Broward commissioners discuss security.

Officials say they discussed airport shooting security

Broward County commissioners took the unusual step of holding a private meeting Tuesday to discuss security in the wake of the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting.

At their first public meeting since Friday’s fatal shootings, they offered condolences to the victims, thanked first responders and pleaded with tourists to keep coming.

Broward Mayor Barbara Sharief said the closed-door meeting was “so that we can privately discuss some things that we want to talk about in regards to this incident. We are not going to discuss those things from the dais today ... out of respect for the victims and the families and allow our commissioners time to process all of the information that we need to process.”

Closed-door meetings of public officials are usually illegal in Florida, with a few exceptions. One of them is any discussion of “information relating to the security systems for any property owned by or leased to the state or any of its political subdivisions,” per state law.

There is no exception to Florida’s open meetings law for protecting victims’ families or giving officials time to process information before it is made public.

Agenda notes handed out at the public meeting said the closed-door session was held “to discuss security systems and information related to security systems at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport.”

Broward County attorney Joni Armstrong Coffey said in an email that “the discussion addressed only matters directly relating to the County airport security system plan ... There is no way at this time to say whether any policy changes will be undertaken.” She said no vote was taken at the closed-door meeting.

Before the meeting, Commissioner Chip LaMarca said it was being held because of the “active investigation” and to get everyone in sync with “the same flow of information.”

LaMarca issued a public apology to “our friends in Canada” on Twitter after erroneously reporting on Friday that alleged airport shooter Esteban Santiago arrived in the United States from Canada.

In the public meeting, all nine commissioners delivered brief statements on the shooting.

Commissioners thanked Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry, Aviation Director Mark Gale and Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel for their tireless work following the shooting. Henry and Gale attended the meeting; Israel did not.

“In tragic times and difficult times it’s so important for a community to come together,” Commissioner Nan Rich said.

Commissioner Tim Ryan said the shooting “wasn’t an act of terrorism, it was a random act by a person with a mental illness.” Given that, he hoped that new safeguards would be put in place around the ownership of guns by the mentally ill.

“Hopefully, that discussion will be taking place in Congress over the coming months,” he said.

Commissioner Steve Geller warned that any extensive new security measures could still leave travelers vulnerable while doing immense economic damage by forcing a temporary shutdown of the airport.

“I’ve heard a lot of people talk about moving the perimeter farther out and security, things like that. We need to be careful because there’s always an urge to overreaction immediately following an immense tragedy,” he said.

“We can’t stop things that happen like this,” LaMarca agreed. “This is still the best place to visit . ... I would fly out of that airport right now.”