Miami Area to Keep Enforcing Mask Rules That Governor Defanged

(Bloomberg) -- Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the county would continue to issue mask citations, even after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blocked local governments from collecting pandemic fines.

Gimenez, who oversees Florida’s most populous and hardest-hit county, said the Republican governor’s executive order bars the county from collecting for now, but authorities could still issue the $100 citations and collect when the order is lifted or expires.

The order on Friday marked an aggressive escalation by DeSantis, an ally of President Donald Trump. The governor has long resisted calls for a statewide mask order, but had repeatedly said he would defer to counties and cities on how best to protect their residents.

DeSantis’s executive measures last week also forced Gimenez -- who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican against Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell -- to let bars and clubs reopen. He had previously said he hoped to keep them closed until there was a vaccine.

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