The City of Deerfield Beach delayed its decision to sever its relationship with the Broward Sheriff’s Office at a commission meeting Tuesday night.
At the heart of the discussion was a dispute over the legitimacy of a report that claimed Deerfield Beach would save millions of dollars by creating its own independent police and fire rescue operations.
Deerfield Beach’s contract with BSO expired in September, meaning the city now has two years to negotiate a new contract extension with BSO or stand up its own independent police and fire rescue operations. Deerfield has contracted services from BSO since 1990.
Negotiations on a contract extension before its expiration turned heated last summer.
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony spoke Tuesday to the commission and apologized for the tone of those negotiations.
“ I fired missiles at this commission. You fired missiles back. Today, we can't have that. And so I'm telling you, I'm coming here today under a ceasefire approach,” he said. “I start with this with an apology. If I insulted someone here personally as you've done to me, that doesn't matter, gentlemen. It doesn't matter.”
In October, the city contracted The Center for Public Safety, an independent organization, to conduct a feasibility study to examine the potential costs of creating their own police and fire rescue departments. The study found that severing ties with BSO could save the city more than $500 million over the next 20 years.
READ MORE: As accusations fly, BSO and Deerfield Beach remain at impasse on police, fire-rescue contract
But Tony told the commission that the report was flawed and biased, calling it “ an advocacy memorandum to support some of the agenda to move towards an independent police department and fire rescue.”
“If you are going to make that decision [to end BSO’s contract], it needs to be an informed decision based upon data analytics, sound reporting, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and not an emotional decision that impacts the 87,000 people and the hundreds of first responders that have been serving this community for 35 years,” he said.
Tony even offered to extend BSO’s current contract by two years and pay for a new study if the city picked a new consultant from a list of what he called “ the top reputable groups that does this for a living.”
Stockton Reeves, executive director for the Center for Public Safety, pushed back. He says his firm has completed studies like this one for a number of Florida municipalities including St. Cloud, Flagler County and Indian River County.
“ I don't know the politics of how you all got here. I don't know the personalities. It's not germane to my report.” said Reeves, “ I don't have a dog in the hunt. I don't care what you do. I'm just here to present you the information.”
Tony and some commissioners raised issues with the timeline of the report. They cited the city of Pompano Beach, which is also considering severing ties with BSO, which commissioned a similar study in June. The Center for Public Safety is a part of that project as a subcontractor to Raftelis Financial Consultants. Reeves said that his firm works much faster alone.
“ We can only do what we are directed to do by the prime consultant, and the speed at which they move is entirely up to them,” he said.
He also said his firm was able to turn the report around quickly because they dedicated themselves fully to the Deerfield Beach study, working through the holiday season.
“ I didn't have a … holiday this year. My researchers didn't have a holiday this year. We worked seven days a week, focused 97% of our time on Deerfield from the end of November till right now. And that's how we were able to do it,” he said.
The Deerfield Beach Commission voted to delay a decision until it meets next on Jan. 20.
