Broward County, Florida: Cities, County Government and How to Reach It

Fort Lauderdale is the seat of Broward County, a county of 1,207 square miles in the statewide list kept by the Florida Association of Counties (Florida Association of Counties).

Broward County Government works from the Broward County Governmental Center at 115 S. Andrews Ave. in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and its general help line is 311 (Broward County Commission). The county employs nearly 7,000 people in more than 65 agencies covering transportation, human services, planning and recreation (Broward County Administration).

Broward is also a regional operator. The County Attorney's office represents Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and North Perry Airport alongside the Commission and other county agencies (Broward County Commission), and the County Administration page counts the airport, an international seaport, the library system, the transit network and the park system among Broward's regional services (Broward County Administration).

Several main offices sit in downtown Fort Lauderdale: the Governmental Center on Andrews Avenue, the Property Appraiser in Room 111 of the same building (Broward County Property Appraiser), and the main courthouse of the Clerk of Courts at 201 SE 6th Street (Broward County Clerk of Courts). The Supervisor of Elections is the outlier, at 4650 NW 21st Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309 (Broward Supervisor of Elections).

Broward County has 31 cities, each with its own charter and elected governing body (Broward Supervisor of Elections), and an unincorporated remainder that the County Commission governs as the Broward Municipal Services District (Broward Municipal Services District).

The Broward elections office lists the 31 cities in its municipal election table: Coconut Creek, Cooper City, Coral Springs, Dania Beach, Davie, Deerfield Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale Beach, Hillsboro Beach, Hollywood, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Lauderdale Lakes, Lauderhill, Lazy Lake, Lighthouse Point, Margate, Miramar, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Parkland, Pembroke Park, Pembroke Pines, Plantation, Pompano Beach, Sea Ranch Lakes, Southwest Ranches, Sunrise, Tamarac, West Park, Weston and Wilton Manors (Broward municipal elections). Each city's charter sets its terms of office and how often it holds elections, so some Broward cities vote in March and others in November.

The unincorporated pockets are named on the county's Broward Municipal Services District page: Boulevard Gardens, Franklin Park, Roosevelt Gardens and Washington Park in Commission District 8, Broadview Park in District 5, and Hillsboro Pines and Hillsboro Ranches in District 2 (Broward Municipal Services District). For those neighborhoods the Board of County Commissioners is the governing body and provides municipal services: business and housing development, library and park facilities, roadway maintenance, street enhancements, and zoning and code enforcement.

The BMSD page also lists four Family Success Centers for rental assistance: Coral Springs at 954-357-5000, Pompano Beach at 954-357-5931, Hollywood at 954-357-5650 and Fort Lauderdale at 954-357-5001 (Broward Municipal Services District). Digital Towns covers Broward through its Fort Lauderdale town guide, which answers the city side of these questions.

Census Bureau survey data for 2020 through 2024 (ACS 5-year) count 1,977,129 Broward County residents (U.S. Census Bureau, table B01003).

Half of Broward households earned more than $77,633 a year in that survey period (U.S. Census Bureau, table B19013) and half of Broward owner-occupied homes were valued above $414,600 (U.S. Census Bureau, table B25077). These are five-year estimates, not a single-year count.

The association table that names Fort Lauderdale as the Broward county seat still lists 1,932,212 people (Florida Association of Counties), about 45,000 fewer than the ACS 2020-2024 estimate. Anyone quoting a Broward headcount in a grant or business filing is better served by the ACS 2020-2024 figure with its table number.

A nine-member Broward County Commission, elected by district in partisan elections, governs the county and appoints the County Administrator, County Attorney and County Auditor (Broward County Commission).

Each Broward commissioner must live in the district he or she represents. The Commission picks its own Mayor and Vice Mayor for one-year terms on the third Tuesday of each November; the Mayor presides at meetings and acts as the county's official representative (Broward County Commission). In 2026 the third Tuesday of November falls on November 17, two weeks after the November 3 general election.

Day to day, Broward County Government is run by County Administrator Monica Cepero, with Kevin B. Kelleher as Deputy County Administrator and assistant administrators including Laurette Jean, who also serves as Broward Municipal Services District Administrator (Broward County Administration). Annika E. Ashton is County Attorney (Broward County Commission).

The Records, Taxes, and Treasury Division keeps the official minutes and agendas of Broward County Commission meetings and serves as the depository for county ordinances and resolutions; its Document Control and Minutes office is in Room 336U of the Governmental Center, 954-357-6517 (Broward County Records, Taxes, and Treasury). Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Broward County website (broward.org).

In Broward, the elected Broward County Tax Collector sends property tax bills, the Property Appraiser sets values and exemptions, deeds and official records from the county's Records, Taxes, and Treasury Division, and court files from the Clerk of Courts.

Broward property tax bills go out on November 1 and are due in full by March 31; the Tax Collector takes 4% off in November, then 3%, 2% and 1% in the following three months, and any balance left after March 31 turns delinquent on April 1 (Broward County Tax Collector). Paying by credit or debit card carries a 2.55% fee charged by the payment processor while an electronic check carries none, so a Broward homeowner paying by card in November keeps only about 1.45 points of the 4% discount.

Two practical notes for Broward property owners. The Value Adjustment Board, which settles disputes with the Property Appraiser over exemptions, classifications and values, lists a new address at 1801 NW 49th Street, away from the Governmental Center (Broward County Records, Taxes, and Treasury). The Recording Office and the Tourist Development Tax office keep 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours in Rooms 114 and 121 of the Governmental Center.

Broward early voting for the November 3, 2026 General Election runs Monday, October 19 through Sunday, November 1, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily at 30 sites (Broward Supervisor of Elections).

Any registered Broward voter may use any of the 30 early voting locations, regardless of address, and secure ballot intake stations for completed mail ballots are open at all 30 sites during voting hours (Broward Supervisor of Elections early voting notice). The deadline to ask for a Vote-by-Mail ballot to be mailed is 5:00 p.m. on October 22, 2026; mail ballots must arrive by mail or be placed in a secure intake station before 7:00 PM on Election Day, and a mail ballot cannot be dropped off at a polling place that day (Broward Vote By Mail). Phone requests go to 954-357-7055.

City races share the November 3 ballot in many Broward cities. The elections office table lists 11/03/2026 contests in Margate, Sunrise, Tamarac, West Park, Weston and Wilton Manors, among others, while Hillsboro Beach, Lazy Lake and Lighthouse Point held their elections on 3/10/2026 and Miramar votes on 03/09/2027 (Broward municipal elections). The main Broward elections office keeps Monday to Friday hours of 9:00am to 5:00pm (Broward Supervisor of Elections).

The Broward County Office of Emergency Management assesses local hazards and writes response plans, and its page covers the June 1 to November 30 hurricane season, the Special Needs Registry and the Broward County Emergency Operations Center (Broward County Emergency Management).

Broward residents who need more care than a general population shelter provides can sign up for the Special Needs Registry before a storm, and Broward municipalities use a separate Vulnerable Population Registry to plan their response (Broward County Office of Emergency Management). The county's hazard plan, the 2023 Local Mitigation Strategy, was approved by the Florida Division of Emergency Management and FEMA and adopted by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners; the county says it is current and will be updated July 31st, 2028, so its hazard data dates from the 2023 cycle.

On Digital Towns, the Fort Lauderdale town guide carries the local detail for Broward's county seat, with sections on Fort Lauderdale government, schools, utilities, safety, weather, parks, recreation, landmarks, history, events, healthcare, real estate, the economy and industries, and places in the city. Questions that belong to Broward County as a whole, such as the property tax calendar, the elections office and hurricane registries, are answered on this page.