{"id":51695,"date":"2025-11-18T20:57:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T20:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/51695\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T20:57:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T20:57:06","slug":"outgoing-broward-mayor-defends-county-against-state-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/51695\/","title":{"rendered":"Outgoing Broward mayor defends county against state criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Broward County Mayor Beam Furr couldn\u2019t hold back Tuesday. He couldn\u2019t hold back his pride in how much county government has accomplished in the past year. He couldn\u2019t hold back his clear frustration with having to deal with a federal and state government that he says has grown increasingly hostile toward the bluest county on the Florida map.<\/p>\n

And he couldn\u2019t hold back the emotions he felt as he prepared to pass the gavel to his successor, Vice Mayor (now Mayor) Mark Bogen.<\/p>\n

The role of mayor in Broward County is largely ceremonial. It rotates among members of the commission, and Furr will continue to serve on the commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year has been one long test,\u201d Furr said during his state of the county speech, an\u00a0address marking the end of his term. \u201cMany of this nation\u2019s institutions and norms have been challenged, questioned and kneecapped. \u2026 We have witnessed government by decree and petulance rather than by discussion and persuasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the result has been an erosion of trust in government at all levels, as well as a reluctance among travelers to visit the U.S. South Florida has seen a reduction in visitors from Canada and Mexico, Furr said.<\/p>\n

But investments in tourism can go a long way toward bringing those numbers up again, Furr said. He pointed to the renovation<\/a> of the convention center and the construction of an attached new hotel<\/a> on the Intracoastal as examples of the county\u2019s commitment to capitalizing on tourism for decades to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are positioned well for the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Although he did not mention the president or the governor by name, Furr did say he was proud of the county\u2019s response to the state\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur response was to be totally transparent,\u201d he said. \u201cInvite them in. Show them our financial situation. \u2026 We haven\u2019t heard much back from them. I\u2019m sure we will. \u2026 I think they will have found that this county has its act together, and that we know the values and priorities of our taxpayers better than they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

DOGE wanted to make an example of Broward County<\/a>, Furr said, predicting it will instead be compelled to hold Broward up as an example of government done right.<\/p>\n

\"BrowardBroward County Mayor Mark Bogen speaks after being sworn-in at the Broward County Government Center in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. He took office promising to continue emphasizing public health as one of his priorities. (Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

The South Florida Sun Sentinel phoned the office of Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who oversees Florida DOGE, seeking comment. The office has not yet responded.<\/p>\n

In September, Ingoglia presented his office\u2019s initial finding that Broward spending grew faster than warranted by $190 million over five years. County officials at the time said they didn\u2019t know where the state got its information to determine how much additional spending was necessary and how much was wasteful.<\/p>\n

Bogen took office promising to continue emphasizing public health as one of his priorities. The nine-member commission elected him mayor without opposition. Commissioner Robert McKenzie was elected vice mayor. The two took office immediately and will serve for one year.<\/p>\n

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com<\/a> or 954-356-4457.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broward County Mayor Beam Furr couldn\u2019t hold back Tuesday. He couldn\u2019t hold back his pride in how much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,28,249,251,250,114,266,109],"class_list":["post-51695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51695","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=51695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}