Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Deputies’ vote against Israel is acrimonious
The vote is in and the numbers do not favor Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.
A deputies’ union on Thursday announced that 85 percent of its members who voted — 534 out of 628 — cast ballots expressing “no confidence” in the sheriff ’s leadership.
“He fails to listen to the people, he fails to listen to the leadership,” said Jeff Bell, president of the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association. “Amazing leadership starts from the top, and there is no amazing leadership here. We are a
ship out at sea with no power — adrift.”
Although the plan is to present the results of the vote to Gov. Rick Scott and urge him to remove or suspend Israel, the vote is largely symbolic and does not translate into immediate action or consequence for the sheriff.
Israel wrote off the vote as “inconsequential” and an attempt to extort a pay raise while Scott punted on how he’ll proceed.
“I am accountable to the citizens of Broward County. My job is to continue to do the job I was elected to do, which is to ensure the safety of Broward County’s 1.9 million residents,” Israel said in a prepared statement after the union vote was announced Thursday afternoon. “I will not be distracted from my duties by this inconsequential … union vote, which was designed to extort a 6.5 percent pay raise from this agency.
“Those who purportedly voted in this straw ballot reflect only a small number of the 5,400 employees. The unions representing the vast majority of our employees solidly support the leadership of this agency.”
To that, Bell said: “The sheriff is a complete liar, capital letters on that. This has never been about a contract.”
The union is in the last year of a three-year contract. It hasn’t begun talks on a new one but has been negotiating in recent weeks for raises and been told there isn’t money for more than a 2.5 percent increase, Bell said.
The association, a chapter of the International Union of Police Associations, called for the “no confidence” vote April 20, citing a list of grievances topped by crushed morale amid national criticism over the agency’s disastrous response to the Feb. 14 Parkland school shooting and the sheriff’s response to the negative feedback.
An ex-student, Nikolas Cruz, armed with an assault-style rifle, gunned down 34 students and staff, killing 17.
When it was realized that Scot Peterson, the Broward deputy assigned to protect the school, did not storm the building to confront the killer, but remained outside and gave incorrect information to other arriving deputies, Israel publicly castigated him.
Bell said Israel has refused to take responsibility, personally or as the leader of the agency, for the failures at the scene of the worst school shooting since Sandy Hook. “It’s always everybody else’s fault besides the sheriff,” Bell said.
The association represents 1,050 members and its contract covers 1,300 deputies and sergeants. The vote was open to all of them, and 628 voted, including 94 who said they still have confidence in the sheriff.
Under orders from Scott, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating how the Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies handled the response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Scott’s position Thursday was to wait and see what becomes of that investigation.
“Gov. Scott believes that people must be held accountable for the reported failures in response to the school shooting in Parkland, which is why he immediately called for a full and systematic FDLE investigation into the matter,” said John Tupps, a spokesman for the governor’s office. “Once that investigation is complete, and we have all the facts, the appropriate steps will be taken to hold people accountable.”
Scott also took a swipe at Peterson, who has since resigned.
“Gov. Scott is absolutely disgusted the BSO deputy did not rush into the school to save these victims,” Tupps said.
Meanwhile, another union, the Federation of Public Employees, on Monday announced it had renewed its contract by a vote of 1,111 to 38, which correlated with a vote of support and confidence in the sheriff.
“This is also a vote of confidence in how you treat us and how our bargaining unit feels about you,” the union’s director, Anthony Marciano, wrote in a letter to the sheriff. At 2,500 members, the federation is the largest union representing sheriff’s office employees, the letter said.
Israel, a Democrat, was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2016. He’s not scheduled to face voters again until 2020.