Broward County Mayor Steve Geller 11-17-2020

I’d like to begin by thanking my fellow Commissioners, my staff, (Josh Freeman, Barbara Kopec, and Bina
Fink) for their assistance, and my constituents for electing me. Most of all I’d like to thank my wife
Laurel for all of her help, and for putting up with me for all these years.

This is not the speech that I thought I’d be giving when I was elected Vice-Mayor about a year ago. I
thought that my speech would be about the things that I wanted to do as Mayor. Now, I’ll instead begin
my speech by talking about what I have to talk about, COVID-19, and then I’ll get to what I want to talk
about.

Our COVID-19 Positive test numbers are bad and getting worse. Our three-day average trend line is
over 8%, and disturbingly, the two-week average has risen consistently. It’s clear that the worst is yet to
come, and that’s without what we know will be the super-spreader events of Thanksgiving, Christmas,
and New Year’s. I’ve been told that there are many Holiday parties that have been planned or will be
planned by the end of the year. Unfortunately, with all of this happening, it’s clear to me that by early
January, our numbers will be above 10%, and I’m afraid that they may be in the teens or higher.

Much of the reason for this increase is that people are just tired of living with COVID. COVID fatigue has
set in. Everybody wants to get back to normal. This is understandable, but not acceptable. The good
news is that the light at the end of the tunnel is visible and getting closer, and it’s not an oncoming train.
The bad news is that we’re not there yet, and we can’t act like we are.

Until we get the vaccines distributed, there are only two ways to fight COVID, masks and shutdowns. I
hope that now that the Presidential election is over, that we can understand that this [display mask] is a
medical device designed to protect people’s lives and health. It’s not a political statement. I find it
ironic that many of the people that complain the loudest about refusing to wear masks also complain
loudly about shutting down businesses. They must understand that their refusal to wear masks will in
the not-so-long run force a business shutdown, which I am trying to avoid. I hope that if we strongly
enforce mandatory mask ordinances, that we can avoid additional business shutdowns.

I believe that to the extent possible, that we should focus our enforcement efforts on people that are
violating social norms, and endangering their community by refusing to wear masks, as opposed to
trying to shut down businesses that are trying to follow the law and rules.

To this end, I am today sending to Governor DeSantis a letter requesting a statewide mask mandate as
the only alternative to a larger business shutdown. I know that Governor DeSantis is opposed to such a
shutdown, and I’m hoping that he will join the large majority of Governors in imposing a statewide mask
mandate. I have also asked the Governor to rescind Section 4 of Executive Order Number 20-244.
While Section 4 merely “suspends the collection of fines and penalties associated with COVID-19”, it is
being widely misinterpreted as preventing local governments from requiring mask wearing. Let me
repeat that the order does not prevent Broward and our municipalities from fining people or requiring
masks, it merely postpones our ability to collect these fines. I will be meeting with our cities, and hope
to work closely with them in strongly stepping up our enforcement of mandatory mask wearing. I am
also distributing today a memo from the County Attorney reiterating that there is no constitutional right
to not wear a mask.
I hope that we can emphasize through publicity and public service announcements the importance of
wearing masks, and that we intend to strictly enforce this. This is the United States of America. We
have a history of overcoming problems and winning. I’m strongly urging all patriotic Americans to do
your duty to your country, and especially to your County. We’re not asking you to go to war or cut back
on food or gasoline. Protect yourself, your neighbors, and your community by wearing your masks!

Now let me turn to the issues that I wanted to talk about, that I hope to pursue during my mayorship.
We’ve had a history of fine Mayors in Broward County, and all of us, like all Commissioners, have cared
about the many complex issues facing Broward county. However, we’ve all had areas that we’ve chosen
to focus our attention on.

I understand the importance of Affordable Housing in Broward County. I believe that we need both
Government assisted financing, and also that we need to build substantially more units so that market
forces can drive down the price of Housing. I’ve already authored an ordinance that we believe will do
this, and which has passed through this Commission unanimously. I believe that this should finally take
effect in February or March of this year, and I hope to work on other solutions with this Commission.

I’ve served for the last two years as Chair of the Broward County Water Advisory Board, and understand
the importance of water issues to South Florida. Rising sea levels imperil our coastal cities, saltwater
intrusion into our wellfields threatens our drinking water, and inland flooding caused by increased
rainfall are only some of the problems threatening us. I authored an ordinance raising sea wall heights
to protect our coasts, and we’re working on solutions like the C-51 reservoir to deal with drinking water
solutions. I intend to stay active in this area.

I’ve served as the County Commission representative to the Broward County Cultural Council, and I
believe that supporting and growing our Cultural activities in Broward is important. Cultural activities
like theater, museums, art, music, dance, and cultural festivals attract tourists to Broward, they attract
businesses to Broward, they make Broward a more pleasant place to live for our residents and they are
good for our soul. I want to strengthen these activities, although I recognize that the upcoming budget
year will be very bad because of COVID.

The single biggest thing that I want to concentrate my time on is bringing more high paid jobs to
Broward County. I’ve been working towards this during much of my tenure on the Commission, and I
hope to use my Mayorship to strengthen this area.

I believe that increasing income inequality and the hollowing out of the middle class is one of the biggest
problems facing this country. I believe that the best way of fixing this is by creating more highly paid
jobs. Our former Governor Rick Scott would call a press conference if there were 20 news jobs earning
minimum wage at a convenience store. You won’t see me do that. If we create a large number of new
jobs that pay solid, middle class salaries, then you’ll see me celebrate.

Frequently, companies come to Broward and ask for incentives or want to lease county land or other
similar things, and tout the number of workers that they’ll employ. What I care about is the quality of
the jobs that they’ll create. I want to ensure that the median salary that they’re paying is good. Note
that I used the word median and not average. On average, Bill Gates and all of the County
Commissioners are billionaires. I don’t want the salary of a CEO to distort the average salaries that are
reported to the Commission.

Broward is fortunate to have several major job creators. The Airport and Seaport are two of the largest.
In times of COVID, we need to protect the Airport and Seaport.

I hope to concentrate on several specific ideas to bring highly paid jobs to Broward. Let me detail them.

I’ve been the County Commission representative to the Marine Research Hub. For those of you that
aren’t familiar with it, you should be. When most people think of University based marine research,
they think of San Diego or Woods Hole. In fact, one of the best kept secrets is that the Tri-County area
with UM, FAU, FIU, and Nova has the largest concentration of University based marine research in the
United States. These universities have been making discoveries in biomedical research, in energy
production, and many other areas. We need to better publicize this, and bring the spin-off private
research and production jobs that often follow the University based research.

One way that I hope we can better market and monetize these advances is through the Levan
Innovation Center at Nova Southeastern University. Broward County has been great at creating small
businesses, but poor at growing them into larger businesses. I’ve been the County Commission
representative to the Innovation Center, which has been jointly funded by the County, Nova, and private
donations. The Innovation center will be located at the library located at Nova, which is jointly owned
by the County and Nova. By taking advantage of a University based Innovation business incubator, with
all of the resources of a University with a business school, law school, medical school, and all of the
other scientific majors, we believe that the Innovation center will help many small businesses become
big businesses, including but not limited to those that begin at the Marine Research Hub. The
Innovation Center is scheduled to open in 2021.

Broward needs more Corporate headquarters for large corporations. This is an area that we need to
work on. Recently, the County Commission was called on to decide whether to lease a large tract of
County owned land to Amazon, as a large fulfillment center, or Vital Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer
of Bang energy drink. I voted for Vital Pharmaceuticals for two reasons; their median salary was higher
than Amazon, and they are one of the 3,000 largest companies in the United States, are growing quickly,
and their National headquarters is right here in Broward. I will do what I can to bring more National
headquarters here to our County.

I believe that the Film industry is an area that we should be working on. The spinoff jobs are important,
but also the publicity that filming in Broward would bring to our County is invaluable. I’ve been working
with the County Administrator and our Tallahassee Lobbying team to incentivize film makers to return
to Florida in general and Broward in particular.

The last item on high paid jobs is one that I’ve been working on for a long time. You all know that over
two years ago, I set up a working group to try and bring apprenticeships and mid-skills trade jobs to
Broward. Mid-skill jobs are generally defined as those that need education or training beyond high
school, but less than a 4 year college degree. Our working group includes diverse groups such as the
School Board, the vocational schools, building trade unions, contractors and subcontractors, the Boys
and Girls club, Junior achievement, and too many other groups to list. I’ve concentrated on the building
trades, things like electricians, plumbers, carpenters, welders, etc. These are traditionally Union jobs,
and are the types of well paid, middle class jobs that built America. These jobs are not outsourceable to
other countries. The median age of many of workers in many of these fields are in the 50’s. If we don’t
replace these jobs, our economy will come crashing to a halt.

Many of us are guilty of assuming that a 4 year college degree is the only way to a good solid income.
That’s wrong. If you’re an electrician, working 50 hours a week 10 years after you’ve received your
journeyman license, if you’re not earning $100,000, you’re close to it, and many people in the plumbing,
electrical, Air conditioning and other fields go out and start their own businesses. The traditional
American success story that we’ve strayed too far from. I authored an ordinance which we passed
requiring larger County construction projects to have a percentage of Certified Apprentices, in order to
ensure that we develop more skilled workers. I believe that apprenticeships can, should, and have
spread to other areas, such as medical fields and computer and coding work.

I am an unabashed supporter of Labor Unions. I believe that the rise in income inequality is directly tied
to the decline of private sector labor unions. I hope to do everything I legally can to strengthen unions,
understanding that Florida is a Right to Work state. One thing which I am doing is creating a Labor
Advisory Committee to advise me as Mayor, and I hope subsequent Mayors will do the same. I have
appointed Dan Reynolds, the President of the Broward County AFL-CIO to chair this Committee. I have
distributed a handout with a little more information on this group. The Commission frequently hears
from the Broward Alliance, The Broward Workshop, and other groups representing large businesses, or
we hear directly from the businesses. We rarely hear directly from the workers. I plan on inviting the
Labor Advisory Committee to address the County Commission at least twice on the issues that are
important to workers. I hope that this year will be known as the Year of the Worker in Broward.

This is an ambitious agenda. I hope to work with all of you on these items. As a County Commissioner, I
listened to the debate, and sometimes made up my mind based on points made by other
commissioners. I tried to build consensus on issues. As Mayor, I plan to do the same. Thank you for
your confidence in me by electing me as Mayor of Broward County.

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