‘Like a dictatorship’: Commissioner in Broward city sues mayor, officials

A city commissioner of West Park, a small municipality in southeast Broward County, says the mayor, city clerk and city manager are running the city “as a dictatorship.” Now, she wants a judge to step in.

In a lawsuit filed last week in Broward, Commissioner Katrina Touchstone is suing the City of West Park, Mayor Felicia Brunson, City Manager W. Ajibola Balogun and city clerk Alexandra Grant, alleging that the mayor improperly ends meetings early to prevent votes she doesn’t like — including a resolution to audit the city manager and investigate alleged corruption — and that city officials allow it to happen.

“We have been impeded in the capabilities of doing our job,” Touchstone told reporters at a press conference on Friday. “We have been told that we cannot entertain new agenda items, we cannot add agenda items to the agenda. Each and every time an item comes up that the mayor is not in agreement with, she arbitrarily adjourns the meetings, which is against our charter.”

The city officials named in the suit did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Touchstone, who was elected to the commission Nov. 2022 and is up for reelection next year, wants a judge to issue an immediate injunction to appoint a special master to oversee city meetings. Michael Pizzi, Touchstone’s attorney, said the situation in West Park is “unprecedented.”

“It’s being run like a mob. It’s being run like a dictatorship,” Pizzi told reporters. “The city of West Park, with the current mayor, current manager, current clerk, is not respecting democracy.”

West Park’s nonpartisan city commission has just five seats, including the mayor and vice mayor. Touchstone said she is part of a three-person majority that opposes the mayor, along with Commissioner Cristina Reeves Eveillard, who was elected Nov. 2024, and the vice mayor, Joy Smith.

Since the November election, Touchstone says that the mayor has abruptly adjourned commission meetings in the middle of motions five times, going as far as to walk out and have the lights turned off. It happened again as recently as Wednesday, Touchstone said, “because she didn’t like that things were not going in her favor.”

“I won’t stand by and allow the voters’ right to have representation thwarted by a single unilateral authority,” Touchstone said. “It’s unfortunate that it has come to this point, but we have urgent city business that needs to be handled that is being impeded by the actions of our mayor, our city clerk in conjunction with our city manager.”

Videos of commission meetings shared with the press and available online show several intense moments between West Park city officials. At the Wednesday meeting, Touchstone recalled, she moved to table an item, which the vice mayor seconded. The mayor told city staff to move forward with the item anyway. Video of the meeting on the city’s website shows what happened next.

“Madam mayor, you are out of order,” Touchstone told Brunson at the meeting, which quickly broke out into a heated exchange between several commissioners, the mayor and manager over proper procedure. Though the video camera cut off, the audio of commissioners arguing continued.

“You’re not going to sit here and yell at me like I’m a child,” Brunson said. “Meeting is adjourned.”

“Meeting is not adjourned. We still have a quorum,” Touchstone responded.

“Foolishness!” one commissioner said.

Pizzi and Touchstone said at the press conference that the mayor appears to have been sabotaging Touchstone’s efforts to pass a resolution that would appoint a special counsel to investigate alleged city government corruption.

At the May 21 commission meeting, that resolution was on the agenda. But before the commissioners could discuss Touchstone’s special counsel resolution, according to livestreamed video of the meeting, a squabble broke out between Vice Mayor Joy Smith and Commissioner Brandon Smith. Mayor Brunson told the vice mayor to be quiet.

“Either we’re going to get order, or we’re going to leave,” Brunson said at the meeting. “So one or the other.”

Touchstone put in a motion to call a question, which the vice mayor seconded while Commissioner Smith was speaking. Brunson then banged her gavel and said the meeting was adjourned.

“The meeting can’t be adjourned, mayor,” Touchstone said. The video of the meeting shows commissioners debating with city staff over whether the mayor broke the city charter rules by ending the meeting the way she did — all as the mayor stood with her arms crossed. The video ends while Touchstone was mid-sentence.

Pizzi told reporters that the mayor, city clerk and city manager then left. The “majority of the council” stayed seated and finished the agenda while sitting in the dark, Pizzi said. According to the lawsuit, a quorum of the remaining commissioners passed the investigation resolution and appointed Pizzi as the special counsel.

The city manager refused to recognize the vote and removed the item from future agendas, the lawsuit alleges.

“It’s just not fair to our residents and taxpayers,” Touchstone said at the press conferences. We definitely can do better and we should do better and we should have integrity in everything that we do.”