PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. — Pembroke Pines Commissioner Jay Schwartz was nowhere to be found during an Emergency Special Meeting at city hall on Thursday.
The meeting was to discuss city plans to sell an affordable housing development called Pines Place that the city owns near North Perry Airport.
In Schwartz’s absence, the commission ruled in favor of selling the property to developer Hayden Glade. The state still must approve the deal.
Before ending the meeting, Pines Mayor Angelo Castillo asked City Manager Charles Dodge if Schwartz was informed about the meeting.
Dodge said that Schwartz was told, but said that Schwartz indicated that he was unsure if he was going to make it.
Castillo then said he was concerned for Schwartz’s wellbeing and said, “I don’t know if we have ever had an unexcused absence from the dais by a commissioner.”
Schwartz responded to Local 10 News by text saying, “the City Manager and I spoke at 11:21am on 7/24/25 to inform me a special meeting was called by the mayor for 7/30 @ 4pm. Typically, the City Mgr would poll the commission on availability prior to any special meeting being scheduled. This was not the case.”
Schwartz went on to write, “I am unaware if the rest of the Commission was treated the same way. I was disappointed that I was not given the option to provide any other time for that day to meet.”
In June, Local 10 News reported that Schwartz is at the center of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation following allegations that he represented himself as a law enforcement officer and confronted a group of students, attempting to search them.
In an incident report obtained from Pembroke Pines police, it states that on May 21, an officer was approached by students at Flanagan High School who were visibly upset.
They reported that Schwartz, who is also a pilot and an aviation instructor, attempted to search them. The alleged incident happened toward the end of the school year.
We reached out to Broward County Schools, who said Schwartz is not a Broward Schools employee, but a visiting instructor affiliated with the school’s avionics program.
“After the incident towards the end of the school year, the individual’s interaction with students was limited and supervised,” a district spokesperson said.
At the allegations surfaced, Local 10 News made several attempts to hear the commissioner’s side of the story but did not hear back.
Local 10 News also contacted the FDLE, which said that it does not comment on open investigations.
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