Deerfield Beach is in the middle of remaking its public-safety infrastructure. After more than a decade contracted to the Broward Sheriff's Office for police and fire-rescue services, the City Commission voted in early 2026 to terminate the BSO contract and stand up its own municipal police and fire departments — one of the most consequential institutional decisions in the city's modern history. Mayor Todd Drosky was among the commission majority who voted in favor, telling residents at the time that "the BSO model no longer works for a city of our size and our budget." Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony has publicly disputed the analysis behind the city's decision.
The institutional shift is happening under a commission still relatively new to its current composition. Drosky was elected Mayor on March 11, 2025, with 56 percent of the vote, succeeding term-limited Mayor Bill Ganz and ending Drosky's own two terms as District 4 Commissioner. Two of the four commission seats turned over in the same election, with Daniel Shanetzky winning District 3 in a three-way race and Thomas Plaut taking District 4 with 84 percent against a single challenger. Day-to-day operations are run by City Manager Rodney Brimlow, who was elevated from Public Safety Director to interim city manager in November 2024 after the commission removed his predecessor — and who is now overseeing the practical work of dismantling Deerfield Beach's BSO arrangement.
Deerfield Beach is one of Broward County's older municipalities, incorporated as a town in 1925 and as a city in 1945, with a population of roughly 90,000 living between Boca Raton to the north and Pompano Beach to the south. The city covers about 15 square miles of land along the Atlantic coast, including the Deerfield Beach Pier, the Arboretum, and a coastline that drives summer tourism and year-round real estate activity.
Boca Post covers Deerfield Beach City Commission meetings, the City Manager's office, the BSO transition and the stand-up of the new municipal police and fire departments, budget and tax decisions, the Community Redevelopment Agency, and major development matters before the commission. Our reporting works from commission agendas, the City Clerk's records, public-records requests filed with the city, and direct attendance at meetings.
For broader regional coverage, see Broward County government. For all Deerfield Beach coverage across topics, see Deerfield Beach news.
The Deerfield Beach City Commission meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at City Hall, 150 NE 2nd Avenue. Agendas and meeting video are posted at deerfield-beach.com.
Latest Deerfield Beach Government News
Deerfield Beach's Mayor and Commission
Deerfield Beach is governed by a five-member City Commission. The Mayor is elected by voters citywide; the four Commissioners are each elected by their districts. All five seats carry four-year terms, and the elections are staggered so that two or three seats are on the ballot every two years. The Vice Mayor position rotates among the four District Commissioners under the city charter — each one serves a one-year term as Vice Mayor at some point during their four-year commission term. Day-to-day city operations are run by the appointed City Manager, who is hired by and accountable to the Commission.
Todd Drosky
Role: Mayor
Elected Mayor of Deerfield Beach on March 11, 2025, with 56 percent of the vote, defeating fellow Republican Dan Herz in a head-to-head race for the seat being vacated by term-limited Mayor Bill Ganz. Drosky previously represented District 4 on the City Commission for two terms beginning in 2017, and chaired the city's Planning and Zoning Board before that.
By profession he is the Florida partner and managing attorney at Frenkel, Lambert, Weiss, Weismann & Gordon, LLP. Raised in nearby Boca Raton, Drosky holds an undergraduate degree from Florida State University (magna cum laude) and a Juris Doctor from the University of Miami (cum laude). He served as Secretary of the Broward League of Cities Executive Board in 2021 and as its President in 2023. His mayoral term runs through 2029.
Coverage of Mayor Drosky
Michael Hudak
Role: Vice Mayor (2026), Commissioner — District 1
Commissioner for District 1, which covers a portion of the city's western residential neighborhoods. Hudak was first elected in 2019. He was sworn in as Deerfield Beach's 2026 Vice Mayor at the commission's late-March 2026 meeting under the city's annual rotation, which gives each district commissioner one year in the role during their four-year term. His current District 1 commission term ends in 2027.
Recent coverage of Vice Mayor Hudak
Ben Preston
Role: Commissioner — District 2
Commissioner for District 2, currently serving non-consecutive terms. Preston was first elected to the Deerfield Beach Commission in July 2011 and returned to the dais after the March 2019 election. He is a more than 30-year resident of Deerfield Beach and was the city's first African-American firefighter, retiring as a Firefighter Paramedic Lieutenant after 26 years of service in the Deerfield Beach Fire Department. Preston holds Bachelor's and Master of Science degrees in Exercise and Sports Science from Florida International University and serves as an elder at New Covenant Church. His current commission term ends in 2027.
Recent coverage of Commissioner Preston
Daniel Shanetzky
Role: Commissioner — District 3
Elected to the District 3 seat in the March 11, 2025 municipal election with 50.7 percent of the vote in a three-way contest, defeating Philip Bradley (28.4 percent) and Karen Shelly (20.9 percent). The seat had previously been held by Bernie Parness. Shanetzky's first commission term runs through 2029.
Recent Coverage of Commissioner Shanetzky
Tom Plaut
Role: Commissioner — District 4
Elected to the District 4 seat in the March 11, 2025 municipal election with 84 percent of the vote against Chauncey Chapman, succeeding Todd Drosky in the seat after Drosky won the mayor's race the same day. A resident of District 4 since 1983, Plaut chaired the Deerfield Beach Planning and Zoning Board prior to his election.
Earlier in his career, he worked as a dialysis technician from 1975 to 1982 before joining a national medical equipment company that installed and serviced dialysis machines, open-heart surgery equipment, and other blood-related medical devices in the U.S. and the Caribbean. Plaut served 28 years on the Gates of Hillsboro Homeowners Board, most of them as vice president. His first commission term runs through 2029.
Latest coverage of Commissioner Plaut
Rodney Brimlow
Role: City Manager (Appointed)
Appointed Interim City Manager on November 8, 2024, after the City Commission voted to remove the previous interim manager, Horace McHugh. Brimlow had previously served as Deerfield Beach's Public Safety Director, the role overseeing the city's contracted public-safety services with the Broward Sheriff's Office, and had a prior career with BSO itself before joining the city. The Public
Safety background became unusually relevant after the commission's 2026 vote to terminate the BSO contract: Brimlow is the senior city official directly overseeing the stand-up of Deerfield Beach's own municipal police and fire-rescue departments.
Latest coverage of City Manager Brimlow
How We Cover Deerfield Beach Government
Deerfield Beach has a long-standing reputation for what the Sun Sentinel once described as "volatile and scandalous politics" — a history of management turnover, lawsuits, and contested commission decisions that has made the city one of Broward County's more demanding municipal beats. The current commission has been comparatively stable, but the BSO termination decision, the resulting build-out of two new municipal departments, and the city's continuing management transitions keep accountability reporting front and center.
For commission actions, we work from the published agenda, the meeting itself, the supporting backup documents, and the adopted text of every ordinance or resolution. For the BSO transition specifically, we monitor the contracts and inter-local agreements being amended or terminated, the staffing and equipment decisions made under the City Manager's authority, the budget amendments that fund the transition, and the public statements of both city and BSO leadership. For the city's redevelopment work, we track Deerfield Beach Community Redevelopment Agency actions separately from general commission business.
Where information comes from a public record, we identify the record and the date it was filed or adopted. When we report a commissioner's vote, we cite the meeting and the motion. Where the City Manager exercises operational authority, we attribute the action to the underlying directive or memo. Boca Post corrects errors promptly — see our policies page for more information.
Deerfield Beach Government coverage is reported by the Boca Post News Desk. About our newsroom →