Political insiders try to resurrect fantasy of having Broward mayor

His name wasn’t on the ballot, but the last big campaign to create an actual Broward County mayor was all about Ken Jenne. It was supposed to be his job for the taking.

Jenne’s resume included chairmanship of the Broward County Commission and two decades in the state Senate, the last four years as leader of the chamber’s Democratic caucus.

When Broward Sheriff Ron Cochran died from cancer in 1998, Gov. Lawton Chiles appointed Jenne to the job, never mind a lack of law enforcement experience. (Though Jenne and future Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth were celebrated in the 1970s as corruption-fighting prosecutors, dubbed the Batman and Robin of the Broward State Attorney’s office. With the diminutive Jenne tagged as Robin.)

Jenne — this was seven years before federal prosecutors packed him off to prison — was the most powerful politician in Broward County, one of the most influential in Florida, unassailable in his home county. And plenty ambitious. So when his buddies in the Florida Legislature conjured up a bill requiring a county referendum in 2000 on whether Broward was in need of a strong mayor, the measure might as well have been titled the Ken Jenne Employment Act.

Voters, however, were happy with the status quo. More than 90,000 voted against the idea of an executive mayor. Only 65,000 said yes.

The 2000 referendum might serve as a cautionary tale for political insiders now lobbying the county commission to once again ask voters if they’d like to elect themselves a top dog. The Sun-Sentinel’s Larry Barszewki reported this week that a group calling itself “Broward Citizens for an Elected Mayor” wants the county commission to add the question to the 2020 ballot.

That would require approval of at least six of the commission’s nine members. I wouldn’t bet on it.

The commissioners have never been much interested in ceding power and status in the county government hierarchy to a county-wide elected mayor. Even a so-called weak mayor with no more legislative power than an individual commissioner. (Which seems to be what Broward Citizens for an Elected Mayor is proposing.)

County mayor proposals have been bubbling up in Broward for decades. Back when seven county commissioners were all elected countywide, they were having none of it. A push for a mayoral system failed in 1988. Started up again in 1996. That year, I wrote, “No sane handicapper, however, would bet against state Sen. Ken Jenne, Broward’s Darth Vader, the dark force who already rules the netherworld of county politics.” (Little did I know. In 2007, Darth would plead guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion.)

In 1999, the Legislature decided to meddle in local politics and put the do-we-need-amayor question on the next year’s ballot. (Along with nine single-member districts instead of seven at-large seats.) The issue got hot. It was the pro-mayor bunch, Broward Referendum 2000, a formidable coalition of political heavies, versus Citizens Against a Dictator, which more accurately, should have been called Citizens Against a Particular Dictator. Or Citizens Against Ken Jenne. The citizens were mostly one citizen,

County Commissioner John Rodstrom, who established the PAC. Though most of his fellow county commissioners were just as fervently opposed to sharing power with a mayor.

The warring factions spent $850,000 on often misleading ads.

But the county commissioners did something sneaky. Brilliant, but sneaky. The commission added a couple of its own referendum questions to the ballot. One created nine single-member districts — without a mayor. The other instituted term limits for commissioners. The muddle-up-the-ballot strategy worked. Voters said no to a mayor, yes to single-member districts and term limits.

Two years later, voters approved a measure creating a titular mayor and vice mayor, chosen by the commissioners, with no particular power other than the public exposure during their yearlong terms.

It has been a considerably cheaper alternative than the Miami-Dade County mayoral system, which gives the top guy veto power and an office with 41 employees and a $4.8 million annual budget.

Under Broward’s system, fellow commissioners gave Diana Wasserman-Rubin a year-long spin as Broward’s first-ever mayor in 2002. Eight years later, Wasserman-Rubin, charged with pushing items through the commission that benefited her lobbyist husband, resigned in disgrace. Four years later, she pled guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges. (Wasserman-Rubin, despite the mendacious insistence of rabid right-wing bloggers, is not related to U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.)

Obviously, this mayor thing hasn’t worked out so well for Broward County. No matter, some political wheeler-dealers are determined to give it another try. Some termlimited someone must be in need of a job.

Fred Grimm (@grimm_fred or leogrimm@gmail.com), a longtime resident of Fort Lauderdale, has worked as a journalist in South Florida since 1976.