Dale’s disconnect: What’s the Broward mayor hiding?

Here’s a useful tip for secretive politicians: The reporter wants to get thrown out of the meeting.

It’s a slam-dunk front-page story, and in this era of supposed “fake news,” it makes a journalist look heroic.

When I dialed in to Broward Mayor Dale Holness’ conference call with the county’s 31 mayors about the COVID-19 pandemic last week, I was immediately disconnected. Click. The operator said the call was “by invitation only,” as if this were a lunch at the Lauderdale Yacht Club.

The point of Dale’s Disconnect was for the mayors to hear me get thrown out. That’s what sparked a vigorous discussion about his needless secrecy on matters of vital importance.

Holness’ once-weekly calls with mayors, health experts and others have gone on since March. When the Sun Sentinel’s Lisa J. Huriash used the Florida public records law to request audio recordings of past calls, Holness stopped having the sessions taped. Neither does he require that minutes be kept. Several mayors are horrified by Holness’ actions, and have said so.

“Transparency is essential,” Davie Mayor Judy Paul said in an email. “Record and let the press attend.”

As pressure on the mayor intensified, Holness said Thursday that he will resume recording the calls. At least then the public can hear what was discussed. But it should not take more than a month to release the recordings, as it did when Huriash requested the earlier ones.

Where else but Broward would pushing a record button be considered progress?

Holness’ one-year stint as Broward’s rotating mayor will end in a couple of months, and unless he changes his approach, his legacy will be defined by his secrecy.

In a local radio interview, Holness said the weekly calls were his idea to work collaboratively with the cities. The calls are not formal meetings of a governing board, so they don’t fall neatly under Florida’s Sunshine Law. Still, mayors are polled and compare notes as they debate issues such as mask orders, when bars or beaches should reopen or how to punish those who break the rules.

On lawyer Norm Kent’s radio show on WWNN (1470 AM), Holness repeated the claptrap that the calls are kept private because mayors “grandstand or showcase themselves” and “everyone wants to showcase their knowledge.” Welcome to local government.

“I’m not hiding anything,” Holness told Kent. “If we do the calls again, I’ll record them. But don’t try to bully people into something that is not necessary. I have nothing to hide.” Note his use of “if.” The mayors should insist on future weekly calls whether Holness wants to or not.

What Holness sees as grandstanding looks to us like accountability. The mayors are doing their jobs by asking questions about hospital bed capacity, mask orders, contact tracing and other vital issues. Might it be that Holness doesn’t want the public to hear county staff be challenged?

If we get a second wave of the coronavirus later this fall or this winter, it could force more shutdowns, meaning renewed tensions between the cities and the county.

Pompano Beach Mayor Rex Hardin told me “it’s a joke among mayors” to expect a “Friday night surprise” — a 5 p.m. emergency order from County Administrator Bertha Henry that must be enforced Saturday or Morning morning, without question.

“We’re the boots on the ground,” Hardin told me. “But nobody ever tells us anything about what the county’s going to do.”

If you really want to see grandstanding, by the way, I suggest you catch a meeting of the Broward County Commission, chaired by none other than Mayor Dale Holness.

These tedious, tense affairs feature bickering on the most trivial matters. As a Sept. 10 session dragged on for five hours, dozens of people on the phone waited in vain to be heard.

A lack of support for Holness was evident as his colleagues deferred action until Sept. 22 on the creation of a police review board, a priority of the mayor’s. Tempers flared, with hostility directed mostly at Holness himself.

“Point of order!” Commissioner Mark Bogen told Holness. “You cut me off for talking and then you want to sort of take your time with something else.”

The mayor who’s so put off by political posturing by mayors chided Bogen: “It shows your character.”

As Holness lost control of the meeting, his colleagues openly criticized his parliamentary decisions. Commissioner Nan Rich said: “I don’t know what happened to Robert’s Rules of Order.”

A meeting of mayors is surely more orderly. But we can’t be certain unless Disconnecting Dale allows us to listen.