Early Friday morning, the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners passed another executive order, clarifying and altering when and how businesses could operate following the implementation of the statewide stay at home order on Thursday of last week. I have an updated summary of the statewide stay at home order that you can read by clicking here.
The new Pinellas County order, which went into effect April 3, requires businesses that are not essential services or essential activities, as defined in the statewide stay at home order, to close. All businesses that remain open, must implement social distancing and sanitization standards recommended by the CDC to the maximum extent possible. You can view that full order by clicking here.
The latest Pinellas County order is pretty short, but subsequently, the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners and Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office issued guidance on what businesses are considered non-essential and essential. You can click here to view the full list, but it’s important to note that the Pinellas County lists both indicate that they are not exclusive. So if your business is similar to a business on either list, that should give you an indication of whether Pinellas County considers it official or unofficial.
As you might expect, there appears to be some conflict between the Pinellas County list of non-essential businesses, and the list of businesses that the State of Florida considers essential. First, in these situations, the State of Florida’s list is supposed to prevail and be the controlling list. But, I will give you an example, because Pinellas County will be the entity actually enforcing the distinction between essential and non-essential, so you can likely guess which list they will refer to more often.
So here’s the example, under the Florida-wide stay at home order Workers who support the supply chain of building materials from production through application/installation, including cabinetry, fixtures, doors, cement, hardware, plumbing, electrical, heating/cooling, refrigeration, appliances, paint/coatings, and employees who provide services that enable repair materials and equipment for essential functions are considered essential. So are Workers in hardware and building material stores, consumer electronics, technology and appliances retail, and related merchant wholesalers and distributors.
Under the Pinellas County order, décor and lighting sales businesses are listed as non-essential, even though they would seem to fall under the category of providing fixtures or building materials under the statewide list of essential businesses. My suggestion, if you’re in a business that you think could be impacted by the Pinellas County non-essential list, is that you print a copy of the statewide essential business list, and highlight the section you fall under in case you have to deal with anyone from Pinellas County regarding this.
Finally, Pinellas County lists a narrower scope of construction under its essential businesses list than is included in the statewide order. This scope is not intended to be exclusive, but again I suggest keeping a copy of state-wide order listing the essential business categories with you as you travel so that you can justify being out if you are questioned about it. Again, you can access a copy of that by clicking here.
I know some of this is confusing, so please feel free to call me if you have any questions. Stay safe out there!