Mayors tell Broward: Stop secrecy
County leaders have met privately for months to weigh virus decisions
Broward County leaders have met secretly for months to weigh COVID-19 decisions that govern the lives of nearly 2 million residents, and pressure is growing to lift the shroud.
For the past six months, Broward has refused to allow public access to meetings in which mayors and county officials have privately discussed when the public should quarantine, when beaches should close, what businesses should open, what
COVID-19 rules they should follow, where masks should be worn and much more.
Now, after the South Florida Sun Sentinel published recordings of the meetings and pushed to open the discussion, a growing number of mayors are demanding change.
“As stated in my comments on the last call, transparency is essential,” Davie Mayor Judy Paul said in an email. “Record and let the press attend. Perhapswe should not join
in until this is done.”
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis also pushed for public access to the meetings. “Shutting out the public, shutting out the news media just foments distrust,” he said. “Thiswould be an important step in allowing people to know how the mayors are thinking.”
The push for openness comes after a lawyer representing the Sun Sentinel recently told the mayors in an email that the meetings are violating the spirit of Florida’s open-government laws.
“This group of mayors is essentially functioning as a board that casts votes — all without input from the public and without permitting the press to inform the public of how these decisions are beingmade,” attorney Daniela B. Abratt emailed the county’s mayors. “This runs afoul of both the text and the spirit of the Sunshine Laws.”
In another email, she wrote, “Undoubtedly, the mayors are discussing matters of critical public concern as they relate to the pandemic, proposed regulations, and the collaboration between cities.”
Broward County Mayor Dale Holness did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday, but he told the mayors in an email late Tuesday that only eight of the 25mayors said they were OK with having the meetings public.
When the calls were recorded, Holness said, “what I found in some cases was that some Mayors were trying to grandstand, showboat and make political statements.”
Public calls “would force everyone to have a comment on everything, which would dramatically lengthen the time of the calls,” Holness said. The medical professionals on the calls “need to be tending to the patients who are sick and dying of COVID-19 instead of being on an unnecessarily lengthy call, ”he said.
County Administrator Bertha Henry did not respond to an email seeking comment about the policy or whether it will be changed, and her staff said itwas up to the mayor’s office and “these calls are not within our domain.”
Holness has presided over mostly weekly meetings with the county’s mayors since the onset of the pandemic.
The Sun Sentinel asked to listen in on the meetings in the spring, but Holness told the newspaper “no,” explaining that he didn’t want to “blindside” the mayors.
Instead, the newspaper made a public records request for recordings of the meetings. A month later, the county provided audio files of 11 meetings and immediately decided to stop taping any subsequent meetings. A county official explained in an email that therewas “no need to record” anymore.
“Certainly, the abrupt ending to the recordings does not create the impression that the County is trying to be transparent about this process,” Abratt emailed the county’s mayors, asking them to open the discussions to the public.
The recordings obtained by the Sun Sentinel shed light on the mayors’ discussions, in which they were sometimes frustrated, sometimes worried about the county’s plans. The calls also highlighted some of the shortcomings with the COVID-19 response.
On July 6, a mayor described 23 people from his city getting sick at a party, and three weeks later, no contact tracers had talked to them to retrace whom they had come into contact with.
■ At a June 30 meeting, a mayor criticized the county for taking a follow-the-leader approach, saying it was mimicking MiamiDade’s directives.
■ On June 30, the mayors discussed whether masks must be worn outdoors, because the county at the time required the public to wear them only indoors, in addition to food workers having to use them. At the same meeting, a mayor asked the Department of Health director if there should be a mandatory mask policy, but he never got an answer.
■ On June 22, one mayor slammed the county for regularly releasing its latest COVID-19 restrictions late in the afternoon on Fridays. The new rules came without warning, which didn’t give the cities time to prepare or ask questions as they worked to enforce them, the mayor said.
Once the meetings were not recorded, the public officials continued to discuss matters vital to the public. On Aug. 13, they decided to extend restaurant hours. On Aug. 28, they talked about code enforcement and whether to open beaches for Labor Day. At a meeting Sept. 11, several mayors said they would like to see restrictions at private community pools lifted.
Abratt also pointed out that two commissioners from the same city had attended multiple calls that were recorded in recent months, which is a violation of the state’s law on open meetings. The Sunshine Law applies to all discussions, formal or casual, between two or more members of the same board about any matter on which they are expected to take action.
County attorneys told Abratt they would ensure that wouldn’t happen again, but they declined tomake the calls public to ensure the change occurred.
Most recently, a Sun Sentinel editorial board writer, Steve Bousquet, tried to join the latest call on Friday. Also on the call was Bob Swindell, the head of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, a public-private economic development group. It’s not uncommon for unelected people to participate — the director of the Department of Health and hospital representatives regularly make appearances to give updates on testing and hospital occupancy.
After Bousquet identified himself, an unidentified person told him the call was by invitation only and then disconnected him from the meeting. Swindell, whowas invited to talk about the upcoming annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, was allowed to stay.
Margate Mayor Tommy Ruzzano said he then told Holness he disagreed with the county’s position to remove Bousquet and wanted the calls recorded. He said a handful of mayors backed him, including those from Parkland and Deer field Beach.
“We should have full transparency,” North Lauderdale Mayor Ana Ziade agreed in an interview Tuesday. “I don’t think [Holness] wants people to know the cities are disagreeing with what’s going forward.”
She said the western cities have “been about the science.” She said it seemed to her the mayors for the eastern cities have mostly focused on the hospitality industry during the discussions.
On Tuesday, frustrated that the county has not responded to their requests to make the meeting accessible to the public, the mayors of Margate and Coral Springs began sending out invitations to other cities asking whether they would be interested in starting their own meetings to talk about policy.
Ruzzano said he’s ready for more openness.
“There’s too many games being played,” he said of the county meetings. “Even after we hang up at the meetings nobody knows what’s going on. We don’t know till Fridays at 6 p.m. what decisions aremade.”
Ruzzano said they’ll also invite Holness. “Let’s see if he attends,” Ruzzano said.
The next mayors’ call will be scheduled for next week. Holness reminded the mayors that the county administrator “is working on a new Emergency Order,” but he did not give details.