Regulators cracking down on businesses violating safety guidelines

People drink outside a bar in Manhattan's East Village neighborhood, two days after New York City entered Phase 1 of reopening. Image via Reuters.

State business regulators are cracking down on businesses including bars and pubs that flout COVID-19 safety guidelines.

Last week, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) began honing in on egregious violations of the state’s safety rules, Secretary Halsey Beshears said. At the request of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Beshears’ department will have a quick trigger finger against businesses that don’t follow precautions.

“If you’re not willing to do that, then you’re going to get a visit here from — I guess he’ll be kind of the Grim Reaper in terms of business licenses because there’s not going to be any tolerance for it,” DeSantis said.

The Secretary appeared alongside the Governor and health experts Tuesday in Orlando, the home of one bar that fell victim to his scythe Monday evening. DBPR suspended the liquor license of a popular University of Central Florida student bar, The Knight’s Pub, after what Beshears called “flagrant violations” of the state’s reopening plan. Thirteen employees and 28 patrons tested positive there.

“After discovering that there were some flagrant violations with The Knight’s Pub, based on contact tracing, it was very easy,” he said.

Later Tuesday the owner of The Knights Pub, Michael D’Esposito, issued a statement denying the allegations, contending that he voluntarily closed the bar on June 8, two weeks before the license was suspended, and that he believes he and his bar are being scapegoated.

Officers from DBPR’s Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco will be patrolling from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. to catch businesses breaking the guidelines.

“We’re going to issue a warning to those that are trying to do the best they can, but that’s not what we’re talking about. But like I said, those that were flagrant, we will be suspending their license,” Beshears added.

Bars and pubs reopened June 5 during Phase Two with visitors capped at 50%. Since then, the state has seen an uptick in new cases, including 3,286 on Tuesday.

“It is completely compatible to have business reopenings and maintain a safe community,” said Orlando Health’s chief quality officer, Dr. George Ralls. “We just got to be really thoughtful about the way we interact in the rest of the times we are around each other.”

For only small violations, like 55% capacity, the Governor recommended only warnings.

“But if you go in and it’s just like mayhem, like dance party USA and it’s packed to the rafters, that’s just cut and dry,” DeSantis said. “And that’s not just an innocent mistake, and so I told him no tolerance for that. Just suspend the license and then we’ll move on. And then people will hopefully get the message that these guidelines are in place for a reason.”

Orange County’s health officer and other authorities, including Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, have pleaded with UCF students and other young people to take the virus outbreak more seriously and to wear masks, under the mask-wearing order Demings issued Thursday for everyone in public in Orange County.

Since the start of Phase Two, Beshears says DBPR has received 108 complaints and has acted on all of them.

“Everyone we visited and gave a warning to, we went back — they complied,” he said.