Marlon Bolton (right) called BSO Captain Jemeriah Cooper, claiming his signs were stolen.
Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton directly phoned the top law enforcement officer in the city Saturday to report what he said were thefts of his campaign signs – a call he made from a vehicle while following the driver who took the signs, an incident report shows.
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office report, Bolton, 39, called BSO Captain Jemeriah Cooper shortly before 7 p.m. and told the BSO Tamarac District executive officer “he was behind a truck [driver] who had stolen his campaign signs from four separate locations in Tamarac.”
“Cooper … advised via radio that he was [on a] landline with a city commissioner, Marlon Bolton, who called him stating he was behind a truck who had stolen his campaign signs from four separate locations in Tamarac,” the report states. “Mr. Bolton relayed pertinent information about the vehicle’s direction of travel and final stop, allowing deputies to arrive on scene” at the Coral Springs home of Michael Morrison, the off-duty city of Tamarac worker who took the signs.
A Tamarac employee for nearly 24 years, Morrison is a street crew supervisor in the city’s Public Services department and a Federation of Public and Private Employees union member, which has endorsed Bolton’s opponent, Viola Watson.
Morrison said he took the advertisements while acting in his role as a volunteer for Watson.
Deputies ultimately determined no laws had been broken during Saturday’s sign incident. Bolton “was returned his signs and left the scene without issue,” the report states.
The dust-up over the campaign advertisements was exclusively reported by Tamarac Talk Sunday. On Monday, the BSO report shed new light on the incident a little more than three weeks before Election Day.
Bolton told Tamarac Talk he knew the yard advertisements had been taken because he installed Apple AirTags in all his signs.
Morrison, who said the signs did not contain AirTags, took them from four locations across the city: Tamarac Moose Lodge, the Legacy at Tamarac apartments, 3 Lakes Plaza, and the northwest corner of West Commercial Boulevard and Woodlands Boulevard, the report states.
Morrison told deputies Tamarac Mayor Michelle Gomez had informed him Bolton’s signs were improperly placed on several private properties.
Gomez, an attorney, has endorsed Watson and knocked on voters’ doors with her.
She told Tamarac Talk she helped Watson’s campaign obtain permission from numerous properties across the city, granting Watson exclusive rights to post candidate signage. This means Bolton’s campaign cannot post signs at those locations.
According to the report, Gomez gave the same information about the signs to a BSO sergeant investigating the incident on Saturday.
“Mayor Gomez stated she had received permission from all property owners to have the signs removed from the locations,” the BSO report states. “Mayor Gomez assured that documentation of permission to remove the signs would be provided.”
Gomez shared information related to the exclusivity agreements with Tamarac Talk on Sunday.
In his phone conversation with the BSO sergeant, Bolton said his signs “were placed on public property and were removed without permission,” the report states.
Bolton also told BSO the Legacy at Tamarac apartments property manager had granted permission to display his signs.
“Additionally, Commissioner Bolton stated that the parcel of land located on the NW corner of Commercial Boulevard and Woodlands Boulevard was public property; therefore, his campaign sign should not have been removed by Mr. Morrison,” the report states.
Gomez, who said city law forbids the display of campaign signs on public property, told BSO that “Bolton was recently placed on notice about placing his signs next to their authorized signs during a recent confrontation with another commissioner.”
The report did not name the commissioner, but Bolton has been locked in a months-long, bitterly personal dispute with fellow Commissioner Elvin Villalobos.
Like Bolton, Villalobos is up for re-election and facing a challenge from Tamarac resident Krystal Patterson, executive director of the West Perrine Community Redevelopment Agency.
During Saturday’s campaign sign dust-up, Coral Springs Police also responded to Morrison’s home, outside of which four to six law enforcement vehicles were eventually parked – along with a Dodge Ram pickup truck driven by Bolton, Morrison said.
According to the union member, Bolton pulled up just minutes after Morrison removed a sign from outside the Tamarac Moose Lodge. He said Bolton stepped out of the Ram and walked up his driveway before Morrison told him: “You can get off my property.”
Bolton also took pictures of Morrison and his family, causing him to become “concerned for my family’s well-being and safety,” the homeowner said.
Watson, a member of Tamarac’s Planning Board and Affordable Housing Advisory Board, is campaigning to unseat Bolton, who is running for a third term in District 1.
Watson and Villalobos won the endorsement of the Sun Sentinel Monday in their respective races.
Another candidate on the ballot for the District 1 seat, businessman Horatio Bryan, announced on Facebook Monday he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Watson.
“It is my most sincere desire for District 1 and all of Tamarac to have the wise, conscientious, and principled leadership it deserves,” Bryan wrote. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, I must prioritize my family at this time. In keeping with the integrity I hold as a core value, it is important to recognize when one is, and is not, the right person for a position. Therefore, I am officially asking everyone to support Viola Watson for this role.”
Bolton said in a written statement Sunday that he had hired an attorney and “am prepared to take legal action against this sort of corruption and abuse of power” in connection with the sign incident.
“However, for now, I am focusing on running a clean and victorious campaign,” Bolton said.
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