Miami-Dade mayors have a new COVID challenge: getting Gov. DeSantis on the phone
Ten months into fighting Florida’s worst coronavirus outbreak, mayors in Miami-Dade County have a simple request for the state’s governor: Call us.
Recent weeks saw city and county leaders confirm publicly they’ve been unable to talk to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who in September intervened in local COVID-19 responses by barring local governments from closing businesses or enforcing COVID-19 fines.
Mayors from some of South Florida’s largest communities want more local control over rules meant to combat the spread of COVID-19, including limiting business activity and issuing collectible fines for people who don’t wear masks in public.
The message is the same from Vice President Mike Pence’s White House Coronavirus Task Force all the way down to scientists crunching numbers for Miami City Hall: Stricter regulations can curb the spread of the virus, especially during a deadly holiday spike. But so far, Miami-Dade leaders have not been able to say this directly to DeSantis.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and other elected officials want more enforcement power as coronavirus infections surge. Suarez, who contracted COVID in March, and Levine Cava, who ended her quarantine Monday after contracting the virus, have both said they would use fines to stem the rising tide of infections. Suarez said Miami would look at limiting indoor capacity for businesses.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez and others have called on DeSantis to allow mask mandates to be enforced. The Miami-Dade League of Cities tasked Suarez, the Republican mayor of the county’s largest city, to make the case for more local control. The governor hasn’t responded to meeting requests.
“I have made personal attempts, which have been unsuccessful,” said Suarez. “I’ve asked people who have acted as emissaries. It hasn’t worked.”
Other leaders whose letters and calls to the governor have gone unanswered are frustrated they can’t share their view from the ground and ask for more power to stem the surge of positive cases and hospitalizations.
DeSantis’ office did not respond to multiple requests from the Miami Herald for comment on his lack of communication with Miami-Dade leaders.
Not every local mayor has had trouble communicating with DeSantis. Bal Harbour Mayor Gabriel Groisman, who is aware of the “tension” between some mayors and the state, spent his birthday Wednesday at the Governor’s Mansion for a Hanukkah party.
Groisman said while he wishes his municipality could better enforce local COVID-19 restrictions, local leaders have been inconsistent in their home-rule positions, vacillating between supporting local powers and requesting statewide mandates.
“I understand the governor’s position,” he said.
Some mayors say when they need to get a message to the governor, they can through intermediaries. Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid, a Republican in a largely conservative area, said he has had indirect access to the governor through Republican state legislators who represent the town. Sen. Manny Diaz Jr. and former Rep. Jose Oliva, who was the speaker of the House until his term in office expired last month, serve as unofficial liaisons.
Though DeSantis may not be returning mayors’ calls, on Tuesday he emphasized his opposition to any closures during a press conference at the Okeechobee Steak House in West Palm Beach. He was there to reinforce his opposition to lockdowns and highlight employees who’ve kept working through the pandemic.
“If a local leader wants to put them out of work,” DeSantis said, “you’re damned right I’m hobbling them from doing that. If they want to shut down businesses, I’m going to stand in the way. I’m going to stand with these folks here because they have a right to make a living, and I don’t think the government has a right to put these people out of work and not let them put food on the table for their family.”
White House report differs
A White House task force report that DeSantis refused to release noted Florida’s place compared to other states — but it cautioned that “rankings are almost irrelevant as the entire country is surging.” The Dec. 6 task force report was obtained and released this week by the Center for Public Integrity.
Meanwhile, the state health department is reporting about 2,000 new infections in Miami-Dade County a day, and about 100 people are hospitalized per day. The numbers are matching totals last seen during the summer COVID surge.
If he had the chance, Suarez said he would present DeSantis with analysis by Florida International University public health experts that shows positive COVID-19 cases decreased within a month of Miami’s mandating masks in public over the summer. The conclusion mirrors advice from the White House task force, which sent DeSantis a report urging the state to at least limit indoor dining, lower capacity in bars and and issue stronger policies around wearing masks.
Unable to enforce citations against individuals for not following mask rules, Miami city regulators have been shutting down businesses that violate their rules often. City officials shut down five businesses for 24 hours in the days after the midnight curfew went back into effect Dec. 10. Since July, the city has enforced one-day closures more than 200 times.
Miami commissioners reinstated the curfew after Jackson Health System CEO Carlos Migoya told commissioners limiting late-night partying could help curb the spread of the virus. Televised news reports of bars and nightclubs crowded with mask-less throngs also influenced the change.
Still, Gelber said local leaders are not seeking widespread closures. He said they just want some leeway and leadership from the governor.
“No one’s talking about shutting the economy down,” he said. “We just want people to wear masks so we can have an economy. The economy would benefit from a mask mandate or at least his voice encouraging mask usage.”
Meeting with Levine Cava could happen soon
Levine Cava, elected in November to lead the state’s most populous and economically important county, has yet to meet with the governor. People who have been in touch with DeSantis and Levine Cava both say a meeting is now in the works, with talks intensifying this week to get the two together. DeSantis was in South Florida briefly on Wednesday for an appearance in Pompano Beach for the first inoculations at a long-term care facility.
Johanna Cervone, Levine Cava’s chief of staff, is in regular communication with her counterpart in Tallahassee, DeSantis’ chief of staff Shane Strum, about the state’s COVID response and vaccination plan. Those communications have included logistics for a meeting between mayor and governor, according to a pair of sources familiar with the exchanges.
DeSantis traveled twice to the Miami area to raise money for Levine Cava’s mayoral opponent, then-commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo Jr. DeSantis didn’t call with congratulations when Levine Cava, a Democrat, won.
At one point, Levine Cava reached out to DeSantis ally Rodney Barreto, owner of a Coral Gables lobbying firm and a restaurateur, about getting in touch with the governor.
“She knows I’m very close to the governor,” said Barreto, a prominent GOP fundraiser. “She asked me to set them up together, and I’m working on that. I’ve spoken to the governor on that. The governor indicated that he looks forward to getting together with Mayor Cava. And we’re working on it for the next time he’s going to be in Miami.”
The last time DeSantis was in Miami-Dade and met with mayors, he struck a decidedly different tone. At a roundtable discussion in July, he mainly listened to what they had to say and left the major decision-making to local governments. When the governor reversed course in September, Miami-Dade’s leaders were miffed.
“That sent a bad message to Miami-Dade County and the local governments,” said Joseph Corradino, Pinecrest mayor and vice president of the county’s League of Cities.
On Tuesday, DeSantis himself suggested he might soon have trouble getting in touch with higher levels of government. The governor has been a firm ally of President Donald Trump. DeSantis said getting the White House on the phone might be harder when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.
“The president has been a hell of an ally for this state, I can tell you that,” he said after a Florida Cabinet meeting. “It’s funny, these hospitals are telling me — because, you know, we have really supported them, if they needed something we got it to them — and I was like, well, you know, I may not be a phone call away from getting everything done soon. So, it’s unfortunate, I think, for Florida.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 12:13 PM.
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