outside City Hall on Dinner Key, Suarez said Miami planned to follow the county on the new Gimenez rules. He said he had “deep concerns” with DeSantis’ actions.

“I think he’s listening to a different set of experts that he is relying on, and it just happened to be a different set of opinions that I’m relying on and the ones that frankly, are from the coronavirus task force nationally,” he said.

Suarez, a Republican in a non-partisan post, said he hopes DeSantis is right, even if it derails the approach the city had taken to slowly lifting restrictions and measuring the impact on the spread of the virus after 14 days before considering lifting more.

“We were trying to space everything out just to see if any one decision that we made had a negative consequence so we knew how to dial it back in case it did,” he said. “That was the plan.”

Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau reporter Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 7:02 PM.