Community Service Is Second Nature For PBSO Chief Deputy Michael Gauger

Chief Deputy Michael Gauger is second-in-command at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s  Office. With more than 45 years of service with the PBSO, Gauger is well-known  in the community, particularly the Wellington area, where he lives with his wife, Phyllis.

Professionally, Gauger is next in the line of responsibility after Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and is responsible for budgets totaling almo Personally, the Gaugers are coming up on their 41st anniversary. They have two children, Michael, 31, and Amanda, 35.

st $750 million and more than 3,500 staff members.

Personally, the Gaugers are coming up on their 41st anniversary. They have two children, Michael, 31, and Amanda, 35.

Gauger was adopted at nine months old into a farming family at a dairy in Illinois. Much to their dismay, he was more interested in sports than working the farm. It wasn’t the idyllic childhood. His late adopted parents became alcoholics, and his adopted mother struggled with mental illness. However, he did learn compassion from his situation.

After spending time in the U.S. Army, Gauger left Illinois for Tennessee and later headed to South Florida with a friend. They both worked odd jobs before he met some people who worked at the PBSO. They became friends, and Gauger was hired part-time. He looked young and was assigned to the narcotics division. He was hired full-time on Jan. 29, 1971.

It was on the job at the PBSO where Gauger met the woman who would become his wife.

Phyllis and her best friend from high school were working at the sheriff’s office. Her friend had her eye on young Gauger and arranged a double date with him and his partner at the time.

“As corny as it sounds, we were there first sitting down. He walks in and sits down, and it was love at first sight,” Phyllis recalled. “We just knew.”

During his extensive career with the PBSO, Gauger has touched the lives of many residents in Palm Beach County. A perpetual people person, he advocated for the first neighborhood park in the county, which was built in suburban Lake Worth. He knew how much it would cost to build a park, but when asked about the park maintenance — which cost $12,500 a year at the time — he came back with a show-stopping response.

Gauger told the Palm Beach County Commission that he could save the county money. If it built the park, he could keep one kid out of jail for the year, saving the county $26,000. Now, there are 25 or so neighborhood parks.

“If kids don’t have something positive to do, they will find something negative to do,” he explained.

Gauger is also proud of the work he did starting the first community policing unit in the county in the late 1980s, and also working on developing and starting programs in public housing communities.

Gauger later earned his master’s degree in social work and is proud of the fact that the PBSO is considered a best-practice agency.

When he officially “retired” on Jan. 29, 2004, Gauger didn’t turn his back on the community he worked a lifetime to improve. He worked at the Palm Beach County Housing Authority to set up fraud programs, cleaning up areas with crime problems and volunteering at the State Attorney’s Office working to solve cold-case homicides.

Gauger supported Bradshaw in his bid to become the 13th sheriff of Palm Beach County. When Bradshaw took office in January 2005, he asked Gauger to come back. “And that was 12 years ago,” Gauger said. “Time goes by fast.”

Gauger returned because he and Bradshaw had a mutual respect for one another, and common goals.

“We were detectives together, chasing bad guys back in the 1970s and 1980s. We knew each other, we respected each other’s work, and he offered me a position. I said yes, because I loved what I did,” Gauger said.

People often credit Gauger with saving their lives, but he is quick to tell them that they made the necessary changes; he just offered suggestions. “I didn’t do the work; you did the work. I can’t change anybody’s behavior. They have to change their own behavior,” he said.

Gauger has enjoyed his career in law enforcement and didn’t hesitate to return when called upon. Now, he works with many of the operational agencies within the county. “I think the success of an agency is based upon the network of relationships that you build in an organization,” he said. “Not only networks with businesses and with governmental agencies, but the network that you build within the community.”

The Gaugers are very involved in the community. He has long been a member of the Rotary Club of Royal Palm Beach. He has received awards, including the first Peace Award from the Rotary Club of Wellington. He has served on several nonprofit boards, such as the Urban League of Palm Beach County, Families First of Palm Beach County and the Southeast Florida Behavioral Health Network. He is also a board member at the Neil S. Hirsch Family Boys & Girls Club in Wellington.

Phyllis, meanwhile, serves as first vice president of the Women of the Western Communities and has belonged to the General Federation of Women’s Clubs for the past 35 years. When she isn’t volunteering at her own organizations, she volunteers at PBSO events. They are active in their church, St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Wellington, as well as Forever Greyhounds, where she is a board member.

Forever Greyhounds has brought them an additional six “children” over the years.

Their current greyhound, Yanni, is 11 years old. Her brother, Harry, passed away from cancer. The two dogs were originally adopted by a woman who spent part of her time in Florida. When she passed away, the pair was going to be split up. At the time, the Gaugers had just lost two greyhounds to cancer when Phyllis heard Yanni and Harry’s story.

“They were just too old to separate. I couldn’t sleep. We had to take them,” she said.

It’s fitting that the couple adopts greyhounds, given that Gauger, one of five siblings, was adopted. He met his biological mother when his own daughter, Amanda, was a toddler. That’s when he discovered that his biological grandfather was a sheriff in Illinois in 1918, and his uncle was the chief of police.

The Gaugers have lived in Wellington for 25 years after residing in Royal Palm Beach for 17 years. During those 42 years, they’ve seen many changes. When they first moved here in the 1970s, Gauger would hunt rattlesnakes in the area.

“As it grew a little bit, they were controlled by the water district. They contracted with the sheriff for some patrols out here, but it was nothing like it has become today,” he said. “It’s a thriving, thriving community now. The equestrian business has just blossomed this community and given it an international name.”

As the community has grown, Gauger made a promise to his growing family. One thing he has made sure to do was attend his children’s activities. His adopted family, his father in particular, did not support or attend his extracurricular activities. “Football game, track meet, or anything I did,” he said. “I decided that if I have children, it’s going to be different.”

And it was. Gauger worked his schedule around to coach and attend games, always being there for his children.

“I love my family,” he said. “I always wanted them to have the things that I couldn’t have.”

“You’ve done a good job with that,” Phyllis interjected.

He has focused on substance abuse in his professional career because of the things he saw as a child. His own hardships helped Gauger become more compassionate, as did others who provided support along the way.

“I had people who helped me,” he said. “There were a lot of people who were very good to me. I’ve never forgotten that, and that’s why I’ve always tried to help others, because not everyone’s as fortunate. I truly believe in a hand up, instead of a hand out.”