Shameful! South Florida Business Journal, showing no regard for ethics, aims to give an "Achievement Award" to Keith Koenig, Robert Runcie's #1 financial backer/apologist, who was the front-and-center FACE of #Broward's White Biz Estab., who did NOT want to know abt rampant corruption, thievery, + incompetency, just wanted to ensure access to BCPS contracts! He loves the $ gravy train that is BCPS!
Like so many other galling things that we've observed in the South Florida media scene of 2022, just when you think that you have a reasonably-informed understanding of just how low low really is, there's someone or a platform who by sheer dent of their sheer imbecility, takes your breath away with their brazen disregard for the known facts and the history of the area.
Someone who will act as if all the evidence of unethical behavior and conduct you see all around you is really not there. It's all just our imagination we are told. Or, possibly a frame-up.
But what are we to make of all the self-evident fingerprints belonging to people whose names are well-known to us, and whose alibis, excuses and explanations for why they looked the other way fails every smell test?
And so it is that with these questions In mind that I share the rather shocking news with you today that I have just learned that the South Florida Business Journal, despite having plenty of time to vet and choose someone worthy, aims to go ahead and reward Keith Koenig, the CEO of City Furniture, with their 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony in April.
Koenig is the person who was the safe, White face of Broward's Business Establishment for most of the recent past during the ruinous cult-like reign of Robert Runcie as Broward Schools Superintendent, that only ended recently. Koenig is someone who continually defended someone in great authority who was charged with lying to a grand jury, even while other charges were not brought that should have been.
Keith Koenig is someone who could not be bothered to answer any questions from the South Florida news media at any point over the last few years about his personal role in any of these matters, to say nothing of his personally paying for an attempted public whitewash via $ to Smith-Knibbs PR.
Which, fortunately, failed.
Here's the thread that brought us to today's incredible news... with more information below it that connects-the-dots!
Video above of so-called press conference where no questions from media were allowed is at: https://youtu.be/y0EuPhn2FDo
The folks behind it? The Usual Suspects:
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Puppet-master Keith Koenig's role in this sordid story is below in red. I'm printing this Sun Sentinel editorial and Scott Travis article in its entirety here, so that you will know exactly what was said and written last year, which was easily searchable by the SFBJ if they really cared about... facts.
And optics.
When you reward the people who were in a unique position to demand much better of elected officials and government functionaries but who instead, FOR YEARS, looked the other way, as rampant corruption, incompetency and inefficiency that harmed all the kids in Broward and in many cases kept them in unsafe schools with moldy walls and missing roofs.
All of that, even while lots of honest and forthright people in this community -including me- have been sharing all the known facts about what was going on and didn't blanch from the unpleasant reality.
Koenig and his gaggle of behind-the-scenes puppet-masters at The Broward Workshop as well as his many allies in the crony capitalism pay-for-play scene of Broward that is SO dependent on government largesse, teat money, in this case, taxpayer money controlled by Broward Schools and the all-female, all-Democratic Broward School Board, are as morally responsible for the continuing mess that is the Broward Schools as Robert Runcie and former School attorney Barbara Myrick and Schools mouthpiece Kathy Koch.
Editorial
Here's more evidence of why Runcie has to go
July 21, 2021
Like every school superintendent, Broward County's Robert Runcie says that it's all about the kids.
Whenever a crisis came, however, it was all about Robert Runcie.
Kathy Koch supposedly serves as the school district's chief communications officer. As the Sun Sentinel reported Sunday, however, Koch considers herself to be keeper of the Runcie flame.
After Runcie's April 21 arrest for allegedly lying to a grand jury, Koch secretly organized a rally for the superintendent two days later. To the public, it was to look spontaneous. It was anything but.
Koch worked with such Runcie fans as Keith Koenig, the Broward Workshop chairman and City Furniture CEO, to turn out a friendly crowd. Koch arranged for the school district's TV station to cover the event. As for herself, Koch said, "I would remain invisible."
With the school board set to debate Runcie's status four days later, Koch and others surely hoped that the staged event would save the superintendent's job. It didn't. Runcie had lost majority support and announced that he would resign.
Perhaps Koch hoped that in saving Runcie's job, she could save hers. It's a cushy gig. Koch makes $168,000 from the district and gets to remain as president of Ambit Advertising and Public Relations in Fort Lauderdale.
Barbara Myrick, the school board's former attorney and another Runcie acolyte, ruled that Koch could moonlight. More about Myrick in a moment.
Runcie's fans cite academic progress during his decade running the district. Whatever good Runcie did, however, is outweighed by his record since the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas shooting.
District officials lost track of and mishandled the shooter. Runcie and Myrick sought to cover up that culpability by sanitizing the district's report.
The Sun Sentinel won a Pulitzer Prize for publishing the truth. It made Runcie look bad, but the public deserved - and needed - to hear it.
A technological mistake allowed Sun Sentinel reporters to see blacked-out portions of the report. When the reporters used that blunder to inform the public, Myrick tried to have them arrested.
Damaging news continued. Two statewide grand juries criticized Broward County for its poor record on enforcing school safety laws that the Legislature passed after the Parkland shooting.
Runcie dismissed such criticism as blithely as Gov. DeSantis ignores rising COVID-19 numbers. Runcie's board enablers forgave him, as they forgave him for bungling the school construction bond that they praised him for getting voters to pass.
Sunday's story made clear again that Koch's priority had become Runcie. Koch tried to defend her actions by saying that she was on personal time. In fact, she was exploiting her professional role and trying to keep the public from knowing about it.
This is a terrible time for any school district in Florida to be looking for a superintendent. Record numbers of them are retiring or switching jobs.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the grind of distance learning is the main factor. But superintendents face unprecedented pressure, especially in this state.
This year, the Legislature again expanded the school voucher program. Republicans in Tallahassee remain focused on privatizing public education.
Meanwhile, DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran offered almost no help to school districts on how to reopen safely last year, as the pandemic raged. Corcoran threatened to withhold money from districts where students stayed home for the second half of the year.
This year, seeking to stoke his presidential campaign, DeSantis falsely accused districts of teaching critical race theory. The Board of Education approved a rule supposedly to prevent indoctrination of students.
Last week, Sarasota County Superintendent Brennan Asplen reiterated that the district teaches to Florida standards and does not use critical race theory. A speaker responded, "You can tell me all year long, 'We're not doing it, we're not doing it.' And I don't believe you."
But Runcie has to go, even if Rosalind Osgood, his chief enabler on the board, seemingly tried to orchestrate as expensive a severance as she could. Runcie had created a cultlike atmosphere. It was Runcie above all.
Myrick already resigned after her own indictment linked to that grand jury. Other top administrators have left. So one early sign of whether Runcie's successor has changed the culture will be whether Kathy Koch keeps her job.
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South Florida Sun Sentinel
Director: 'This is where we get off the rails' - Schools PR chief set up secret effort to save Runcie's job
Scott Travis, South Florida Sun SentinelJuly 18, 2021
The communications chief for Broward Schools orchestrated an aggressive but secret operation to try to save the job of Superintendent Robert Runcie within hours after he was arrested on a perjury charge, newly released documents show.
Amid calls for Runcie to step down or be fired after his arrest April 21, Kathy Koch, a veteran public relations professional, hurriedly organized a pro-Runcie rally on school district property.
She helped some of the county's most prominent business leaders craft their remarks for the event April 23, but she carefully tried to distance herself from the effort, according to emails obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
"I would remain invisible in the conversation," she wrote in her notes.
Koch's campaign failed to save Runcie's job. His last day will be Aug. 10.
Koch, 72, has worked for the district since 2018 and makes $168,000 a year. She said she organized the rally on her own personal time.
"I support the work of this District and its dedicated employees. In my personal time, I have the same rights as all others to use that time as I choose," Koch said in an email to
the Sun Sentinel. "I have supported Mr. Runcie in his role as superintendent."
But critics, including several School Board members, say she's misused her position, putting her boss's interests ahead of Broward County students, parents, employees and taxpayers.
"It is simply NOT the job of the communications department to be a superintendent's personal promotional machine," School Board member Nora Rupert said in a text after the Sun Sentinel asked for comment.
One document that especially raised concerns is two pages of typed notes Koch wrote detailing the many steps she took to organize the April 23 rally, which happened during work hours outside the front entrance of the district's K.C. Wright administrative building in Fort Lauderdale. Runcie had been arrested two days earlier, accused of lying to a statewide grand jury.
The Sun Sentinel obtained the notes, attached to an email Koch sent to herself the morning of the rally, through a public records request.
The notes describe her contacting business leaders, arranging speakers and confirming security in the 48 hours before the rally.
Koch got approval from Runcie on April 21, the Wednesday he was arrested, to hold the rally that Friday, her notes say. Runcie did not respond to a request for comment about this story.
Over the next day, Koch reached out to about a dozen Runcie allies in the business and nonprofit community, edited a letter of support from County Commissioner Dale Holness, wrote a news release for the event, sent the release and her media contact list to an outside public relations firm and organized logistics with district staff and the PR firm, her notes say.
But Koch didn't want the public to know any of this, her notes suggest, so she asked for help from Runcie ally Keith Koenig, CEO of City Furniture and president of the Broward Workshop, a business group that has been one of Runcie's staunchest defenders.
"Spoke with Keith. Agreed he would present it to the Workshop Executive Committee. I would remain invisible in the conversation," she wrote.
Later, she wrote: "Keith presented to Executive Committee. Called him after with plan. He did not want his staff to help and he agreed if I would plan and execute the event, he would pay his PR firm to distribute the press release I wrote to media, and to have someone attend this morning's event."
Koenig said in a text Saturday that he felt Runcie had been unfairly targeted, especially by the Sun Sentinel.
"I supported Bob as a citizen and asked a PR friend to help organize it," Koenig said. "Many of us came together and Bob was grateful."
Koenig added: "As I remember, the event was my idea and I hired the firm that did all the work. ... My recollection was that Kathy did not want to be involved."
Koch's notes show she confirmed the rally speakers with Koenig's PR firm April 22 and asked the company to invite the Broward PTA, the Broward League of Cities and local chambers of commerce.
"I think we should expect anti-RR people to show up," she wrote, referring to Runcie's critics.
About 50 religious, political, business and nonprofit leaders attended.
While planning the event, Koch asked district Safety Chief Brian Katz to alert Fort Lauderdale police, her notes say. She also alerted Juan Ruperez, who manages operations of the K.C. Wright building "to give him heads up."
"However [it] was clear this is not our event," Koch wrote. "In fact, there is a generator being brought so that they are not using our electricity."
Koch's role in the event raises concerns, School Board member Debbi Hixon said.
"I do not think it's appropriate for [district] staff to organize personal events on district time in the context of their district job," she said.
Lisa Maxwell, executive director of the Broward Principals and Assistants Association, said she found Koch's efforts contrary to the job of a government communications chief and a public servant.
"It is imperative that people believe that there is neutrality, that information is simply factual and is not intended to sway opinion or generate an outcome to a specific event - in this case, the protection of the superintendent," Maxwell said. "This is where we get off the rails."
Maxwell said Koch's notes are "probably the clearest example I have ever seen where this has just gone off the rails."
Koch started with the district in November 2018, beating out 158 other applicants. She owns the firm Ambit Advertising & Public Relations, which has been a member of the Broward Workshop and was a strong advocate for Runcie even before she took the district job.
Koch maintained her private firm after she joined the district. Although Runcie initially said she would turn over her Ambit client list to the district's procurement department to ensure there were no conflicts of interest, she declined to do that after then-General Counsel Barbara Myrick told her in 2019 it was unnecessary, emails show.
Koch did not respond to whether she plans to remain with the district after Runcie leaves Aug. 10. She and Runcie have faced frequent accusations that she focuses her PR efforts on the superintendent, not the district.
Former board member Robin Bartleman wrote in Runcie's 2019 evaluation, "Press releases and social media links consistently have [Runcie's] image as opposed to students, teachers, staff or even our logo."
However, board Chairwoman Rosalind Osgood praised Koch's work.
"Kathy Koch is a valued part of the District's team. The Public Relations Office has improved the District's communication to the community tremendously under Ms. Koch's leadership," Osgood wrote in a text message to the Sun Sentinel. "As a Board Member, I have no way of governing what any employee does with their personal time."
Koch's campaign happened during a busy time for her office staff, as they received dozens of media requests from around the country seeking interviews and information about Runcie's arrest, emails show.
Koch tried to avoid any interaction with the media during the April 23 rally, her notes show.
"I will be in [K.C. Wright] and am meeting PR firm early, but do not want to be visible in any form at the event itself - to school board members or to media, which might ask me about Mr. Runcie," Koch wrote.
A Sun Sentinel reporter ran into Koch inside the building and asked her why BECON, the district-run TV station that Koch supervises, had a camera crew at the rally if the event wasn't sponsored by the district.
"They're a TV station and it's an event on our property," Koch responded.
BECON was used again on April 26 to benefit Runcie as he recorded a video saying he would be vindicated from the criminal charge.
'Your team did a great job, and I appreciate everyone staying late last night," Koch wrote in an April 27 email to Eric Powell, production manager at BECON.
The video was widely distributed to media, employees and parents on the morning of April 27, hours before the School Board was scheduled to discuss Runcie's future.
At that meeting, board member Sarah Leonardi said she found the use of BECON inappropriate. "Those cameras should have been focused on students and educators."
Runcie realized at the meeting he didn't have the support to stay on long term as superintendent. A majority of School Board members wanted to either fire him or place him on leave. He offered to resign.
Dave
