Yellow sticker means Tampa businesses follows COVID-19 safety guidelines

TAMPA, Fla. - Code enforcement officers spend 12 hours each day inspecting areas like Hyde Park Village, South Howard, the Channelside District, and Ybor City to make sure businesses are abiding by Governor DeSantis' guidelines for phase one of re-opening Florida.

If businesses are abiding by those rules, they will receive a yellow "Lift Up Local" sticker as the stamp of approval, meaning the business was inspected. Those stickers can be put on display at the front of the business.

Officers say they are looking to make sure guests and customers are properly social distanced, food servers are wearing masks, and that no business is operating at more than 50% capacity.

If officers come across a business that isn't meeting a guideline, they say they will speak to the manager.

"We give them the guidelines and we ask them and encourage them and if we don't gain compliance at that point, we'd call and ask for assistance from TPD," said BillieJo Slatton, a Code Enforcement Supervisor for the city of Tampa. "We just want to encourage right now, that's what we're here for, and most of the businesses are complying."

Slatton says code enforcement officers do not write citations, and, so far, they have not been in a position where they had to contact the Tampa Police Department.