DeSantis reappoints Broward School Board member who led effort to fire superintendent
In yet another twist in the Broward School Board, Gov. Ron DeSantis Thursday appointed Daniel Foganholi to the Board’s District 1 seat, the same board member who led the effort in November to fire the superintendent in a late-night move on the day before he left office.
Foganholi is replacing Rodney “Rod” Velez, whom voters elected Nov. 8 but can’t hold office because of his former criminal conviction. To run for office, a convicted felon has to have his or her civil rights restored, which Velez had not done before the election.
Foganholi’s appointment is effective Thursday, Dec. 22, per DeSantis’ executive order, although he won’t be sworn into office until Jan. 18.
Velez, a real-estate property manager for Continental Fidelity Corp., didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment Thursday from the Herald.
In the Nov. 8 Broward School Board election, Velez, 52, defeated his opponent, Marie Murray Martin, a reading, film and journalism teacher at Apollo Middle School in Hollywood and the daughter of former board member Ann Murray. He secured about 52 percent of the votes, while she garnered almost 48 percent.
Five people elected to the board were sworn into office on Nov. 22, although Velez wasn’t because of issues related to his eligibility. (A total of six seats were up for election on the nine-member board this year.)
Florida law stipulates if an elected person fails to qualify for office within 30 days from the start of the term, the seat becomes vacant. The law also says the governor must fill by appointment any vacancy in a state, district, or county office. That deadline was Thursday for Velez.
Foganholi one of five DeSantis board appointees
To fill the seat, DeSantis picked Foganholi over Ryan Reiter, whom DeSantis appointed to represent District 1 in August. Although he voted to fire superintendent Vickie Cartwright, Reiter spoke out notably less against her than Foganholi in that late-night November meeting.
Reiter declined to comment Thursday.
Foganholi, 36, first joined the School Board in April when DeSantis appointed him for the District 5 seat, vacated by board member Rosalind Osgood in March. She stepped down to run successfully for the Florida Senate.
Foganholi didn’t run for the District 5 seat in the Nov. 8 election because he didn’t live in the district. (If you’re appointed, you don’t have to live in the district, but if you are running for the seat, you do.) Instead, he ran for a seat on the Coral Springs Commission and lost.
He works as the director of strategic partnerships for the Brazilian American Coalition, a nonprofit that helps Brazilian Americans, according to a press release sent by the governor’s office Thursday.
In August, DeSantis appointed four other board members — Reiter, along with Torey Alston, Manuel Serrano and Kevin Tynan — after suspending four Broward School Board members, all elected by Broward County residents. In announcing their suspension, DeSantis cited a grand jury investigation that concluded the board members had grossly mismanaged the district’s $800 million school bond construction program, among other issues.
Of the four appointed in August, only Alston remains. DeSantis appointed him to the District 2 seat, which does not come up for election until 2024.
READ MORE: DeSantis suspends four Broward County School Board members, appoints replacements
Will Foganholi target Cartwright again?
Foganholi, a fierce critic of Cartwright, abruptly proposed firing her in a late-night move at a Monday, Nov. 14 meeting. The board voted 5-4 to fire her, with all five of the votes coming from board members whom DeSantis had appointed. The four who voted to keep Cartwright, who defied DeSantis over mask mandates in schools deep in the pandemic last year, were elected incumbents.
Foganholi’s move to fire Cartwright came a day before he stepped down from his seven-month stint on the board, at the end of the day, Tuesday, Nov. 15.
He didn’t respond to a question Thursday as to whether he planned to reintroduce a motion to fire her. He will stay in his new seat until 2026, for a full four-year term.
Earlier this month, the newly elected board rescinded Cartwright’s firing and put her back on a 90-day probationary period that the old board approved. That period ends at the end of January.
READ MORE: Broward School Board rescinds superintendent’s firing by DeSantis appointees
In a text to the Herald on Thursday, Foganholi said he felt honored to serve again and thanked the governor for his vote of confidence.
“I look forward to getting to work and provide a strong voice for the people of the district one on the school board,” he added.
FROM MAY: Who is Daniel Foganholi, the new Broward School Board member appointed by DeSantis?
Although he lives in Coral Springs, Foganholi will represent the southeast part of the school district, including Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and Dania Beach. Appointed members don’t have to live in the districts they represent.
Asked for comment from Cartwright, the school district’s spokesman John Sullivan emailed a statement to the Herald on Thursday afternoon, saying: “The District congratulates Mr. Foganholi’s on his appointment to the School Board. The Superintendent looks forward to working with him and the entire Board to honor our student-first approach.“
Velez’s legal questions
In 1994, Velez pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated battery, a second-degree felony.
In 2018, Florida voters approved by nearly two thirds a landmark state constitutional amendment allowing felons to vote. However, felons still have to go through a clemency process to have their civil rights restored to hold office.
That raised questions about Velez’s clemency and his eligibility to run during the campaign.
On Oct. 30, Velez told the Sun Sentinel he had “lawyers fighting this issue for him.” Because of that statement, Murray Martin, who was running against him in the District 1 seat, contacted the Public Corruption Unit of the Broward State Attorney’s Office.
That office opened an investigation into Velez’s case on Oct. 31 to see if Velez committed fraud by signing an oath of eligibility when he chose to run. On Tuesday, the State Attorney’s Office declined to press criminal charges against him.
The investigation found Velez applied for clemency in 2016, but didn’t provide all of the necessary documentation so his request was denied. He applied again in September, but his application is still pending.
Murray Martin also filed a lawsuit against Velez after the election to stop him from holding office. On Wednesday, Circuit Judge Fabienne Fahnestock dismissed the civil complaint on procedural grounds.
During a Thursday phone interview with the Herald, Murray Martin said the main purpose of her legal action was to inform the public about Velez’s ineligibility, as it relates to Amendment 4 (restoring felons’ rights to vote) and the Florida constitution.
“He duped the public,” she said. “I kept screaming that from the rooftops and nobody understood it.”
Lori Alhadeff, the board chair and District 4 representative, lamented the news for those who chose Velez in the polls, but cheered Foganholi on.
“I do feel bad for the constituents in District 1 because they did vote for Rod Velez to be their School Board member. However, I do believe it was incumbent on Mr. Velez to make sure that he had received his clemency and qualified to be sworn in as a School Board member,” Alhadeff said in a phone interview with the Herald on Thursday.
“As far as Daniel Foganholi, I’m excited and happy for him,” she added. “I know he’ll do a good job.”
Miami Herald research director Monika Leal contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 22, 2022 at 2:33 PM.
