Moody’s opinion, issued Monday, is expected to further delay FAU’s search for a new president and may force the entire presidential search process to start again, legal and Sunshine experts told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The state’s Sunshine Law governs which meetings and records must be open to the public as well as what records must be kept for meetings held behind closed doors.

“It would be very problematic if anyone acts on the recommendations of the search committee,” said Michael Barfield, who works on open government and Sunshine issues for the Florida Center for Government Accountability. “In fact, it would be illegal according to the Attorney General’s opinion.”

Neither an FAU spokesman nor Brad Levine, chairman of the Board of Trustees, provided comment Tuesday afternoon.

The Board of Governors for the State University System, which must confirm the presidential candidate FAU selects, halted the search July 7 over what state Chancellor Ray Rodrigues described as “anomalies.”

The Board of Governors asked Moody on Sept. 8 to weigh in on one of FAU’s actions, without ever naming the university in its request. The board said it was seeking guidance as it updates its policies on presidential searches.

The issue involved whether the search committee was allowed to whittle down the list of 60 candidates to 20 by members privately telling a search firm who their top choices were.

The state’s Sunshine Law doesn’t allow search committee members “to use a search firm to anonymously rank candidates to affect which candidates the committee will consider at a future meeting,” Moody wrote in her opinion, dated Monday.

“It appears that the very purpose of the process you describe is to inject secrecy into the deliberative process,” Moody wrote.

Many discussions related to university presidential searches are required to be secret from the public under a 2022 law, including portions that reveal the names or identifying information of candidates who did not make it to the finalist stage.

However, these portions of the meeting still must be held “on the record” in the presence of other committee members, Moody wrote.

“While an exemption is available for portions of certain meetings of the search committee, this exemption applies only when the committee fulfills all criteria of the exemption, such as recording the entire portion of the exempt meeting,” Moody wrote.

Sunshine Law violations are generally corrected by holding the improper meeting again. In this case, that also would mean redoing subsequent meetings as well, Will Spicola, a Tallahassee attorney who specializes in constitutional law, told the Sun Sentinel.

But the FAU search committee was disbanded after three finalists were named in early July, committee members say. That likely means starting the entire search again, Spicola said.

“I think that’s the only option,” he said.

Moody’s opinion is expected to be part of an investigation being conducted by Julie Leftheris, inspector general for the Board of Governors. Rodrigues is scheduled to provide an update on the investigation at a Nov. 9 meeting.

“The inspector general is conducting a thorough investigation. It is our policy not to comment on such investigations,” said Tony Lee, a spokesman for the Board of Governors.

The FAU search committee had chosen three candidates: Vice Admiral Sean Buck, who recently retired as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis; Michael Hartline, dean of the College of Business at Florida State University; and Jose Sartarelli, former chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Not selected was State Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, whom Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office had endorsed for the job in late May. Some Democrat lawmakers, as well as FAU faculty and donors, argued that the Board of Governors stopped the search because Fine didn’t get the job.

Since then, Fine and DeSantis have been involved in a feud after Fine accused the governor of being too weak on antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Reached by text Thursday, Fine expressed doubts he would apply again if the search is reopened.

“I only applied the first time because the Governor’s team recruited me and promised a smooth and fast confirmation,” he said. “This time, I would not expect the former; I would not believe the latter.”

The FAU Faculty Senate has been pushing for another option: keeping Interim President Stacy Volnick on as permanent president. Volnick, who has been with FAU for more than 30 years, was not allowed to apply for the job as a condition of being named interim leader.

“She has support across the institution and in the larger community, both because of her longstanding service as well as her dedication and the thought and care she puts into the role,” said Bill Trapani, a communications professor at FAU.

“I think when the faculty endorsed an extension of Dr. Volnick’s interim contract, it was with the notion we need to restore some stability sooner rather than later,” he said.

Clarification: An earlier version of this news article’s headline about a legal opinion issued by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody regarding university presidential search processes was unclear. Moody’s opinion addressed how a method, one resembling an approach used by the Florida Atlantic University search committee, violates the state’s Sunshine Law.

Fine gave his first detailed account about his role in FAU’s search for a new leader in a phone interview Thursday with the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office said in March that Fine would make a good president of FAU, but the decision was ultimately up to a search committee and Board of Trustees at FAU. When the search committee announced three finalists July 5 for the Board of Trustees to consider, Fine wasn’t one of them.

“The community didn’t want me,” Fine said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with me. I think they don’t want a conservative non-academic.”

Fine’s comments followed a feud this week between Fine and Gov. Ron DeSantis, after Fine flipped his support to Donald Trump in the Republican primary for president, saying that DeSantis has been too weak on antisemitism in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel. DeSantis suggested Tuesday that Fine may be upset he didn’t get the FAU presidency job.

Fine said that DeSantis has been slow to respond to antisemitism on university campuses. He noted DeSantis required universities to stop sanctioning student groups that may have sympathies to Hamas, after Fine said he was endorsing Trump.

Fine suggested DeSantis’ handling of the FAU presidency issue was troubling as he considered whether to shift his support to Trump. He said most members of the FAU Board of Trustees are people either the governor appointed or the DeSantis-appointed State University System Board of Governors appointed.

“If you can’t get those people to do what you want, how are you going to get Vladimir Putin to do it?” Fine said. “I think it’s an insightful example of failure.”

Brad Levine, chairman of the FAU Board of Trustees, would only give a general statement about Fine’s candidacy.

“In response to Randy Fine’s public comments regarding not being short listed as a candidate to lead FAU, the record speaks for itself,” he said. “As for his statements decrying Gov. DeSantis for not supporting Israel or our Jewish community, I must disagree wholeheartedly.”

Levine said, “At FAU, we have a large Jewish student population and I myself am a conservative Jewish person. Gov. DeSantis has always been an ardent supporter of Israel and on behalf of myself, our students, and our Jewish community Mr. Fine could not be more wrong about the governor’s support for us.”

Fine said his interest in the FAU job started when he got a call Feb. 12 from an official with the governor’s office encouraging him to apply. He didn’t name the official.

At that time DeSantis allies were starting to take over colleges and universities, including New College of Florida in Sarasota and South Florida State College in Avon Park, at the same time DeSantis was vowing to make colleges less “woke” or left wing. Fine has sponsored or championed legislation, such as a bill to keep kids out of drag shows and bills that restrict the discussion of LGBTQ topics in school.

“The governor wanted to transform the higher-education system, which is something I agree with, and I think they believed that I had the turn-around skills for what they felt the university needed,” he said.

FAU’s location in Boca Raton, home to a large Jewish population, was likely also a factor, Fine said.

“I think they also thought that because I was Jewish, you know, it’s FAU and it’s Boca, that it would be a good fit for the university and a good fit for me personally,” he said. “If I wasn’t Jewish, I don’t think they would have called.”

While university presidents are selected by the school’s Board of Trustees, not the governor, Fine was told that wasn’t a problem, he said. Most trustees are either appointed directly or indirectly by the governor, giving DeSantis influence.

“Their pitch was everybody wants you. The path has been cleared,” Fine said. “If you say yes, you’re going to waltz right in.”

Fine said he didn’t say yes right away, because he’d already filed to run for state Senate and had started raising money. He said he also had concerns about disrupting his family, including his son, who attends a top-ranked high school in Brevard County. He said it took him nearly a month to say yes.

A DeSantis spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment. But an unnamed DeSantis official gave a contradictory version of events to Politico. Fine and his allies “went to the governor’s office begging to get him the FAU job. …  Leadership and everyone was eager to be rid of him in the Legislature,” the official said, according to the news site.

Fine said that’s false.

“It wasn’t something I was looking for or wanted to do. It’s the opposite of begging,” he said.

Fine said he agreed to apply on three conditions: that it was a sure thing, that it be announced by the end of the legislative session so he could say goodbye to colleagues and that his name not be released until the final stages.

State law requires the names of applicants be kept secret unless they make it to the finalist stage.

However, on March 28, Fine did a round of interviews saying that he’d been asked by the governor’s office to apply and he was seriously considering it. Fine said he agreed to to do that because the news had already been leaked to media.

“I don’t know who leaked it. I actually don’t think it was the governor’s office. I think it was FAU,” Fine said. “Because obviously they found out because of the internal conversations. You can’t mobilize the liberal armies if they don’t know about it, so they leaked it.”

The announcement of Fine’s possible candidacy did create concern among many faculty and students and some donors. One professor, Bill Trapani, even applied for president as a protest, skewering Fine in his application letter.

Still, Fine said, “I was told the path is cleared. It’ll be done by the end of May, and then the deadline slipped and May became June and June became July.”

The presidential search committee interviewed him as a semifinalist June 14, and Fine said the interview didn’t go well. He said Chairman Brad Levine “had put a lot of non-conservatives on that search committee” who “didn’t agree with the governor’s vision for higher education.”

Fine said the committee didn’t consider that his background was not as a university administrator. In addition to being a legislator, Fine is a retired casino executive.

“I was given a series of questions that basically had nothing to do with anything about me,” he said. “They were for a seasoned traditional academic. Talk about your experience managing sports teams. Talk about your experience managing academic research.”

All semifinalists were asked the same questions, FAU officials said.

Still, Fine said he was surprised that when finalists were announced July 5, he didn’t even make the top three.

“If they had said, ‘Hey Randy, do you want to update your resume which you haven’t done in over 10 years and apply for a job along with 65 other people, I would have said no,” Fine said. “I wasn’t looking to leave the Legislature. I wasn’t looking for a job. I wasn’t looking to move.”

But two days later, many believed Fine might be back in the running. The Board of Governors, which must confirm the president selected by the FAU trustees, suspended the search, citing “anomalies.”

One issue was related to the use of a straw poll to narrow candidates, an issue Fine said he was unaware of. Another related to a diversity survey from the search consultant that asked questions about sexual orientation and gender identity, Fine acknowledged he did complain to DeSantis’ office about that, but it was before finalists were named and not because he wasn’t selected.

As to why the governor’s office or the Board of Governors didn’t deal with the survey concerns before finalists were named, Fine said, “I think they legitimately thought that they were going to be able to influence the board and the search committee to do what they wanted.”

Tony Lee, a spokesman for the Board of Governors, would not address Fine’s suggestion that the search wouldn’t have been stopped had he been named a finalist. The board’s inspector general is conducting an investigation of the search process and is expected to give an update at a Nov. 9 meeting.

“It is our policy not to comment on such investigations,’ Lee said. “In addition, the State University System of Florida does not comment on search committee applicants until they are named as finalists.”

DeSantis had supported Fine, a state representative from Palm Bay, for the FAU job in March, and Fine endorsed DeSantis for his presidential bid. But this week, it was clear their alliance had been shattered, with Fine announcing he was flipping his support to former President Trump.

“He was up for a presidency of FAU. He didn’t get it. Now he’s running for Senate. He’s trying to ingratiate himself. Totally ridiculous,” DeSantis said in New Hampshire, according to Politico.

An FAU presidential search committee didn’t pick Fine as a finalist July 5, but two days later, the state Board of Governors suspended the search due to alleged “anomalies,” raising questions of whether the university might have to conduct the search over again.

Fine had previously been a staunch supporter of DeSantis, but he said in a Washington Times opinion piece Monday that he was disappointed by DeSantis’ response to the Hamas attack on Israel, as well as other issues affecting Jews. Fine is the only Jewish Republican member of the state Legislature. Trump, he argued, “never let us down.”

Although it was widely known that Fine applied for the FAU job, only the names of finalists are made public. While Fine confirmed in March that the DeSantis administration had approached him about applying for the job, he never confirmed he actually did apply.

“Did someone disclose that I had applied? I never have,” Fine said by text after being contacted by the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Tuesday.

When told that DeSantis confirmed his candidacy, Fine responded, “Interesting. I have never confirmed I applied and am not now. State law requires applicants’ names to be kept confidential.”

His candidacy was noted in the conservative blog Florida Jolt by Tracy Caruso, a Fine ally and wife of State Rep. Mike Caruso, a West Palm Beach Republican.

Caruso suggested Fine’s concerns about a diversity survey by the search firm that asked about sexual orientation and gender identity was one factor that prompted the state investigation.

“By now, most know that Governor DeSantis’s recommended candidate, Representative Randy Fine R-Brevard County, was asked if he was a biological or transgendered male, which anyone outside of those being questioned knows is an outrageous and unacceptable question to ask any job candidate,” she wrote on Sept. 23.

Another issue cited by the Board of Governors was the search committee using a “straw poll” to narrow candidates. The board has asked Attorney General Ashley Moody for her opinion on whether the poll complies with state law, and is awaiting a response.

The inspector general for the Board of Governors is finishing an investigation and is expected to share results on Nov. 9, according to the board’s agenda.

If the Board of Governors allows FAU to continue its search it would likely interview its three finalists. They are: Vice Admiral Sean Buck, who recently retired as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis; Michael Hartline, dean of the College of Business at Florida State University; and Jose Sartarelli, former chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

No finalist has dropped out due to the delays, said Brad Levine, chairman of the FAU Board of Trustees.

“They’re still in the running and the university is looking forward o proceeding with the presidential search and selecting our next president,” Levine said.

The Faculty Senate asked the Board of Trustees last month to consider another option — giving interim President Stacy Volnick a multi-year contract. Members of the group expressed concern that the search process would drag on and finalists might drop out.

“The motion at Faculty Senate last month was driven by a need for stability in leadership and a belief that Dr. Volnick has served us well during her time as our interim president,” Kim Dunn, an associate professor of accounting and president of the Faculty Senate, told the Sun Sentinel. “Today’s announcements have not changed either of those factors.”

The Board of Trustees has not discussed whether they would consider Volnick instead of the applicants. She was not allowed to apply for the permanent job as a condition of being named interim president.

Bill Trapani, an FAU associate professor of communications, was vocal in his opposition to Fine. He said faculty are now “cautiously optimistic” that the university can hire a president they can support.

Trapani and others have voiced concerns about Fine’s legislative efforts, deeming it right-wing, “anti-woke” and anti-LGBTQ. “His reputation and record does not instill confidence that we would have a tempered and well-guided leader,” Trapani said.

He said his latest feud with DeSantis should be a warning sign of infusing politics into higher education.

“There are reasons we place an importance on academic freedom and freedom from political intervention,” Trapani said. “Political whims change daily.”

On Tuesday, the college’s Board of Trustees chose Mack, whose legal name is Henry Maklakiewicz III, over two other finalists after a brief search for an acting president to replace outgoing President Gregory Haile, who resigned last month.

The college required the temporary leader to have a connection to Broward College; Mack is a former associate dean and associate vice president for workforce education.

“Broward College is my home,” he said during his interview. “I am passionate about returning to lead the institution I fell in love with.”

He will be able to apply for the permanent job as well and after the meeting he plans to. He will be moving from his current home in Tallahassee to South Florida.

“I am enthusiastic about the success of the institution,” he said. “I think the institution needs stability, and I think I’m the right person for the job, not only for the short term but in the long term,” he told reporters.

His salary hasn’t been determined yet. The range advertised was $250,000 to $350,000.

Mack, 42, beat out Barbara Bryan, 67, former president of Broward College’s north campus in Coconut Creek, and Cesar Florian, 36, a former Broward College tutor who now owns a company that provides legal assistance to immigrants.

Although the job description said the successful candidate should have 15 years of senior-level higher education experience, Bryan was the only one who actually met that, with Mack having nine years and Florian having little to none. But the college decided to interview anyone who has a current or former affiliation with the college.

Trustees quickly eliminated Florian due to his lack of education leadership. Florian’s only reference the college was able to reach said he couldn’t endorse Florian for the job of college president due to his lack of experience, Sophia Galvin, who oversees the college’s human resources department, told the trustees.

Trustees said they were impressed with both Bryan and Mack. Bryan retired as president of the north campus in 2013 after 25 years at the college and more recently has returned part-time helping the college reach out to students who are falling behind academically. During her interview, she spoke passionately about Broward College.

“My life is successful because of the time I spent here,” said Bryan, who is also an education consultant. “I know the people. They know me. For such a time as this, I believe I am your interim leader. I am ready to go.”

Trustee Akhil Agrawal said he was “blown away by her love and passion for this college.”

But trustees also said Bryan’s experience was mostly confined to Broward College and he didn’t think she had the needed connections in Tallahassee.

“The knowledge you get from working with the capital is something you can’t learn remotely,” Trustees Chairwoman Alexis Yarbrough said.

Mack comes to Broward College with strong ties to the DeSantis administration. He was widely believed to be DeSantis’ pick to serve as president of Florida Gulf Coast University, and he made it to the final round earlier this year but the university’s Board of Trustees decided by one vote to instead promote a vice president, Aysegul Timur.

In 2019, while Mack was an associate vice president at Broward College, he was tapped by the DeSantis administration to serve as chancellor for the Florida Department of Education, overseeing higher education. He was promoted to senior chancellor in 2021. After losing out on the Florida Gulf Coast job, he joined the Southern Group lobbying firm as an education lobbyist.

He is the second Broward College president to have previously served as chancellor for higher education. Former President David Armstrong, who retired in 2018, left his job as chancellor in 2007 to join the college.

Mack is part of a recent trend of DeSantis political allies being tapped for higher-education presidency positions. On Tuesday Richard Corcoran, former House speaker and DeSantis’ commissioner of education, was named permanent president of New College of Florida by a board controlled by recent DeSantis appointees. Corcoran is Mack’s former boss with the education department.

Another DeSantis ally, former State Rep. Fred Hawkins, was recently hired as president of South Florida State College in Avon Park, despite not having a master’s degree or higher education experience.

And the State University System’s Board of Governors suspended the search for a Florida Atlantic University president, citing ‘anomalies,’ after DeSantis’ endorsed candidate, Brevard legislator Randy Fine, wasn’t selected as a finalist.

Although faculty in some other schools have opposed DeSantis-backed candidates, Andrea Apa, president of the Broward College chapter of United Faculty of Florida, also said faculty have spoken favorably about Mack.

“He worked very closely with faculty,” Apa told the trustees. As for the other finalists, “there were some concerns in experience and challenges in working with other employees, but mainly [faculty] spoke very well of the work and reputation of Dr. Henry Mack.”

Many faculty were critics of Haile, blaming him for years of stalled contract negotiations that resulted in no regular raise for five years.

Mack said addressing faculty concerns will be one of his early priorities.

“It sounds like we have faculty morale and cultural issues,” Mack told reporters. “I really think a deep dive into the culture of the institution is needed so that faculty feel empowered.”

He said another priority will be the student experience. Trustees have said they’ve heard complaints with recreational and student life activities, especially since a previous board dropped student athletics three years. Mack said he doesn’t know whether it’s the best financial move to bring back sports, but he told the trustees he wants to look at a variety of student-related issues.

“I would do everything possible to make sure every student feels as if they belong, that they feel loved by us, are attended to by us and have everything they need in order to succeed,” he told the trustees.

Whether Haile will actually stay at the college remains to be seen. The exact reason for his announced departure was unclear Thursday, with trustees saying they were just as surprised as college employees, political and business leaders and community members who turned out at an emergency meeting to plead with the board to keep Haile.

Haile did not attend the meeting. Attempts to reach him before and after the meeting were unsuccessful.

In a letter to the board, Haile called it his “true honor” to have served the college, listed many accomplishments while also saying he’d “look forward” to supporting the board with a transition.

Haile, 45, has been president of the college since 2018 and served as the school’s general counsel prior to that. Observers say the last few months have been rocky after Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed three new trustees to the board in February, Cindy Kushner, Alexis Yarbrough and Mario Zanotti-Cavazzoni.

In recent months, some trustees have been critical of a decline in full-time enrollment, which dropped from the equivalent of 28,000 full-time students when Haile became president in 2018 to about 21,000 last year, as well as Haile’s decision this summer to non-renew John Dunnuck, senior vice president of finance and operations.

Haile’s letter didn’t mention any friction with the board, but did note he was working with new trustees.

“Three board members were appointed in the last six months, and the board as a whole is new, with no board member yet to have served a full term. While you have not requested such a transition, the time is now,” Haile wrote.

But he also wrote that during his five-year tenure, “I have received overwhelming support from members of the Broward College Board of Trustees; for that, I am humbled and grateful. Now, I welcome the opportunity to support this Board during this transition. I look forward to engaging regarding next steps.”

Many speakers at Thursday’s meeting said they believed Haile was leaving because of a difficult relationship with some trustees.

Dan Lindblade, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, said he could see problems as he read through past minutes of recent board meetings.

“I know you were asking to look at his expense reports. I know you were asking to look at his contract and hire a law firm to do that,” Lindblade said. “These are all indications to me there is not good communications going on between you and President Haile.”

He said he believes those communication issues can be bridged.

Former Democratic State Sen. Perry Thurston said, “We know that you may know a lot more about this resignation than we do, and I’m sure that you do. But you have an opportunity to straighten this out, and we’re asking you to do so.”

After public speakers, the board was expected to accept Haile’s resignation and appoint an acting president, but neither happened.

“I was pretty shocked to get his resignation letter,” trustee Akhil K. Agrawa said. “There have been a number of comments that suggest the board let go of President Haile. I want to be very clear I have no knowledge of anyone asking for President Haile’s resignation other than President Haile sending a resignation at 4:30 yesterday.”

Agrawa said he called Haile on Wednesday night but said he didn’t understand the reason he was leaving.

“I shared with him my opinion that he has been a tremendous contributor to this college, has done amazing things for our community and I’d love to figure out a way to get him to stay, if I could understand what the issue was,” he said. “It’ s a conversation that needs to take place.”

Trustee Zachariah “Reggie” P. Zachariah Jr. agreed.

“I don’t know if there’s a way to resolve this but I’d like to give it a try,” Zachariah said to applause from the audience.

During the meeting, Agrawal made a motion “to engage President Haile in dialog to understand his motivation and see if it’s a problem that is resolvable or addressable before we reject or accept his resignation.” It passed unanimously.

Haile’s contract was set to expire next summer.

Yarbrough sent a message to the students, faculty and staff after 11 p.m. Wednesday alerting them Haile had resigned.

“Like you, I am surprised by his decision but support him as he pursues other opportunities,” she wrote. “I wish him much success and thank him for all he has done for our Seahawk family. “

She added that “transitions can be times of uncertainty or worry about unforeseen changes. Know that we are in this together,” she wrote.

Appointing board members

Members of the Board of Trustees for Broward College and other community colleges are appointed by DeSantis, who has called for dramatic changes in higher education to eliminate what he describes as “wokeness.”

These efforts include eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs, restricting tenure and attempting to change who accredits colleges and universities.

Several colleges are now being headed by DeSantis allies, including New College of Florida in Sarasota, whose interim leader is Richard Corcoran, former House speaker and DeSantis’ former appointee as state education commissioner, and South Florida State College in Avon Park, now led by former state Rep. Fred Hawkins.

The presidential search for Florida Atlantic University was suspended by a state governing board, and many critics say they believe that’s because a search committee failed to include state Rep. Randy Fine, of Palm Bay, DeSantis’ pick for the job, as one of the three finalists.

Calling the college ‘the very best’

Haile was chosen in 2018 from a field of more than 50 applicants by a Board of Trustees appointed by then-Gov. Rick Scott.

He replaced longtime President David Armstrong, who had retired.

Haile, of Miami Shores, had been Broward College’s general counsel and vice president for public policy and government affairs in previous years.

In his letter to the board on Wednesday, Haile detailed the recognition and grant money that the college has received, while also working to help the community.

He noted how the college has drawn acclaim from the Aspen Institute, which recognizes institutions for their achievements. He also mentioned how the college obtained its largest grant, for $30 million, from the U.S. Department of Education, as well as the largest gift in its history, another $30 million, helping support Broward UP (Unlimited Potential), an initiative that helps offer the community access to post-secondary education, and “other investments to lift all of Broward County.” And he also detailed additional community-based initiatives.

“We have relentlessly embraced every challenge faced by our students,” Haile wrote. “For those with food insecurity, we established food pantries; for those with transportation challenges, we partnered with Lyft to provide free rides; for those with children and a desire to attend college, we supported their childcare needs with vouchers; and for those with unique abilities, we built new pathways.

“As the chief ambassador for Broward College, I unabashedly share, this institution is the very best,” Haile wrote.

To acclimate residents with the idea of college, and to help people understand that they have college potential, Haile went door to door in some of the most challenged communities served by Broward College to introduce himself to residents, ask them to consider college and dispel myths they had about higher education, Haile recalled in a speech at North Carolina university in 2021.

In his speech, he urged other community college leaders to follow in his footsteps.

“I challenge you to have a permanent presence in these communities,” he said in 2021. “I challenge you to talk to those that you are missing and personally understand their needs and the myths that they believe, but that we know need to be busted.”

The Board of Governors for the State University System plans to consider a request Friday to ask Attorney General Ashley Moody whether a process to narrow presidential candidates complied with the state Sunshine Law, which governs open meetings.

It’s the latest wrinkle in a search process that the Board of Governors abruptly halted July 7 after Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System, questioned “anomalies” in the search process. Critics say the search was upended because State Rep. Randy Fine, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pick for the job, was not among the top three finalists.

Most search committee meetings were held behind closed doors, as required by a 2022 state law, but all actions still must be properly recorded, Rodrigues argued in a July letter to Brad Levine, chairman of the FAU search committee and Board of Trustees. He questioned FAU’s use of a “straw poll” to narrow down a list of nearly 60 applicants to about 20.

FAU search committee members told a search firm consultant their top picks, but those votes were not shared with other committee members. Search committee members were aware how others voted when semifinalists and finalists were selected.

“The committee members’ selections and rankings were not disclosed on the record and there was no meaningful opportunity for the search committee members to discuss candidates prior to the straw poll,” Rodrigues wrote in a July 7 letter to Levine.

The board item for Friday seeks a legal opinion from the Attorney General “whether a committee governed under the Sunshine Law can use a preference survey that is conducted off the record, outside of a meeting, and anonymously submitted by the committee members to a third party, in order to streamline discussions, is consistent with the requirements of the Sunshine Law,” according to the agenda item.

The guidance will help the board determine whether a regulation related to presidential search and selection should be amended, according to the agenda. It could also be used as part of an investigation into the FAU search process by Julie Leftheris, inspector general for the Board of Governors.

Whether this request will delay that investigation is unknown. Levine said last month that the Board of Governors investigation was expected to take 120 days, which would have it end by mid-November. The inspector general’s office is in the process of conducting interviews now.

There have been differing legal opinions as to whether the selection process adhered to state law.

When it comes to open meetings, the Sunshine Law doesn’t allow secret votes. Will Spicola, a Tallahassee attorney who specializes in constitutional law, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel the same rules would apply for meetings in the shade.

“The exemption is just so that the applicants’ employers aren’t alerted to what’s going on,” he said, adding committee members “still have to be accountable for the decisions they made.”

But FAU got a legal opinion from another constitutional lawyer, Barry Richard, of Tallahassee, who maintains FAU fully followed the law. He wrote in a July 17 letter that search committee members are allowed to speak privately with the search firm without having to adhere to the requirements of the Sunshine Law.

“Any other interpretation would make no sense,” he wrote. “If every time an individual government officer met with another individual to discuss public business, the meeting had to be noticed, minutes had to be taken, and the meeting kept open to the public. … The ability to conduct routine government business would be seriously impeded,” Richard wrote. “The Consultant was not a member of the search Committee and never met with more than one Committee member at a time.”

Richard also wrote that the communications search committee members had with the consultant were preserved. The fact that their preferences “were not made at the Search Committee meeting is not significant since the meeting itself was confidential.”

In addition to the Sunshine issue, Leftheris is also reviewing a search consulting firm’s decision to conduct an anonymous survey, without FAU’s knowledge, asking candidates diversity information, including about their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Board of Governors meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday on Zoom. To watch, go to the Board of Governors website, at flbog.edu.

At the same time, many FAU faculty, donors and supporters are becoming increasingly alarmed by what they see as continued political interference by allies of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has supported controversial State Rep. Randy Fine for the presidential job.

A search committee did not name Fine as one of the three finalists for the job. Instead they chose Vice Admiral Sean Buck, superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis; Michael Hartline, dean of the College of Business at Florida State University; and Jose Sartarelli, former chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

The latest concerns come after a heated meeting of the university’s Board of Trustees on Aug. 15, where Vice Chairwoman Barbara Feingold, a major DeSantis donor, slammed the process, the finalists and Board Chairman Brad Levine, who has defended the process. Both Feingold and Levine were appointed to the board by DeSantis.

With the presidential search on hold, faculty say it’s creating an unsettling atmosphere on campus, as the new school year starts. Many vacant positions, including the provost and the vice president of advancement, are on hold until a new president is selected.

The Board of Governors stopped the search July 7 as a result of alleged “anomalies” in the process. The board has questioned the use of a secret straw poll to narrow applicants, as well as a consulting firm — without the knowledge of the search committee — conducting an anonymous diversity survey where applicants were asked about their sexual orientation and gender identify.

“The university is really paralyzed,” said Bill Trapani, an associate professor of communications. “Faculty are very concerned that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of haste and interest in resolving this quickly. And as it remains unresolved, it’s continuing to do harm to the institution and we’re all suffering as a result.”

While the Board of Governors investigation is scheduled to conclude by November, State Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis suggested his office might open its own investigation.

Patronis voiced concern about a story from WPEC-Ch. 12 about an email FAU General Counsel David Kian sent to search committee members asking them to “coordinate responses” with FAU lawyers, which some argued could compromise the investigation.

“Very concerned. Lots of smoke surrounding this process,” Patronis posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “As the State’s CFO my office has the authority to investigate any fraud, waste, or abuse that may be happening in the state. I’m prepared to use it. Will continue monitoring. FAU deserves better.”

Very concerned. Lots of smoke surrounding this process. As the State’s CFO my office has the authority to investigate any fraud, waste, or abuse that may be happening in the state. I’m prepared to use it. Will continue monitoring. FAU deserves better. https://t.co/DqGjhrjtK3

— Jimmy Patronis (@JimmyPatronis) August 23, 2023

The issue started Monday when Kian sent an email to search committee members about the investigation.

“I understand that some of you have been or may be contacted by the Inspector General seeking to interview you regarding your participation on the committee and our process,” Kian wrote. “If you receive or have received such a request, please contact me immediately so that we may assist with and coordinate responses.”

Two search committee members voiced concerns about Kian’s request, according to emails the South Florida Sun Sentinel received through a public records request.

“I find it troubling myself and inappropriate to offer assistance in order to ‘assist with coordinated responses,’” wrote committee member Dr. Jose Mellado, who is also a DeSantis appointee on the state Board of Dentistry. “I will cooperate fully with the Inspector General if and when they contact me. I want to maintain the highest level of objectivity in this process.”

Kian told Mellado in an email that there was a misunderstanding.

“There is nothing that prohibits members of the University’s search committee from communicating with the University’s General Counsel about a matter pertaining to the search committee,” Kian wrote.

Kian wrote FAU is “cooperating fully and objectively with the Inspector General’s investigation, and has done so in as transparent a manner as possible. We will continue to do so. Assisting with coordinating the Inspector General’s interviews with committee members in no way contravenes that.”

Alan Levine, a search committee member who serves on the Board of Governors, responded to Kian that he didn’t want to be represented by FAU’s lawyers since the Board of Governors was conducting the investigation and could create a conflict of interest.

“Based on what we know so far, no potential conflict is apparent between the University and its search committee members,” Kian responded. “However, you are in a unique position given your membership on the Board of Governors, the entity that is investigating the University’s search process. I therefore fully understand your declining the University’s offer of representation.”

Fine questioned Kian’s actions on X, asking, “What do they have to hide? The naked witness tampering is unbelievable.”

What do they have to hide? The naked witness tampering is unbelievable. https://t.co/Guw5K9Hdqo

— Rep. Randy Fine (@VoteRandyFine) August 24, 2023

Trapani said critics are mischaracterizing Kian’s intent.

“My sense is that the phrase that is triggering to most people is a very common phrase where people are really just saying, ‘If we can be of assistance, let us know. We can help coordinate,” Trapani said. “I don’t think there was anything nefarious.”

Other conservatives also slammed the university this week.

“FAU is a public university supported by the tax payers of the state of Florida. Those are the same people who elected a super majority of Republicans to the legislature and re-elected Gov DeSantis by a landslide,” tweeted State Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto. “FAU’s actions seem incongruous with those facts. Just saying.”

FAU is a public university supported by the tax payers of the state of Florida. Those are the same people who elected a super majority of Republicans to the legislature and re-elected Gov DeSantis by a landslide. FAU’s actions seem incongruous with those facts. Just saying.

— Ralph Massullo (@RalphMassullo) August 20, 2023

Fine retweeted Massullo’s post.

The university also has been the subject of scathing critiques by Tracy Caruso, a DeSantis ally who is the wife of West Palm Beach State Rep. Mike Caruso.

An Aug. 20 post on the conservative blog Florida Jolt criticizes Barry Richard, the constitutional lawyer Levine chose to review the search process. Richard’s conclusion: FAU fully complied with state law.

Richard is the husband of Allison Tant, a former Democratic Party chair and a state representative, Caruso wrote, adding he worked on Democrat Andrew Gillum’s recount against Ron DeSantis in the 2018 gubernatorial race.

“Additionally, Richard is the attorney who worked to stop a subpoena issued by the state by State Representative Randy Fine, who demanded that records be turned over that would show the ‘science’ supporting the need for ‘gender re-affirming care,’” Caruso wrote.

Richard, who couldn’t be reached, also has represented high-profile Republicans, including Jeb Bush in his 1998 run for governor and President George W. Bush during the 2000 recount.

“I don’t understand why she’s calling out the attorney who did the analysis, calling him partisan,” said Lori Berman, a Democratic state senator whose south Palm Beach County district includes FAU. “He’s done a lot of non-partisan things. He was hired in his capacity as an attorney.”

Berman said she supports Chairman Brad Levine and the FAU Board of Trustees. “I don’t know why there is so much involvement by the government in trying to change this, other than the fact they want to put their handpicked person into the position.”

The FAU search also is receiving scrutiny from donors, including those who want the FAU Board of Trustees to resume its search and pick one of its three finalists, as well as Feingold, a trustee and donor who doesn’t want any of the three selected candidates.

Feingold has pledged $30 million for a new dental school, but she raised doubts about that commitment during the Aug. 15 meeting.

“Nothing has been signed,” she said. “I am one of those donors that is concerned about the presidential process.”

Feingold, who couldn’t be reached, is widely believed to support Fine for the job. She has donated at least $11,000 to his legislative campaigns in recent years.

Other donors have opposite views.

Donor Howard Weiner told the Board of Trustees on Aug. 15 that “the presidential search must continue without outside interference.”

He told the Sun Sentinel that he believes that the next president needs to support FAU’s mission to “create inclusive, diverse and transformative learning environments.” He questions whether a candidate like Fine would fit that.

Fine is a self-described “conservative firebrand” who has sponsored bills to restrict drag shows and root out what he sees as “wokeism” in the state.

“If they choose someone who does not stand for the mission statement, that is very problematic, and as a donor, it’s very concerning and disconcerting,” he said. “Does it affect how we will support FAU? The answer is yes.”

He said that doesn’t mean he would stop donating to the university but “we will define those donations, so clearly that they must be used in a certain way that comports with the University’s mission statement, rather than just giving it in a more generalized fashion because we want to make sure that it is utilized in the proper way.”

While many faculty and donors have complained that Fine is not qualified for the job, he disputed that in a tweet Aug. 20 without confirming he was actually an applicant.

“The wokies can’t even do basic research. No post-grad degree? MBA from Harvard summa cum lauds,” he wrote. “No teaching experience? Teaching Fellow in Economics at Harvard. Published both a book at Harvard College and a paper at HBS. Not saying I applied but man these people are dumb.”

The wokies can’t even do basic research. No post-grad degree? MBA from Harvard summa cum lauds. No teaching experience? Teaching Fellow in Economics at Harvard. Published both a book at Harvard College and a paper at HBS. Not saying I applied but man these people are dumb.

— Rep. Randy Fine (@VoteRandyFine) August 20, 2023

Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a Republican state representative whose House district includes FAU, told the Sun Sentinel that Fine could be a good president.

“His leadership skills make him at least somebody that should be considered for the job,” she said. “No matter what anyone says on Twitter, he can be one of the most heartfelt sincere people. He was the one who successfully took the bill to clean up Indian River Lagoon, far before other people jumped on to that.”

This year, the Legislature allocated $100 million to create the Indian River Lagoon Protection program to improve water quality.

Gossett-Seidman also said people need to let the investigation conclude before they rush to judgment.

“It would be great if everyone could just take a deep breath and try to reevaluate,” she said. “I would like everyone on all sides to benefit from from feeling confident that the process was correct.”

Tuesday’s meeting of the trustees, held via videoconference, was the first since the State University System’s Board of Governors suspended the presidential search July 7 to investigate alleged “anomalies,” including the use of a straw poll to narrow candidates and a voluntary diversity survey by a search firm that asked questions about applicants’ sexual orientation and gender identity.

The meeting revealed a clear rift between the board’s chairman, Brad Levine, and vice chairwoman, Barbara Feingold, both of whom are appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis. Levine praised the work of a presidential search committee as well as its selection of three finalists, while Feingold criticized Levine, two of the finalists and the entire search process. Feingold even said she’s holding off on signing a gift agreement on a $30 million pledge she made for a new FAU dental school until the presidential issues are resolved.

The Board of Governor’s inspector general has 120 days to complete the investigation, which should be sometime in November, Levine told the trustees Tuesday.

Levine said the use of the straw poll was supported by search committee members Feingold and Alan Levine of the Board of Governors, who have both been critical of the search. He also said the responses to the diversity survey were never shared with the committee and had no bearing on who was selected.

The committee selected as finalists Vice Admiral Sean Buck, superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis; Michael Hartline, dean of the College of Business at Florida State University; and Jose Sartarelli, former chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Not chosen was State Rep. Randy Fine of Melbourne, whom DeSantis’s office had publicly supported.

“We feel strongly that our search complied with all legal requirements, and we would like to resume our search as soon as possible,” Levine told the trustees. “None of our three finalists have removed themselves from our search, and I hope we will have a chance to meet them soon.”

Levine’s defense of the search process, both at the meeting and in media interviews, angered Feingold, who said his comments were inappropriate since there was an open investigation and all search committee members signed non-disclosure agreements. Under a state law passed last year, the search committee conducts interviews and discussions behind closed doors, and the names of all applicants are secret except for finalists.

“That’s why the Board of Governors got involved, and that’s why the inspector general is involved, because there were not only anomalies, there were ethics violations, and a lot of irregularities,” Feingold told Levine. “You might be painting a certain picture, but it’s not an accurate and true picture, and I resent that and there are other people in the community, in the state, local people, elected officials and people on this board, they’re not happy with you, not presenting the truth.”

Feingold also revealed she didn’t support any of the three finalists and said she has serious concerns with two, Buck and Sartarelli. She made claims about the two that appear to not be fully accurate.

There’s “one in the military, who lied under oath. That’s a problem for us to put in as a president of the university,” Feingold said.

Though she didn’t elaborate, this allegation appeared to stem from a September 2022 Department of Defense inspector general report about Buck, which the conservative group Judicial Watch obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The report concluded Buck made false statements to others, although not under oath, that a midshipman first class told him he would use military force against civilian rioters. The report did not conclude the statements were made in an effort to deceive and did not recommend any discipline, according to the report.

Last month, Christopher Rufo, a conservative appointee to the Board of Trustees for New College of Florida, tried to derail Buck’s candidacy, saying he pushed “radical” diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Buck could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Feingold criticized Sartarelli as well.

“The other candidate is retired and why is he a retired chancellor of the university? Because he had a Board of Trustees that voted him out in a no-confidence vote,” she said.

That statement appears to be false. The university’s Faculty Senate took a vote of no confidence in late 2020, which failed, but then voted to censure him. Faculty members voiced anger that Sartarelli wasn’t fully in support of diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the wake of the George Floyd murder.

But Sartarelli’s bosses, the Board of Trustees and state university system leadership supported him, he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. When he was ready to leave in 2022 after seven years, they asked him to stay longer, which he declined, Sartarelli said. The university even named a building after him.

“Whatever they were saying at the Board of Trustee meeting was incomplete,” he said.

Feingold didn’t say which candidates she supported for finalists, but observers see her as an ally to Fine. She gave $10,000 last October to Fine’s political committee, Friends of Randy Fine, as he planned a state Senate campaign as well as $1,000 to his House campaign in 2016, state records show.

Many faculty members, students and donors oppose Fine, a self-described “conservative firebrand,” citing his lack of experience in higher education and his sponsorship of controversial legislation, including bills to restrict drag shows and root out what he sees as “wokeism” in the state.

Longtime donor Dick Schmidt, a member of the search committee, wrote an opinion piece in the Sun Sentinel where he didn’t name Fine but voiced alarm about news reports suggesting the Board of Governors had halted the search because the finalists  “did not include the governor’s reported personal selection for the position.”

During the meeting, Feingold blasted Schmidt, who did not attend.

“I’d really like to know what’s going to happen to Dick Schmidt. How the university is going to go after him?” Feingold asked. “Because he was not supposed to be putting any information out there, and not only that, but speaking for other search committee members. He had no right to speak for me and other search committee members, who absolutely did not agree with his opinion.”

Schmidt couldn’t be reached for comment. Feingold’s comments were poorly received by several other FAU donors, who joined the virtual meeting to make public comments. They warned FAU could lose support if the trustees make a political appointment rather than choose the most qualified candidate.

“To see the clock being turned back for petty politics is absolutely disgusting. I thought Trustee Feingold was totally out of line with her venom,” said Arthur Gutterman, the founding donor of FAU’s Emalie and Arthur Gutterman Family Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education.

Gutterman said he tries to help FAU find more donors.

“People are saying to me, I’m holding off making a donation,” he said. “If people start holding back their contributions, it’s going to limit the scope of things that the school can do.”

Howard Weiner told the trustees that 70% of donor money comes from the local community, and “we are a significant force in what goes on regarding FAU.”

“The next FAU president should be inclusive rather than divisive, thoughtful, rather than dogmatic and kind rather than hateful,” Weiner said. “The president must be an educator, not a partisan politician.”

Feingold is also a donor to FAU and has pledged $30 million for a new dental school, which is scheduled to be named after her late husband, Jeffrey Feingold, a dentist and former trustee. But that appeared in doubt during Tuesday’s tense meeting.

Levine asked her about the status of the donation during the meeting, further angering her.

“As far as a commitment that I made, yes I made that. It could happen,” she said. “Nothing has been signed and frankly they’re all talking about donors that are concerned about the presidential process. I am one of those donors that is concerned about the presidential process. I was on that [search] committee and what a lot of you are listening to is not the full truth.”

The one person they hoped to get answers from at Thursday night education town hall — Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz — declined to appear after initially agreeing to attend.

So those attending spent much of the evening discussing how to fight against the DeSantis movement and the growing conservative activism marked by groups like Moms for Liberty, who have fought to get books removed from classrooms.

“This is a tremendously important moment,” Miami-Dade School Board member Steve Gallon told the crowd at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens. “This moment, however, cannot be guided, driven by emotion. It has to be followed through with action. We have to individually and collectively decide we’re going to take a moment and turn it into a movement.”

Many said they were disappointed Diaz was absent.

“After personally confirming his attendance, it is deeply disappointing that Commissioner Diaz now lacks the will and courage to defend his Department’s misguided curriculum changes,” state Sen. Shevrin Jones, who organized the event, said Wednesday.

“Instead, the Commissioner and DeSantis’ administration have once again turned their back on the largest Black city in the state and shown who they are working for: not us,” said Jones, D-Miami Gardens. “The people deserve answers, with or without the commissioner, and we encourage community members to attend to ask questions and voice concern over these guidelines.”

Diaz posted on social media that he gave plenty of notice that he wouldn’t be able to attend Thursday’s event.

“There was nothing sudden about my inability to attend Senator Jones’s town hall,” Diaz posted Thursday on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. “As I told the senator last week, I will be visiting schools throughout the state to welcome back students, parents and teachers for the first day of school.”

Several people at the event criticized Diaz for not showing up.

“Manny Diaz is a coward,” Frederick Ingram, a former Miami-Dade teacher and union leader who is now secretary-treasure of the American Federation of Teachers. “He knew this was going on. They knew how important this is to the Black community. They know they have thrown an academic bomb in our community and they should have been here tonight to face you as you speak your truth.”

Most speakers, including Democratic legislators and education officials, said the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration have taken a number of actions they see as an affront to education and minority communities, including laws designed to weaken teachers’ unions and limit what teachers can instruct related to race, gender and LGBTQ issues.

But the main topic revolved around the new African-American history standards approved last month by the state Board of Education.

Critics of the curriculum, including Vice President Kamala Harris and several Black Republican leaders, have said that one part of the curriculum there suggests there is a benefit to slavery.

“It’s not just African-American children that need to know their history. It’s other people that need to know African-American history; then they won’t say dumb stuff like Black people benefitted from slavery,” state Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a former Broward School Board member, told the crowd. “If that’s what they’re saying, they also need to say this whole nation benefitted from slavery and it was built on the backs of the Black people who worked harder than anyone else.”

Her statements received a standing ovation.

DeSantis, who is running for president, and state leaders have said the overall curriculum is robust and that the criticism is political. He has said a work group that includes Black scholars came up with the standards. One of those is William Allen, a professor emeritus of political science at Michigan State University.

“Those who were held in slavery possess skills, whether they developed them before being held in slavery, while being held in slavery or subsequently to being held in slavery, from which they benefitted when they applied themselves in the exertion of those skills,” Allen told NPR. “That’s not a statement that is at all controversial. The facts sustain it. The testimonies of the people who lived the history sustain it.”

Gallon said the standards should be reworked, not tossed out.

“There is some there good content in the standards,” he said. “There are elements that are offensive, but to throw out the baby with the bathwater would suggest all of it is bad.”

The teaching of African-American history has become a controversial topic in Florida in recent years.

DeSantis earlier this year rejected the Advanced Placement African-American studies course under development by the College Board and last year championed a law that bans critical race theory and limits some race-related lessons.

In June, the state postponed an African-American history institute for public school teachers, upsetting those who’d planned it and who feared the delay would add to teacher “angst” about teaching the subject.

Orlando Sentinel writer Leslie Postal contributed to this report.

Firearms experts fired 49 rounds and four test shots, as a crowd of journalists and neighborhood residents watched from off campus. Just four of the shots could be heard from where they stood.

The live-ammunition gunshots are being used as part of a lawsuit by victims’ families against the Broward Sheriff’s Office and on-campus Deputy Scot Peterson, who has been vilified for failing to confront the killer. Peterson claimed he didn’t know where the shots were coming from.

“The reenactment proves with absolute certainty that Peterson is a liar,” said attorney David Brill, who represents the victims’ families and who took turns with his law partner standing on Friday where the deputy had stood on Feb. 14, 2018, as the shots were fired. “The key here is knowing without a doubt that the gunfire was coming from inside the building.”

Peterson’s lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, criticized Friday’s gunfire test as “traumatic,”  “prejudicial” and offering “little to no evidentiary value.”

He said testimony in Peterson’s criminal trial made clear that many people were mistaken about the source of the gunfire, which he said was understandable “due to the massive, multi leveled concrete buildings. For example, the 1200 building and the neighboring 1300 building are multi leveled and both 73 yards long.”

“All the witnesses that we called testified that they believed, with certainty, that the shots were not coming from the 1200 building,” he wrote. “They all thought the shots were coming from somewhere ‘outside.’ Many thought the shots were coming from the football field, which was literally hundreds of yards away from where the shooter actually was.”

Despite the dread and anticipation surrounding the reenactment of one of the worst days in Florida history, the procedure itself appeared plodding and methodical, as workers moved from place to place and measured distances. Only four shots had been heard by the crowd across the street as of 2 p.m.

By mid-afternoon, the media audience had thinned, neighbors were back behind closed doors, and there was only an occasional hint of activity outside the 1200 building: Two men carting equipment, a man with a camera capturing images outside the structure, men darting around in a golf cart.

The first event of the day was a visit to the school by nine members of Congress, who toured the halls and classrooms that were the scenes of the shooting. A second tour is being planned at a later date.

“I felt it was important for them to walk through the 1200 building today so they could see the horror, the glass on the floor, the bullet holes in the walls and the blood that still is on the floor there,” said Lori Alhadeff, chairwoman of the Broward County School Board, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa was killed in the attack. “And to know that this tragedy —- they need to now take action, they need now to make sure that we have every school security measure possible to be put in place, and they have that ability as a congressperson to be able to make that change for school safety at the federal level.”

Peterson, the only armed law enforcement officer on campus when the shooting began, took cover at a nearby building for more than 40 minutes and failed to confront the killer. Peterson, 60, was acquitted in June of felony child neglect and other criminal charges for failing to act, the first U.S. trial in history of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.

Victims’ families called him a coward and a liar, and their lawsuit against him led to Friday’s live-fire test, which was intended to establish whether or not he could have known the source of the gunfire.

“We were all in support of the reenactment,” Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son Alex was killed in the shooting, said at a news conference Friday afternoon. “The jury that had watched the video during the criminal trials, there was no audio in that video. And so that’s why we’re doing the reenactment, and we believe that it will show that there’s no possible way that Scot Peterson didn’t hear the 70 rounds from an AR-15 when he was just feet away from that building.”

The destruction of the 1200 building had been postponed for its value as evidence in the criminal case against the shooter and in the lawsuits. But the school district plans to demolish it this year, removing an eerie and disturbing presence from the Stoneman Douglas campus.

“It’s just always there no matter what,” said Alex Gott, a Stoneman Douglas senior covering the reenactment for the school’s production team, who attended the adjacent middle school at the time of the shooting. “So as much as I try to enjoy the high school experience, you can’t really forget about that.”

At mid-morning, families and members of the congressional delegation began arriving for a roundtable discussion at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Coral Springs, the hotel where many families learned that loved ones had been killed on the day of the shooting.

“I hate it here,” said Debbi Hixon, a School Board member whose husband, athletic director Chris Hixon, was murdered in the attack. “But things keep happening here, so you figure it out. This is my least favorite place ever.”

After brief introductory remarks, the congressional delegation and family members held a roundtable discussion that was closed to the media.

“I want to thank the families for walking us through the building today, allowing us the opportunity to get a slight glimpse into what they deal with every single solitary day,” said U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a 1999 Stoneman Douglas graduate.

He noted they were able to pass the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which included money for school hardening, requirements for armed officers in schools and some gun restrictions.

“Parkland was the safest city in the entire state of Florida based on crime statistics when this event happened,” Moskowitz said. “And now it’s home to the largest school shooting in American history.”

At a news conference after the roundtable, Moskowitz described the tour of the building, saying law enforcement officials “helped walk us through and showed us step-by-step the carnage that the shooter did.”

“That building is still a time capsule,” he said. “It’s exactly as it was the day after the shooting.”

Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina was killed  in the massacre, said he was grateful the tour included members of Congress from both parties.

“That is the only way we are going to pass lasting and meaningful legislation in Congress that will make our students and our teachers safer,” Montalto said. “Both Republicans and Democrats want safe schools for their children.”

He said participants in the roundtable “had fulsome discussions in there.They realize that they could come together and make some of that change. We’re hopeful to see more of their colleagues join them.”

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Miami-Dade County Republican, said the federal government “has done some things, but it goes without saying you can never do enough. I think most folks would agree on 60, 70 or 80% of what those additional steps should be.”

Gun control, which had been a major cause of Stoneman Douglas survivors and family members, was discussed at the roundtable, Moskowitz said.

“We talked all issues. Nothing was off the table,” he said.

“There’s agreement in some places, disagreement in some places,” he said. “This was a full conversation.”

But Diaz-Balart, who voted against gun legislation passed last year, wouldn’t say whether he would be willing to bend on his opposition to gun control.

Asked whether he might support future gun control legislation, he said, “We need to put aside those issues which might be the ones to get all the headlines, but we know are very difficult to get bipartisan support.”

At the high school, the gunshot tests had been expected to last all day, and took about four to five hours. Todd Foot, who lives across from the school and whose son attended school there, came out of his house to film on his phone as the delegation entered the building early Friday. He said his son went to the school when the shooting happened.

“If it’s going to help the case of holding Scot Peterson accountable and parents are OK with it, then I’m OK with it,” he said. “But it’s traumatic for the whole community again.”

He’s looking forward to the demolition of the building.

“We’ve been waiting for it to be knocked down for 5 and a half years,” he said. “Justice hasn’t been done so far with the shooter getting a non-death sentence … Hopefully [Peterson] gets sued into oblivion.”