ANNA MARIA – Anna Maria City Commissioner Joe Muscatello has recovered from his recent COVID-19 infection.
During the Tuesday, Nov. 24 city commission meeting, Muscatello discussed his COVID experience after thanking Mayor Dan Murphy and city staff for checking on his well-being.
“I’m one of the people in Anna Maria that had COVID. You don’t want it. It was horrible. I’ve gone through stage 4 cancer and this was worse than that for three weeks. I couldn’t move for three weeks. I had to quarantine away from my wife, in my room,” Muscatello said.
Muscatello, who’s retired, said he was fortunate that he didn’t have to miss work, get children off to school or deal with the other concerns working people have to contend with while recovering from the illness.
2020 COVID-19 cases on Anna Maria Island
Source: Florida Department of Health
Muscatello said he had a 102-degree fever for three weeks, but was fortunate that he didn’t have to be hospitalized or be placed on a ventilator.
“And I’m not one of the 250,000 people who are now dead. My heart goes out to all those families,” he said.
“These damn people who won’t wear a mask… it’s personal to me now. I was worried about it before. Now that I’ve had it, I’m even more worried,” Muscatello said. “I picked it up from an extended family member. I let my guard down for one day. That’s all it takes.”
Muscatello said his main concern is the 1,500 residents who live in Anna Maria, but he’s also concerned about “the 20,000 that come here every week to have a good time.”
Commission’s COVID concerns
Muscatello discussed his personal experience after Commissioner Jon Crane expressed concerns about Gov. Ron DeSantis’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You already know my feeling about the governor’s approach to relaxing COVID measures. I disagree with him,” Crane said.
“I’m been ruminating on this for a while and the other day I saw a number of mayors had written a letter to the governor saying, ‘Let us have our powers back so we can protect our city.’ I think we might want to consider some sort of resolution supporting those mayors and our own need to exercise our home rule in protecting our citizens,” Crane said.
In September, DeSantis issued Executive Order 20-244, an order that prohibits city and county governments from imposing fines or other penalties on individuals who violate local COVID-19 orders or mandates.
That order also prevents local and county governments from limiting establishments with a food service license to less than 100% indoor capacity without quantifying the economic impact of each limitation or requirement placed on those restaurants and explaining why each limitation or requirement is necessary to protect public health.
On Nov. 24, DeSantis extended EO 20-244 with the issuance of EO 20-297.
“We’re not able to enforce our mask ordinance,” Crane said.
“Because we can’t fine,” Mayor Dan Murphy added.
Crane said it was noted earlier during the meeting that Anna Maria businesses are, for the most part, doing a good job of enforcing their own mask requirements.
“I just think we ought to protect our people from visitors who are mask-defiant,” Crane said.
Murphy referenced the local emergency order he issued on Sept. 30 in response to DeSantis’ order – an order that reiterates a business owner’s right to have a patron trespassed for refusing to wear a mask. At that time, Murphy issued a second order that requires masks or face coverings inside city hall, the city annex and at city events held at City Pier Park.
“The trespass order is actually more effective than the fines because nobody wants to be trespassed. We’ve had incidents down at the farmers market and they’re quickly solved with the mention of trespassing,” Murphy said.
Muscatello asked Murphy if he was aware of any Anna Maria businesses trespassing a patron for not wearing a mask.
Murphy said he was not aware of that happening, but he is aware of customers being made cognizant that they could be trespassed.
Code Enforcement Manager Debbie Haynes mentioned an incident involving a patron who refused to wear a mask at the farmers market.
“A deputy came to address the situation,” Haynes said, noting it wasn’t a vendor who requested that action, but a member of the code enforcement department who was present at the time.
Murphy said a lady recently wanted to use the restroom inside city hall but didn’t want to wear a mask.
“She told me all the reasons I couldn’t make her put a mask on. I told her that I could, and I would, and she wasn’t going to use the bathroom. She yelled at me a little bit and I said you’ll have to use the bathroom somewhere else,” Murphy said.
“I’ll maintain my outrage. but I’ll withdraw my motion,” Crane said in regard to a city resolution.
“Jon, I’m right behind you on what we can do to convince this crazy-ass governor of ours to help us out,” Muscatello said before sharing his own COVID experience.
