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Churches excluded from county’s face covering resolution

Churches excluded from county’s face-covering mandate

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Anna Maria Island, Community News, Manatee County.

MANATEE COUNTY – Churches and all other houses of worship are now excluded from the mandatory face-covering provisions included in a recent Manatee County resolution.

On Tuesday, Aug. 25, county commissioners voted 6-1 in favor of immediately excluding churches and places of worship from the face-covering mandates included in county resolution R-20-116, adopted on July 27.

County Commissioner Carol Whitmore made the motion to exempt houses of worship and to direct the county attorney’s office to present at the next commission meeting an amended resolution reflecting this change.

Whitmore said she made the motion because County Administrator Cherri Coryea and Public Safety Director Jake Sauer ensured the commission that the spread of the COVID-19 virus is currently flattening and declining in Manatee County.

Churches excluded from county’s face covering resolution
County Commissioner Carol Whitmore proposed the face-covering exclusion for churches. – Manatee County | Submitted

Although they supported Whitmore’s motion, commissioners Reggie Bellamy, Betsy Benac and Misty Servia expressed lingering public safety concerns about church congregations potentially contributing to the spread of the virus. Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said houses of worship should never have been included in the resolution.

Commissioner Steve Jonsson cast the only opposition vote. He said this was because of his general opposition to the original resolution, and not because he opposed excluding houses of worship.

In July, Whitmore, Benac, Bellamy and Servia supported the face-covering resolution and Baugh, Jonsson and Priscilla Trace opposed it.

“An individual in a business establishment must wear a face covering while in that business establishment,” the resolution says.

According to the original resolution, “The term ‘business establishment’ also includes places of worship.” The language referring to houses of worship is no longer valid and will be removed in the amended resolution.

The county resolution applies to the unincorporated areas of Manatee County, which includes Cortez. It also applies to the cities of Bradenton Beach and Palmetto, which have not adopted their own city-specific face-covering mandates. Face-covering mandates previously enacted in Anna Maria, Holmes Beach and Bradenton do not specifically reference houses of worship.

County Attorney Mickey Palmer and Chief Assistant County Attorney Bill Clague told the commission that removing the houses of worship reference does not diminish the county’s ability to defend the resolution being challenged in a lawsuit filed on Aug. 2 by Joel Tillis – Senior Pastor of the Suncoast Baptist Church in Palmetto – and State Rep. Anthony Sabatini. The lawsuit alleges the county resolution is unconstitutional because it violates the privacy, due process and religious freedom clauses in the Florida Constitution.

Tillis was among the religious leaders who attended Tuesday’s meeting and called for the houses of worship exclusion.

Churches excluded from county’s face covering resolution
Pastor Joel Tillis asked county commissioners to exclude houses of worship from the county’s face-covering mandate. – Manatee County | Submitted

“I do not call into question the intent of your mask resolution. But I do call into question the unintended consequences that have inflicted unnecessary difficulty and strain on one of this nation’s most sacred institutions: that is houses of worship. The resolution redefined houses of worship fundamentally to be no more sacred than a Walmart or Wendy’s. Surely you did not intend that,” Tillis said.

“The resolution is fundamentally unfair to houses of worship. One can reserve a table for 15 at The Cheesecake Factory and take off the masks for two hours to eat and drink, yet to do so in a house of God is to break the very resolution that you have passed. The people that I represent have, are, and will continue to defy what we believe is an unconstitutional and insensitive resolution. I humbly ask for you to provide an exemption for houses of worship,” Tillis said.

When contacted later in the week, Palmer was asked what impact the commission decision has on the still-pending lawsuit.

“We believe that the plaintiff’s lawsuit complaint is rendered moot as it relates to houses of worship. There are other aspects of the plaintiff’s complaint, however, that are unrelated to the houses of worship issue. As to the unrelated issues, those will presumably survive the mootness argument but may very well be disposed of in a forthcoming motion to dismiss,” Palmer said.

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Pastor and state representative challenge county mask mandate

Pat Glass Chambers

Pat Glass honored for her lasting legacy

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Community News, Manatee County.

BRADENTON – The Manatee County Commission chambers are now “The Honorable Patricia M. Glass Chambers” in honor of the county’s first female commissioner.

Pat Glass, 91, was elected to the County Commission in 1978 and during her 28-year tenure that ended in 2006 she served as commission chair seven times.

The commission renamed the chambers with a resolution on Tuesday, Nov. 27, with Glass in attendance, accompanied by her sons Marty and Michael, her daughters Diane and Mary, her granddaughter Nicole and a chamber full of well-wishers.

During his introductory remarks, County Attorney Mickey Palmer thanked Assistant County Attorneys Anne Morris and Alexandria Nicodemi and legal assistant Katie Pearson for preparing the detailed five-page biographical resolution he would read aloud.

“When I was initially informed that Mrs. Glass expressed a preference for me to read the resolution today, I must say I shed a tear and I began to do a lot of reflecting. In the late 1980s, and the entire decade of the 1990s, I was a young, impressionable assistant county attorney learning the right way to do things while Commissioner Glass was demonstrating the right way to do things,” Palmer said.

Lifetime of accomplishment

Glass was born in Cleveland. She and her husband Hank moved to Sarasota County in 1954 and to Manatee County in 1960. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a master’s degree in Behavioral and Social Sciences and served as chief of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council’s Division of Aging before Hank encouraged her to run for a commission seat.

Pat Glass Past
Pat Glass served on the Manatee County Commission from 1978 to 2006 and served as commission chair seven times. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

As a commissioner in the early 1980s, Glass lobbied the Florida Legislature for the funds to build the non-profit hospital that became Manatee Glens, later the Centerstone Behavioral Hospital Addiction Center.

When the county-owned Manatee Memorial Hospital was sold in 1984, Glass helped turn those proceeds into a trust fund for indigent health care.

In the 1990s, Glass created the AIDS Council of Manatee County and helped create what is now the Michael Bach Clinic.

Glass served on the Committee to End Chronic Homelessness and worked closely with the Bradenton Housing Authority. She also helped establish the Children’s Services dedicated millage that is the county’s most substantial source of funding for children’s programs.

“Never have I encountered anyone with as much honor, grace and intelligence.”
– Nick Azzara, Manatee County Information Outreach Manager

Glass served on the Board of Governors for the Southwest Florida Water Management District, chaired the Environmental Action Commission and was a founding member of the Sarasota Bay, Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Programs.

Glass served as Tourist Development Council chair five times, led the efforts to purchase and preserve the Powel Crosley Estate and helped create environmental policies that protect county parks and the Duette, Emerson Point and Robinson Preserves.

“She earned a reputation as a consensus builder capable of accomplishing great things and creating enormous advancements in the areas of healthcare, affordable housing, environmental protection and drinking water resources for Manatee County residents,” the resolution says.

When Palmer finished, Glass said, “The money that funded all those programs did not come out of Manatee County, but from Washington and Tallahassee.”

She also mentioned the importance of working together for the love of the county and the love of one another.

Well-earned praise

At Glass’ request, County Commissioner Carol Whitmore spoke next. Whitmore met Glass in the 1980s while working as a nurse at Manatee Memorial Hospital and she still visits Glass regularly.

Pat Glass Honored II
County Commissioner Carol Whitmore and County Attorney Mickey Palmer were among those who spoke in tribute of their friend and mentor Pat Glass. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

“Pat started the AIDS Council. She served as the president for years and that’s territory a lot people didn’t have enough nerve to do in those days,” Whitmore said.

“And my beloved trolley: She was one of the few commissioners that stood with me every time I came and asked to get that program going,” Whitmore, a former Holmes Beach mayor, said of Anna Maria Island’s free trolley service.

Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Department Director Charlie Hunsicker recalled how Glass once insisted he join her at a party in Tampa, where he met his future wife, Susan.

“From my family to your family, thank you so much for bringing us together,” Hunsicker said.

Just for Girls CEO Becky Canesse thanked Glass for securing the funds that helped form that organization 25 years ago.

County Information Outreach Manager Nick Azzara worked with Glass when he was a newspaper reporter.

“I formed a unique relationship with you. We trusted each other. We talked about what was going on behind the scenes and you always let me know what was really going on. Never have I encountered anyone with as much honor, grace and intelligence,” Azzara said.

Commissioner Steve Jonsson said, “You broke the glass ceiling. You are an inspiration.”

After the resolution was adopted, the crowd moved to the lobby for the unveiling of the inscription, plaque and painting of Glass that now grace the chamber’s outer wall.

“She was a mentor to me. She showed you how to be an elected official – do what’s in your heart and do the right thing,” Bradenton Beach Mayor and former County Commissioner John Chappie said afterwards.

As the crowd thinned out, Glass was asked how it felt to have the commission chambers named after her.

“I never would have dreamed it, but we shocked a lot of them. If you’re going to be there, have fun doing it. The people in that audience did more for me than I did for them. It’s just a matter of bringing people together and that’s where the word ‘love’ is important,” she said.