The people who run Broward County paid a big out-of-state consultant to tell them that they should consider replacing the Sheriff’s Office with their own security unit at Broward’s airport.
One reason to make a change, the consultant said, is that communication between the county and sheriff is just about nonexistent.
Change might cost a lot more, the consultant said, but at least the county would be in control of what it’s paying for.
Then the people who run Broward County actually sat down with the sheriff himself, and they all put on a public display of just how awful the level of communication really is — proving the consultant was right.
Mike Stocker/Sun Sentinel
Steve Bousquet, South Florida Sun Sentinel columnist.
The result of it was that Sheriff Gregory Tony, all by himself, made a convincing case for Broward County to dump BSO and creating its own airport police force.
It all went down at a workshop last Tuesday.
It was ugly. It was uncomfortable. It was another example of what I like to call Bad Broward Behavior. B-3.
Sheriff Gregory Tony wanted to respond to a critical study by the Jensen Hughes consulting firm that found stunning communication lapses between the county’s airport division and the sheriff’s office.
They seldom talk. They almost never meet. The sheriff’s people run airport security “without any consultation” with the airport’s experts, the report noted.
This is crazy, of course. But this is Broward.
One of the county’s concerns is why the cost of overtime for deputies at the airport is so high — from about $500,000 in 2021 to $7.3 million last year.
The sheriff’s explanation in essence was that it was the county’s doing because the airport people insisted on having deputies at all of the airport’s TSA checkpoints, all the time. (Airport director Mark Gale, who could have cleared up all the confusion, was not there, and was said to be with the Spirit Airlines people).
“You can’t run an operation on overtime,” Commissioner Alexandra Davis said.
Oh, yes you can. Broward does it all the time.
The airport is open 20 hours a day, seven days a week, so over time, that’s a lot of overtime, and it’s all public money.
The county hired the sheriff’s office to manage airport security in 1996, and for 30 years they have “bootstrapped” that old contract to adapt to changing conditions. Everyone agrees that no longer makes sense, so even if the county decides to keep the sheriff, a new contract will have to be negotiated, and that will not be pretty, either.
It rankled County Commissioner Robert McKinzie that the sheriff so infrequently is in contact with County Administrator Monica Cepero.
“When was the last time you sat down and talked with Monica?” McKinzie asked the sheriff.
“It’s been some time …” Tony said.
“No — it’s just a question,” said McKinzie, cutting him off in mid-sentence.
Tony didn’t like it.
“No,” Tony said. “You don’t get to dismiss me.”
“I’m not dismissing you, sir,” McKinzie said.
“I’m trying to answer the question,” Tony said.
“No, you will not,” McKinzie said. “It’s a yes or no question.”
“Listen. I am not here to be yes’d or no’d to, O.K.?” Tony said.
Broward can call off the consultants. It’s obvious this is a completely dysfunctional relationship.
Cepero said that she rarely talks to Tony, but the sheriff said that his second-in-command, the undersheriff, is always available.
“I think it’s more productive for you and I to have conversations at times than to just delegate it to our staffs,” Cepero told him.
“If I need to call you, have I called you?” Tony asked her.
“Very rarely, but yes,” Cepero replied.
Commissioner Nan Rich, sounding beyond exasperated, said: “I just think there does need to be more communication.”
None of this is good for BSO in a year when Deerfield Beach decided to part ways with the sheriff, largely over Tony’s my-way-or-the-highway style. Pompano Beach likely is next, and Pompano is the largest city that contracts with the sheriff.
A little progress was made Tuesday, because at least they were talking. In Broward County, bad communication is better than none at all.
Now, stay tuned: In a couple of weeks, Tony will be back in front of the commission to pitch his budget request for next year.
Broward has right approach on airport security | Editorial
Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240.