City manager: BSO's demand to exceed contract caps led to termination notice; city analyzes fiscal impact

City Manager Rodney Brimlow told the Deerfield Beach City Commission on July 8 that the Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) recently notified contract cities it would terminate police and fire service contracts unless cities agreed to increases that exceed the contracts' annual 5% cap.

Brimlow said Deerfield Beach received its May 1 cost letters from BSO as required and performed a contract "cap analysis" that removes pass-through items (workers' compensation, pension contributions and health insurance). "Based on the letter that was received, the proposed fire rescue costs that BSO sent to us was an increase of 9.4% and it exceeded the contractual cap by $1,100,000," Brimlow told the commission. On the law-enforcement side, he said, the May 1 proposal demonstrated a net increase of 10.3%, about $1.2 million over the cap. Brimlow said the combined year-over-year increase proposed by BSO totaled about $7.25 million and that BSO later sent a June 23 letter saying, in effect, if the cities would not waive the cap the office would terminate services with a 90-day notice, effective Sept. 30.

Why it matters: Public safety consumes a large share of the city budget and multi-year escalations can create structural gaps. Brimlow showed the commission a multi-year projection prepared by staff that places police and fire costs at roughly $75.3 million under the May 1 proposals for fiscal year 2026, and that projections could push combined costs near $100 million by fiscal year 2029. Brimlow said that scenario would widen the gap between public-safety costs and ad valorem revenue and, without new revenue sources, could require raising the city's millage rate by roughly 1 to 1.4 mills (for example, from ~6.0 to ~7.1 millage) to close a projected $16.1 million structural gap by FY29.

Negotiations and next steps: Brimlow said the city's position is to ask BSO to abide by Section 6 of the contracts, which caps non-pass-through increases at 5% year-over-year. He described a history of similar exchanges since 2022 in which BSO initially submitted letters that exceeded the cap and subsequently revised them. Brimlow said the sheriff's salary study and proposed salary-only adjustments (reported by BSO as roughly $8.1 million over two years) are an agency initiative intended to improve recruitment and retention; Brimlow emphasized the city did not commission that study and that salary increases can trigger higher retirement, overtime and insurance costs that would further raise pass-through and operating costs.

Commission reaction and options: Commissioners urged continued negotiations and compromise with the sheriff's office while asking staff to evaluate alternatives. Commissioners said they will look at options including (a) continuing negotiations with BSO, (b) assessing feasibility of in-house municipal public-safety services or regional partnerships, and (c) evaluating transitional arrangements if BSO were to give notice. Vice Mayor Tim Preston and several commissioners stressed the impact on residents' pocketbooks and called for repeated talks with the sheriff. Commissioner Shanetzky and others raised that some neighboring municipalities have pursued regional arrangements or in-house services. Brimlow said the city will explore options and report back to the commission as negotiations continue. He also assured residents that, under contract terms, services would continue at current staffing and quality through any transition period and that an automatic transition period could extend services up to 24 months after termination if no new agreement is reached.

What the vote did: This presentation was informational; there was no final action. The commission asked staff for follow-up analysis and discussion at future meetings.