Committee votes to uphold suspension
Parkland families watch as senators vote along party lines, recommend that Israel shouldn’t get his job back
TALLAHASSEE – Suspended Broward Sheriff Scott Israel shouldn’t get his job back, a key Florida Senate committee decided Monday, a powerful indication of the ultimate outcome.
The vote was close, with nine senators voting in favor of Israel’s permanent removal and seven favoring his reappointment.
Cheers immediately erupted from family members and supporters of the 17 people killed in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, who were at the committee when it convened at 10:30 a.m. through the vote at about 8:45 p.m.
Israel, who also spent the day at the Senate Rules Committee, sat near the back of the room with his wife, Susan, for the final hour as senators debated his fate and voted against his reinstatement.
The vote was entirely on party lines. All Democrats on the Senate Rules Committee voted to return Israel to his job; Republicans voted to make the suspension permanent.
Israel, a Democrat, said afterward it was a political move by senators. The suspension was initiated by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said Israel demonstrated incompetence in his handling of the Stoneman Douglas massacre and the 2017 shooting
at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
The four Broward senators on the committee, all Democrats, voted to reinstate Israel. Among them: state Sen. Lauren Book, who is a member of the state commission investigating the Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre.
The vote in the Rules Committee came after a marathon day of emotional pleas, legal arguments and political posturing.
Rules Committee members heard from Parkland families, who asked to uphold Israel’s suspension. Contingents of Israel supporters and opponents traveled to the capital from Broward to argue for and against the suspended sheriff. And senators delved into legal details and questioned what went wrong in the Parkland shooting.
DeSantis suspended Israel in January, citing failures surrounding the Parkland school shooting and the airport shooting, in which five people were killed. The Florida Senate decides whether to uphold the suspension or reinstate Israel.
The full 40-member Senate is scheduled to vote Wednesday. The makeup of the Rules Committee, which includes many Senate leaders, is an indication of the likely final outcome.
“The governor has not met his burden of justifying the extraordinary act of removing a constitutionally elected officer,” said state Sen. Gary Farmer, a Broward Democrat. “We shouldn’t do this. We should reinstate the sheriff.” If he did a bad job, the solution is in the next election, he said.
Like other senators who voted to reinstate Israel, Farmer said he had sympathy for the Parkland families. He said if his daughter were a victim, he wouldn’t know how he’d go on. “I think I’d be curled up in a bed.”
Book said she has been weighing the evidence and her responsibilities. “I feel like I have the weight of a lot on my shoulders,” she said.
State Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said voting to uphold Israel’s suspension was a matter of “duty,” adding that he didn’t see it as a “Republican-Democrat deal.
“For myself I don’t think it’s such a close call,” he said. Bradley said a sheriff is so important, and has so much authority and duty to protect the public, it is more important to act.
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed at the school, told the Rules Committee he was tired of Israel presenting himself as a victim. Pollack’s voice cracked as he read comments from his son Hunter describing the loss of his sister. Stephanie Feis, mother of coach and security guard Aaron Feis, had a difficult time finishing.
“Scott Israel refused to learn the lesson of past mass-casualty events,” said Ryan Petty, whose daughter Alaina was among the 17 people killed at the school. “It is wrong to view this failure as isolated, because there were serious interconnected failures,” all of which he said point to Israel.
Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter Alyssa was killed at the school and who was later elected to the School Board, said leaders embody honesty, integrity, accountability and decision-making capability — qualities she said Israel doesn’t possess. “We see tragically, a blatant lack of leadership.”
But Patti Lynn of Tamarac said Israel should get his job back. She urged senators to follow the rule of law and not engage in “politics and self-preservation.”
“Please be the body that doesn’t turn its back on the voters of Broward County. 80% of the voters of Broward County voted for Scott Israel. It’s up to the voters of Broward County to remove him,” Lynn said. “It’s up to us. We put him in. If we want him out, we’ll vote him out.”
Sandra Jackson, of Deerfield Beach, said acting against Israel is “taking focus off the person who caused this” — the Stoneman Douglas shooter.
Jackson, who is black, said her ancestors fought to give her the right to vote. “You guys should not take that from us” by upholding the suspension of the suspended sheriff. “Don’t let a small community make this decision for the whole of Broward County. I feel bad for them. I really do, but they should not speak for all of us.”
Celeste Ellich of Wilton Manors, a Navy veteran, said principles of military service apply to Israel.
“If a Navy ship runs aground, the captain is relieved of his command whether he is at fault or someone else is at the helm while he is sleeping,” Ellich said. “Mr. Israel wore four stars on his uniform. Four stars. That is a mark of a full general or an admiral. I do not think any military commander would approve of that rank for Mr. Israel.”
Before they allowed public comments, senators heard seven hours of testimony about legalities from Special Master Dudley Goodlette, who examined the case on behalf of the Senate, attorney George Levesque representing the governor, and attorney Benjamin Kuehne, representing Israel.
Lawyers argue
“This is an extraordinary case” that justifies Israel’s removal, Levesque said.
“You’re not a court. You aren’t expected to act like a judge,” Levesque added. “At the end of the day it is a political decision.”
Israel’s attorney, Benedict Kuehne, said Israel has never said he and others in the Sheriff’s Office “acted perfectly,” but said mistakes fall far short of hitting a threshold that justifies removal from office.
Senators have one question they need to answer, Kuehne said. “Did the governor present sufficient evidence to justify the removal of Sheriff Israel?” he asked. “We know the special master said ‘no.’”
Levesque cited three key failures by Israel: the agency’s failure to properly respond to incidents involving the shooter before the Stoneman Douglas massacre; failure of deputies to actively engage the shooter; and not fixing command and control problems after the airport shooting.
Special master
Members of the Senate Rules Committee spent two hours Monday posing questions about the case to Dudley Goodlette, a former state lawmaker who acted as a special master to review the case on behalf of the Senate. His report said the governor didn’t adequately make his case to suspend Israel and recommended reinstating him.
Goodlette said the question of removing Israel over the Parkland school shooting was “a very, very difficult call. … That was a very, very close call for me.”
Members of the Rules Committee who are lawyers asked multiple questions, most of which appeared designed to get at information that supported the direction they appeared to be leaning, generally Republicans in favor of DeSantis’ suspension or Democrats supporting Israel.
For example, senators seen as supporting the governor’s position in favor of suspending Israel sought to get at details showing a systemic failure at Parkland, rather than largely the fault of the school resource officer, Scot Peterson.
Republican Sen. David Simmons cited repeated failures of command and control outlined in the report from the commission that examined the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
Simmons pointed to Israel blaming deputies, the county administrator, FBI, Homeland Security and, “in summarizing his blame suggests that there was nothing he could do.”
Sen. Rob Bradley, another Republican, had line of questioning critical of the way Israel ran the Sheriff’s Office.
He concluded by asking Goodlette about the infamous Israel comment on CNN days after the Parkland massacre: “Listen, ifs and buts and candy and nuts, O.J. Simpson would still be in the record books.”
Goodlette’s response: “Indeed, I found that to be very offensive as well.”
State Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said voting against Israel would “be really easy” because he could support the governor of his party and the Parkland families.
But he said he was troubled by the way the case advanced and “troubled by what we’re sanctioning.” He also said there was inadequate time to assess new information presented on Monday. He left the meeting and wasn’t present for the vote.
During the committee meeting, Lee asked Goodlette, Levesque and Kuehne many questions about due process and evidence introduced in recent days from the governor’s camp. And he wondered why former Gov. Rick Scott didn’t act against Israel, noting that Scott had little tolerance for failure.
Goodlette said the sheriff’s camp testified that Scott wanted to wait until the MSD Commission finished its work. Lee seized on that, saying he found a news account about DeSantis pledging he’d remove Israel shortly after the massacre, and while DeSantis was a candidate.
Parkland families
The day started with family members of people killed in the Parkland shooting delivering a message to the Florida Senate: Don’t reinstate Israel.
“Even after 20 months, it’s difficult to find meaning in this tragedy,” Petty said at a news conference. “As Broward Sheriff, Scott Israel was the No. 1 threat to public safety.”
Petty said there is extensive evidence, detailed by the state commission that investigated the massacre, of failings in the Sheriff’s Office under Israel’s leadership.
Hunter Pollack, who was among the nine family members who gathered in the Capitol on Monday morning, said Israel should be held accountable for the death of his sister Meadow.
“On Feb. 14, 2018, she became a victim of Scott Israel’s deadly incompetence,” Pollack said.
He called it a “sad reality” that family members of people killed in the massacre “have to beg” the Senate to prevent Israel from regaining his job.
Guttenberg, who has been outspoken on gun violence and supported many Democratic candidates since the shooting, praised the Republican governor’s action, acknowledging that “I stand here today as not a typical ally of this governor.”
Lobbying
The Florida Senate makes the final call about upholding the suspension or reinstating Israel.
Israel’s camp argues it was improper for the governor’s side to lobby senators to uphold the suspension. Levesque said the question of the suspension is a political issue, which is why the Constitution puts it in the hands of the governor and Senate.
Levesque said he has lobbied Republican and Democratic senators about the case.
That prompted this back and forth:
Farmer: “You didn’t come talk to me. Is that because I’m a Democrat?”
Levesque: “No sir. They told me you were ungettable.”
Farmer: “By ungettable, you mean I had pre-made up my mind.”
Levesque: “The discussions we had were never that deep,” adding the governor’s side was concentrating on “folks we thought we might be able to score some points with.”
Kuehne objected to the “score points” explanation. He said senators must decide if Broward voters decide who’s sheriff or it’s “some lobbying exercise.” Deciding on the basis of such pressure, he said, is “not fair. That’s not right.”
Unlike Levesque, who said he’s had private, one-on-one meetings with senators, Kuehne neither he nor anyone acting on behalf of Israel has had any ex parte communications about the case. “I believe that’s the requirement or should be the requirement of a fair, constitutional process.”
The full Senate is scheduled to consider the case on Wednesday. The Senate has 23 Republicans and 17 Democrats. Five of the Democrats represent parts of Broward County.