Something smells in Broward, and it’s not just the water

TALLAHASSEE — It’s an old joke among Florida legislators: Make an enemy in leadership, and you’ll find yourself sitting on the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee.

The obscure panel with the thankless job and impossible-to-remember name gets together to discuss “operational audits” after other lawmakers have gone home or headed for a local watering hole. But all that changed Thursday because of a growing controversy in Broward (where else?) that demands serious attention.

The bipartisan auditing committee directed the state Auditor General to dig into an obscure local utility, the North Springs Improvement District, where a top official known for his swaggering style, Rod Colon, has done a series of controversial high-dollar deals with the district that have benefited him personally.

Reporter Bob Norman, who writes for the watchdog website Florida Center for Government Accountability, has documented that Colon formed a private company from his Plantation living room, Intersol LLC, that has received $16 million in contracts from the district he runs. Colon also pocketed a $240,000 real estate commission on the sale of some of the district’s land.

Norman’s deeply reported stories are a roadmap for auditors to follow, including such malodorous transactions as a $4 million contract for a pumping station awarded to Colon’s business, Intersol. More lucrative contracts followed, for pipelines, wells and aquifers.

This independent special district, one of 21 similar shadow governments across the county, is a microcosm of much that’s wrong with how modern Broward evolved. Developer-driven cities, in this case Coral Springs and Parkland, approved the district in 1971 to manage water treatment, wastewater and storm water.

In an urban county overrun by 31 cities, plus two giant hospital districts and regular political scandals big and small, it was inevitable that the little district would be overlooked.

But the jig may be up. The district’s pattern of self-dealing has finally drawn enough serious media attention to catch the eye of legislators — who are partly responsible for this mess by allowing the runaway district to steadily expand its boundaries and fatten its bottom line.

The district will have to open its books to the prying eyes of state auditors, a process that could take more than a year.

An audit committee member, Rep. Mike Caruso, R-Delray Beach, shook his head over a deal in which an engineer with business ties to Colon was named in all three bids for the pumping station. “It seemed unethical,” Caruso said. “This guy had a conflict of interest.”

“I just think it smells bad,” said Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-North Miami Beach, the chairman of the auditing committee.

The push for the audit came from Rep. Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs, who wrote in a Jan. 11 letter to Pizzo that he has heard accounts of “threats, nepotism, cronyism, unethical practices and potential illegalities” at the district.

Run by a clique of political insiders chosen by landowners, not the bigger universe of area voters, with the power to levy taxes and fees, borrow money and issue bonds, the district has grown into a financial fiefdom. It reportedly raked in $23 million in revenues in fiscal year 2022 according to a legislative report that’s online.

The district that nobody has heard of also has enough money to keep four lobbyists on retainer in Tallahassee, which it will need now more than ever.

At Thursday’s auditing committee meeting, district lobbyist Mark Delegal defended Colon and the district by attacking the messenger, belittling reporter Norman as “a blogger” who does not work for a “reputable news company.”

“Just because some blogger lights something up, is that now the threshold by which we sic the powers of government in a fullfledged audit investigation?” Delegal told legislators. “Somebody is weaponizing the audit process.”

That strategy won’t work. Pizzo now represents a mostly Broward district thanks to redistricting, and this is an easy way for him to make a big impact. The former state prosecutor also has a fine-tuned B.S. detector.

Colon appears to have taken full advantage of a loophole in state ethics laws that does not prohibit special district employees from doing business with their agency, a prohibition that applies to all other levels of government. Citing that loophole, lobbyist Delegal asked lawmakers: “Why is this committee taking a look at an issue that is specifically authorized in Florida law?”

Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, has filed a bill (HB 199) that would eliminate a loophole that should have been closed years ago. For too long, the legislative delegation that created the North Springs Improvement District has unquestioningly approved its boundary expansions.

Where all this is headed is hard to say. Auditors work diligently but slowly. But under state law, “If fraud is suspected, the auditor general may be required by professional standards to report it ... to appropriate law enforcement authorities.”