Consolidating Broward cities — could it work?

In 1974, then Sunrise Mayor John Lomelo (who’s annual salary at the time was $1) came up with the idea that five West Broward cities should merge into one. I was representing Sunrise at the time and thought it was a good idea because of the obvious savings that will result to the taxpayers. The mayor’s idea did not gain acceptance, especially after Lomelo announced that he wanted to be the mayor of the new city.

I thought of this just recently when I read about a push to reunify the city of St. Louis with the county of St. Louis, to make the Missouri region more efficient and economically competitive. The bipartisan backers of this plan seek to reduce the size of government through merger and consolidation. The projected savings to the taxpayers is enormous in that St. Louis County alone has 89 independent municipalities, with 57 police departments, 43 fire districts and 81 local courts. Proponents of the merger say the fragmentation turns off potential investors and leads to wasteful government and disparities in service. They are adopting the same arguments that were used when Duval County Florida merged with the city of Jacksonville, resulting in the lowest median taxes in Florida for the residents of that ever-growing and prosperous city to our north, and the largest city geographically in the United States.

Broward County now has approximately 31 cities, many of which are small cities that would better serve their residents if they were part of a larger governmental unit. As a former city attorney (Lauderhill), I read with interest how the city of Deerfield Beach is litigating with the city of Hillsboro Beach over sand-catching structures, and the city of Pembroke Pines is sparring with the city of Southwest Ranches over water and sewer service to a planned detention center. The legal expenses for these cases is enormous. Most of the 31 cities have their own police chief, fire chief and city attorney along with the city clerk, city manager and a governing body of five commissioners. All getting handsome salaries and benefits. Not too long ago, the governing body of the city of Parkland, via referendum vote, received a salary increase of some 1,000 percent in order to catch up with the pay for commissioners in neighboring cities of Coconut Creek, Margate and Deerfield Beach. I also read with great interest how many cities are now seeking more operating funds: Lauderhill via general obligation bond issues plus higher taxes and fees; Sunrise by raising their taxes and fire fees; Coral Springs by seeking an increase in taxes and fees and asking voters to approve a $65 million bond issue, and Pompano Beach by asking their residents to vote to tax themselves to pay for $174 million in improvements.

Broward County is 95 percent built out and even though we have so many municipalities, we still have a significant amount of residents who live in unincorporated Broward and do not receive the same services as residents in a municipality.

All of this can change for the better, if the Broward County legislative delegation will take action toward merger and consolidation of cities in Broward County.

Broward is not a large county and is ideally set up geographically so as to need a total of only six cities for all the land in the county; three for western Broward and three for the eastern part of the county, using State Road 7 as the divider.

I even have names for all six. For the eastern cities, I would recommend Hollywood-Hallandale Beach for the south; Fort Lauderdale for the middle and Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach for the north. In west Broward: Pembroke Pines-Miramar to the south; Plantation-Sunrise in the middle and Coral SpringsParkland for the north. This plan would eliminate unincorporated areas, which results in better services for all residents of the county and a median taxable expense substantially less than what we are paying now.

For sure our elected officials — many of whom will lose their jobs (six governmental bodies instead of 31), pay and benefits — will be opposed to the plan. But if they are really concerned about the future of Broward County and what it costs residents to live here, they will support a consolidation of cities plan.

Hopefully, the Broward County legislative delegation will look into my suggestions and move forward with a review and studies that will show the enormous saving and benefits of a merger/consolidation of cities plan for Broward County.

Broward ... is ideally set up geographically so as to need a total of only six cities.