to a critical study<\/a> by the Jensen Hughes consulting firm that found stunning communication lapses between the county\u2019s airport division and the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\nThey seldom talk. They almost never meet. The sheriff\u2019s people run airport security \u201cwithout any consultation\u201d with the airport\u2019s experts, the report noted.<\/p>\n
This is crazy, of course. But this is Broward.<\/p>\n
One of the county\u2019s concerns is why the cost of overtime for deputies at the airport is so high \u2014 from about $500,000 in 2021 to $7.3 million last year.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s explanation in essence was that it was the county\u2019s doing because the airport people insisted on having deputies at all of the airport\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t run an operation on overtime,\u201d Commissioner Alexandra Davis said.<\/p>\n
Oh, yes you can. Broward does it all the time.<\/p>\n
The airport is open 20 hours a day, seven days a week, so over time, that\u2019s a lot of overtime, and it\u2019s all public money.<\/p>\n
The county hired the sheriff\u2019s office to manage airport security in 1996, and for 30 years they have \u201cbootstrapped\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
It rankled County Commissioner Robert McKinzie that the sheriff so infrequently is in contact with County Administrator Monica Cepero.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen was the last time you sat down and talked with Monica?\u201d McKinzie asked the sheriff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been some time \u2026\u201d Tony said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo \u2014 it\u2019s just a question,\u201d said McKinzie, cutting him off in mid-sentence.<\/p>\n
Tony didn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Tony said. \u201cYou don\u2019t get to dismiss me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not dismissing you, sir,\u201d McKinzie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to answer the question,\u201d Tony said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, you will not,\u201d McKinzie said. \u201cIt\u2019s a yes or no question.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cListen. I am not here to be yes\u2019d or no\u2019d to, O.K.?\u201d Tony said.<\/p>\n
Broward can call off the consultants. It\u2019s obvious this is a completely dysfunctional relationship.<\/p>\n
Cepero said that she rarely talks to Tony, but the sheriff said that his second-in-command, the undersheriff, is always available.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s more productive for you and I to have conversations at times than to just delegate it to our staffs,\u201d Cepero told him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I need to call you, have I called you?\u201d Tony asked her.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery rarely, but yes,\u201d Cepero replied.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Nan Rich, sounding beyond exasperated, said: \u201cI just think there does need to be more communication.\u201d<\/p>\n
None of this is good for BSO in a year when Deerfield Beach decided to part ways with the sheriff, largely over Tony\u2019s my-way-or-the-highway style. Pompano Beach likely is next, and Pompano is the largest city that contracts with the sheriff.<\/p>\n
A little progress was made Tuesday, because at least they were talking. In Broward County, bad communication is better than none at all.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Broward has right approach on airport security | Editorial<\/a><\/p>\nSteve 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The people who run Broward County paid a big out-of-state consultant to tell them that they should consider…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[12150,483,249,251,250,482,12151],"class_list":["post-282079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-columnists","tag-commentary","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3WMEHWP3FZDVBMMCA4TP3UZTNM-1.jpg\")
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