Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton Accused of “Intimidating” Union Member Amid Dust-Up Over Campaign Signs

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Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton Accused of "Intimidating" Union Member Amid Dust-Up Over Campaign Signs

Marlon Bolton. {courtesy Mike Morrison}

Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton was involved in a dust-up over his political signs Saturday after a local union member removed five of the cardboard advertisements – signage the man said was displayed without permission.

Michael Morrison, 55, said he removed five of Bolton’s re-election yard signs because they were placed at locations where Bolton’s opponent in the Nov. 5 election, Viola Watson, has exclusive permission to display campaign signage.

A Tamarac city employee for nearly 24 years, Morrison is a street crew supervisor in Tamarac’s Public Services department and a member of the Federation of Public and Private Employees union, which has endorsed Watson. He said he was off-duty and working as a volunteer for Watson when he removed the signs.

The Coral Springs resident said Bolton pulled up outside his home around 6 p.m. Saturday in a Dodge Ram pickup truck, just minutes after Morrison had removed a fifth Bolton campaign sign from outside the Tamarac Moose Lodge on Rock Island Road.

Around the same time, several Broward Sheriff’s Office Tamarac District patrol vehicles arrived at Morrison’s home in response to a report of “theft” of the signs, according to Morrison.

Bolton, the pastor at North Lauderdale’s Praise Experience Church, stepped out of the Ram and walked up Morrison’s driveway, Morrison said.

“For someone who’s supposed to be a pastor, he gave me and my family the look of the devil,” said Morrison, who at the time had Bolton’s campaign signs in the back of his truck.

“I told him, ‘You can get off my property.’ He did get off the property, but then he was on my neighbor’s property. That’s when he was taking pictures of my family and me, and that’s when I became concerned for my family’s well-being and safety.”

According to Morrison, Watson has exclusive permission to place signs at 17 locations in Tamarac, including the lodge. Morrison said he removed the Bolton sign and drove to four of the other 17 spots. He found Bolton’s signs there as well and removed them, he said.

In a written statement to Tamarac Talk Sunday, Bolton said:

“I installed Apple AirTags on all of my signs. I noticed that my signs were moving, so I tracked their location to a moving vehicle headed westbound on Bailey Road. I called 911 and reported that my signs were in the back of a Ford F-150. The vehicle was intercepted in Coral Springs. The driver confirmed he removed the signs on behalf of [Tamarac Mayor] Michelle Gomez. I have hired an attorney and am prepared to take legal action against this sort of corruption and abuse of power. However, for now, I am focusing on running a clean and victorious campaign.”

Morrison disputed part of Bolton’s account and said there were no AirTags in the signs.

Gomez, an attorney, has endorsed Watson and knocked on voters’ doors with her. She said she helped Watson’s campaign obtain permission from numerous properties across the city granting Watson exclusive rights to post candidate signage, meaning Bolton’s campaign cannot post signs at those locations.

“Mike Morrison was doing this on his own time, on his own dime, in his own vehicle; he’s allowed to support any candidate he wishes,” Gomez told Tamarac Talk Sunday. “Marlon was trying to intimidate Mike.”

“Those signs were taken down with permission from the property owners or their representatives,” added Gomez, who informed BSO deputies of the legal arrangement by phone when Morrison called her during the incident Saturday. “We appreciate the support of all the property owners who gave us exclusive rights to be on their properties and remove the signs of [any candidate] who does not have their authority.”

Coral Springs Police also responded to Morrison’s home on Saturday, outside of which four to six law enforcement vehicles were eventually parked, Morrison said.

“BSO asked me for identification,” he said. “They asked me if I minded if they ran my license and I said, ‘not at all.’ They asked me if I’ve ever been arrested for theft. I said, ‘absolutely not.’ They came back and explained that they had gotten a call about a theft.”

After deputies investigated the incident, Morrison said they told him: “I didn’t do anything wrong, that there were no charges being filed against me.”

According to documentation Morrison provided to Tamarac Talk, the Broward Sheriff’s Office created a case number for the incident. A BSO spokesperson said they were not able to pull an incident report for Tamarac Talk on Sunday but would look into the matter on Monday.

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. He was originally elected in 2016 and reelected in 2020. Business owner Horatio Bryan is also running for the commission seat.

Morrison, a married father of three, said Saturday’s drama began shortly after he got off work from his part-time clerking job at a local gun shop.

He said he was headed to Broward Meat and Fish Company in North Lauderdale to buy meat for his dog when he spotted one of Bolton’s campaign yard signs at a property at Commercial Boulevard and Northwest 31st Avenue.

Morrison said he removed the Bolton sign and drove to four of the other 17 spots on Watson’s exclusive signage list. He found Bolton’s signs there as well and removed them, he said.

He said he saw Bolton signs placed back on two of the properties Sunday.

Like other Bolton signs, the advertisements violate city code due to their being oversized, according to Morrison and Gomez.

“He knows what he’s doing is wrong,” Morrison said.

The longtime Tamarac city employee has been in the limelight before.

In February 2017, then-18-year-old Nikolas Cruz purchased an AR-15-style rifle from Sunrise Tactical Supply, which Morrison owned at the time. Cruz said he wanted the rifle to go shooting with his friends over the weekend.

Cruz later used the weapon in his February 2018 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, killing 17 people and injuring 17 more.

Authorities determined Morrison properly followed the law during the gun sale.

The dispute over Bolton’s campaign signs follows the mailing of voter guides to Tamarac residents, campaign materials that falsely appear to come from the Broward Democratic Party but were actually paid for by Our Blue Democracy PAC.

Records show the treasurer of Our Blue Democracy PAC, Malucci Joseph, is also treasurer for PACs linked to Bolton through campaign finance disclosure filings.

The PAC’s sole donor, a Pompano Beach company called Costa Properties Inc., gave the entity $5,000. The same company donated to Broward Vision PAC, another entity tied to Bolton.

The Our Blue Democracy mailers delivered to Tamarac homes show a smiling Bolton positioned next to Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz. The mailers – which endorse Bolton – use the same colors and design as the county Democrats’ authentic voter guide, but have no connection to that organization, officials said.

Bolton had his own run-in with the law involving an alleged theft in 2010, when he was charged with grand theft for allegedly using a forged withdrawal slip to withdraw $4,120 from a Miami Beach bank, according to REDBROWARD.

The bank account belonged to the Owner of No. 23 Model Management, a business that employed Bolton at the time.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office later dropped the theft case because prosecutors were unable to obtain incriminating footage from the bank’s surveillance cameras, which had recorded over the alleged incident.

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Author Profile

Kevin Deutsch

Kevin Deutsch is an award-winning journalist and author of two nonfiction books. He covers general assignment news and Jewish community issues for Talk Media. He has also worked as a staff writer at The Miami Times, the Rio Grande SUN, the New York Daily News, Newsday, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post, The Riverdale Press, and Bronx Justice News.