After scandals, Broward School Board wants a watchdog — but it could be a while

A local inspector general is needed to help root out waste, fraud and corruption in the Broward school district, School Board members have decided.

The board has asked the Broward County Commission if the district can join the countywide Office of the Inspector General, which currently investigates ethically questionable activity by the county government and 31 municipalities.

But the plan could take several years to become a reality. The Broward inspector general’s office is governed by a charter that was approved by voters through a 2010 ballot referendum. County and school district officials say voters would need to amend the charter to add the school district, and the earliest it could go on the ballot would be November 2024.

School Board members are considering some quicker options in the meantime, including creating their own inspector general position or hiring an outside firm to handle this role. These proposals would not require voter approval and could be implemented in 2023.

“It’s important to figure out how to do this. The need is urgent,” new board member Allen Zeman told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “If we can find one solution now and a longer-term solution later, that’s an example of good government.”

He said the public has been coming to meetings weekly alleging wrongdoing in the district.

“I’m tired of getting yelled out. I want to have an [inspector general] that can look into things that are credible and say there is or isn’t something for us to work on,” Zeman said at a recent meeting. “Right now we’re just in a defensive crouch where people say, ‘Look at all these things that look like they’re fire because I see smoke.’”

An inspector general is an idea the School Board had previously resisted for more than a decade.

Former board members had argued it was unnecessary or too expensive. But after multiple investigations by grand juries, law enforcement, auditors and the Sun Sentinel identified corruption and lax oversight, School Board members say now is the right time.

A local inspector general could help root out waste, fraud and corruption in the Broward school district, School Board members have decided. And there may be more immediate solutions, too. “It’s important to figure out how to do this. The need is urgent,” new board member Allen Zeman says. “If we can find one solution now and a longer-term solution later, that’s an example of good government.” (Carline Jean / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

In 2020, a maintenance supervisor pleaded guilty of accepting bribes from an asphalt subcontractor following an FBI sting.

A Sun Sentinel investigation led to the 2021 indictment of former technology chief Tony Hunter, who was charged with bribery and bid-rigging. That same year, a grand jury also indicted former Superintendent Robert Runcie on perjury charges and charged former General Counsel Barbara Myrick with disclosing confidential grand jury information, both related to the Hunter case. All three have pleaded not guilty and their cases are pending.

Earlier this year, the state released a grand jury report that identified gross mismanagement of an $800 million bond program, prompting the removal of four board members. And this month, the State Attorney’s Office announced it was investigating concerns over a cap and gown vendor that arose from a series of Sun Sentinel reports.

[ FROM 2016: Broward school district seeks federal oversight on $800 million bond spending ]

The first step in the inspector general process will be getting the Broward County Commission to weigh in, district spokesman John Sullivan said.

“The District has formally requested that the County Commission place this on a future agenda,” Sullivan said in a statement. “Once the item is discussed at the County Commission, the School Board will further discuss this item at a workshop.”

But as of now, “there is no action scheduled, to our knowledge,” said Carol “Jodie” Breece, an attorney with the Office of Inspector General who will take over the department in May. “We do not know when this would come before the commission, although it seems likely to be sometime in early 2023.”

Commissioner Michael Udine said he supports the proposal.

“I think more oversight should be welcomed by the public and elected officials,” Udine said. “If there’s a way [the school district] can come under the same jurisdiction, let’s do it. It makes a lot of sense.”

But County Commissioner Nan Rich has been more hesitant. The idea proposal came to the County Commission in October. But at that time, the School Board was controlled by appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis. The governor had recently suspended and replaced four board members, including Rich’s daughter, Laurie Rich Levinson, following a grand jury report that blasted the district’s oversight of an $800 million bond referendum for school construction.

Rich refused to consider the request at an Oct. 25 commission meeting.

“We should not be doing anything with this board,” Rich told the commission. “These are unelected people. It’s important for our community to know we’re not dealing with this until the new board is seated.”

The new board, consisting of mostly elected members, also voiced support for the idea at two meetings in December. Rich said she has no issue with the School Board creating an independent inspector general, but she wouldn’t say whether she would welcome them to be part of the current county structure.

“I can’t answer that right now,” she told the Sun Sentinel. “I would have to research that. I haven’t really given any thought to it.”

As a state senator in 2011, Rich helped kill a bill that sought to add the school district to the county’s Office of Inspector General. Evan Jenne, then a Democratic state representative from Hollywood, wanted more oversight for the school district following a damning grand jury report and the arrest of two School Board members on corruption and ethics charges.

The School Board at the time, including Rich Levinson, opposed the idea, saying the superintendent and most of the administrators and School Board members mentioned in the grand jury report had been replaced.

Levinson reconsidered the idea in 2016, amid the first signs that an $800 million school construction program was going awry, but board members ultimately decided there were other avenues for employees and the public to file complaints, including the state Department of Education’s inspector general’s office.