Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference at a drive-through coronavirus testing site. | AP Photo DeSantis says one thing, then says another, and mayors ask for clarity

TALLAHASSEE — A statewide stay-at-home directive has sown confusion in Florida, with Gov. Ron DeSantis and his aides telling mayors that the order’s plain language doesn’t mean what it says.

Two days after the April 1 order was amended to supersede any “conflicting official action” by local governments, DeSantis aides told mayors that their powers were “not preempted in any way.” And although the order exempted specific “essential” services, the governor’s office told the mayors that it was up to them to decide what is a nonessential business, according to emails obtained by POLITICO.


“This is an example of rhetoric versus executive order,” said state Sen. Janet Cruz, a Tampa Democrat who read the emails between the governor’s staff and two South Florida mayors. ”You can go to the podium and say one thing but that doesn't change what was signed into order. Words matter, not just in what you say, but in what you do.”

The governor’s mixed messaging in the wake of the executive order follows weeks of intense political pressure on DeSantis to issue the stay-at-home directive as coronavirus infections mounted in the state.

The original edict curbed business and social activity with exemptions for essential services, which was defined to include places of worship.

Hours later, however, it was amended to “supersede any conflicting official action or order issued by local officials in response to Covid-19.” The change seemed to strip localities of their ability to enforce their own local orders, including banning in-person religious worship services, a move that handed a legal victory to a Tampa pastor at the center of a brewing national battle over religious liberty in the age of coronavirus.

That raised alarms in the cities of Sunrise and Weston, where officials had issued their own orders on March 27 that limited all gatherings, including religious services, to 10 or fewer people. On Friday, they asked DeSantis Chief of Staff Shane Strum to explain what the governor meant.

“I have been hearing the argument that we do not have a right to close or restrict places of worship,” Sunrise Mayor Mike Ryan wrote in an April 3 email to Strum. “I disagree with that legal analysis in all respects.”

Strum, whose emails were obtained by POLITICO from local officials concerned about the mixed messages coming from DeSantis, forwarded the email to the governor’s top attorney, Joe Jacquot, who said the order has next to no impact on local government authority.

“Local authorities are not preempted in any way,” Jacquot wrote to both Ryan and Weston Mayor Daniel Stermer. Sunrise and Weston are both part of Broward County, where the coronavirus outbreak has sickened more than 2,200 people including Stermer, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday.

Jacquot told Ryan and Stermer that the order does not prevent them from closing a business to stop the spread of the deadly illness and that local officials had wide latitude despite the statewide order preempting local directives.

“So yes you can use your own authority to close or restrict how any business/organization must comply with your codes,” Jacquot wrote. “The Governor’s Order does not give a business/organization any ‘right’ to avoid your codes.”

Ryan and Stermer did not respond to requests for comment.

DeSantis himself has added to the confusion. The day after he unveiled — and amended — the order, he called it a “baseline.” If a local government wants “to do things more, then they can do things more,” he told reporters on April 2.

One of those biggest points of contention is over in-person religious services.

DeSantis’ order clearly exempts religious services as essential, and said last week that he does not think “government has the authority to close church.”

Jacquot did not specifically address the religious worship question raised by Ryan and Stermer.

When asked about the apparent disconnect between the order itself and the governor’s rhetoric, DeSantis communication director Helen Aguirre Ferré pointed to a question-and-answer document released by the office Saturday.

“The Governor’s [executive order] limits the movement of individuals,” Ferre said. “This is not in conflict with local authorities ability to adopt requirements directly on businesses, operations or venues, including beaches, and parks, that may be stricter than the Governor’s Executive Order.”

When asked whether a local government can deem an “essential” business under DeSantis’ order “nonessential” — and thus subject to closure — Ferre said “there is nothing to supersede when there is no conflict.”

Ferré did not respond to further questions.

Religious services have been the biggest point of contention, but not the only one.

The DeSantis order allows recreational actives “consistent with social distancing,” specifically mentioning walking, biking, hiking, hunting, running, or swimming.

Shortly after the order was released, The PGA Tour thanked DeSantis, sending an email blast saying “golf is considered an essential activity as long as proper social distancing is maintained.”

The email prompted even more confusion.

“It was weird [for the PGA] to cite hearsay from the governor’s office. It was given to several local officials like it was a binding interpretation by club owners,” said a lobbyist whose clients include local governments. “It’s an odd way to run a pandemic.”