The commission voted 7-1 to spend up to $100,000 on outside consultants to help devise potential regulations as State Attorney Michael Satz appeals a judge’s ruling that allowed the county’s four pari-mutuel sites to start installing the machines Friday.
Satz’s formal notice of appeal filed Tuesday resulted in an automatic stay preventing the pari-mutuels from installing slot machines. The commission had been poised at Tuesday’s meeting to consider a skeleton, five-page set of gambling regulations, but commissioner Ilene Lieberman pulled it off the meeting’s agenda.
Commissioners said Satz’s appeal gave them time to study regulations further.
The four pari-mutuels will have to reimburse the county for any money spent on outside consultants examining slot regulations.
The pari-mutuel industry has to cover the expenses as part of an agreement the county previously had reached with Hollywood Greyhound Track, Dania Jai-Alai, Pompano Park Harness Track and Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach.
“All we are doing is research and preparing ourselves to allow the process to play itself out,” said Vice Mayor Ben Graber.
Commissioner James Scott was the lone opponent of researching slots regulations. He said he feared the commission was allowing itself to be dragged into “a legal dogfight.”
While the county studies potential regulations, the pari-mutuels must decide whether they will ask the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach to lift the automatic stay.
Dan Adkins, vice president of Hollywood Greyhound, said at the very least, the pari-mutuels will ask the appellate court to hear their case on an expedited basis.
One of the pari-mutuels’ attorneys, Bruce Rogow, told the commission he did not anticipate a ruling from the appellate court before September.
In November, Florida voters approved Amendment 4 allowing Broward and Miami-Dade counties to decide if they wanted slots. Broward County approved them in March, while Miami-Dade rejected them.
The constitutional amendment called for state legislators to craft regulations by July 1, but lawmakers could not compromise on a number of key issues.
Circuit Judge Leroy Moe ruled last week that the Legislature appeared to have deliberately refused to pass regulations. Moe said that if the county commission did not come up with regulations by July 1 he would.
Jon Burstein can be reached at jburstein@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4491.
