{"id":45806,"date":"2025-11-13T23:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/45806\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T23:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:32:09","slug":"deerfield-beach-leaders-dont-like-renaming-broward-as-lauderdale-county-but-voters-may-decide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/45806\/","title":{"rendered":"Deerfield Beach leaders don\u2019t like renaming Broward as Lauderdale County, but voters may decide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Voters may get the chance to rename Broward County to Lauderdale County, after the City of Fort Lauderdale. [Courtesy]<\/p>\n

By Judy Wilson | Associate Editor<\/p>\n

Deerfield Beach \u2013 Commissioners here have given a resounding \u201cno\u201d to a move to rename Broward County to Lauderdale County. At last week\u2019s meeting, Mayor Todd Drosky said he had been asked to get an opinion from the board before its next meeting Nov. 18 and so he polled the board as to their feelings.<\/p>\n

The suggestion is the initiative of State Rep. Chip LaMarca, who told The New Pelican, \u201cThe name Lauderdale evokes recognition and understanding of an area that many others have embraced over the years. Such as Visit Lauderdale, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, formerly the Broward Alliance: Fort Lauderdale Fleet Week, formerly Fleet Week Broward County, and most recently the Lauderdale Workshop, formerly Broward Workshop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

LaMarca will introduce a bill putting the idea on the ballot in 2026, although the matter could be decided in Tallahassee with a super majority vote. LaMarca said, \u201cI would never take the power away from the voters, who elected me, to make this decision.\u201d In 1997, Dade County voters chose to add Miami to the county\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Drosky called the renaming a bad idea and a mistake. \u201cIt\u2019s exclusive, not inclusive. Only cities like Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Lauderhill, or Lauderdale Lakes would support the change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Mike Hudak cited the cost of the change adding, \u201cWhat benefit would Deerfield Beach get?\u201d Commissioner Daniel Shanetzky agreed. \u201cIt would be a waste of money. There is no purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Tom Plaut, who did some research on the county\u2019s namesake, said Colonel Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was responsible for draining the Everglades, making South Florida habitable. \u201cI am thoroughly against it. Without Broward we would still be a swamp. I hate to mess with history.\u201d Vice Mayor Ben Preston asked, \u201cWho even thought of this?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

County Commissioner Nan Rich has also publicly said she is not for the renaming.<\/p>\n

Word about the proposed change has spread beyond this county. The Boca Raton Tribune ran a scathing editorial last week, calling the notion, \u201cA truly terrible idea.\u201d Broward is home to two million people and the editorial pointed out that only 10 percent of its population lives in Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n

Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was Florida\u2019s governor from 1905 to 1909, during which time he established contacts in Washington that resulted in the grant which drained the Everglades and which was supported by the county\u2019s Democratic leadership.<\/p>\n

At least three states, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, already have a Lauderdale County.<\/p>\n

\"\"Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, governor of Florida from 1905 to 1909, and namesake of Broward County. [Courtesy]<\/p>\n

CG&A protest fails<\/p>\n

In other business last week, the commission heard a request from Calvin Giordano & Associates (CG&A) that the decision to hire CAPS Government to manage the city\u2019s building department was, among other things, capricious.<\/p>\n

CG&A had twice been given top ranking by a city selection committee, but, in October, responding to numerous complaints from residents about how CG&A had been running the department, commissioners gave CAPS the contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CG&A\u2019s attorney argued that the decision was not warranted because Commissioner Daniel Shanetzky called the situation \u201cDavid versus Goliath,\u201d inferring CAPS was a small organisation that he wanted to give a chance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The attorney said CAPS is part of an international conglomerate and the analogy was not an\u00a0 appropriate basis for change. CG&A representatives also said the Century Village East guardhouse (a project in the works since 2023) was delayed by internal permitting problems. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

A CAPS representative pointed out that CG&A\u2019s bid was not as profitable as theirs and that the commission decision was not \u201ccapricious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justen Shiff, president of Shiff Construction, said CG&A employees have always been \u201ccourteous, professional, true stake holders, experienced, and responsive.\u201d Shiff was the contractor of the Braithwaite Center for Independent Living and is currently building the marine science center.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voters may get the chance to rename Broward County to Lauderdale County, after the City of Fort Lauderdale.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-45806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45806","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=45806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}