Broward blinks and tries to avoid ‘poking the bear’

Off in a corner of government are resolutions, those value statements one body sends to another. Save the whales. End world hunger. They may sound good, but there’s no oomph behind them, and hardly anyone reads them.

Undeterred, Broward Commissioner

Nan Rich proposed a resolution this week defending academic freedom in Florida and opposing all efforts to “erode or diminish” it. “You cannot remain silent,” she told commissioners. Quoting the Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel, she said: “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor.”

There’s no question that many constituents agree with Rich on the grave threats to academic freedom from Gov. Ron DeSantis and lawmakers.

“We’re seeing a very fearful time,” said Michael Rajner of Wilton Manors, chairman of the county Human Rights Board, who supported Rich’s actions.

It’s a fearful time in more ways than one.

Rich’s problem was her colleagues, some of whom thought her timing was terrible. As others see it, the county should not deliberately antagonize Tallahassee politicians while begging for millions of dollars in state grants for a whole range of needs: affordable housing, climate change, flood control, juvenile detention.

In her original resolution, Rich listed

“the governor, the Florida Legislature, State Board of Education and other state entities.”

Commissioner Steve Geller agreed with the thrust of Rich’s message, but said it makes no sense to call out specific people and groups with the legislative session about to begin.

“Take out the three lines that specifically poke them in the eyes, but leave in everything else,” Geller suggested at Tuesday’s commission meeting. And just like that, Rich’s resolution passed, 8 to 1.

Commissioner Robert McKinzie, who cast the lone no vote, said he opposes resolutions generally, as he did as a Fort Lauderdale official, and Mayor Lamar Fisher and Commissioner Michael Udine had issues with the wording, while commissioners

Mark Bogen, Beam Furr and Hazelle Rogers backed Rich.

A few days before, at a meeting of regional planners, Udine asked lobbyist Ron Book about whether it makes sense to “poke the bear” with resolutions laced with criticism.

Book, who’s a paid lobbyist for Broward County and dozens of local government clients, had this advice, according to the recording of the meeting: “Dumb. Idiotic. Ignorant. Stupid. Period. End of story.”

“Stop. Stop. Stop passing resolutions’“Book went on. “It does nothing but anger lawmakers and the guy downstairs on the Plaza level [DeSantis] ... If you poke the bear, the bear ain’t forgetting.”

Geller spent 20 years in Tallahassee and got along with Republicans when that was still possible. He knows how the place works on the inside, and by tying the wording of a resolution to the state budget, he also put his finger squarely on what’s wrong with the place.

The expected norm is to suck up to every politician in sight in hopes of literally buying goodwill (“... Yes, Mr. Chairman. What a nice tie, Mr. Chairman”).

It’s unctuously phony, but with billions riding on the whims of a few politicians with outsized egos and too much power, the operating principle is to never offend anybody. In Geller’s view, a resolution just isn’t worth it. “Other than irritating people, what does it accomplish?” Geller told me in an interview. “I hate it when we do these [resolutions] ... We can take our position without sticking our fingers in the eyes of people we’re asking for money from.”

DeSantis likes to demonize local officials, and the Legislature is likely to give him more weapons, including eight-year term limits for all county commissioners, a new recall mechanism, and making it easier for businesses to attack local ordinances at taxpayers’ expense.

Maybe Rich was being needlessly confrontational, but the attack on academic freedom is very real, and there’s not much of an upside in trying to appease this governor or this Legislature.

As for DeSantis, he needn’t try to censor free speech in Broward. Local politicians are capable of doing that all by themselves.

Maybe Rich was being needlessly confrontational, but the attack on academic freedom is very real, and there’s not much of an upside in trying to appease this governor or this Legislature.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor at the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or 850-567-2240 and follow him on Twitter @stevebousquet.