Broward Mayor Mark Bogen showed up to the Broward sheriff’s headquarters outside Fort Lauderdale on Monday morning, as planned — only to find the doors locked and no one willing to let him or fellow County Commissioners Steven Geller and Beam Furr in.
Prohibiting their entry was also deliberate: Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said he won’t let elected officials decide who can enter the sheriff’s Public Safety Building, especially when those demanding entry are under a “massive” investigation.
Bogen promised an emergency commission meeting Tuesday to address Tony’s refusal to grant them access to a $73 million training facility where some spending decisions have raised commissioners’ eyebrows.
Sheriff Gregory Tony waited for the elected officials to leave before holding an impromptu news conference, pointing out that county commissioners were subpoenaed in a statewide prosecutors’ criminal investigation and declaring it would be unwise for him to open his doors until the public knows the full scope of the investigation.
Publicly, little is known about why the Office of Statewide Prosecution last month demanded certain records from the Broward County Commission and top level employees of county administration.
Subpoenas issued by prosecutors asked for documents related to the county’s hiring of Jensen Hughes, a Miami consulting firm, to study the economic wisdom of severing the relationship between the Sheriff’s Office and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades.
County commissioners have said they don’t know what prosecutors are reviewing or what might be considered a potential crime.
Still, the statewide prosecutors’ inquiry prompted Tony on Monday to repeatedly portray the officials as being under criminal investigation, using that to justify turning them away from the property.
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony speaks during a news conference at the sheriff’s headquarters in Fort Lauderdale on Monday. There, he responded to Broward Mayor Mark Bogen, who had been denied entry to the sheriff’s building. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
In an interview Monday, Bogen said he believes Tony is responsible for the investigation, blaming him for turning an honest disagreement “into a war.”
Tony said if there’s a war between his agency and the county government, he is not the one who declared it.
Tony also said he reported a June meeting between himself and Bogen to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, citing an email Bogen sent him asking for money for his political action committee.
In the email, which Tony shared with reporters, Bogen asks Tony for help raising money for a program that offers free heart screenings for eligible residents. The requested donation would have had to go through a political action committee because it was promoting a ballot initiative for a quarter-cent sales tax increase, according to Bogen’s letter.
Tony said he viewed it as a transactional offer from the mayor: Bogen would support Tony’s budget request if Tony would contribute to his PAC. But Bogen scoffed at the idea, saying his email was a form letter sent to dozens of people in the hopes of funding a project he has promoted all year long.
At his news conference, Tony also blasted Bogen for seeking advice from his living predecessors, Ken Jenne, Al Lamberti and Scott Israel. Jenne stepped down from office amid legal trouble; Lamberti lost a reelection bid; and Israel was suspended from his job by the governor over the response to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
“I am not going to fail this county,” Tony said. “I am not leaving this office in handcuffs, and I am not leaving this office in shame.”
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.