The district has filed a lawsuit in Broward Circuit Court, seeking $17 million for breach of contract from the underwriters of Lloyd’s of London, the district’s provider of general liability insurance.

The lawsuit, filed in Broward Circuit Court in November, alleges the insurer provided bad legal advice related to the district’s liability after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland. The company then “wrongly abandoned” the district, the suit states. The district alleges the insurer’s actions forced it to agree to settle the case in December 2021 for $26.3 million rather than continue to fight.

The district was sued by 17 families of students and staff who died, 17 students and staff who were injured, and 18 students who suffered trauma. Most of the settlements ranged from $22,800 for those with no physical injuries to $1 million for those whose family member died. An exception was a $1.25 million settlement for survivor Anthony Borges, who suffered some of the most severe injuries and is expected to have lifetime medical needs.

The lawsuit centers on whether the mass shooting should have been counted as one incident or a separate incident for each of the 52 victims and family members who sued the school district.

The underwriters for Lloyds of London concluded it was one incident, subject to the policy’s liability cap of $700,000, according to the lawsuit.

But the district argued that, based on Florida Supreme Court precedent, each gunshot injuring a victim counted as a separate occurrence. Therefore, the tragedy should be counted as 52 separate lawsuits, each subject to the $700,000 liability cap, the district argues.

The state Supreme Court ruled in Koikos v. Travelers Insurance Co. in 2003 that each of two separate gunshots fired at a restaurant “constitutes a separate occurrence,” the district’s lawsuit states.

“A main reason the Board settled at that stage of the case was because Underwriters misinformed it regarding the number of occurrences and wrongfully denied coverage beyond a single policy limit, notwithstanding the Florida Supreme Court’s controlling decision in Koikos,” the lawsuit states.

A spokesman for Lloyd’s of London told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, “Lloyd’s isn’t at liberty to discuss individual policies or policyholders, nor can it comment on matters in litigation.” No responses have been filed in court papers either.

In recent months, the district has been aggressively searching for new sources of revenue, as it faces at least $80 million in cuts due to declining enrollment.

But it’s unclear why the school district is filing this lawsuit four years after agreeing to pay a $26 million settlement with Parkland families. A district spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

The school district paid the Lloyd’s underwriters an annual premium of $695,000, the lawsuit said.

Under the district’s coverage, the district would pay the first $300,000 for each occurrence, and the insurer would pay up to $700,000.

In most cases, state law limits a school district’s total liability to $200,000 per individual and $300,000 per incident for most negligence cases. Plaintiffs may try to get around that by filing a lawsuit in federal court or getting a claims bill filed in the Legislature.

A few weeks after the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting, victims and their families received a letter from Johns Eastern, which administers the district’s Lloyds of London policy, stating the $300,000 cap.

“We were so appalled and taken aback by the (adjuster’s) ridiculous quote,” Todd Michael, a lawyer who represented families of two victims, told the Sun Sentinel in April 2018.

(Article continues after document.)

School district spokeswoman Nadine Drew said at the time, “The School District is not attempting to limit damages, but it is simply stating the law of the State of Florida that has been put in place by the Legislature.”

Some Parkland families filed a challenge to the cap that went to the state Supreme Court.

In June 2019, Lyman Reynolds, a lawyer for the insurer, offered advice to Debbie Klauber, an outside lawyer for the district, on what to include in a brief for the Supreme Court appeal, according to an email included as an exhibit to the lawsuit.

“I would strongly argue positively and forcefully that the statute and case law clearly hold that there is a hard cap of $300,000.00 for all claims arising out of the single incident/event — not a ‘suggestion,'” Reynolds wrote in the email included in the lawsuit. “Finally, I would suggest avoiding the term ‘shooting’ which may be read as implying more than one occurrence in favor of the term ‘mass casualty event,’ which should be read for what it is, which is one occurrence.”

The Supreme Court upheld the $300,000 cap in 2020, ruling against Parkland families.

But that didn’t resolve the issue, the lawsuit states, since “the underlying plaintiffs were disincentivized to settle for $300,000 because the Florida legislature had the power to enact legislation to increase the liability cap in special circumstances such as the Parkland school shootings,” the suit states.

In November 2020, the insurer paid the district $700,000 and then closed the case in January 2021, months before the lawsuit was settled, the complaint states.

As the district was in final settlement negotiations in August 2021, Klauber emailed an agent for the insurer. Her email, included as an exhibit in the lawsuit, asks, “Can you, or someone, provide confirmation or clarification that there is a SINGLE LIMIT that would apply to this case for the School Board and any other assureds, as we’ve represented to the Court?”

A representative for the insurer responded that a single limit applies, the suit states. “No analysis whatsoever was provided, despite the Florida Supreme Court’s controlling decision in Koikos,” the lawsuit states.

Two months later, in November 2021, the Parkland plaintiffs amended their complaint as a civil-rights lawsuit to file it in federal court, where the $300,000 limit doesn’t apply. The district settled the cases for $26.3 million in December 2021.

The district faced “mounting litigation costs, the possibility of having to pay the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees (which could end up being in the millions), and, potentially, punitive damages,” the lawsuit states. “The School Board feared that its worst-case total exposure could reach $100 million.”

The lawsuit doesn’t detail the unexpected way the School Board ultimately reached a settlement with the families, in which the case was treated as a civil-rights case and sent to federal court to get around the $300,000 cap, which was outlined in an attorney-client session minutes obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 2022.

Board members knew the families would not settle for $300,000, and they were concerned if the state Legislature got involved, the district’s expense could be much greater, according to the minutes.

“It’s the quickest way to the pathway to get money and that’s why I can be OK with it,” then-School Board member Rosalind Osgood, who is now a state senator, said during a 2021 attorney-client session. “It’s a technique to allow us to close this.”

The district would have received $15.6 million to help cover the lawsuit had the Lloyds underwriters plan treated each case as a separate incident, the new lawsuit states. The district is also seeking attorneys’ fees, interest and other costs, bringing the total demand up to $17.4 million.

One challenge the district may face is the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision to uphold the $300,000 per incident liability cap, Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Davie who specializes in constitutional law, told the Sun Sentinel.

In that case, the Supreme Court upheld that ‘”the mass shooting committed by (the shooter) is a single ‘incident or occurrence’ … and the cumulative liability for all claims of injury resulting from the incident may not exceed the aggregate cap … set forth in the statute.”

“Of course, an insurance policy is a private contract, whereas the Florida Constitution’s sovereign immunity provision represents the public policy of the state and is designed to protect the public fisc,” Jarvis said. “As such, the analogy is not perfect.

“But if I had to bet, I would bet that the Florida Supreme Court would apply (the 2020 ruling) to this case, reasoning that there is no reason to create a different rule absent any contrary policy language, and rule against the District,” Jarvis said.

Shortly before cocktails flowed at a reception for guests beneath a tent housing the plane in a Miami Beach park, Archer informed the news media that it had sued Vertical in a Texas federal court for alleged patent infringements.

“Archer brings this suit to protect the novel and award-winning design of its Midnight eVTOL, which was developed by Archer inventors through careful, brilliant design work, and to stop Vertical infringing its patented designs,” the suit declared.

Vertical executives scrambled to issue a statement denying the allegations.

“There is no bigger form of flattery when people try and do this to us,”  Vertical CEO Stuart Simpson told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in an interview delayed by the litigation interlude. “It’s a pure distraction tactic.”

Whatever is decided in court, it is now clear that the nascent electric air taxi industry is emerging from an early development stage to an era of a high-stakes competition. Billions in investor dollars are at stake, and at the local, state and federal government levels, advocates say expedited action is needed to assess aircraft developed by companies worldwide for certification and to make way for a new mode of urban transportation at public airports and privately run “vertiports” in South Florida and elsewhere.

Last December, Archer took its turn at a public introduction with a debut of its six-engine “Midnight” at an old Pan American World Airways hangar in Miami’s Coconut Grove. It also announced a detailed South Florida route system that would include landing locations at several public airports, as well as at vertiports built and/or controlled by developers including billionaire real estate developer Stephen Ross.

Precisely when those proposals will become reality is difficult to calculate. A spokesperson for Archer, which is based in California, reaffirmed last week that the company plans “to begin operating Midnight this year as part of the White House’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP).” The company said it has “submitted applications across California, Florida, Texas, Georgia, and New York.”

The eVTOL program, which is among several pilot programs launched by the FAA and U.S. Department of Transportation, was triggered by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last summer. The idea is to “accelerate the deployment of advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles,” the FAA has said, asserting that the new technologies “have the potential to transform aviation, including expanding connectivity to rural American communities, reducing road congestion in urban areas, and enhancing emergency services or medical transport.”

The program would establish “public-private partnerships with state and local government entities and private sector companies to develop new frameworks and regulations for enabling safe operations,” the agency added.

And then will paying passengers begin to fly?

“People try to guess when it will happen,” said Kevin Adkins, professor of aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach. “I try to stay away from that. There are a lot of moving pieces here.”

Support preparations by players ranging from federal regulators to local airport operators are starkly uneven, Some would like to see decisions made much sooner than later.

“This industry is ripe with investment, it’s ripe with innovation, and it’s ripe with competition where businesses are looking to bring their aircraft to various markets,” said Kevin Cox, CEO of Vertiports by Atlantic, which has national ambitions of being part of the business, including in South Florida. “These aircraft can be transformational and we believe they will be, but they’re not transformational unless you have the infrastructure to support them.”

In Congress last month, lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to speed up the FAA certifications of aircraft that manufacturers say have been tested and are ready to fly. Last year, Trump signed a batch of executive orders to activate the industry and get the taxis airborne faster.

In Florida, the state has shown strong support, with the Department of Transportation offering test sites for aircraft in the central part of the state.

The Valo aircraft

Generally speaking, the flying machines manufactured by Archer, Vertical, Joby Aviation, and Beta Technologies, among others, look and operate similarly. Powered by batteries, they can carry between four to six passengers, depending on the model, and are operated by a single pilot. Multiple engines attached to the wings swivel into vertical and horizontal positions to accommodate a lift like a helicopter and provide forward movement.

During his Miami Beach visit, Simpson said the Vertical Aerospace version can be configured to carry six passengers. He also noted there is a barrier between passengers and pilots in the cabin for security purposes. It’s a feature, he said, that is not lost on the airlines, including American Airlines, which became a partner in 2021 and is considered by Simpson to be a launch customer.

“There is a need for a product like this given the infrastructure challenges,” Simpson said. “There are so many people who have moved to South Florida. We met some politicians around here and they really, really want to engage and make this happen. They can see how it would transform the lives of people in South Florida.”

The company, unlike Archer, does not intend to be an operator of the aircraft it makes.

South Florida operator goes ‘conventional’

Ed Wegel is a veteran South Florida aviation executive with an idea similar to Archer’s: to lay out a network of cities that would serve tourists, travelers and businesspeople who need to get from one city to another quickly.

But his company, UrbanLink Air Mobility, is not ordering planes from either Vertical or Archer. He’s leasing 10 “conventional” electric aircraft (eCTOLs) from Beta Technologies of Vermont that can land and take off along airport runways like a traditional plane. The first deliveries will come in late 2027.

UrbanLink envisions a network that includes all three South Florida international airports, as well as Tampa, Jupiter, Key West, Marathon and even Bimini in the Bahamas. The company is also looking toward the Orlando area and Sebring, where it believes it could base a number of its aircraft.

The projected price for a West Palm Beach to Miami flight: $125, which beats a widely quoted $250 price for a 75-mile luxury car trip with Uber Black.

The first electric air taxi services, Wegel believes, will be landing and taking off at airports with their conventional runways, not at vertiports.

“We think that with vertiport developments you’d have to go through FAA approvals, community hearings, and community comments,” Wegel said. “You just can’t put a vertiport in the middle of a community somewhere.”

High demand potential

Adkins, who brought 22 students and four Embry-Riddle faculty members to Miami Beach on Feb. 24 to view the Vertical Aerospace aircraft, said there is a case to be made for heavy demand in both South and Central Florida.

There are plenty of airports in both regions for the operators to use, he said. “Florida in general has a lot of attractive attributes. Up here closer to the Orlando area has a natural hub and spoke system.”

“There would be a lot of demand,” he added, particularly “from people who want to get off the clogged expressways.”

Airports, vertiports

“Those FBO sites obviously today serve traditional aviation,” said Cox of Vertiports by Atlantic.

“We want to make sure we are doing it at sites and locations likely to be first-to-market and allow this form of transportation to [be brought to] scale,” he said.

Although UrbanLink and Archer have announced definitive South Florida route networks that include the region’s big international airports, there is scant evidence of any tangible ground-level developments that would lead travelers to believe that flights by electric taxis are imminent.

In Broward County, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International is evaluating the integration of a vertiport into a broader intermodal project at the eastern end of the airport. But there is no immediate time frame.

“Electric vertical take-off and landing/advanced air mobility/vertiport capabilities will be reviewed and evaluated as part of the design process for the proposed new eight-level Intermodal Center for the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport,” spokeswoman Arlene Satchell said in an email.

In Boca Raton, the city’s airport authority last December reportedly heard from a consultant about Archer’s plans in the region.

But the authority is in the study stage and has no immediate plans to start any taxi operations, Executive Director Clara Bennett said in an email.

She said a feasibility and planning study of the Advanced Air Mobility industry is under way “to better understand how emerging electric vertical takeoff and landing [eVTOL] technologies could potentially integrate into the airport environment in the future.”

She said the authority wants to know about demand for services in the South Florida market, as well as “possible use cases for electric air taxi operations, and the types of infrastructure that could be required to support those operations over time. The effort also includes a preliminary review of potential facility siting concepts, compatibility with existing airport operations, and alignment with evolving FAA guidance and vertiport design standards.”

“Because the AAM sector is still in the certification and early deployment phase, the Authority’s focus at this time is on thoughtful, long-range planning rather than near-term implementation,” Bennett added.

The Palm Beach International Airport and the City of Fort Lauderdale, which owns Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, did not provide information by publication deadline.

The ‘end game:’ No pilots

The long-term, meanwhile, holds a possibility that that may or may not attract widespread public support.

“The end game here is more autonomous operations,” said Adkins of Embry Riddle, citing a shortage of pilots and air traffic controllers, as well as the rising cost of labor to employ them.

Last year, the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, overseer of Miami International Airport and two smaller airports in the county, entered into agreements with the University of Miami and Wisk Aero, developer of self-flying air taxis, to explore steps toward autonomous flying.

The idea is to identify vertiport sites for the international airport, Miami Executive Airport and Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport to enable Wisk to start operations.

“We’re short pilots right now,” Adkins said. “They’re expensive. They’re going to drive up the price point.”

“For this system to be realized anywhere near its full potential, automation is important,” he added. “Community acceptance is going to be a huge piece.”

This article was updated after publication to remove a photo from Beta Technologies related to an UrbanLink air taxi service.

Fort Lauderdale officials say they are well aware of the fiscal fallout that might be coming and are already making plans for what could be a worst-case scenario: A staggering $72.8 million shaved from the city’s day-to-day budget.

DeSantis has called for the elimination of property taxes, referring to them as a burden that forces homeowners to pay perpetual “rent” to the government.

Property tax reform would require a constitutional amendment passed by 60% of the voters.

If voters approve tax reform in November, cities across the state would likely have no choice but to slash budgets, with one caveat. They’d be prohibited from cutting spending on fire-rescue and police departments below current levels.

Vice Mayor John Herbst has told his colleagues he has no doubt the tax reform proposal is going to pass.

“We need to be leaning into the fact that we’ve got to start scaling down operations,” he said last month. “Winter is coming. Let’s just not put our heads in the sand.”

Commissioner Ben Sorensen echoed that refrain during a recent City Hall meeting, urging staff to be prepared now for what might be coming down the pike.

“We need to be doing everything now to prepare for a worst-case scenario,” Sorensen said. “It’s not the sky is falling, but we’ve got to be reasonable that there is a strong likelihood that we’re going to face a significant deficit in our budget.”

Sorensen asked how the city would handle an extreme drop in property tax revenues.

Fort Lauderdale’s budget team has been evaluating various scenarios, City Manager Rickelle Williams told the commission.

“Our mindset is geared toward (the fact that) anything could happen,” she said. “We can’t predict what the Legislature will do. What I’ve shared with our budget management team is that our focus is going to be on fiscal prudence, resourcefulness and innovation. We just don’t know what the true impact might be.”

Last year, the city’s financial consultant shared a grim financial forecast that did not even contemplate the potential of property tax reform.

At the time, Mayor Dean Trantalis dismissed the gloomy prediction as a worst-case scenario.

“We don’t need to take on these doomsday attitudes,” Trantalis said at the time. “We may have to cut corners in some of our programs. We’ll see how the numbers shake out and go from there.”

According to the forecast from city consultant Stantec, the shortfalls would grow each year as budget expenses rise and property values level off: $38.4 million in 2027; $47.2 million in 2028; $61.3 million in 2029; $54.2 million in 2030; $59.1 million in 2031; $75.6 million in 2032; $86.5 million in 2033; and $107.1 million in 2034.

Based on staff’s current estimate, Fort Lauderdale is facing a $28 million deficit in fiscal year 2028. In the most extreme scenario, property tax reform could increase the shortfall by another $72 million.

“That’s possibly a $100 million deficit if the worst-case property tax proposal passes,” Sorensen said. “This is a huge number. Share with me how we start thinking about this and how we start preparing for a worst-case scenario.”

The city manager said Fort Lauderdale is preparing for that scenario, just in case.

“I believe we will have to potentially sacrifice some of the services that we offer or find opportunities to generate revenue that we have not yet pulled the trigger on or leveraged,” she said. “That scenario will lead us to making some dramatic changes in the way that we operate and staff at the city.”

Last year, the city was bracing for possible shortfalls based on an anticipated drop in property tax revenues, Bill Brown, chair of the city’s Budget Advisory Board, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

“Then the property tax reform came up,” Brown said. “We were already preparing for a shortfall. And the tax reform just compounds it.”

The 10-member Budget Advisory Board meets monthly to provide input on the city’s annual operating budget, analyze financial data and brainstorm ways to bridge projected budget shortfalls.

Layoffs, pay cuts and hiring freezes rarely happen in the public sector, though they can happen during extreme budget deficits and economic downturns.

“That would be a last resort,” Brown told the Sun Sentinel. “First we’d look at cutting services. But when you cut services, what do you do with the surplus of employees? There’s no need for them.”

For years, some members of the budget advisory board have recommended the city stop giving away millions every year to local nonprofits, but the commission has continued the practice.

“There’s $2.6 million going to nonprofits and city-sponsored special events,” Brown said. “The nonprofits feel entitled to it because they’ve gotten it for years. I would recommend those be eliminated.”

City-sponsored festivals and drone shows might also have to go, Brown said.

“That’s a nice to have,” he said. “But is it a need to have? At the end of the day we have to balance the budget. It’s going to be a chess game in prioritizing the most essential services required. The nice to have vs. the needs to have.”

Chris Williams, a longtime resident and former member of the budget advisory board, says he does believe there’s fat in the budget that can be cut.

“There’s always fat in any government budget,” he said. “If they end up with a $100 million deficit, they may have to cut employees. Salaries too. When it’s that big of a deficit, you’re looking at scaling back salaries and hours. I’d get rid of any new hires or newly created positions. If you lived without it before, you can live without it now. I’d also eliminate the practice of donating money to the nonprofits. You have to look at everything.”

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan

During a recent meeting, commissioners voted 3-2 to deny rezoning and 5-0 to deny a master plan, which would have relied on the rezoning proposal’s approval. Fifteen acres, including the Indian Trace Center and a vacant plot that would have hosted the hotel, would have been rezoned from a community business district to a planned development district, or PDD.

Development company H&M’s master plan for the PDD included a first phase for hotel construction and plaza improvements, and a second phase allowing further development for “residential, commercial, and office uses.”

Officials opposed to rezoning and the master plan variously cited residents’ traffic concerns, potential population density issues, and hotel visibility as key reasons for their votes.

“While the hotel and plaza improvements could bring economic benefit, the potential negative effects on daily life, safety and neighborhood character outweigh them,” Deputy Mayor Jacqueline Guzman said at the March 3 meeting. “Quality of life must come first.”

Assistant Deputy Mayor LaToya Clarke and Commissioner Neil Kerch, who expressed support for much of the hotel plan, joined Guzman’s vote to deny the rezoning proposal. Sunrise Mayor Michael Ryan and Commissioner Joey Scuotto voted against the denial.

Across the span of multiple City Commission meetings in the past two months, developers have presented their plans and evidence of its benefits, while dozens of Sunrise residents spoke about the potential negative impacts. Some business owners in the plaza have expressed approval of the hotel, citing the prospect of increased foot traffic.

Officials who voted not to deny rezoning said they would have preferred to host another City Commission meeting to hear arguments from developers and residents on the issue.

Most commissioners voting on either side cited concerns about Florida’s Live Local Act, an affordable housing law that has allowed developers to bypass certain approvals from cities if they include workforce housing in their plans, among other requirements.

Ryan said he was “terrified” of Live Local, warning community members that the city would have little power to negotiate for concessions with developers.

“I fear that we win a battle and lose the war,” Ryan said.

Prior to the vote, H&M had agreed to waive their right to invoke Live Local in their development plan as a condition of the PDD’s approval.

Two days following commissioners’ vote to deny rezoning, H&M principal Daniel Masveyraud declined to comment on whether the company will consider relying on Live Local moving forward.

“In any case, we look forward to being a responsible neighbor and will be sharing future plans for the property at a later date,” Masveyraud wrote. ]]> 13202014 2026-03-09T07:00:11+00:00 2026-03-06T17:20:56+00:00 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/03/08/pedestrian-fatally-struck-by-brightline-train-in-fort-lauderdale-north-of-downtown-station/ Sun, 08 Mar 2026 17:26:24 +0000 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/?p=13244705 A pedestrian was struck and killed by a Brightline train early Sunday in Fort Lauderdale despite efforts by fire rescue departments to save him.

“We responded to a train accident where a pedestrian was struck by a moving train. When we arrived, he was still alive, pinned under the train,” said Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue spokesman Frank Guzman in an email. “Despite a valiant effort utilizing resources from throughout our department, Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue, the Florida East Coast Railway, and others, the patient lost a pulse during the rescue attempt and was pronounced deceased on scene shortly after being extricated.”

The victim was not identified. The incident, reported in the 700 block of North Andrews Avenue, occurred around 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

Rail corridor deaths involving Brightline trains have drawn intense scrutiny and public attention since the higher speed rail line started service in 2018. A count by the Miami Herald placed the number of deaths at just below 200 through 2025.

Millions have been spent by the railroad and local, state and federal governments to improve the safety environment along the Florida East Coast Railway corridor. Brightline shares the rail line with the FEC to operate multiple train trips daily between Miami and Orlando with stops in Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach.

State and local transportation planners are studying the possibility of constructing tunnels or overpasses in Fort Lauderdale to enhance safety and ease traffic gridlock at roadways with railroad crossings.

Kim Vasser, the Fort Lauderdale mother of an 8-year-old daughter with autism and a rare genetic syndrome, says her daughter has a team of specialists at Memorial Healthcare System. She believes Florida Blue plans now have an inadequate pediatric care network in Broward County — after a dispute last summer over the renewal of Florida Blue’s contracts that put the county’s two public health systems,  Broward Health and Memorial Healthcare System, out of network.

Vasser’s daughter could no longer see her pediatric doctors and specialists.

She, as well as a half-dozen other parents, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel they have filed formal complaints with state agencies and written to legislators, urging them to intervene. A handful of emergency physicians who say they have had to transfer patients outside the county for admission told the Sun Sentinel they, too, have reached out to legislators to remedy this situation.

Florida Blue policyholders lost coverage at Broward Health on July 1 and at Memorial on Sept. 1. Both operate under the same CEO and much of the same executive team. About 60,000 Florida Blue/Blue Cross Blue Shield policyholders are affected.

The two public health systems comprise 11 hospitals in Broward County and account for more than 98% of the county’s pediatric hospital beds. They also represent the majority of pediatric specialists in the county and its pediatric trauma centers.  Alone, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, operated by Memorial Healthcare System, offers about 50 types of pediatric specialists.

Florida law requires that insurance plans ensure adequate, timely access to in-network primary care and specialists, a provision known as network adequacy. Regulators can fine insurance carriers or force them to allow policyholders to allow members to see out-of-network doctors at in-network prices

“This is more than a contract dispute,” Vasser wrote in her complaint to legislators. “It is a network adequacy failure that puts thousands of children at risk of delayed, denied, or unaffordable care.”

At a standstill

At this time, negotiations between the insurer and the two health systems are stalled. No active negotiations are taking place.

The Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration, which reviews network adequacy requirements, did not respond to multiple requests for comment about complaints or answer questions on whether it is pursuing network inadequacy complaints.

Vasser and other Broward parents say the situation with Florida Blue left them facing tough choices: pay out-of-network costs and take on crushing health care bills, or drive miles across county lines to find new specialists. Vasser switched carriers in January, but continues to fight for the other affected Broward County children.

Broward parent Mike O’Hanlon, who is on a group Blue Cross Blue Shield plan, said his son needed an emergency appendectomy, which by law must be covered. However, while undergoing surgery, the family learned their son had a rotated bowel. “We want to go to the surgeon who’s aware of his situation and who we are comfortable with, but because our plan is out of network, we can’t, and we have to go down to Miami. It’s frustrating,” O’Hanlon said.

Physicians told the Sun Sentinel they are suffering, too. Memorial and Broward Health doctors have had to turn away longtime patients and send children across county lines for follow-up care after treating them in the emergency department.

“I am an emergency physician in Broward County at a hospital that does not have pediatrics other than seeing them in the emergency department,” said a doctor who works for a private hospital in Broward County.  “Pediatric patients who require admission need to be transferred, but if they have Blue Cross, there are no hospitals in Broward….so if the patients want to be kept in network, they have to be transferred out of the county. This is terrible for the patients and their families.”

What’s at stake

The multi-year contracts with Florida Blue for both health systems expired in 2025, and in signing new contracts, the public hospital systems are seeking reimbursement rate increases from Florida Blue and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. The hospitals argue that Florida Blue’s reimbursement offers don’t cover the rising costs of specialized, high-quality care and don’t represent a fair market increase.  Florida Blue says the demands are “excessive” and “unreasonable” and that agreeing to the increased rates would force them to spike premiums even higher for policyholders.

As of Friday, no one is at the negotiating table.

Through a spokeswoman, Memorial says it made concessions during negotiations in 2025 and offered this statement: “It is disheartening that Florida Blue has not issued a revised proposal to resume negotiations in the new year.”

Memorial says it is still trying to get Florida Blue to pay more than $150 million in outstanding claims for care provided to its members over the past five years. Florida Blue did not directly respond to a question from the Sun Sentinel about Memorial’s claim about the $150 million owed.

Broward Health gave the Sun Sentinel this statement: “We offered our last counter proposal to Florida Blue in January, at which time we were told they were having internal discussions regarding the proposal and we’d hear from them shortly. We have had no communication with Florida Blue since, and no counter proposal was returned…We ask that Florida Blue return to the table for the sake of our community.”

Florida Blue offered this statement on Friday: ” Although we’re disappointed that Memorial Healthcare System and Broward Health have chosen to remain out of network for an extended period, it’s our duty as a mission-driven company to advocate for our members and the community, prioritizing their care and financial well-being. While we cannot speak to statements made by either system, we continue to have regular discussions with their leadership teams and welcome any opportunity to advance discussions towards a reasonable and sustainable resolution.”

Offering some hope, Florida Blue added: “We’ve made efforts to bridge the gap and resolve outstanding issues, and continue to emphasize that collaboration and compromise from both sides, prioritizing patients, will help us reach the finish line.”

When asked about network inadequacy claims from parents, Florida Blue said as of March 1, specialized pediatric care provided by Nicklaus Children’s Health System doctors in Broward County, including those newly affiliated with Broward Health, will be considered in network. However, children who need inpatient admission will still need to be transferred out of the county.

Miami’s Nicklaus Children’s Hospital confirmed that its providers and facilities, including all of its inpatient and outpatient facilities in Broward County, are “in network” with Florida Blue. However, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital does not participate in the Florida Blue “Blue Select” program and its primary care providers are not part of the “MyBlue” program.

An enrollment decline

Whether or not it’s related to the Broward County situation, Florida Blue did lose enrollment in 2025.

Statewide enrollment in Florida Blue commercial plans dropped from 1.829 million in 2024 to 1.686 million in 2025. Enrollment in individual plans dropped from 482,000 to 419,000. Enrollment in group plans dropped from 468,000 to 451,000. And federal employees’ plans dropped from 446,000 to 438,000. Medicare Advantage enrollment for Blue Cross dropped from 96,400 to 78,600, according to the Florida Health Market Review 2026.

The author of the market review, Allan Baumgarten, said most health insurers offering coverage in Florida saw improved enrollment in 2025, although the numbers varied by plan type.

In what could be considered a competitive move, Broward Health and Memorial Healthcare System, for the first time, jointly ventured into the volatile and potentially lucrative Affordable Care Act marketplace by launching their own insurer for Broward County residents in 2026. Their plan, 22 Health, has a competitive hook: access to physicians and specialists,  including pediatric care, at the county’s two largest public health systems. Enrollment for 2026 has closed. It’s unclear how successful the plan is in its debut.

“At this time, we are not sharing enrollment numbers for 22 Health,” said Communications Director Suzanne Tamargo.

Broward situation reflects national trend

Disputes between hospitals and insurers over reimbursement rates and claim payments, like those in Broward County, are occurring nationwide. Jason Buxbaum, a health policy researcher at Brown University School of Health, tracks them.

He said federal transparency laws are making it easier for hospitals and insurers to compare prices and reimbursement rates. That extra level of transparency can lead to more “aggressive negotiations.” Patients get caught in the middle and both sides often urge those affected to pressure the other.

“These are real dollars at stake,” Buxbaum said. “These are high-stakes negotiations that are economically significant.”

Buxbaum said most disputes are resolved within a week, the rest within three months, making the situation in Broward County unusual. Meanwhile, all involved lose out: Hospitals suffer revenue losses, the insurer suffers enrollment losses, and patients lose access to health care choices.

At some point, as people complain to state regulators and legislators, Buxbaum said, someone may step in. It has happened in other states: “There is room for soft power or formal regulatory power to bring people together to get to an agreement. The state has a crucial role to play.”

Vasser agrees. She said she does not place blame on the insurer or the hospitals: “I just think at this point, a third party needs to come in and give assistance for a resolution to happen.”

South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.

Voters in cities and towns across Broward and Palm Beach counties may have municipal elections either on March 10 or Nov. 3, depending on where they live.

So what difference does an election date make? Here are the pros and cons behind each election season.

November elections

Of the Broward cities holding contested municipal elections in 2026, only Pembroke Pines and Lauderhill voters may go to the polls on March 10. Lauderhill also will have November elections.

There are 19 Palm Beach County municipalities holding elections on March 10.

Municipalities individually codify election times in their city charters, and county supervisors of elections administer them.

The Broward supervisor of elections allows general municipal elections on either the second Tuesday in March of any year or the first Tuesday in November of even-numbered years.

“For us here in the elections office, we are neutral, and we support whatever the cities want,” Broward Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott said. “Having an issue on the ballot in November, having more people look at it, inspires them to do their research. It’s a pretty relevant thing, how many people are seeing your issues versus people who are actually engaged.”

November municipal elections generally have a higher voter turnout. Broward’s November 2024 general election, which included over a dozen municipal elections, saw a turnout of 64.88%; other Broward municipalities’ March 2024 elections only saw a turnout of 13.99%. In March 2025, turnout dropped to 9.69%.

Until 2004, all Broward cities, towns, and villages held March elections. Joann Hussey, communications director for the city of Hollywood, cited lower costs and higher turnout as key reasons for the city’s switch.

As of this year, Broward’s cities and towns can hold candidate-only municipal elections concurrently with county, state, and federal elections free of charge. Municipal elections with ballot questions or March dates pay rate-based fees determined by voter counts and additional ballot pages.

March elections

Supporters of March elections say that despite a potential lower turnout, there are merits to separating municipal elections from federal and state ones.

“Municipal government is closest to residents’ daily lives, responsible for public safety and infrastructure improvements. Holding our elections separately from state and federal races ensures those issues receive the focused attention they deserve,” Kathleen Joy, director of communications for West Palm Beach, told the Sun Sentinel.

Boca Raton communications director Anne Marie Connolly said because Palm Beach County municipalities generally hold March elections, they may share costs and responsibilities like poll worker recruitment and precinct operations administered through the supervisor of elections.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for those voting on March 10.

In Broward, voting will take place in Lauderhill and Pembroke Pines.

Voting in Palm Beach County will happen in Boynton Beach, Belle Glade, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Greenacres, Gulf Stream, Hypoluxo, Juno Beach, Jupiter Inlet Colony, Lake Park, Lake Worth Beach, Loxahatchee Groves, Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Beach Shores, Royal Palm Beach, South Palm Beach, Wellington, and West Palm Beach.

The conclusions about their sentiments come from a University of North Florida poll that asked voters about a range of issues.

Affordability is top of mind for likely midterm election voters, UNF’s Public Opinion Research Lab reported in its March survey results.

Asked a broad question about what they see as “the most important problem facing Florida today,” 50% of voters cited affordability and the cost of living.

Nothing else came anywhere close.

The poll also found overwhelming support for phasing out a large share of property taxes levied on owner-occupied homes, though not enough to guarantee passage.

Property taxes

Support is high for the idea of phasing out property taxes on homesteaded property.

All the plans that have been considered would continue school property taxes, which poll respondents were told. The question also told them that local governments wouldn’t be allowed to reduce funding for law enforcement.

Support for the idea is broad, 56% to 35%. But that’s shy of the 60% yes vote needed for adopting an amendment to the Florida Constitution, which is the way a property tax overhaul would be started.

Another 10% said they didn’t know.

Support and opposition aren’t universal. For example, there’s a difference in the level of support expressed by homeowners (58%), who directly pay property taxes, and renters (47%) whose rents cover property taxes.

One result of reducing property taxes on owner-occupied homes would be increases in property taxes charged to owners of business property and rental homes.

Other differences:

— Political affiliation. Among Democrats, 27% support; 58% oppose. Among Republicans, 76% support, 16% oppose. Among no party affiliation/independent voters, 56% support; 38% oppose.

— Gender. Men, 61% support; 31% oppose. Women, 51% support; 38% oppose.

— Age. Younger voters, who are less likely to own homes, were less supportive than older voters. Support was 50% among voters aged 18-34, 52% among those 35-54, and 60% among those 55 and older.

It isn’t clear just what — if anything — will be put before the voters in November.

Even though the pollsters only described and asked about one potential proposal, a phase out, it contained key elements: targeted to owner-occupied homes (which includes condominiums), continuing school taxes, and promising to protect law enforcement spending.

A phase out is one of several options that’s been considered by the Florida Legislature. The Florida House and Senate, which decide if an amendment gets on the ballot, haven’t agreed on whether there would be an immediate end to non-school property taxes, whether it would take place gradually over several years, or some other form.

None of the proposals offered have explained how local governments will make up for the lost revenue.

The idea of a dramatic reduction in property taxes has been talked about for the past year, ever since Gov. Ron DeSantis started pitching the idea. Unable to run for reelection this year because of term limits and considering whether to make another attempt to win the Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis has been looking for a major victory he could use to sell himself to primary voters in other states.

DeSantis hasn’t proposed a specific plan. Republicans in the Legislature have been largely supportive. Democrats have been largely opposed, warning of potential negative consequences and arguing the state should tackle a problem they hear about much more often from their constituents: high insurance premiums.

And local governments have been sounding the alarm, warning that eliminating property taxes paid by homeowners would erode or degrade vital services, including public safety, parks, libraries and roads.

While they’ve issued warnings, they haven’t launched full-scale efforts to influence voters.

The poll suggested there is room to sway public opinion on the issue, said Sean Freeder, director of UNF’s Public Opinion Research Lab and political science professor.

The results show about 36% “strongly” support the phase-out idea, with about 19% “somewhat” supportive.

Among opponents, 20% “strongly” and 15% “somewhat” opposed.

Freeder said the people who are somewhat supportive could be swayed. Support could drop as soon as there’s a concerted campaign against whatever property tax plan emerges. “People love their tax cuts,” he said, but if opponents can articulate a clear message about negative effects “that’s a much different story.”

He said the total support shown in the survey seems “closer to the ceiling.” While “there could be room to move up,” he added that, “I wouldn’t think that’s where they want to be.”

Affordability

Support for doing something about property taxes comes as affordability has become the top issue for voters in Florida and elsewhere.

The 50% who cited affordability and cost of living in the University of North Florida poll is a big share of the electorate.

“A year ago that would be a pretty big shock,” Freeder said.

The only other concern that was in double digits was political division and polarization at 12%. Everything else, including immigration (8%) and crime (3%), was in single digits.

Crime used to be much higher, but Freeder described it currently as having “pretty much vanished” as a concern. And he said civic concerns, such as political division and polarization, usually are low on people’s concerns.

Affordability was cited across the board.

Men (51%) and women (48%) were effectively tied.

Differences were negligible among Democrats (48%), Republicans (49%) and no party affiliation/independent voters (52%.) People who said they voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 and people who voted for Democrat Kamala Harris for president were almost the same, at 50% and 48%.

One exception: About 55% of voters younger than age 55 said cost of living and affordability was the most important issue compared to 45% of those age 55 and older. (Older voters were slightly more likely than younger voters to cite political division or immigration as their top issue.)

Poll finds Florida voters disapprove of ICE, divided over Trump handling of immigration

Fine print

The poll of 786 likely Florida midterm election voters was conducted by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab.

The poll, which used live callers for interviews by phone and online surveys distributed by text message, was conducted Feb. 21 through March 2.

The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points for the full survey.

However, the margin of error for smaller groups, such as Republicans or Democrats or men and women, would be higher because the sample sizes are smaller.

Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.

Jeffrey Evans, 43, of Coral Springs, was arrested on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge after an argument with his wife became physical, according to a probable cause affidavit. Their fight on the morning of Aug. 25 about 11:30 a.m. was recorded on Ring surveillance video, which showed Evans punching Jessica Lloyd, 38, and grabbing her by her hair as he tried to take his laptop from her, according to a State Attorney’s Office memo dated Feb. 23.

Just before 9 p.m. that night in August, Evans called police and said his wife was having a “mental break” and needed help, the affidavit said. Minutes later, another person called to report hearing a woman scream, “My husband is trying to kill me!”

Evans told police when they arrived that Lloyd ran from their home, screaming that he was trying to kill her, and that he saw her fall on a sidewalk, according to an investigator’s report from the Medical Examiner’s Office. While Evans spoke to police, he and the officers “heard a splash in the canal” behind the home on Northwest 15th Court.

Lloyd was found facedown, partially submerged in 17 inches of water. She was pronounced dead at Broward Health Coral Springs.

Lloyd had multiple blunt force injuries and bruises to her head, neck, torso, arms and legs that were healed at different levels, including fractures in her ribs and left upper jaw, an autopsy report said. Toxicology tests showed positive for cocaine and some prescription antidepressant medications.

The associate medical examiner who performed Lloyd’s autopsy determined that she died as a result of drowning, and her manner of death was undetermined.

Prosecutors declined to file the misdemeanor battery charge stemming from the fight earlier that day because there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction.

“Because the victim is now deceased, the State has no evidence or witnesses to rebut this account by the defendant,” the State Attorney’s Office’s memo declining the charge said.

Prosecutors move forward with cases, even when victims cannot cooperate, when they have independent evidence to prove the charges, Assistant State Attorney Stefanie Newman, the prosecutor in charge of the Domestic Violence Unit, said in a statement shared with the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The State Attorney’s Office was never formally presented a homicide case, Paula McMahon, spokesperson for the State Attorney’s Office, said in an email Friday.

“If the investigators at the police department believed they had probable cause to make an arrest or file a charge related to the death of Jessica Lloyd, they would have formally presented it to our office for review,” McMahon said. “No homicide case has been formally presented to our office at this time. There is no statute of limitations for any unresolved homicide. We remain ready, willing and able to formally review any evidence that detectives want to present now or in the future.”

Coral Springs Police in an email sent to the Sun Sentinel on Friday night said their investigation of Lloyd’s death is closed.

“The Coral Springs Police Department conducted a long and thorough investigation, as we do with all cases,” the statement said. “Detectives did meet with the State Attorney’s Office, but we did not recommend murder charges.”

Evans’ defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.

Evans was terminated from Davie Fire Rescue in March 2025, a letter of separation shows. He had been unable to perform his job since November 2023 due to prolonged medical issues.

Jason Banegas, 23, pleaded guilty last year in a decision that even surprised Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra, who presided over the case. But after a penalty-phase trial ended with a jury recommending a life sentence instead of the death penalty, Banegas had a change of heart, writing to the judge that he never would have pleaded guilty had he not been “coerced” by his trial lawyers.

Defense lawyers Mitchell Polay and H. Dohn Williams argued the case before Kollra on Friday, saying Banegas wrongly believed his family would be targeted for deportation if he did not admit to killing Police Officer Yandy Chirino, 28, in Hollywood’s Emerald Hills neighborhood on Oct. 18, 2021. Banegas initially told police he was breaking into cars when he was confronted by the officer and that he shot him accidentally while trying to kill himself.

His guilty plea took accidental death and self-defense out of contention as defense arguments. Prosecutors criticized the motion vacate the plea as a cynical gambit to manipulate the legal system after the jury took the death penalty off the table.

Banegas’ sentencing hearing that was initially scheduled for February has been moved to April 8. Under Florida law, a life sentence is mandatory.

This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.