- [Announcer] This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

- [Rob] Coming up next.

The special session of the legislature wraps up with new laws blocking vaccine and mask mandates.

Major health groups say Tallahassee is risking the health of people who have preexisting conditions.

Now that the infrastructure bill is passed in Washington, what are the major infrastructure needs in Florida that will be addressed?

And developers win a battle to build a major project near the Gulf of Mexico, all coming up next on Florida This Week.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back.

Florida Republicans approved a sweeping bill on Wednesday to limit coronavirus vaccine mandates in businesses.

Less than 24 hours later, Governor Ron DeSantis signed limits into law.

- [Rob] Legislators rejected claims that they were endangering public health.

Republicans said they were protecting workers from burdensome mandates by the federal government.

- You have to the balance the health and welfare of a community versus that of the individual.

And that balancing test is precarious at times like now.

But I believe that mandates are significantly a player when it comes to reducing the possibility of catching the virus.

- I think it's unconstitutional.

I think it's important, I think with the confusion and the anxiety that they are creating among business owners who don't wanna fire their employees, among employees who don't wanna leave their job over a medical condition or a religious objection or a belief that it's not the best thing between them and their doctor to get a vaccine, that's there decision.

- [Rob] The bills were passed as originally written with no changes or amendments.

It was a big win for Governor DeSantis who was using his opposition to COVID mandates as the basis for his re-election run next year, and a possible run for the presidency in 2024.

- Steve Bousquet is a reporter and columnist for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and has been following this week's special session.

Steve, welcome back.

- Thanks Rob, good to be here.

- Is it fair to say that the governor wanted more?

He wanted a total ban on vaccine and mask mandates, he didn't get it, what did he get?

- Yeah, when he got was, he did want more.

He got a good slice of what he wanted, however.

He wanted to basically reign in companies that have vaccine mandates and mask mandates, and he wants to reign in school districts, and he got this meaningless, silly, irrelevant piece of legislation passed that allows the state to set up its own replacement agency to replace OSHA, the occupational safety and health administration.

It'll probably never happen.

It's gonna be grossly expensive, not the kinda things we expect from so-called conservative Republicans, and it would take years and it would require a federal approval which under this administration they're never going to get.

- So how will the, what happened in Tallahassee this week, how will this affect those large businesses here in Florida that require their employees to get COVID vaccines?

- They're gonna to have to offer exemptions like a religious exemption or a pregnancy exemption, things like that.

And they're gonna have to be on guard for employee complaints, which as you know, are gonna be confidential, we'll never know about them.

So, I don't see it changing life very much for most corporations in Florida.

This session was a stunt, it was a show.

This is playing to the Trump base to try to pump up DeSantis's national profile in anticipation of 2022 and beyond.

- All right so, does this set up a conflict with the Biden administration, because the Biden administration has issued a requirement that employers with a hundred people or more that they all get vaccines by January 4th.

So, is this in direct conflict with the Biden administration's mandate?

- Yes, it is.

Yeah, that's the whole idea, it's to set up a conflict and a clash and a narrative that the federal government is overreaching and imposing on reasonable mandates on Florida residents and businesses.

And I think it's a realistic possibility that when it gets to court, DeSantis wins.

I think Florida could win this case, so if they've won the case, doesn't mean they're right, it means they won.

And so, Biden does face the accusation here of an overreaching federal government.

And there's no question that is, that plays (breaks off) well with a segment of the Florida's population for sure.

- So I've been reading stories that say that the Democrats up there in Tallahassee really gave up and gave in that in this session, there's an expansion of public record exemptions and a further whittling away of the Sunshine Law.

What happened up there in Tallahassee?

- What happened was that, as everyone knows, the Democrats don't have enough votes in the House or the Senate to meaningfully affect an outcome on a bill.

This is why, and this is to the point that elections have consequences, in this case, serious consequences.

However, to add a new public records exemption, you need a two-thirds vote by both chambers.

That means you need 27 senators out of 40 to pass a public records exemption, in the case of this exemption that basically puts a blanket of secrecy over all employee complaints and all employee investigations or state investigations of companies on their vaccine mandate policies.

The Democrats have 16 members in the Senate.

They have the math on their side.

They could have killed that bill and slowed or stopped much of this agenda.

However, the Senate Democrats are disjointed.

There's still some infighting going on, their caucus does not have clear strong direction, couldn't agree.

And so, they went their separate way and the bill passed, but the Democrats could have killed that public records exemption and didn't.

It was a missed opportunity, and in my opinion, in the Sun-Sentinel, a big mistake by Democrats.

- So Steve, make the case for us though.

Why is it in the public interest for reporters and others to have access to this information that, you know, employees are complaining about the mandates.

- Right, good question.

And there was an amendment in the House by Joe Geller to deal with this very point.

I do respect, and federal law respects the confidentiality of private, personal health information of individuals without their consent.

It should not be released.

No one wants their personal medical history out there on the internet.

It's nobody's business.

However, what Florida companies do is a big deal.

Would you rather know or not know that the restaurant you like to patronize with your spouse on Saturday night, doesn't have any procedures in place for vaccinations or for masks, or that employees want to wear masks and they can't, or at a doctor's office, the nurse practitioner in that office wants to wear a mask but the doctor who runs the office is an anti-vaxxer who doesn't believe in vaccines or masks?

I think people wanna know this stuff.

And it is wrong for the state of Florida to place a blanket, a generalized exemption over all this information.

The companies should not have this sort of protection, that's wrong.

- Steve Bousquet, it's always great to see you.

Thanks for coming back on the program.

- Okay, thanks Rob.

Good to see you, thanks.

(upbeat piano music) - At the beginning of this week, as the special session was about to get underway, three national health organizations called for the rejection of the legislator proposals that sought to push back against vaccination and mask mandates.

- [Rob] The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Lung Association, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society issued a statement that warned about the continued threat to people with preexisting health conditions such as cancer from COVID-19.

The national groups message to the state legislature was this, that "Vaccine requirements "help protect immunosuppressed patients including kids, "and by blocking businesses and organizations "as well as cities and towns from enacting those policies, "it jeopardizes the health of patients and their families and silences their voices."

- Dr. Omar Rashid is a board certified Complex General Surgical Oncologist in Fort Lauderdale.

He has both a medical degree and a law degree from Duke University focusing on health policy.

He also completed a fellowship at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, and Dr. Rashid, thanks for joining us.

- Thank you for having me, it's a privilege to be here.

- So why did these groups, these national groups come out in favor of vaccine and mass mandates?

How do they help stop the disease?

- That's a great question, thank you for asking.

If you look at the history of these organizations, they've been advocating for public policy that advances safety and better outcomes for patients with cancer.

The COVID pandemic when it hit, it was a huge threat to the cancer population and patients with other chronic conditions and as you know, Florida has a large number of both.

It was so bad at the height of the pandemic that many cancer treatments are being interrupted, many cancer screenings are being delayed.

And I can tell you as a surgical oncologist on the front lines down here in South Florida, many patients are presenting with advanced disease, unfortunately, because of those missed opportunities.

When it comes to COVID and fighting the infection and how to prevent the infection, it's all based on the data that we have and the science it's out there.

And so, the guidelines recommend vaccinations and mask wearing as your best weapon to prevent infection, and that's critical for cancer patients because unfortunately we know the cancer patients are at a higher risk of morbidity and mortality, so worst outcomes in the hospital when they get that infection.

And unfortunately, many people have cancer in their family.

So, many healthy people are afraid of passing it on to loved ones and friends, neighbors who are at risk.

And so, wearing a mask, vaccinations, is pretty much an all hands on deck kind of approach, to keep these patients safe.

And ACS, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the others that you listed, have been advocating for years, what can we do to better protect these patients?

And it's still happening today, COVID is not over.

Even in the wake of the surges, there's a lot of difficulty in terms of getting patients treated, cancer patients and people who don't have cancer, who are going to get screenings are afraid to go in and get those treatments, and these are conversations we're dealing with all the time.

I'm a surgeon, so I live in a mask, in the operating room, in the hospital, so, it wasn't a big change for me to wear a mask.

Vaccinations were something that had been recommended for a long time in terms of preventing infection, and even in many cases, preventing cancers caused by those viruses.

We don't know what the longterm effects of COVID are in terms of what cancers it may cause in the future.

But it's a very, very important issue that's affecting all of us.

As a surgeon trying to cure someone of cancer, many times we're calling around to all the hospitals in the area to figure out who have the availability to provide care for these patients because of how hard our health system has been hit.

So, the ripple effect on COVID has been huge.

That's why we're advocating as best as we can for folks to do the safest thing, to prevent these poor outcomes with these cancer patients, but also to relieve that strain on the health system that's affecting everyone.

Folks who go to the ER with chest pain and have a heart attack, are being affected in terms of what type of care they can get.

So, even though it may seem that we are out of the woods, the numbers look good in Florida right now, we can't let our guard down.

And for me, as a cancer surgeon, it's my duty to do what's safest for the patient, and that includes, it's what we all signed up for in terms of healthcare providers, to take every step we can to prevent harm to our patients.

So that's why- all (indistinct) is behind them.

- Dr. Rashid, we only have 30 seconds left, but what do you say to people who say that it's personal freedom.

If they wanna not wear a mask, if they wanna not get a vaccine, that's their personal choice.

What do you say to people, we only have about 25 seconds.

- Well, we're not free to yell fire in a theater.

And unfortunately, when it comes to COVID, you bring that COVID home and you can give it to a child who's unvaccinated, who knows the long-term effects are?

Or you can give it to someone else who has cancer or some other condition and they may die.

So, it's not purely an individual choice.

It's something that's affecting the whole society, the whole economy, the whole world has changed because of this.

So, I would use the analogy of fire in a theater or something else where you realize that it's not you, you're just one action, you're affecting everybody else.

- Dr. Omar Rashid, thanks a lot for coming on Florida This Week.

- Thank you, sir.

It was a privilege.

(upbeat piano music) - On Monday, President Joe Biden signed the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal into law.

- [Rob] State of Florida is set to receive at least $15 billion, maybe more, to repair highways, public transportation, bridges, and other projects.

Florida's Infrastructure was recently graded a C by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

- Kathy Ruvarac is a senior project manager, WSP USA, civil engineering, a Vice President with the American Society of Civil Engineers, Florida Section, and the chair of the 2021 Report Card for Florida's Infrastructure.

Kathy, thanks for joining us.

- You're welcome, glad to be here.

- So, you graded Florida's Infrastructure a C in your most recent report.

Why did it get a C grade, and is that a bad grade?

- Well, we consider a C, a mediocre grade and when compared with the national grade of a C minus, we're actually higher, and some of our sectors of infrastructure grade higher than the national average.

We added three additional infrastructure sectors to our report card this release, and those are dams, levees, and solid waste.

And dams and levees in particular, graded in the D range, and that brought our overall report card grade down.

- If you were to look around Florida to a specific problem that is in danger and needs to be fixed right away, could you point to a problem around Florida that this money would really help us fix?

- Well, I can think of many examples.

One of our infrastructure sectors is that of schools, and that also received a good low grade of D. And historically, it has had a grade of D because we haven't had the money to put into upgrading and rehabilitating our schools.

The bill will actually provide funding for improving HVAC systems in our schools doing some repairs and rehabilitation, and also the drinking water systems, because there are a lot of leaking pipes, there's lead in our pipes and of course, nationally and some in Florida, which can be repaired with the funds that are allocated in this bill.

- I'm surprised that we still have lead pipes in Florida, but I guess I shouldn't be.

Tell me about high-speed internet.

What's gonna happen with high speed internet around Florida, and why is this infrastructure bill important for high speed internet?

- Well, I think that during COVID, we found that with people being asked to work remotely and work at home and children doing their schoolwork on those same broadband internet systems that it was very difficult for them.

And especially in our rural communities, you know, we're fortunate when we live in a big city that we have internet access that is quick and when we travel outside of those limits, then we do run into trouble.

So this bill will help facilitate bringing high-speed internet to our rural communities.

- And what about sea level rise?

How will the infrastructure bill affect sea level rise protection here in Florida?

- Well, there's a number of programs and there are some new programs that are identified in the bill specifically to address coastal resiliency and hardening our systems, whether or not it's our electric grid by undergrounding our utilities or strengthening our grid and reducing the time and duration of outages after storm events.

Of course, we have money that can be used to harden our roadways, and of course, bridges in the vicinity of our coastal lines.

- So Kathy, for years, I've talked with the people at the National Society of Civil Engineers about their annual report card, it's always been bad.

How does it feel after all these years of getting a bad report card that finally, there's some extra money in the budget for major infrastructure problems?

How does it feel to you as a civil engineer?

- I am so proud to be a part of this time.

When we look back in history at the Interstate Highway System, and when that was funded in 1956, and then look at the historic amount of funding and what is possible, you know, we also have a great deal of funding that Governor DeSantis has allocated for our coastal programs with Senate Bill 1954, and then also his Wastewater Grant Program that was announced a few weeks ago.

And so, between the funding that's available for IIJA, and the funding that the governor has allocated for us, I do think that we're gonna see some major improvements in our state in the next five years.

- Well, Kathy, thanks for being on the program, great to see you.

- Thank you.

(upbeat piano music) - Last week, the Tarpon Springs City Commissioner approved a plan by Texas Development Company to build 404 luxury apartments along the Anclote River in U.S. 19.

- [Rob] For years, residents have opposed building anything on the 74 acre natural site which includes wetlands and Bald Eagle nests.

The vote was three to one with a majority of commissioners saying the project was consistent with the city plan.

Residents opposed to the development said it would add to safety problems on heavily traveled U.S. 19.

They also opposed for loss of green space, and opposed adding more than a thousand residents to that site, which is prone to flooding.

- Tracey McManus is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times and has been covering this story.

Tracey, welcome to Florida This Week.

- Thanks for having me, Rob.

- So Walmart had wanted to build on this spot about 15 years ago, they were turned down, but this project was okayed by the Tarpon City Commission.

Why did they get the okay this time?

- Well Rob, it's an interesting history, Walmart actually was approved to build a supercenter on the site by the Tarpon Springs City Commission in January of 2005.

So they had the go ahead to do it.

What happened was residents and activists at the time were really growled up, filed a lawsuit against the city and Walmart saying that the approval violated the city's comprehensive plan.

And that lawsuit was winding its way in the courts.

The lawsuit actually was not successful, but it tied Walmart up in court so long that Walmart just walked away and put it's land up for sale in 2013.

So that's how we got to where we are today, where Morgan Group, a Houston-based housing developer came in and applied to build its apartment complex on the site.

The application first came last year and ultimately the city commission did vote last week to approve it.

- And why did the commission vote to approve it?

What standards are there to improve something like this?

- Well, this was a big point of the discussion.

It was a quasi-judicial hearing, and the city commission argued that, under the rules of quasi-judicial hearings, if the application met all of the standards of the city's code and comprehensive plan, they had to approve it.

In other words, they couldn't just say, "Well, we'd prefer for the land to be a park, so we'd rather not have apartments here."

They said that the apartment application met all the rules of the comp plan, so they had to vote to approve it.

Now, the activists and residents challenging the progress, disagree with that assessment.

And they say that the city commission did have the authority to look at the comprehensive plan and say that the apartments are in direct violation with it, therefore it should not have been approved.

And some things they point to there is that the 74 acre site is in the coastal high hazard area and it's prone to flooding, and the city's comprehensive plan directs the city to move populations away from coastal high hazard area.

So, especially City Commissioner Costa Vatikiotis, who was the only vote against the project pointed to that in his rationale for voting against the project.

He also pointed to some safety concerns and obviously city rules prioritize citizen safety.

And he said that the two entrances on U.S. 19 for the apartment complex, he's not convinced there's evidence that it is safe and that U.S. 19 can handle the added traffic, so that's another rationale why he voted against it.

Obviously, his colleagues on the commission disagreed with that.

- And what about the environmental concerns to Eagle's nest?

Is that all that's on this 74 acre property, or is there more that might be destroyed by the building of the apartments?

- There is Bald Eagle nests on the property.

There's identified gopher tortoises, and there's rival (mumbles) habitat.

Well, the developer has included in their plan standards for dealing with those things.

There's some federal rules for building around Eagle's nest, which they say they're gonna be following.

And also, there's 22 acres of wetlands on the sites, and the developer said they are only gonna impact less than one acre of those wetlands, and obviously preserve the rest.

There's 64 acres of the site that is not submerged, and of those there's about 12 acres that are gonna have parking infrastructure apartments on them.

So they kinda point to that and saying that this is an environmentally conscious, you know, apartment complex.

- And Tracey, we just have about 10 or 15 seconds left, but this isn't the only place in Pinellas County or Pasco County where residents are trying to save undeveloped land.

- For sure, earlier this year, Dunedin in Pinellas County was able to purchase the Gladys Douglas site in unincorporated Pinellas, near Dunedin, that was a result of fundraising by the community and the local government.

And there's also 14 acres on West Klosterman Road that residents are really trying to save right now.

There's a campaign to raise $3 million to buy it from Pinellas County schools and save it from development, so that's a big issue as well.

- Tracey McManus, thanks a lot for coming on Florida This Week.

- Thanks for having me.

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(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Florida This Week is a production of WEDU who is solely responsible for its content.