The already shaky relationship between the County Commission and the Broward Sheriff’s Office became even less stable Tuesday, with the law enforcement agency declining to send a representative to a budget meeting entirely about recent and anticipated public safety issues.
The perceived snub has some calling for a county takeover of the regional 911 emergency response system.
County Mayor Mark Bogen said he was assured by Sheriff Gregory Tony that a high-ranking officer and the sheriff’s chief financial officer would attend Tuesday morning’s budget workshop. Both were no-shows. So was the sheriff.
Commissioners wasted no time expressing their frustration. Bogen said he was displeased: “Interpret it the way you want.”
Commissioner Michael Udine said it represents “a stunning lack of leadership. This is a horrible way to operate. It’s disrespectful to the public.”
They were joined in their criticism by Commissioners Robert McKinzie, Hazelle Rogers and Steve Geller, who said the sheriff could have used the opportunity to defend his continuously growing budget requests.
“I honestly believe there is no amount of money we could give to the sheriff that would satisfy him,” Geller said.
The commissioners renewed their longstanding complaint that the sheriff has too much flexibility over how he spends the agency’s money once it’s allocated. “It’s the same thing over and over again,” said Commissioner Nan Rich. “He feels no responsibility to us, and we have no way to audit. We can’t say what is going on there. There is no accountability to anyone.”
It was Commissioner Lamar Fisher, noting the souring relationship, who suggested returning control of local 911 services to the county. The sheriff has managed 911 services since 2014. The county currently owns the equipment and infrastructure, Fisher said. As far as the public is concerned, the only thing that would change is who signs the paycheck for 911 responders.
County Administrator Monica Cepero and Assistant Administrator Michael Ruiz warned against taking on too many tasks at the same time. The county already voted this month to regain control of fire-rescue services that were administrated by the sheriff for 25 years. Like the 911 system, fire-rescue has known costs, equipment and office needs that can readily be transferred with minimal disruption, officials said.
Even so, the fire-rescue takeover won’t happen until 2028. At the same time the county will be going into a deeper exploration of what it would take to create a new law enforcement agency to handle security at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades. Cepero said it would be most efficient for one agency to handle both locations.
In this case, she said, Broward doesn’t face the ease of simply trading one administrative structure for another. While earlier studies showed creating a separate law enforcement agency would be feasible, more research was urged. Cepero and Ruiz cautioned that a takeover of fire-rescue, the seaport, the airport and 911 at the same time could prove overly ambitious.
The administration suggested taking up to a year to craft a request for proposals and hire a new consultant for a more detailed analysis of the ports, pushing any potential takeover of those sites to the end of the decade.
The sheriff hadn’t issued a public comment on the commission’s meeting as of Tuesday afternoon. Two days ago he posted a video on his social media accounts boasting about public approval of law enforcement, fire-rescue and emergency services. The video ended with the tagline, “Public Safety Over Politics.”
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.