One ceremonial badge still unaccounted for weeks after resolution, Pines mayor says
More than a month after Pembroke Pines city commissioners unanimously voted to end the ceremonial badge practice for elected officials, Commissioner Jay D. Schwartz has not returned the badge tied to last year’s controversy.
Mayor Angelo Castillo told the Pembroke Pines News on Thursday, May 21, that the badge had not been returned.
“To my knowledge, he has not complied with the City Commission’s resolution that all elected official ceremonial badges be returned,” Castillo wrote in an email. “All other elected officials that had been issued ceremonial badges have returned them to administration.”
Schwartz has not responded to multiple requests for comment from the Pembroke Pines News.
The unresolved status follows the commission’s April 15 vote to pass a resolution that prohibits future ceremonial badges for elected officials and encouraged the voluntary return of those in circulation.
The resolution, however, did not set a deadline for returning badges and stopped short of requiring commissioners to do so.
The badge controversy stems from an incident last year at Charles W. Flanagan High.
While working as an adjunct instructor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and teaching aviation classes at the high school, Schwartz confronted a group of students and, during the interaction, pulled a badge from his wallet, Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators found.
Commissioners unanimously approved the April 15 resolution after public discussion over trust and accountability.
