Gov. DeSantis bans local governments from protecting workers from heat, limits police oversight boards

[Dead2009]

Gov. DeSantis bans local governments from protecting workers from heat, limits police oversight boards

Florida is seeing two more recent instances of state government under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis limiting the powers of local government with newly signed bills that deal with worker safety and police oversight.

www.cbsnews.com

MIAMI - Florida is seeing two more recent instances of state government under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis limiting the powers of local government with newly signed bills that deal with worker safety and police oversight.

A bill signed Thursday bans local governments from requiring heat and water breaks for outdoor workers. And a bill DeSantis signed Friday strips local citizen police oversight boards from investigating officers.

In a bill DeSantis signed Thursday, Florida, one of the hottest states in the country, local governments will be banned from requiring heat and water breaks for outdoor workers.

It was a direct response to Miami-Dade County's effort to require shade and water for construction, farm and other outdoor workers.

But in a state where construction and farming are huge industries — Miami-Dade estimates more than 325,000 workers in that county alone — critics lambasted the bill that keeps local government from protecting workers from heat and sun. Democratic state Sen. Victor Torres called the new law an attack on workers.

Asked about the bill Friday, DeSantis said it was an issue raised by Miami-Dade County lawmakers.

"It really wasn't anything that was coming from me. There was a lot of concern out of one county — Miami-Dade," DeSantis said. "They were pursuing what was going to cause a lot of problems down there."

But the law will now keep Florida's 66 other counties from requiring similar worker protections.

Separately, DeSantis signed a bill Friday that would ban local policy advisory commissions from initiating disciplinary actions against officers, instead limiting the citizens boards to making recommendations on policy. DeSantis was surrounded by law enforcement officers and in front of cheering supporters as he signed the bill to ban citizens oversight boards from investigating complaints about police officers.

DeSantis said some counties have commissioners that appoint activists to oversight boards and use them as a political weapons for an anti-police agenda.

"They're not free to use law enforcement as political pinatas, they're not free to create false narratives, they're not free to try to make it miserable to work in uniform," DeSantis said. "They are not able to initiate disciplinary proceedings. We have other ways to do that."

The law also requires the oversight boards to be appointed by and under the direction of sheriffs and police chiefs. At least one member of oversight boards must be a retired law enforcement officer.

 

[MrDawn]

This feud between Biden, Texas, and Florida is starting to get ugly.

 

[NeoMetallix]

The police one seems good but I don't know enough about how all that works to make an opinion.

The heat protection one, I don't see the point of putting effort into repealing that. Although it will make it more apparent who is worth working for. If the company needed a law to provide water, I can't imagine they are very good to work for in the first place.

 

[Dee]

That man should be hog tied to the back of a horse and dragged through the desert.

 

[Webster]

That man should be hog tied to the back of a horse and dragged through the desert.

Not before they tar and feather Joe Biden[/]s that doddering our coot currently occupying the White House.

 

[Webster]

The police one seems good but I don't know enough about how all that works to make an opinion.

FWIW, I have no problem with civilian review boards overseeing law enforcement (case in point: the Los Angeles Police Commission, which oversees the LAPD); the problem is when those boards begin doing things either not allowed under state law and/or doing things specifically to torment law enforcement.