PCSO to Residents: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

When Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri spoke at the December 3 press conference that “being able to go into a restaurant and stand around and have a conversation the way we used to do it is fun [but] now we need to do it differently,” at least one deputy must not have gotten the memo.

As the Gabber owners – this writer is one – delivered the Gabber Newspaper along St. Pete Beach early December 10, they saw a deputy inside Vito and Michael’s. The deputy stood at the front counter, not wearing a face covering, for at least five minutes. In that time, he spoke to another man (also standing at the counter, with no face covering) and held the door as two people with no face covering left the restaurant.

The woman working behind the counter wore a mask, as did the healthcare worker who walked past the unmasked deputy to get a carry out order.

The Gabber emailed photos of the unmasked deputy to the Sheriff’s Office and asked them how this incident occurred, how it supports Gualtieri’s December 3 message, and whether the deputy would be disciplined.

Their one-sentence response gave no indication that Gualtieri intended to discipline him.

“Like everyone, deputies need to make the best effort possible to follow the local ordinance and all our personnel are reminded to do so,” Deputy Jessica Mackesy, with the Sheriff’s public information office, wrote in an email.

Al Johnson, St. Pete Beach Mayor, responded more strongly to the photos.

“That’s totally the wrong message,” Johnson said. “We require masks inside, period, end of subject.”

St. Pete Beach dissolved its police department in 2012 and now contracts with PCSO for services. Johnson told the Gabber he would pursue the matter with the city manager and Sheriff Gualtieri.

South Pinellas cities all handle the mask ordinance differently. Both the cities of Gulfport and St. Petersburg stressed to the Gabber that they expect their officers to follow the county’s mask mandate, although how they treat unmasked individuals differs.

In a June 24 memo to all sworn officers, Gulfport Chief of Police Rob Vincent reminded officers that mask ordinance violations carry a $100 fine, with subsequent violations escalating first to $250, then $500.

Also in that memo – which he reiterated in a phone call with the Gabber – Vincent outlined the preferred course of action: ask businesses to create a mask policy and, if a patron refuses to comply, call the police to trespass the unmasked customer.

The county mask ordinance, as

written, Vincent told the Gabber, has too many loopholes for effective enforcement. He used the example of people seated at a table, saying the burden of proof that groups are or are not in the same family lies with the police, not private citizens.

Vincent also told the Gabber that, on a December 3 5 p.m. conference call, every law enforcement agency in Pinellas agreed it would not issue tickets for mask violations. Read this story online to access the email Sheriff Gualtieri sent to Pinellas police chiefs. Governor DeSantis’s mandate that individuals not get tickets motivated the decision, at least in part.

“Following discussion of several factors, including the many loopholes in the ordinance language, as well as the governor’s executive order, we agreed that it would be inappropriate for law enforcement to issue citations for violation of the county ordinance,” Vincent said of the conference call.

Despite that call, St. Petersburg has cited more than 200 businesses for mask violations – although many of those citations come via the codes department, according to Ben Kirby, the city’s communications director.

“We have a mayor’s order as well as a county order,” Yolanda Fernandez, the St. Petersburg Police Department’s public information officer, said. “We will issue a citation if we see a violation. However, we haven’t in a while because code enforcement has taken the lead on this. They are proactively checking businesses.”

Although SPPD will cite businesses, Fernandez explained, they allow complaints to drive police enforcement.

“When someone calls [and complains] we send someone out,” she said. “We have to see it.”

While the city’s codes compliance assistance and the fire departments issue the bulk of citations, Fernandez said all three departments will ticket businesses.

PCSO, however, remains steadfast in their resistance to issuing citations. Gualtieri has said he would not enforce the county’s mask ordinance, saying he wouldn’t “play mask police.”

Although the Pinellas County Commission passed the mask ordinance, Gualtieri doesn’t answer to them. In cities like Gulfport and St. Petersburg, management hires and fires the police chief with guidance from the elected council and mayor, however voters elect the sheriff.

Cathy Salustri