DeSantis prevails in Israel removal
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate’s momentous vote to remove Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel from office Wednesday, upholding Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to suspend him, underlined DeSantis’ political clout and ability to maneuver even sensitive issues through the Legislature.
A four-hour debate over the sheriff ’s fate featured emotional recountings of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in February 2018, which left 17 students and faculty dead. DeSantis removed Israel primarily for his lack of response to the shooting and the lack of training by his deputies for mass shootings, eight of whom failed to engage the shooter.
The 25-15 vote came over the objections from some senators, mostly Democrats, that removing Israel was overthrowing the will of voters and setting a dangerous precedent, allowing future governors to remove local elected officials on a whim.
“Forevermore what we do here today … is now a part of legislative lore, it is precedent,” said Sen. Tom Lee, R-Thonotosassa, the only Republican to vote against Israel’s removal. “And the next time … the Senate is here doing this, we will now have a new executive order to refer to where a sheriff was prosecuted in this Senate after a suspension on the basis of the acts of an individual deputy on an individual day.”
But DeSantis was able to corral the rest of the Republicans and even pulled in three Democrats, including Orlando Sen. Randolph Bracy, to vote to oust Israel. Bracy said it was a tough decision, and he thought DeSantis’ suspension order was political, but the weight of the families of the Parkland victims swayed his vote.
“Those who lost loved ones, they made a great case,” Bracy said. “[Israel] mishandled the Parkland tragedy.”
Removing Israel was a campaign promise, something DeSantis followed through on shortly after taking office in January, by signing an executive order to suspend him for incompetence and neglect of duty. He was backed by families of the victims, many of whom showed up at the Capitol this week to lobby senators.
DeSantis also pressed senators throughout the week. On Thursday he applauded the vote but said it could have been done more quickly. He had called on the Senate to act during the previous legislative session in the spring.
“The Parkland families, they’ve been through a lot, and I think it was a relief, and I think they were very satisfied with the vote,” DeSantis said. “I wish it didn’t take this long, but it did.”
Israel has vowed to run again in 2020. If Broward voters reelect him, DeSantis said he wouldn’t remove him again.
Despite recent stories showing he received campaign money from Soviet-born associates of Rudy Giuliani who were arrested on campaign finance fraud charges, DeSantis remains highly popular among voters.
A University of North Florida poll of 669 registered voters released Thursday found that 72% approve of the job DeSantis is doing, versus 17% disapproving, the highest job approval for a Florida governor since Charlie Crist.
His popularity has helped DeSantis get tricky items through the Legislature, but even Republicans who sided with him didn’t move as fast as he would’ve liked when it came to the removal of an elected official.
Senate President Bill Galvano defended his decision to wait, hire a special master to independently probe the matter and conduct hearings.
“If an executive is prepared to remove [someone] they’re going to have to realize, look, it’s not going to happen overnight, you’re not going to just rush into a committee and have the Senate just put a stamp on it,” Galvano said. “They’re going to be deliberative they’re going to have their process.”
Special Master Dudley Goodlette, a former Republican House member, recommended Israel be reinstated, saying DeSantis’ lawyers did not prove their case that Israel acted incompetently.
Democrats pointed to
Goodlette’s report to argue it wasn’t enough to overturn the decision of Broward County voters, who elected Israel with more than 80% of the vote in 2016. Doing so sets new standards that all sheriffs would be responsible for every action of their deputies, something Goodlette saw as “unworkable.”
“If I was a sheriff looking at this I would be shaking in my boots,” said Sen. Perry Thurston, a Broward Democrat.
Another Broward Democrat, Sen. Gary Farmer, raised the specter of a governor removing a sheriff who doesn’t enforce the state’s new law banning sanctuary cities. He called on the Senate to act in its role as a co-equal branch that was “designed among other things to ensure one person does not wield too much power.”
But Galvano said sheriffs should be held to a higher standard.
He said sheriffs “are extremely unique in [their] ability to impinge upon the freedoms of citizens that they are there to protect.
“If the message ultimately is to sheriffs and other law enforcement that we expect sincere accountability and situations like what happened in Parkland are not going to be taken lightly …. then that’s not a bad message.”