In an effort to crackdown on local business owners who ignore social distancing and mask orders, Tampa Bay leaders announced a new regional effort Thursday morning to combat the recent surge in coronavirus cases.
The virtual meeting—which involved Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard, Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioner Patricia Kemp, and Pinellas County Commissioner Pat Gerard—aimed at highlighting local efforts to curb the virus, as well as announce new punishments for local businesses who ignore mandates.
Beginning Thursday evening, the City of Tampa will send officials out to enforce the city’s mask mandates at local businesses, as well the Hillsborough County ordinance banning packed dance floors, and loitering at bars and restaurants.
In response to a question from Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor detailed repercussions repeat offenders can receive a civil citation and a fine up to $500, or a second degree misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $500.
Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners Patricia Kemp reiterated yesterday’s 5-2 decision by the board to expand mask restrictions and tighten up on bars and nightclubs. Hillsborough residents must now be seated—not standing—if they want to take off their mask to eat or drink, and can no longer congregate on dance floors.
Pinellas County leaders also pledged to crackdown on violators.
“Well, there is no issue that is more regional or national that's on our mind right now,” said Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard, who added that officials will be out looking for local business violating mandates. “We in Clearwater, as the other cities, are not tolerating people who are breaking the ordinances… We are going to be out there looking for the bad actors, we hope for voluntary compliance.”
Pinellas County Commissioner Pat Gerard discussed a recent report from Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri that showed 40% of bars weren’t following the county order. “We have new signs off in bars and restaurants. And you know, we're going to be enforcing it if people can't behave, said Gerard, “and we're actually having a lot of people ask us to enforce the more stringently this ordinance that we've had in place for months.”
Kriseman added that the city has already issued 189 citations.
“We want our businesses to be able to stay open,” said Kriseman. “We want our people to continue to be employed and the easiest way to do that is to follow the rules in St. Petersburg, we've been enforcing the ordinance.”
Today’s announcement brings Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties closer to having similar restrictions. Both counties now require masks to be worn indoors at businesses, and only allow patrons to remove masks when seated. Also, both counties now ban congregating on dance floors.
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This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2020.