City leader’s church shut down over failure to pay workers’ comp

A Tamarac city commissioner has been ordered to close his church or risk criminal charges unless he purchases workers’ compensation insurance for employees the state says it has no record of.

The Praise Experience World Outreach Church failed to obtain coverage, the Department of Financial Services said in an order dated Thursday. The department issued a “Stop Work Order” and assessed a penalty.

Once a stop work order is issued, all business operations have to halt. A violation is a third-degree felony and could cost $1,000 a day.

Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton’s church received more than $36,000 in federal loans to meet payroll for 12 employees, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported in April. But the state said it had no record of those workers. Bolton is the president and pastor of the church on State Road 7 in North Lauderdale.

Under Florida law, employers must provide workers’ compensation insurance for their employees, and the state said there was no record of the church requesting an exemption.

The state started its investigation last month and closed it this week, the record shows.

To get his church back open, Bolton will need to purchase workers’ compensation insurance or get an exemption, and pay at least $1,000 toward the penalty, according to the Florida Department of Financial Services.

John O’Brien, spokesman for the Florida Department of Financial Services, could not say Friday what amount Bolton owes. It’s generally equal to two times the amount the employer would have paid in workers’ comp premiums within the preceding two years, according to the agency’s website.

Bolton could not be reached by cellphone Friday for comment about his church.

At the church, Bolton goes by the name “Prophet Fire” and once told his flock that he prophesized Kobe Bryant’s death and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bolton’s church received a $25,300 loan on May 1, 2020, and another $11,000 on March 3, 2021, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, which tracks loan data from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, also known as PPP. For each loan, 12 employees were reported.