A screaming Mayor Nick Sortal interrupted a Plantation City Council meeting Wednesday night. The shocking moment came towards the end of an innocuous discussion about a Plantation Acres committee. Immediately after a resident finished speaking, Mayor Sortal bolted for the exit door behind his seat.

With the door still ajar, Sortal let out three blood-curdling screams that were clearly heard within the council meeting room. While Councilman Louis Reinstein tried to make light of the screaming, the Plantation Police Chief raced to the secured backroom to investigate.

Sortal returned to his seat and the meeting continued. Sortal would later joke that City Hall needed thicker walls.

Nobody laughed.

Sortal offered no further explanation.

This is just the latest episode of erratic behavior by Mayor Nick Sortal

As REDBROWARD previously reported, Sortal made inappropriate sexual remarks to a city employee. Sortal made inappropriate remarks when a pornography was shown during a teleconference. Sortal made inappropriate remarks during a mayoral debate.

Even more concerning was last year’s revelation that Sortal was being treated for an addiction.

“Opioid Problem”

Mayor Nick Sortal made a pre-dawn call to 911 in April 2024 from a drug recovery center where he was being treated for an “opioid problem,” public records show. The first-term Mayor made the 911 call from the Recovery First Treatment Center near Davie. REDBROWARD obtained a copy of Sortal’s telephone call.

Sortal said he “broke like ten rules” to make the phone call. When asked for his telephone number, Sortal said he did not know because he “shanghaied” a facility telephone. Shanghaied is defined a using trickery, fraud or deception to obtain something.

When asked to verify the address he was calling from, Sortal said the Recovery First Treatment Center. Then, Sortal casually made an unprecedented admission by an elected official—“It’s a recovery center. I had an opioid problem.”