The Broward County Board of County Commissioners met on Thursday, September 4, 2025, from 10:14 a.m. to 12:33 p.m. in Room 422 of the Governmental Center. Eight commissioners were present (Vice-Mayor Bogen absent). The meeting included a consent agenda, public hearings, employee service awards, proclamations, and commissioner reports. All votes were 8-0 unless noted.
All were opened and closed with no public speakers. Unanimously approved:
Items 37 (Commissioner Bogen’s South Africa trade mission), 38 (Commissioner Davis’s South Africa travel), and 42 (Commissioner Rogers’s process discussion for informing commissioners of opportunities) were deferred to the next meeting.
If everybody would uh grab a seat, we're gonna go ahead and start in just a minute. Okay, good morning, everybody. This is a Brown County Board of County Commissioners meeting of Thursday, September fourth, twenty twenty five. And if you would please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, and if we could please have uh Suzanne Sparrow come up to the front, please. If you'd remain standing, please. Um it's uh custom that here that we take a moment of silence in honor of notable persons from our community who have recently passed. Colleagues, does anybody have any anyone they would like to recognize? I'll start with you, Mr. Mayor. A moment of silence for former plantation council member Lee Hillier. He passed away on August twenty-eighth. He served one term from nineteen ninety-seven to two thousand and one. So many good things, and he is missed and will be missed by his wife and siblings and children. And he is a dear friend because whenever you work in Broward County, you partner with cities. Norman thinks the oldest employee in the history of plantation, passed away on the twenty-six on the twenty-sixth. She was 103 years young. She started her career in 1978 at the Plantation Community Center Tennis Court. She continued working to two days prior to her passing. Her spirit of persistence, generosity, and service to our community is an inspiration for all of us. And I just want to remember her family also. Thank you. Sorry. Commissioner Unity. Yes, um, Broward County lost Barbara Crowley. Barbara um passed away last week. And who is Barbara? If your children or you or your grandchildren play lacrosse in Broward County, there's a pretty good chance you've run into the Crowley family. Her she brought lacrosse to Northwest Broward. She was one of the first people who came to Parkland back about 20 years ago when our parks were overrun with little league baseball fields. You couldn't get a field, and she said, I'm going to bring this sport that's not that popular here. And it it took off from there, and lacrosse became, I I know males and females, so many people that got college scholarships throughout this county for playing lacrosse. We lost Barbara, her husband became the head coach at St. Thomas Aquinas. He's the head lacrosse coach. They have multiple national championships in a row over there. And uh I I just send my prayers to Terry, her husband, and JP and Kevin Crowley, who were uh her adult sons, and Barbara will be missed. She was a force of nature, especially if you were in Parks and Rec in La Crosse. So we'll miss her. Thank you. Senator Rich. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of um folks who I recognize and I recognize um the former mayor of Lighthouse Point, Billy O'Bance. He passed away at the age of 101. Well, he was a true leader when it came to Lighthouse Point and what they were able to accomplish over the years. But one of his really successful uh ventures was he was a ski school teacher, and he taught tourists, uh including celebrities such as Debbie Reynolds, Betty Fisher, Harry Belafonte, R. Meadows, Pat Boone, Mick Jagger, and Lorna Green. So he uh moved to John Knox Village and uh very successful life there, but he will be truly missed. And lastly, just a personal friend's family. Um lost Tom Ellis yesterday. Tom ran a very successful uh trucking company in Sunrise, Florida, and uh we lost him day before yesterday, so prayers to the Ellis family.