Lakeland city commissioners have called another special meeting to discuss a citywide mask mandate for a second time. This comes after hundreds of business owners have taken it upon themselves to enforce policies of their own.
But under Florida Statute 876.12 Wearing mask, hood, or other device on public way.—No person or persons over 16 years of age shall, while wearing any mask, hood, or device whereby any portion of the face is so hidden, concealed, or covered as to conceal the identity of the wearer, enter upon, or be or appear upon any lane, walk, alley, street, road, highway, or other public way in this state.
Heather Jackson, the founder of a Facebook group called Lakeland Business – Operation Face mask. Jackson has a running list of businesses which claim to require masks not only for their employees but also for customers.
“I think there are those of us who do want to be safe and be protected when we go out and we don’t know where to go to make that happen and I’m hoping, part of my plan with this list is to keep businesses going. Because I’m scared that if we have to have a second shut down some of these local businesses just won’t be able to make it back and that would be really sad for our entire community,” Jackson said.
The City of Lakeland will hold a special meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday. Four ‘yes votes’ are needed for the mandate to pass.