And barring any changes during today’s rescheduled meeting of Hillsborough County’s Emergency Policy Group, Castor is also eyeing Thursday start to a citywide stay-at-home order.
As Creative Loafing Tampa Bay previously pointed out, an order would ask people to not go to work unless they fall into certain categories including: essential services (think: public sector, public health and health care workers), on-duty military service members, social services, and charitable groups including animal shelters.
A handful of exceptions are also reportedly listed in Castor’s five-page draft.
And on Monday, City of Tampa spokesperson Ashley Bauman told CL what we really wanted to hear, and confirmed that liquor stores would indeed be deemed essential in the event of a stay-at-home order.
Benjamin Kirby, spokesperson for St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman—who said that a stay at home order for the Sunshine City is coming soon—added that in St. Pete, "Liquor stores would be exempt. They effectively fall under the same exemption classification in the legal wording as grocery stores."
So don’t worry friends, you can still visit your favorite package store or bar to get provisions and specially-made cocktails for home consumption.
And again, if you’re worried about a curfew or hard enforcement of Tampa’s stay-at-home-order, now is not the time.
On Tuesday during a Facebook Live press conference, Bauman relayed a question about enforcement of stay-at-home order.
“Well, again, we're not looking at these things as an enforcement issue,” Castor responded. “We're asking individuals to take on this personal responsibility to go along with the requirement, so that we can all stay healthy.”
On Wednesday, CL asked Bauman if the mayor’s office could speak to social media murmur about fines or jail times for anyone caught violating the stay-at-home order.
She confirmed the previous quote about Castor not “looking at these things as an enforcement issue” and told CL that, “Until the EO [executive order] is issued, I don’t believe we should be speculating.”
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This article appears in Mar 19-26, 2020.