The Broward Sheriff Office’s director of media relations confirmed Friday that he and the agency’s undersheriff are resigning.
Jim Leljedal, who has been a spokesman for the BSO for 29 years, told NBC 6 South Florida that he and undersheriff Thomas Wheeler plan to turn in their resignations next week.
The moves come with Broward County about to get a new sheriff, Scott Israel. The Democrat defeated five-year Republican incumbent Al Lamberti in the November election in a surprising turnabout from their 2008 contest, which Lamberti won.
Leljedal said he heard indirectly that Israel doesn’t want him in the job, The Miami Herald’s Naked Politics blog reported.
"I could dig in my heels and stay on as a deputy I suppose but under these circumstances it is probably best to move on," Leljedal told the Herald.
Israel is attending the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s sheriff’s school this week, the Herald reported.
He takes office Jan. 8.
