End-of-the-Summer BSO Blues continue under Broward Sheriff Scott Israel. Ethical, financial and management problems -and questions about his hiring so many high-priced political hires- hover over Sheriff Israel almost 10 months after his election, and are examined, separately, by Broward Beat's Buddy Nevins and Local10's Bob Norman; FL-101 Rep. Shevrin Jones, one of Israel's political hires, will be at Hollywood City Hall tonight at 7 p.m. to discuss crime; controversial Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School will also be on tap tonight

Local10 News video: BSO finance director defends work hours 
Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman: Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo is one of many of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel's hires who come from the world of politics.
Published On: Aug 26 2013 11:41:34 PM EDT, Updated On: Aug 27 2013 10:38:45 AM EDT
Related article and viewer comments at: 
http://www.local10.com/news/bso-finance-director-defends-work-hours/-/1717324/21660742/-/46em76z/-/index.html

Miami Herald blasts Sheriff Israel for ethical laps http://t.co/779hi8cM1r
— Buddy Nevins (@Buddynevins) August 27, 2013

Miami Herald Editorial Board
Reality check for Sheriff Israel  
OUR OPINION: Accomplishments overshadowed by perception of slip-shod ethics http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/26/3587435/reality-check-for-sheriff-israel.html

Broward sheriff's have amnesia about money. Fred Grimm comments: http://t.co/SqY3VENDyu
— Buddy Nevins (@Buddynevins) August 27, 2013

Sheriff Israel has more trouble: Two cities exploring kicking deputies out and having other police. http://t.co/JdNYOge3uU
— Buddy Nevins (@Buddynevins) August 26, 2013

More questions about Sheriff Israel! http://t.co/ND47mU0vRn
— Buddy Nevins (@Buddynevins) August 23, 2013

One of the political hires referenced in the Bob Norman video above is state House Rep. Shevrin Jones, FL-101, who has been the subject of some degree of controversy himself. 

My blog post of August 20, 2013 details what in my opinion and the opinion of many other concerned and well-informed Hallandale Beach residents has been Jones' utter invisibility over the past 18 months -along with state Sen. Eleanor Sobel and FL-100 state Rep. Joe Gibbons- on an issue of great importance to HB citizens and business owners: the financial condition of the Hallandale Beach CRA and the need for a THOROUGH and INDEPENDENT audit of it after many, many years of waste and crony capitalism, which was labeled "gross mismanagement" by the Broward Inspector General's office.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/complete-lack-of-concern-shown-by.html

This August 2nd post by Buddy Nevins discusses Jones' questionable ethical conduct, cozy relationship with lobbyists and his very sloppy way of comporting himself publicly: 

Broward State Rep. living large on his campaign money http://t.co/oXuKYX3ePo
— Buddy Nevins (@Buddynevins) August 2, 2013

Jones will be at tonight's Town Hall meeting at Hollywood City Hall at 7 p.m., which most people will be attending because of the controversial Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School application.

But Jones will be there for... well, rather than me explain it, here's what the city's official press release said last Friday:

Hollywood Commissioner Peter Hernandez to Host Town Hall Meeting with Special Guest Speaker State Representative Shevrin Jones 
Public Safety, Infrastructure Improvements and Proposed Doral Ben-Gamla Charter School on Agenda 

The District 2 Town Hall Meeting will provide residents an opportunity to get information and discuss issues relating to public safety, code compliance, utility infrastructure improvements and the proposed Doral Ben-Gamla Charter School. The meeting will be held Wednesday, August 28 at 7 p.m. at Hollywood City Hall, Commission Chambers (Room 219), 2600 Hollywood Boulevard. State Representative Jones will provide an update on his plans for a small business summit in October, crime prevention initiatives and his legislative agenda. 

Hollywood’s District 2 generally runs from Pembroke Road to Stirling Road between Dixie Highway to the east and the C-10 canal to the west, north of Sheridan Street, from N. Federal Highway on the east to 24th Avenue on the west, between Hollywood Boulevard and Sheridan Street and from S. Federal Highway to the east to I-95 to the west, south of Hollywood Boulevard. Neighborhoods in District 2 include Liberia, Highland Gardens, Parkside, Royal Poinciana and many others. 

For more information on this meeting, please contact the Office of the Mayor and Commission at 954.921.3321 


In light of all the above information, it's hard not to think from the outside that at least part of what might be involved with Jones tonight is an attempt to engage in some public relations machinations, even though Hollywood has its own Police Dept., since everyone in Broward County pays for the Broward Sheriff's Office, and there will be few people in attendance tonight who will not have heard about all or most of the above by the time they walk thru the City Commission Chambers on the second floor.

I'll be there -carefully observing and chronicling the action to report back here soon.

Cold facts on school violence & security, the subject the N.Y. Times has largely ignored for years; John Solomon & Kimberly Dvorak detail Obama & Congress' hypocrisy: Pre-Sandy Hook shooting, Obama "administration eliminated emergency preparedness program, let school violence prevention programs lapse"; At Broward Beat, intense debate ensues on the role of (or absence of) SROs at Broward County schools and who should be paying for them

I actually read this Washington Guardian piece early Saturday morning and have been waiting patiently to see something on this topic elsewhere, ideally, at a South Florida-centric news website or blog, or a decent segment on TV with some real depth.

Nope, it seems that few want to actually deal with the actual nuts and bolts of school security and the source of funding, they just prefer repeating the same old homilies and tut-tut how terrible it all is.

Even pre-9/11, living and working in Washington and going fairly regularly to some of the places I did for work or my own purposes because of where some friends worked, I was always VERY safety and security conscious about myself and the people I worked with, since we often worked VERY late in almost completely empty office buildings in a city that was among the most crime and violent-prone in the country.

I had no qualms about complaining to the property management company about aspects of building security that I found weak or unsatisfactory, and actually got building security people fired for their continual lack of attention to detail, and unwillingness to tell their friends to stop coming by and hanging out near high-security areas.
I took the approach that we could always find someone who understood our unique security circumstances and who'd pay more attention, so I never lost any sleep about getting someone fired for not doing their job the way we wanted it done.
We were the client.

The day in 1994 that the Oklahoma City Bombing took place at the Murah Federal Building, I was at the NLRB HQ on Vermont Avenue, N.W. doing some research and going over the recent filings and proceedings re the MLB lockout, even while ESPN was reporting on it just a few blocks away.
The difference in security in that building within one week was night-and-day. 

During the nearly 15 years that I lived and worked up there, one of the regular features of local TV news reporting in Washington, D.C. were fairly-lengthy segments on the ease with which strangers/reporters could access and penetrate D.C. high schools without detection. 

Seemingly once a week, someone at one of the four area TV stations showed how easily it could be done regardless of how much the School system spent on security.
And I hardly need mention that one of the biggest problems were the school's students themselves trying to finesse the security systems by creating pathways that allowed them to skip off campus without being noticed by authorities.
Frankly, I always thought that there'd be a mass shooting at one of those schools but it never happened, even while the drive-bys during afternoon football games were not uncommon.

I have no reason to think that the security down here is any different with respect to students actually watering-down whatever the schools put in place.

The Washington Guardian

Before Connecticut tragedy, administration eliminated emergency preparedness program,let school violence prevention programs lapse

John Solomon and Kimberly Dvorak 

Updated 23:43 PM EST, December 14, 2012

Beneath the expressions of grief, sorrow and disbelief over the Connecticut school massacre lies an uneasy truth in Washington: over the last few years the Obama administration and Congress quietly let federal funding for several key school security programs lapse in the name of budget savings.

Government officials told the Washington Guardian on Friday night that two Justice Department programs that had provided more than $200 million to schools for training, security equipment and police resources over the last decade weren't renewed in 2011 and 2012, and that a separate program that provided $800 million to put police officers inside the schools was ended a few years earlier.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.washingtonguardian.com/washingtons-school-security-failure

Speaking of ignoring the problem of school security, please note for yourself how rarely the N.Y. Times has written about school security.
Here are the search results for "school security" as of 10:50 a.m. today:
http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/school+security

How many entries do you see since 2000? 
Just one, from 2002, and that was about Israel.
I think it's fair to say that barely more than zero articles in 12 years pretty well speaks volumes.
http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/school+security/365days/


http://www.browardbeat.com/tears-for-sandy-hook-elementary/

http://www.browardbeat.com/parents-start-pressure-for-school-cops/


10 years later, the real story behind Columbine
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Updated 4/14/2009 1:48 PM 
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm

BrowardBeat's Buddy Nevins zeroes-in on Broward pols' hypocrisy over red-light cameras -and Angelo Castillo's name comes quickly to mind among some

Where's that red-light camera warning sign?
Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. approaching N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. About 6:50 p.m. on April 24, 2011.
Photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Where did you say that red-light camera warning sign was, again?
No, it's not that silver-colored one next to the curb, that the Merge/Bike lane sign. Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Oh, there you are, red-light camera warning sign, intentionally placed right between two trees!
You only see the sign above because of the reflection of my camera flash, there are no street lights nearby. You'd almost say they were hiding it, yes?
Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


My own comments about Buddy Nevins' new post on red-light cameras at BrowardBeat, which I first read about around 10:15 p.m. Monday night, follow his own critical comments.

I read it while watching a new episode of NBC-TV's terrific and re-configured Law & Order: Los Angeles, which had a common element of the real-life murder last November of noted Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen thrown in, which I immediately caught despite not having read about the episode online or in print, but still felt uncomfortable about.
Chasen was the victim of a random shooting by a guy on a bicycle; in the episode, it was a hit.

Still, it was a hell of a compelling story well-told and is exactly why everyone I know is watching this show after the recent cast changes were made, with cast regular Alfred Molina sent from the DA's office to the detective squad, replacing the departed Skeet Ulrich, whose character was killed on the show a few weeks back after it finally returned to the air.

Dick Wolf Must Really Hate Skeet Ulrich
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/04/dick_wolf_must_really_hate_ske.html

Watching LOLA after Fox-TV's The Chicago Code is definitely a habit I could grow accustomed to. http://www.fox.com/chicagocode/

TheWrap
Ronni Chasen Laid to Rest, but Hollywood Can't Shake the Shock
By Sharon Waxman & Dominic Patten
Published: November 21, 2010 @ 10:31 am

They came by the hundreds from all across the country and within Hollywood. Every senior PR professional and most entertainment journalists but also composers, executives and movie stars -- to pay respects to Ronni Chasen, laying to rest the beloved publicist just five days after she was killed.

The primary message at the packed midday funeral service in the bright, fall air was of shock and loss. Elegant eulogies conveyed how fresh the grief was -- not yet a week removed from her senseless killing at the hands of a person or people still at large.

Read the rest of the post at: http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/indignation-hollywood-friends-set-bury-ronni-chasen-22675

-------
Broward Beat
TV Highlights Hypocrisy Over Red Light Cameras
By Buddy Nevins

Channel 6-NBC Miami proved tonight that elected officials who support red light cameras are hypocrites.

The report by Willard Shepard featured the red light camera Pembroke Pines has installed westbound at Pembroke Road and SW 129^th Avenue. This is at the southern entrance of Century Village.

I want to see any official claim how these particular Pembroke Pines cameras are being used as a safety measure. Their nose is growing.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/tv-highlights-hypocracy-over-red-light-cameras/

There was no video of this story on NBC-6 website as of 11:30 p.m. Monday night; I'll re-check Tuesday and post it on the blog if found so you all can see it for yourselves.

See also:
Broward Politics
Red light camera spokesman didn't like yesterday's post
By Brittany Wallman April 19, 2011 10:37 AM
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/04/red_light_camera_spokesman_did.html

Per the above, I should mention that every time I have posted something on my blog about the mendacious red-light camera situation in Broward County or Florida, esp. anything that is at all critical of them -which is each post on red-light cameras!- I quite suddenly get lots of hits from the home of American Traffic Solutions Inc., i.e the Phoenix area. Hmm-m...

Also, per the arrogant, condescending and patronizing tone of the note above in the Brittany Wallman post from Pembroke Pines Comm. Angelo Castillo -did I leave out an adjective?- as I stated recently to some of you via email, I'm really starting to fully grasp the full-dimension of my misplaced positive words about Castillo last year, as he has increasingly become for me the poster boy for the pro-govt., know-it-all Nanny State in Broward County that brooks no disagreement from its citizens.

Castillo's 'my way or the highway' attitude expressed in that note above is precisely the opposite of what an elected official should be saying right now in Broward, and, again, is about the last thing I'd have thought I'd be hearing out of him, based on his comments to me a year ago.
But make them he does, and with increasing frequency!

In one new story after another on Pembroke Pines -where my youngest sister lives- he somehow keeps finding himself on the side of everyone but the average taxpayer, having supported one pink elephant or govt-funded fiasco after another, and thus far, at least as the stories have been reported, there never seems to be even the slightest amount of doubt on his part about his actions, words or votes.

It must be great to be so sure of yourself, despite the observable, quantifiable facts all around you. General Custer must've had those traits in spades I think.

Frankly, I've wondered for the six months since Election Day why the Miami Herald never gave his truly disastrous County Comm. run last year the full Quincy, M.E. post-mortem it deserved, the sort that we have become accustomed to in other cities, since Castillo seems by most accounts to have run THE single-worst election campaign of any Broward candidate last year, esp. for one so well-financed and known.

The final totals for that three-way primary: Sharief 6,973 Castillo 2,415

Despite he and I having exchanged several friendly emails early last year, Castillo never once contacted me on when he was actually coming into HB to talk to the residents of the city living in that District 8, which had formerly been represented by Diana Wasserman-Rubin, until she was FINALLY arrested.

(Frankly, I don't know that he ever visited, since nobody I know ever heard about such a thing, which explains a lot in retrospect.)

I'd have been more than happy to post the meeting info here and remind people in emails, just as I would've been for (eventual winner) Barbara Sharief as well, because I wanted HB residents to take full advantage of the opportunity, however fleeting.
But despite having all my contact info, he never did anything to communicate.

-----
REMINDER: Don't forget that Comm. Barbara Sharief will be speaking at HB Comm. Keith London's Resident Forum at the HB Cultural Center Tuesday at 6 p.m.
http://www.co.broward.fl.us/Commission/District8/Pages/Default.aspx

Sharief has been a voice of logic, reason and sanity on the red-light camera issue, and has refused to be intimidated, or swallow whole the laughably bogus claims of local officials like Hallandale Beach and Pembroke Pines' mayors, Joy Cooper and Frank Ortis, that fall apart as soon as you examine them for facts, not spin.

It's telling that like Buddy Nevins says in his post, if there are problematic intersections that are responsible for a larger number of speeding-related accidents than seems reasonable, why aren't local city managers and mayors directing local police resources there to make their presence felt and change the dynamic?

The sort of thing that would have been common sense years ago in other cities I have lived in like Bloomington, Evanston and Wilmette, and which is still probably the first thing that happens in the cities and towns where many of you reading this now live.

That doesn't happen here in South Florida, though, for the very same reason that the HBPD doesn't care about all the speeding on U.S.-1, esp. at night, and while you are more likely to see someone pulled-over there by an Aventura policeman than you are a HB one. They don't want to do what's simple and necessary.

Instead, as I've mentioned so many times here, with photos, what happens is that rather than locate the second red-light camera in HB somewhere where it might actually do some public safety good, it's deliberately placed in a location, one block east of I-95, in order to nab drivers eager to get onto I-95 and out of the daily HB gridlock.

So tell me -since Mayor Cooper and City Manager Mark Antonio won't say publicly- why are there NEVER any HB police cars stationed near there if it really is a problem?

If Mayor Cooper were really interested in public safety, as she said she was a few weeks ago in her laughable performance with Mayor Ortis before the Broward County Commission, to cite but one example, why is it that for well over a year, despite everyone in the city seemingly knowing about it, for a few blocks on one of the three streets that directly lead to the HB Police Dept, it's pitch-black at night?

Yes, pitch-black, just like the Police Dept. and City Hall parking lots were so frequently for 6-9 months at a time, numerous times over the past few years, a subject I frequently mentioned at City Commission meetings and which the myopic and mendacious HB Police Chief at the time, Thomas Magill, completely ignored, along with the mayor and the city commission.

(The same way Magill continually ignored the broken parking lot light nearest the ONE security camera in front on the U.S.-1 side of the municipal building, having been out 99% of the time since the security camera were installed over three years ago. It's still out as of last night. And what about the city's liability in case something unfortunate happens? City Attorney David Jove takes the who-cares route, ignoring that possibility. month-after-month, year-after-year. Personally, I don't think the city's insurance company will take such a happy-go-lucky view, which is sure problematic for city taxpayers in the future in the event of a lawsuit.)

That pitch-black street would be Old Dixie Highway, the same street that's right near the city's largest park, Blusten Park, which many kids walk to and ride their bikes to and from everyday. The park's lights are usually turned off about 9:15 and then it's every man -or kid- for himself.

Safety is not what they care about in HB, revenue is.

Above, (diagonal) Old Dixie Highway looking north from S.E. 7th Street towards the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. HQ and parking lot on the right, two blocks away. The lights you see on the left are the auxilary lights at the city's municipal pool at Blusten Park. Hallandale Beach, Florida.
April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

The photo above was taken WITH a flash, otherwise you'd see nothing but arc lights emanating from the pool area.

My prior posts on red-light cameras can be found at
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=red-light

Because of the number of posts I've written on the subject, and the particular template and design I use on my blog, after you click the URL and go to the most recent one, continue to the end and right below the Google Ad Sense ad you will see "Older Posts."
Click that to see prior post on the subject in reverse chron order.

Thoughts on red-light camera laws in Hallandale Beach & Broward and their possible repeal; four days until Broward County Comm. votes on the issue

Tomorrow I'm sending a Public Records Request to Hallandale Beach City Hall about traffic incidents for the past four years that will tell us PRECISELY where incidents/accidents actually occur, as well as where red-light running ACTUALLY takes place in this city.

Given how things are routinely done in this city, where facts and common sense rarely-if-ever intersect, I feel pretty confident that they will NOT be the two geographic locations in HB where the city specifically placed their two red-light cameras, with the second scheduled to begin operation on Tuesday on west-bound Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.E. 10th Terrace, near the IHOP on the NE corner of the intersection.
Yes, right near the last traffic signal before I-95.

Those facts I glean from the city, which will likely be grudgingly given, I'm sure, will likely leave us all pondering why those two locations were chosen if they are NOT the sites of the highest traffic incident rate?

Seriously, when you cut yourself or get a scrape by accident, do you not put a Band-aid on the exact location of the cut/scrape?
You certainly don't put it on the back of your elbow if that's not where the problem is.

No, as we've all suspected from the get-go, in this particular city, those red-light cameras are where they are because in this city -as opposed to the rationale of other cities that may actually let self-evident facts guide their decisions- it's about generating revenue, NOT safety-prevention.

Later tonight or tomorrow, if I can, I will try to post photos -and maybe even some video- to my blog and YouTube Channel of my most recent visit to the red-light cameras last week.

And if you're of a mind to, in anticipation of next week's vote at the broward County Commission, let your two County Commissioners know what you think about this issue, too, one way or the other:
"Comm. Suzanne Gunzburger" <sgunzburger@broward.org>,
"Comm. Barbara Sharief" <BSharief@broward.org>,

Also, be sure to see Michael Mayo blog post of Tuesday and the Sun-Sentinel's editorial.: Red light cameras a bust for greedy South Florida cities
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/mayo/blog/2011/02/red_light_cameras_a_bust_for_g.html

Red light and turnpike cameras not quite clicking
THE ISSUE: Red light, turnpike cameras not quite clicking
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/fl-dlyons-editorial-cameras-22211-20110222,0,2860391.story

---------

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-broward-redlights-20110222,0,1384399.story

Broward doesn't want red light camera laws repealed

County vote a clue, one week before this issue comes to a head here

By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

7:18 PM EST, February 22, 2011

County commissioners Tuesday said they don't like a state bill that would yank the wheels off the red light camera enforcement program.

They voted against supporting a bill that would do just that, a week before this issue comes to a showdown in county hall.

Viewed as a litmus test for the county's support of red light camera enforcement, Tuesday's vote bodes well for cities seeking permission to tie into county traffic lights. The devices have turned into a legal nightmare for cities that have them, but Broward cities are still clamoring for cameras. Some who have them want more. The program in many cities has been on hold, bottlenecked at the county.

That tie-up could be dissolved as soon as next week. Broward County owns the traffic signals across the county, and county permission is needed for cities who want to tie into the light system for enforcement. Commissioners are scheduled to vote on that on March 1.

This week's vote was pushed by one commissioner, Barbara Sharief, of Miramar, who strongly opposed the use of the cameras. She hoped her colleagues would join her in supporting a state bill that would repeal the law underlying the enforcement in cities and counties across Florida. Only John Rodstrom and Kristin Jacobs agreed to vote on her side.

Sharief said it's clear that intent of the enforcement isn't safety but rather "another tact our state and cities are using to balance their books.''

In Broward, the experience for cities has been rocky, and cities are complaining they're not bringing in the ticket revenues they expected, or are even losing money.

The Broward League of Cities supports the use of the cameras, though, and cities like Pembroke Pines are eager to put up more of them. They argue that the cameras aren't in place to make money but rather to make Broward's drivers safer.

Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo, a camera supporter, horrified county commissioners with details of a traffic accident he was in last week. The chain of events started with one auto running a red light, he said. It hit a car, which hit Castillo's car. He wasn't hurt, but he said in an e-mail that had someone been on foot or on a bike crossing the intersection, the impact would have killed the person instantly.

The women in the car that was struck were bloody and screaming for help, he said in an e-mail he sent to public officials throughout the county.

"The driver's leg was mangled in an indescribable way as she crawled out of her vehicle. I saw a clump of the daughter's hair sticking out of one of the cracks her head made in the passenger windshield upon crashing into it,'' he wrote.

One company, American Traffic Solutions Inc., or ATS, dominates the market on red light cameras in Broward, and wants to wrap its wiring around Broward's, public works director Tom Hutka said. The vote next week would allow ATS, or any red light camera company, to do that.

ATS has cameras operating already in Pembroke Pines, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and Hallandale Beach. It has cameras coming soon in Sunrise, Plantation, Margate and Davie. And it's in talks with Tamarac, according to Charles Territo, vice president of communications for ATS.

Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-broward-redlights-20110222/10

As Diana Wasserman-Rubin goes buh-bye, will Angelo Castillo be the ethical White Knight to help slay Broward's corruption dragon?

The political shoe that's been floating out there in
the ether for months finally dropped today -with
a loud thud heard all throughout Broward
County.

With it, an opportunity to make Broward's civic
society and troublesome County government more
accountable and transparent to the beleaguered
taxpayers it purports to serve, will get the fair
chance it's been largely denied of late.

Since I've written about him here any number
of times before, it's not exactly much of a secret
that I'm a fan of Pembroke Pines Commissioner
Angelo Castillo, and have been hoping that,
regardless of what decision DWR made this Spring
about her own political future, he would endeavor
to throw his name into the ring and enter the
District 8 Commission race, a district which
includes a sliver of northwest Hallandale Beach.

Well, now that my hope has actually become
a reality, in the coming days and weeks, I hope
to share with you here some thoughts on which
of the many savvy, common sense ideas of his
I believe can make a positive difference in
resolving Broward's very frayed social and
ethical nerves and short-sighted economic funk.

You can laugh if you like, but I think that the
positive difference that one good man with
foresight, integrity and conviction can make
at a time of great political crisis, will, in the
long run, be proven out when Angelo Castillo
wins.

The Herald posted the story below online after
midnight this morning, the Sun-Sentinel at
3:01 a.m.

Map of Broward County Commission District 8 is here:
http://gis.broward.org/maps/webPDFs/CommissionDistricts/comdist8.pdf

-----

Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/04/1563465/leader-opting-out-of-run-for-reelection.html

County commissioner opting out of run for reelection

By Amy Sherman

April 5, 2010

Broward County Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin will announce at the end of Tuesday's commission meeting that she will not seek reelection due to her struggle with Parkinson's disease -- and not because of the investigation by the Broward State Attorney's Office into her business dealings.

Wasserman-Rubin, 63, has been a trailblazer in Broward politics. She was the first Hispanic School Board member elected countywide and, later, the county's first Hispanic mayor. But the Southwest Ranches resident has been the subject of rumors for months that she would step down or not seek reelection due to her health or the investigation that appears to relate to her husband's grant-writing work.

By stepping aside, Wasserman-Rubin will leave her Southwest Broward commission district -- which includes portions of Pembroke Pines and Miramar -- the only one with an open election contest this fall. Pembroke Pines City Commissioner Angelo Castillo, a Democrat, is expected to jump into the race and face Republican Christopher Max Ziadie, a Toys `R' Us manager from Pembroke Pines.

In January, Broward State Attorney's Office spokesman Ron Ishoy revealed that his office was investigating ``the business dealings of Commissioner Wasserman-Rubin and that subpoenas have been issued.''

The subpoenas seek records over a 10-year period involving Richard Rubin, the commissioner's husband. Rubin has done planning or grant-writing work for several Broward cities, though he no longer does work in the county. In 2008, Wasserman-Rubin paid $15,000 civil penalty and restitution for violating state ethics laws after voting for a grant her husband wrote.

She has said she did not know he would earn extra income, and that she routinely supported such projects within her district.

ETHICS REFORM

The news about the current Wasserman-Rubin investigation coincided with renewed interest in Broward ethics reform after the September arrests of County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion, School Board member Beverly Gallagher and former Miramar City Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman -- all charged in separate federal corruption probes.

Eggelletion pleaded guilty and was sentenced last month to more than two years in prison, Gallagher pleaded guilty last month and awaits sentencing in June, while Salesman's trial is underway.

Wasserman-Rubin said she had not spoken to prosecutors about their investigation and said her decision to not run for reelection to the $92,000-a-year job was unrelated to that case.

She said she was diagnosed with Parkinson's about six years ago. She shared the news with family members and friends but not publicly because she felt she could still perform her county job.

But Wasserman-Rubin said that as her symptoms became more obvious, she decided it was time to focus on her health. She said her doctor ``felt I would feel better if I didn't have the pressure I had with this particular job.''

NEW ADVOCACY

She said she wants to become an advocate for Parkinson's treatment and research. The disease is a neurodegenerative brain disorder that typically progresses slowly, according to the National Parkinson Foundation.

"There is no advocacy for Parkinson's in Broward,'' said Wasserman-Rubin, who hopes to help establish a place where those with the disease or their caregivers can turn for support.

She said she would fully participate in her job until the November election.

Wasserman-Rubin, who was born in Havana and moved to Florida as a teenager, fell into politics.

When a seat opened up on the South Broward Hospital District board in 1984, then-Pembroke Pines Mayor Charles Flanagan wanted to appoint his lawyer, Jeff Wasserman. But when he heard then-Gov. Bob Graham wanted to appoint a woman, Flanagan asked Wasserman's wife at the time -- Diana -- to apply.

"My first reaction was, `What do I know about healthcare?' '' she told the Miami Herald in 1988. She applied -- and got the spot.

In 1988, Wasserman-Rubin was elected to the School Board. She won a spot on the County Commission in 2000 and was chosen by her peers to serve as the county's first mayor -- a largely ceremonial post -- in 2002. She remains the only Hispanic on the nine-member commission, which includes one other minority: Al Jones, who is black.

POSSIBLE CANDIDATES

Wasserman-Rubin's announcement allows other potential candidates enough time to jump in before the official qualifying period in June. The news is expected to lead to a flurry of political activity to fill the seat in a district that leans heavily Democratic and is split among whites, blacks and Hispanics.

Pembroke Pines City Commissioner Angelo Castillo is president of Broward House -- an agency that serves people with HIV and AIDS. Castillo has close relationships with the key voting bloc of Democratic retirees in his city, and was easily reelected in March.

Barbara Sharief, a black woman and owner of a home healthcare business who lost a race against Wasserman-Rubin in 2006 and was elected to the Miramar City Commission last year, has also been mentioned as a potential candidate.

County Commission District 8 includes portions of Weston, Southwest Ranches, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Pembroke Park, Hallandale Beach and West Park.

-----

Broward Beat
Castillo Running For County Commission
By Buddy Nevins

Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo didn’t wait long – about seven hours to be precise.

Castillo filed to run for the seat being abandoned by Diana Wasserman-Rubin just before 2 p.m. on Monday.

Read the rest of the post at
http://www.browardbeat.com/castillo-running-for-county-commission/

See also:

Wasserman-Rubin Will Quit Commission; Castillo, Others Looking At Race
By Buddy Nevins
April 5, 2010
http://www.browardbeat.com/sources-wasserman-rubin-will-quit-commission/

and

Mayo on the Side blog
Will Geller switch races to replace Wasserman-Rubin?
Posted by Michael Mayo
April 5, 2010
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/mayo/blog/2010/04/will_geller_switch_races_to_re.html

Bad news for Diana Wasserman-Rubin, no fan of Quality-of-Life in Hallandale Beach & Hollywood: Angelo Castillo may oppose her and he will win

The Broward Beat column by Buddy Nevins that I link
to below just got posted this morning, which explains why
there is only one reader comment there thus far.

Yesterday DWR voted against the thousands of people in
the Hallandale Beach neighborhood -and nearby Hollywood
residents- that are quite literally under-the-gun from the
unpopular and incompatible Diplomat LAC proposal,
as she has cast her lot with HB City Comm. Anthony A. Sanders
instead of the larger number of residents in this area whose
family's Quality-of-Life would be negatively affected by
the multiple condo towers and the increased traffic that
come with them.

She actually told three HB residents who met with her
at her office on Monday afternoon that she personally
avoids coming into that part of HB -i.e east of U.S-1-
because of the traffic nightmare, where we all know
from experience that we NEVER see HB Police
actually on duty to prevent the gridlock that Aventura
prevents by ACTUALLY having a visible presence
on Biscayne Blvd. and giving real tickets to scofflaws
'blocking the box."

(Just like you, if I had a dollar for every time
I saw an emergency vehicle with a siren wailing
try to head west on Hallandale Beach Blvd.
towards Aventura Hospital while it's
bumper-to-bumper from Three Islands to U.S-1,
I'd be sporting a new car.
So where are those HB cops, anyway?)

But if a vote for the Diplomat helps DWR with keeping
Sanders' Pied Piper support in NW, i.e the promise of
future jobs for NW residents, she was only too happy
to throw you and your family's neighborhood and Q-O-L
overboard, and tell you that's just tough.

That's her choice, of course, and she's welcome to it,
but if she thinks that Anthony Sanders and his
consistently anti-democratic, anti-transparency
voting record, truly abysmal lack of preparation
for city meetings -not even bothering to show-up
for the city's final vote on their big Transportation
Master Plan meeting last year- over-budget and
YEARS overdue, won't be an absolute albatross
around HER neck, she's very much mistaken.

But then isn't this vote of her's only a self-evident sign
of how truly desperate she is that she's stuck with the
equally dis-connected Sanders, who all this time later,
STILL can't tell you to your face what the official
city plan is for the property the city bought from him
and his wife for more than it was appraised at,
with your tax dollars?

Rushed with urgency to buy this one piece of property
as if there were oil deposits underneath and eager
oil execs were jetting in from Houston to sign a deal.
You know, Texas Tea?

A nondescript property which you own that the city
is now renting out for a grand total of -yes- $10 a month.
(And guess who had that deal?)

So what's the long term plan, exactly?
Where's the written strategy?
There isn't one.

Sanders can't tell you any more than Joy Cooper,
Mike Good or Richard Canonne can explain what
the grand plan for the sixty-plus properties that the
city ALREADY owns, that has no apparent rhyme
or reason to it.

And by city, I mean that YOUR tax dollars bought
and own.

Without an actual written plan that everyone in this
city knows about and can read, there is no guideline
or deadline -and ZERO scrutiny and accountability
for Hallandale Beach taxpayers.

That's why it's the way it is -HB City Hall wants it
that way. It's the same reason that HB citizens only
saw the Diplomat's submitted application and docs
to the city placed on the city's website just 28 hours
before the first vote -the P&Z- with Mayor Cooper
and Commissioners Julian, Ross and Sanders
consistently refusing, meeting after meeting, to support
Comm. Keith London's common sense motion to place
them on the website far enough before the vote would
take place, so that everyone could read them and come
to understand what they were proposing and draw
their own conclusions.

That collective refusal to allow you, the citizen taxpayers
of this city, to actually know what was being proposed,
was no accident.

It was entirely intentional, which is why I made a point
of mentioning it yesterday when I spoke before the
Broward County Commission, to explain, in part, why
the majority of well-informed citizens here so
adamantly oppose the Diplomat's over-the-top plans
for numerous condo towers in a residential neighborhood.

The self-evident nature of the city's unfairness to us,
and their completely unprofessional and unethical conduct
-AGAIN!- as if HB City Hall was a silent partner in the
enterprise, trying to FIX things so we'd have little chance
to respond in a reasonable fashion, was galling, and the
local news media's completely ignoring that fact only
made it worse.

That's the price many of us currently pay for living in
a city with a corrupt City Hall at the same time we
have a sleepwalking local news media.

IF he chooses to run, I'll be enthusiastically supporting
Angelo Castillo for the good of both Broward County's
future as well as this city's, which desperately needs all
the help and good, positive ideas it can get.

Smart, savvy and dynamic common sense help that,
in my opinion, it ISN'T currently getting and won't
receive in the future from disconnected and uninformed
Diana Wasserman-Rubin.

It's taking longer than I expected to go thru the hours
of photos and video I shot at yesterday's Broward
County Commission meeting, but I will definitely have
some of the material up by late tonight.

----------
Broward Beat
http://www.browardbeat.com/opponent-closing-in-on-wasserman-rubin/
Opponent Closing In On Wasserman-Rubin
By Buddy Nevins
March 24, 2010

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-wasserman-swamp-school-20100128,0,3130912.story
Wasserman-Rubin's husband played key role in controversial school land deal
By Scott Wyman, Sun Sentinel
January 28, 2010


The pull quote from the article below:
"I seldom get a call from the city," Wasserman-Rubin told those gathered at the
barbershop at 708 Foster Rd.
Just saying...

South Florida Times
July 2007; updated March 17, 2008

http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=290&Itemid=42

Residents outraged over neighborhood neglect

Chaz Stevens' latest video is a reality gut-check for Deerfield Beach; Angelo Castillo's idea on improving voting participation in Broward County

Chaz Stevens' latest video is exactly what I wanted
to do in 2008 with the City of Hallandale Beach's
(COHB) curious purchase of Pastor/Commissioner
Anthony A. Sanders personal property for much more
than its appraised value, as if HB City Hall had more
money than sense. LOL!
Well, history has clearly borne me out on this.

COHB was in a rush to buy this property owned by the
then-Pastor Anthony A. Sanders and his wife, so that
the city could promptly... do nothing with it at all.

Now that they've put HB taxpayers on the hook for it,
one of more than sixty-plus properties that COHB
currently owns, they rent it out at $10 -yes $10-
a month to a group the city wants to co-opt and stay
on friendly terms with for completely political reasons.

But what was the actual rationale for the purchase in
the first place, which was NEVER publicly advertised
on the HB City Commission agenda, but instead,
done under the stealthy rubric "Other," depriving
HB citizen taxpayers of their opportunity to not only
be publicly heard on this unseemly transaction,
but ask for proof of what STILL remains the city's
imaginary action plan?

They have a very vague idea but no actual overall
written plan they can either point taxpayers to,
or are willing to publicly share with them,
IF it even exists on paper.

Meanwhile, COHB's financial situation goes from bad
to worse -see http://changehallandale.com/,
click Budget or Debt - and they STILL can't answer
perfectly reasonable financial questions by residents
about this absurd purchase, despite plenty of time
and resources to do so.

In fact, this specific issue came up again this past week
at a city Quadrant meeting held at the city's Cultural
Center -more on that on Monday, along with video-
and once again, the city's highly-paid staff could NOT
point to something actually either written down
(or approved by the City Commission) that justified
a premium price bring paid for a mediocre piece of
property in 2008.

Like it was a Ken Griffey, Jr. Rookie baseball card
at the pinnacle of the baseball card craze in the early
1990's that disappeared once the actual merchandise
had been sold to the gullible public.
Caveat emptor, mes amis!

For those of you who are late to what Chaz Stevens
has uncovered in his corner of Broward, you can see
what larger point he is proving with 100% accuracy
-and video- along with his latest muckraking adventures,
here, http://www.myactsofsedition.com/ some of which
the Broward Palm Beach NewTimes has written
about quite well, while the Herald and Sun-Sentinel
largely continue to play catch-up.



Video is at:
http://www.myactsofsedition.com/my_acts_of_sedition/2010/03/housing-in-deerfield-beach-a-video-montage.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ActsOfSedition-ABlogAboutDeerfieldBeachPolitics+%28Acts+of+Sedition%29

In today's Broward Beat, Angelo Castillo writes
about a simple plan that results in Broward citizens
taking back voting from bureaucrats, with the added
dividends of increased participation and depriving
anyone from their 15 Minutes by whining about voting
sites or hours.

I love voting in person, but I'm willing to vote by mail
if it increases actual public participation.
http://www.browardbeat.com/castillo-expand-voting-by-mail-keep-city-voting-separate/

Personally, I still wish that Castillo would run this Fall
against the longstanding, ethically-challenged and largely
clueless Broward County Commissioner whose district
includes a small part of HB, Diana Wasserman-Rubin,
but for now, he seems to have decided to make his
re-election in Pembroke Pines his first priority, which
occurred this week with him getting 87.64% of vote.

(And what was DWR talking to Comm. Sanders and
some of his acolytes about over at the city's Hepburn
Center on Monday night?
Some well-informed people hereabouts think that she's
actually considering the possibility of supporting the
out-of-scale Diplomat LAC next week at the
County Commission, the 23rd, in exchange for
Sanders vocal support and his acolytes' help,
which likely won't come for free.
But then you already knew that, right?)

Castillo has more practical ideas and common sense
than 99% of the elected officials pols I run into in
Broward and M-D, and would, I think, make a great
county-wide ELECTED Mayor in the future if the
circumstances ever presented themselves, and residents
could ACTUALLY vote for that instead of the Broward
County Commission crowning one of their members.

I feel this way in large part because he is someone who
is not afraid of new ideas as a solution to resolving
longstanding problems.

Problems that have made and will continue to make
Broward less desirable than it could be with the proper
leadership and hard work.

Me, I'm for diversity -I want smart and honest
people with common sense.

If you're hanging around the house for the next few hours,
at 2 p.m., Turner Classic Movies is showing one of
the best political films ever made, All The King's Men,
based on Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning
novel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_King%27s_Men

No, not the Sean Penn & Jude Law's recent clone,
which I intentionally skipped, but the powerful original that
was so compelling that it won the Best Picture Oscar for
1949, as well as the Best Actor Oscar for Broderick
Crawford.

Here's the film trailer:
http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=159099&titleId=27628