Broward gets new mayor after outgoing leader touts year’s accomplishments
Beam Furr is the new face of Broward County government.
The county commissioner from Hollywood was praised by his colleagues, who unanimously elevated him Tuesday to serve a oneyear term in the largely ceremonial post of Broward County mayor.
He had been vice mayor for the last year, and with his promotion widely expected, he got to choose the recorded music piped into the commission chambers before the voting: U2’s “Beautiful Day,” and Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours.” The harmony didn’t last. Commissioners then split sharply over who would serve in the job of vice mayor, who fills in when the mayor isn’t available — and signals who is most likely to become mayor a year later.
The nine-member commission was divided between commissioners Mark Bogen and Dale Holness.
Commissioner Tim Ryan said Bogen quickly became a force when he joined the commission early in 2015, describing him as a “tenacious advocate for government efficiency,” and someone who uses his skills as a trial lawyer to push for his priorities.
Holness is a Democrat, like seven of the other eight commissioners, and became a commissioner in 2010, giving him more seniority than Bogen. He’s consistently been passed over for a chance to lead.
Commissioner Chip LaMarca, who as the only Republican among the nine is also consistently passed over for the leadership, said the snubbing of Holness is wrong. “I get it for me. I understand why. But I don’t get it for Dale,” LaMarca said. He’s had some major political disagreements with his colleagues. For example, in 2014, he supported the challenger who sought to oust Commissioner Barbara Sharief.
Furr, running the vice mayor’s election in his first official act as mayor, had commissioners vote first on Bogen, who was nominated first.
Bogen received five votes — from Furr, Ryan, Sharief, Steve Geller and Bogen. Furr declared him the new vice mayor.
The mayor serves as the titular head of Broward County government. The job is akin to the county commission chairman in many other places. The mayor influences the agenda for commission meetings, which the mayor runs.
County Commissioner Nan Rich said Furr’s temperament is ideally suited to today’s contentious political climate. “He shows respect for everyone. He’s considerate, inclusive and cares about everyone in our entire community.”
She said his background is “kind of non-traditional, people would say, for a person who is of the male gender.” He has spent years as an educator and was a high school librarian who served on the Hollywood City Commission before he was elected to the Broward County Commission in 2014. “Beam has focused on so many things that are so important to building a foundation in our community, a foundation for our children.”
Besides children’s issues, he’s been active on environmental issues. He’s chaired a climate change task force and introduced an ordinance to ban fracking for oil.
Issues for the coming year, Furr said, include a long-range transportation plan, a solid waste disposal plan that gets 75 percent of the county’s waste recycled, finalizing an improvement plan for the convention center and work on master plans for Fort LauderdaleHollywood International Airport and Port Everglades. He said he wants to increase civic involvement by volunteers, explaining that his own civic activism started with a community effort to plant trees on his street two decades ago. didn’t suffer devastating damage in the storm, but the deaths of 12 people at Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills in the days after the storm were ruled homicides. They died from sweltering heat in the nursing home, which was without power in the days after the storm.
In her farewell “State of the County” address, Sharief said the county “survived turbulence and tragedy” in the last year.
She termed the state of the county “excellent” on many measures, especially the economy. The county’s unemployment rate was 3.3 percent in September, the lowest in the South Florida and less than the statewide 3.8 percent unemployment. A year ago it was 4.8 percent, she said.
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