Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Officials say there was no political sway in picking Wynmoor as a pop-up vaccine site.
No way, leaders say.
State and local officials were defending themselves Thursday against yet more suggestions that political influence is guiding Florida’s distribution of the COVID19 vaccine — this time over how Wynmoor, a prominent senior community in Broward County, jumped to the front of the vaccination line.
The issue arose after Wynmoor thanked Broward County Commissioner Mark Bogen — an attorney for the community — for getting them one of Florida’s first pop-up vaccine sites, leading to about 4,000 people receiving shots in January.
“We all need to thank our County Commissioner, Mark Bogen, for his unyielding efforts to bring the COVID vaccine to Wynmoor,” the community’s president, Jackie Railey, wrote in the community’s February newsletter. “Due to his perseverance, 4,000 residents have been vaccinated against the deadly coronavirus. Although the vaccine has been available, we have all been witness to the obstacles our senior population has faced when attempting to arrange an actual appointment.”
Despite the praise, the state’s emergency management chief on Thursday downplayed Bogen’s role.
Jared Moskowitz, director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he alone decided to pick the 5,260unit development — “to get shots in arms as fast as possible.”
Bogen, too, said he had no influence over the selection of Wynmoor and lobbied for all of the large senior communities in his district: Palm Aire in Pompano Beach, The Township in Coconut Creek and Holiday Springs in Margate.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune first raised the issue of Bogen’s involvement in a story about Wynmoor’s praise and the potential conflict — only the latest involving pop-up sites across the state.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been accused repeatedly of using pop-up sites to give preferential treatment to wealthy, politically connected communities. A Sun Sentinel review of state records didn’t find evidence that these pop-up sites have gone exclusively to Republican neighborhoods, and Bogen called the suggestion that he influenced the decision on Wynmoor inflammatory.
“I wish I had the authority, I wish I had the power, to steer vaccines everywhere I could,” he said.
Bogen said he long ago checked with ethics attorneys to confirm there is no conflict with his representing Wynmoor in issues such as foreclosures while serving as county commissioner of the same district.
Bogen’s law firm brought in $800,000 in 2019, according to his financial disclosure form. He listed Wynmoor Community Council as a secondary source of income. The documents don’t specify how much he earned from Wynmoor, a large community situated off Coconut Creek Parkway west of Florida’s Turnpike.
Moskowitz said he fields calls from elected officials from throughout the state asking that they, too, quickly get the vaccines.
Bruce Bandler, the administrator of Wynmoor, said the state invited him to sit in on a conference call of managers at senior communities throughout Florida on New Year’s Eve. “‘We’re coming, get ready,’ ” was the message, he said. Vaccines rolled in on Jan. 5.
Bandler said he called Bogen to tell him the good news, and Bogen showed up to help direct seniors and be on hand “like a general,” he said. “He likes to be part of things. In real life, people had to wait hours. We had it so coordinated. If you waited 15 minutes, that was a lot. You felt guilty.”
Railey said she had meant for her newsletter shoutout to thank Bogen for his work at the vaccine site.
“Mark was here once we got the [point of distribution] here, as county commissioner, every day of those eight days, he made himself available,” she said. She said he helped pass out water, made sure seniors had shade while they waited, helped them walk inside, helped them fill out forms, asked if anybody needed lunch, “you name it.”
“Who else am I going to thank?”
Through the state’s pop-up initiative, about 20 clinics have been held statewide, including nine in Broward and Palm Beach counties. In addition to Wynmoor, the state’s list of pop-up vaccine clinics includes the Kings Point and Century Village complexes.
Florida Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, Agriculture Nikki Fried and Senate Democratic Leader Gary Farmer, are calling for a federal investigation into DeSantis’ vaccination effort. Crist and Fried are seen as potential Democratic candidates for governor next year.
In particular, DeSantis has come under fire for vaccine clinics in Southwest Florida that served communities developed by Pat Neal, a former state senator who gave $125,000 to DeSantis’ political committee in 2018 and 2019.
A pop-up event at the Lakewood Ranch planned community stirred controversy. Only two well-to-do ZIP codes were eligible at the Manatee County site, and County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh included herself and the development’s CEO on a VIP list of vaccine recipients.
DeSantis has defended the clinics, saying they allow large numbers of seniors to be quickly vaccinated. His supporters say more than half have been held in heavily Democratic South Florida, and the state also has offered shots at places of worship and community centers in underserved neighborhoods.
Residents of some senior communities say they feel they’ve been left behind. For instance, the Delray Beach Housing Authority has pushed the state since January for a pop-up vaccination site, but it learned only last week it would receive one for about 500 low-income seniors, CEO Shirley Erazo said.
State Rep. Omari Hardy, D-West Palm Beach, said he thinks poor and Black communities have been an afterthought in the state’s planning.
“Politics and personal relationships should not drive the decision-making process for distributing these vaccines,” he said. “That’s what is happening.”