Emergency meeting held after BSO refuses to give access to Broward mayor, commissioners

Broward County's mayor and commission held an emergency meeting on Tuesday and approved a move allowing them to look into possibly taking legal action against the Broward Sheriff's Office, drawing pushback on social media from Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony.

This comes one day after Broward Mayor Mark Bogen and other county officials were denied access to BSO headquarters. They arrived there, demanding to see a gym inside the BSO training facility.

Mayor Mark Bogen claims that the gym is filled with luxury features rivaling a five-star hotel.

"Everything stops if they just open their books and say, 'Here's what we're spending our money on.' It's that simple, folks," Bogen said. "When someone doesn't want to voluntarily give information, as far as I'm concerned, my question is what is being hidden?"

So, what does the vote on Tuesday actually mean? It will now allow the Broward County Commission the option to go to court to gain entry.

However, commissioners are hopeful that over the next day or two, they will be able to negotiate their way inside. If not, they'll take this battle to court.

"We have a sheriff who refuses to disclose things, fights our requests, locks his doors, hides in his office making videos, doesn't show up at our meetings," Bogen said at the Tuesday morning emergency meeting.

Broward commissioners are taking this budget battle with Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony to the next level. The commission unanimously passed a measure allowing it to take legal action against BSO to gain access to the training center gym.

Bogen claims it's filled with a lot of extras, with the bill footed by taxpayers.

Commissioners are also making public records requests to find out how Tony spent his budget.

"He doesn't have to say what he spent it on," Bogen said. "People need to know: is he spending it on law enforcement? Is he spending it on, I'll use this as an example, on massage tables? Is he spending it on his workout gym? Do you know he has full-time trainers at the gym?"

While Tony has no obligation to open the books for his core budget, commissioners emphasized that they fund BSO.

"I don't know how much he gets from the state, the federal government, from grants, from the task forces, etc.," Commissioner Steve Geller said. "We don't know his total budget, nor do we know how he spends it."

The mayor and comissioners were denied access to BSO's Training Center 

Bogen and two commissioners were denied access when they tried to get inside on Monday, and Tony claims that the commission is under criminal investigation. That comes from subpoenas issued for documents.

"No civilian under criminal investigation will be permitted to walk through these doors, whether they are focused on using a bathroom or if they want to go into a gym," Tony said.

At the meeting Tuesday, Bogen asked about that claim.

"I asked you yesterday, and I ask you today publicly – are you aware of any of us or any of the staff here under criminal investigation?" Bogen asked.

"Mayor, I'm not aware of any criminal investigation that any of the commissioners or any of our staff is under," someone responded during the meeting.

Tony's pushback to legal action on social media 

On Tuesday afternoon, Tony posted a video on social media in response to the vote, saying it could have statewide implications.

"They're trying to impose their will upon the constitutional protections that exist for the sheriff's office," Tony said. "Now they're going to dive in with a lawsuit which is going to force every single sheriff in this state to defend its decision."

Tony warned that the commission's potential lawsuit would draw opposition from law enforcement leaders across Florida.

"They're trying to impose their will upon the constitutional protections that exist for the sheriff's office," Tony said. "Now they're going to dive in with a lawsuit which is going to force every single sheriff in this state to defend its decision."

Tony added that legal action would ultimately cost local taxpayers.

"If they vote their way into a major lawsuit, they're going to be fighting the state of Florida again," Tony warned. "They're going to be fighting every single sheriff who is not going to stand idly by and examine the powers of their office, challenged and snatched away from them by a single county in South Florida."

"They're going to force hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal fees and expenses," Tony added. "And guess who's going to pay? You."

Tony also posed the question of why it took officials two years to make this request.

County officials plan to attempt to negotiate a solution over the next couple of days. If those talks fail, officials said they will take the matter to court for a judge to decide.