Mayor Beam Furr spoke out Wednesday on the value of government employees, praised the principle of intellectual freedom, and contrasted the way he said Broward County government operates with the kind of slash-and-burn methods employed by President Donald Trump, billionaire presidential adviser Elon Musk and their DOGE efforts.
“I am grateful that we are taking, by and large, an entirely different approach,” Furr said.
The remarks from the Democratic mayor stood out because they came during a speech to a Republican-heavy audience of 1,000 from the business, legal and government communities at the Broward Workshop’s annual State of the County Forum.
Furr provided plenty of the usual content — such as touting the expansion of the county convention center and construction of an adjacent hotel as an economic catalyst for other hotels and businesses — for a mayoral speech to a gathering of CEOs and other top business and government decision-makers.
But first, he offered several minutes of remarks that differed from the typical mayoral fare and contrasted markedly from the tone of the speech delivered the night before by Trump to a joint session of Congress.
That portion of Furr’s speech was interrupted several times with polite, but not overwhelming, applause. Furr said that was OK. “Let it sink in,” he said afterward.
Furr referred disapprovingly to “these days of DOGE — which I’m fairly sure they stole straight out of a Harry Potter book.” DOGE is the widely used acronym for the Trump-authorized, Musk-run effort to end federal programs and fire employees that they call the Department of Government Efficiency.
“There’s nothing wrong with trying to eliminate waste and trying to be as productive and efficient as possible. But how you go achieving that makes all the difference,” Furr said, adding that “on the federal level, it seems to be OK to show disdain for those people that do the often-invisible work of keeping daily life thrumming along and keeping us safe from a multitude of harms. … In Broward County, we take the opposite approach and empower people to do their best. They know what they do is a public service and they are energized by that.”
To Furr, government employees aren’t do-nothing bureaucrats. They’re the people who “make our lives infinitely better every day” through a myriad of functions. “They run our libraries. They drive our buses, and take care of stray animals. They help the homeless, and make sure the roads are safe and the lights all work. They keep our parks beautiful. They make sure our water is safe to drink and our air is clean to breathe and, when there’s an emergency, these are the people on the front lines.”
He singled out two of the county’s department heads to make broader points.
One was Allison Grubbs, director of the county library system, who sought and received County Commission approval to sign the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights.
“We told our library director that not only were we fine with her signing that Bill of Rights, but that if any book got banned, we would make sure to put two more on public library shelves,” he said, a comment that received applause from the crowd. Furr is a former high school librarian.
“In this county, we believe that every person has the right to explore ideas, use the material for themselves. Ideas not everyone might be comfortable with, but nevertheless to be free to explore and draw their own opinions and to do so without fear or reprisal and I think that this fundamental right, to explore one’s curiosity without fear or reprisal, Americans of all stripes feel this is basic to our core,” Furr said. “Not every county has taken a stand. Broward County has.”
The mayor also praised Jennifer Jurado, the county’s chief resilience officer, who he said is recognized “as one of the foremost experts on climate change.”
He said her work has helped figure out the best ways to “address the effects of climate change and ensure that our homes, our businesses, and our families can still be here for generations to come. This is work that is unparalleled anywhere in this country.”
Furr’s description of the way he said the nine-member County Commission operates is unlike the way the national government functions. “We listen to each other. We often change each other’s minds. And it feels almost like a quaint vestige from the past. We do it with civility and respect for each other.”
The county mayor changes every year. Furr’s colleagues on the County Commission elected him in November to a one-year term leading the county.
Plantation Mayor Nick Sortal described Furr as “one of the county’s best thinkers.”
But, he said, he wasn’t sure about the first part of the speech. “I don’t know if I would have done it that way. We’re in a country where if you say (what Furr said) half the people are going to disagree with you. Broward can’t be the direct opposite of the trend.”
Steve Hudson, chair of the Broward Workshop, is president and CEO of Hudson Capital Group, which invests in real estate, private equity and startups. Hudson is a Gov. Ron DeSantis appointee to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, but he said the Workshop as an organization is staunchly nonpartisan.
“Whether my political views are the same as his or not personally, I respect the office (of mayor). I respect what he and the other commissioners do (to) make this county great,” he said.
“It was his platform,” Hudson said. “We try to keep it non-political, but it’s his prerogative.”
Furr said in an interview that he was hoping to make people think by saying what he did before this particular audience.
“It’s always good to hear the other side,” Furr said. “I respect this group a lot. I work with them a lot, and I think we challenge each other and usually it comes out better when we do that. And so if that was a little bit of a challenge just to think a little differently on it, that’s OK. They can handle it.”
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.