S.O.S.! Newspaper hits iceberg! What's going on at the Tribune Co.'s sinking South Florida Sun-Sentinel? Their continued poor judgment, even as the newspaper -and its shrinking base of advertisers- are becoming increasingly irrelevant to news consumers in Broward County who want their news free of bias, taint AND mustiness, not facts and context, has real consequences

S.O.S.! Newspaper hits iceberg! What's going on at the Tribune Co.'s sinking South Florida Sun-Sentinel? 

Their continued poor judgment, even as the newspaper -and its shrinking base of advertisers- are becoming increasingly irrelevant to news consumers in Broward County who want their news free of bias, taint AND mustiness, not facts and context, has real consequences.

Its pay wall is like a parasite that's killing off the host, and making its formerly-popular Broward Politics blog now nothing more than an afterthought because it counts now as an article in monthly totals, not as a blog post. A newspaper website that needs SERIOUS rethinking and redesign.

You call that news coverage? 

1.) As of today, November 19th, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's education blog, South Florida Schools, has posted exactly one item in the past 6 weeks. Way to keep your nose to the grindstone! http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/

Yes, even while all sorts of things, good and bad, have been going on in that subject area the past six weeks, that newspaper blog has been silent.
It's one thing for a personal blog to go quiet for awhile for reasons that we can all well imagine, but really, a newspaper blog that posts one thing in six weeks, wrapped around an election?

Good luck finding that sort of situation existing at a normal, well-run newspaper unless the person/team behind it are either gravely ill, been transferred to other beats or the blog itself is being phased out.
Which is it for South Florida Schools?

I don't know the particulars of it, but I do know that it sure doesn't look good.
Especially for customers who want to read more serious and in-depth coverage of the subject, just as they would expect to find more in-depth coverage in a sports team-related blog, not just read PR releases.

Does a Broward School Board employee trying to choke an autistic child on a Broward School bus count as news these days?
Is that a subject that would greatly benefit from the infinite amount of space a blog gives a reporter to provide a lot more context than a print newspaper article affords, and even allow some degree of reader interaction?
We'd all agree that the answer to both is yes, so why is there NOTHING like that at the one place that you should be able to count on finding it on the Sun-Sentinel's website?
Now there's a question!

Not only are there no video interviews on that blog with any of the newly-elected Broward School Board members who won 13 days ago, candidates who were all elected to some degree based upon on what they said they hoped to do to change the still-extant culture of corruption there, and make the system more accountable to taxpayers, parents and students, but there's not even a single written blog post about that subject.

And since there's NOT even that, the bare minimum one should reasonably expect if it were being run professionally and with any common sense, of course there's NOT anything there about why those particular new members may or may not succeed in their desirable goal, based on their own backgrounds and professional experiences.
Nice job!

2.) On Friday Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's resident lapdog at the newspaper, Anthony Man, posted his most recent entirely-predictable, not-really-news re DWS that he wrote in all of about five seconds at the Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog.
No, actually it was just the intro to a video of her.

Yes, another in a long line of DWS-related posts by Man that the Sun-Sentinel runs that fall squarely into the dog-bites-man category.
Yet another piece on her NOT showing party independence or actually going out on a limb or even showing some perspective or original insight that you never considered before.

Hey, guess what?
DWS supports Israel -STILL.
Snooze...

And speaking of not surprising, Man doesn't even publicly mention in his intro that the video he chooses to run is actually from her office. Typical.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RepWassermanSchultz/

Wasserman Schultz condemns Hamas rocket attacks on Israel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/broward-politics-blog/sfl-wasserman-schultz-hamas-israel-20121116,0,6429879.story

Notice anything else about that blog post now?
Correct, the Broword Politics blog has recently been moved to behind the Sun-Sentinel's (unsuccessful) pay wall.

Which means that for many people throughout South Florida, including civic activists, concerned citizens and bloggers I know and trust, as well as other members of the South Florida press corps, that blog has largely become even more irrelevant than before, and is now an actual afterthought.

As if the Broward Politics blog's lack of freshness, topicality and outside-the-box thinking on any subject involving county or municipal government, or the pols who inhabit it, weren't already hindrance enough the past few years.

If the Sun-Sentinel's management were really going to make a mistake like that and move a popular feature like that blog behind a pay wall, one of the few features that people I know actually read fairly consistently, couldn't the Sun-Sentinel's management team at least have had the good sense to bring in some new people -with fresh eyes- at the beginning of this year?

In my opinion, having entirely new reporters there, people who'd actually ADD something new to the rather static and staid view of this county that that blog has promoted for so many years, where, typically, almost as soon as someone's name comes up in a piece, you already know what's going to come -and you're almost always right- would end.

How great would it be for readers to actually have the sense that the newspaper was amping-up their reporting and resources towards the election, perhaps starting this year off with some blistering expose or analysis of something that doesn't appear in the print edition?
An actual online exclusive, just like what other media companies do to drive eyeballs?

Something that showed readers some much-needed energy and freshness there, and an implicit warning that that the predictable habits that we've all observed there for far too long, will soon be disappearing -quick!

Yes, as I've watched the Sun-Sentinel increasingly become disconnected from reality and even unaware of many local news stories that they ought to be owning but aren't, it's become
increasingly apparent to me that the very people who are running that newspaper (into the ground) often appear, publicly at least, to have very little real idea of how other newspapers, even smaller ones, actually make their own blogs more interesting and compelling to readers, visually and content-wise.

I know they are aware of it, so why isn't that knowledge and understanding filtering down and actually showing up in print and online with better-written blogs and better and more original content at the Sun-Sentinel?

It's not exactly Breaking News that there are many well-written and compelling non-political blogs that I subscribe to or bookmark which are part of the New York Times and The Washingon Post, and that's largely because when I lived in the Washington area from 1988-2003, I used to religiously read both newspapers daily from cover-to-cover.

And once both newspapers had online presences, I read content there, too, so I remember the blogs they created that didn't quite work out as planned, as well as the ones that have remained steadfast and only grown in popularity over the years, like the very popular technology blog written by David Pogue, which has changed titles a few times, and now even comes with videos. http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/
I continue reading both newspapers and 5-10 of their blogs every day, and buy the Times in print about 3-4 times a week.

New York Times video: 60 Seconds With Pogue: Fitness Bands
http://www.nytimes.com/video/2012/11/14/technology/personaltech/100000001903028/60-seconds-with-pogue-fitness-bands.html
  
But in the context of my blog post today, there's one blog in particular that I'd like to mention because it's an excellent example of the sort of focus and scope that I and many of my friends would greatly prefer the Sun-Sentinel to emulate -the State of NoVA blog, written by Tom Jackman. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-state-

This recent post is exactly the sort of thing you'd never see at the Broward Politics blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-state-of-nova/post/manassas-news-and-messenger-and-insidenovacom-top-prince-william-news-sources-closing-down/2012/11/14/e2f8bde2-2e7b-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_blog.html

In my opinion, a newspaper that refuses to properly maintain and improve the depth and quality of writing and frequency of its own blogs, and which has added no new original content in-print or online, is seriously mismanaged and deluded if they think that news consumers with an almost infinite amount of choices, will now suddenly pay for the same-old-thing.
That same tired old thing that they really weren't so crazy about in the first place.

That perhaps is the worst sin of all among the Tribune Company's executives who felt that they no longer had a choice about waiting to erect a paywall for the Sun-Sentinel so many months after they did that at their Los Angles Times property -it was all so damn predictable!

Why, knowing all that they did about how these paywall introductions usually go across the country -esp. in more serious newspaper towns- did they make no serious effort to improve the print version first, to endear themselves to existing readers?
Then, after existing readers could see that a serious effort was being made to improve the paper, make the online experience better by making both more compelling and original content?
The sort that would make people actually willing to pay?

To me, the only plus for the Tribune Company and the Sun-Sentinel's executives throughout this whole mess has been that the state of serious journalism in South Florida has fallen so badly that it never seems to have occurred to the news directors at Channels 4, 6, 7 & 10 to actually do a series of stories on how badly the Sun-Sentinel has bungled things, and now has a knife at its throat after going this route, and the very people holding the knife are -yes- themselves.
There's always that!

Guess what disgraced know-it-all pol came out from under his rock to sound off on Arizona shooting, in his typically condescending way? Larry Smith

Just when you think the myopic drive-by analysis of last week's shooting in Arizona can't get any worse... 'out from under a bubbling crude" comes disgraced former South Florida congressman Larry Smith, a longtime bête noire of mine and the well-deserved object of ridicule among most of the savvy Floridians I knew in Washington, D.C. for the 15 years I lived there, on and off of Capitol Hill.

Do I even have to ask you to guess which local print reporter propped-up a rock to get the opinion of someone convicted of betraying the public's trust?
Exactly.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics blog
Former congressman says heated rhetoric must be tamed By Anthony Man
January 10, 2011 01:59 PM
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/01/former_congressman_says_heated.html

My favorite -NOT- part of the above blog post? This insipid nonsense by Smith:

Watching television on Sunday, “I was cheering [Dupnik.] He’s a guy who’s got guts. He’s not attacking the symptoms. He’s telling you what the solution is.”

Oh, right, the partisan sheriff is the hero, even though he's already admitted on Fox News that he has no proof of anything he's said thus far. In most places, even most parts of Florida, THAT would be called reckless, but in Larry Smith's world, that's stand-up and holler.
No wonder Dupnik's in law enforcement with a mind like that!

And did you notice what's NOT mentioned in the Broward Politics blog post?

More recently from my perspective in Hallandale Beach, Larry Smith was dumped as a Tallahassee lobbyist for the City of Hallandale Beach, in part for not being very forthcoming or accessible with information in a timely fashion.

Then-HB Commissioner Bill Julian literally begged his colleagues on the City Commission to give Smith some scraps after tossing him aside.
It was quite an embarrassing spectacle!

One I watched with great amusement.
I especially liked the part where Smith acted like he didn't know why he lost the account.
LOL!

Those of you who are pals of this shape-shifting character Smith, don't even bother to waste your time and energy sending me comments about this miscreant, as they will never see the light of day on this blog.

To me, Larry Smith has proven to be the very bad guy I always suspected he was -even before he got caught!

In the minds of many well-informed people I knew in Washington, he'd have kept doing what he was doing if he hadn't been convicted of "tax evasion and lying to election officials about the use of campaign funds to pay gambling debts."

Some of those people include his former staffers, the real people I felt sorry for after the scandal broke.
They had no idea they worked for a crook.

Oh sure, you can argue that if not for him getting prosecuted, South Florida would've been spared the indignity of ever having Peter Deutsch represent part of Broward in Washington, and maybe his golden-haired staffer Debbie Wasserman-Schultz would've had a less public role in society.

Who knows, maybe even one where she actually had to compete on an even playing field instead of from one of the most-gerrymandered congressional districts in Florida, which quite un-necessarily cuts this small city of under three square-miles in half, just so she can get all the residents east of U.S.-1, plus dipping down into Aventura; which really ought to be part of what was the Carrie Meek/Kendrick Meek/Frederica Wilson experiment in democracy with a small "d."

Meanwhile, HB residents who actually live closer to Pembroke Pines are represented by a congressional district based in Liberty City, Overtown and Opa-locka -while Aventura is represented by someone from Pembroke Pines- which is to say, poorly represented, even if it hadn't been the Meek inheritance.

After all, how many times did you ever see Frederica Wilson in Hallandale Beach at a public event before the late August primary?
That's actually a rhetorical question, since nobody I know among the well-informed EVER saw her.
Just her yard signs.

Personally, to me, forcing the obsequious and full-of-himself Peter Deutsch on D.C. was crime enough, though perhaps not an indictable one, as Deutsch did nothing to improve Broward's reputation on Capitol Hill in D.C. for small-minded, myopic devotees for all things reflexively anti-Castro, pro-Israel and pro-well-to-do retirees living upon the generosity of heir grand-children's taxes.
Yes, the home of the worst possible use of the pejorative, 'Condo commandos.'

As I've mentioned here before, Deutsch blew everyone's mind when he hired a college student to be his number one staffer, overseeing all the others.
Not a college grad graduate, mind you, an actual college student.


If you haven't read my prior post on him, you probably wonder what causes my animus towards Larry Smith.

Well, here it is, nice-and-simple: in my opinion, he cost American military personnel their lives because of his over-weaning ego and smugness by refusing to do the right thing when it was necessary.

And I was right there in the congressional room when it all happened, less than three feet from the State Department's representatives, who begged him and others to show some vision and leadership.
Larry Smith wasn't up to the task!

So how do you you like that for an answer?

The particulars of the bill of indictment regarding my animus towards Larry Smith are described pretty well in this mid-May 2010 email re Ron Book I sent out to some very interested parties throughout South Florida and the rest of the state.
Rather than write something new, I'll just go with this:

A few weeks ago, Ron Book's contract was NOT renewed by the City of Hallandale Beach -during the Florida Legislature's annual session no less!

That it was done in a very unprofessional way is par for the course in this very poorly-managed ocean-side city, but to do so during the Legislature's session only proves how truly myopic HB City Hall is.

I was already planning on writing about this subject later this week, but since you have sort of pre-empted me a bit, I will give you a few details.

Book's firm was hired by the city to replace former city lobbyist Larry Smith, the former South Broward congressman, a man I came to loathe after watching him in action up close for years while I lived and worked in Washington, D.C., and was spending LOTS of quality time on Capitol Hill.

(I was even there in the Rayburn Building on a fateful day during the reign of Bush 41, where during a long and torturous Foreign Affairs mark-up, Larry Smith voted against the State Dept.'s plan to sell certain missiles to Kuwait, because State and the Pentagon were afraid that Iraq would invade.

Well, we all know how that ended up, but what you and most South Floridians don't know -because nobody in South Florida's news media ever reported it- was that Larry Smith said that he was against the plan it because he knew the missiles would be used against -wait for it- Israel. Really.

So Smith and a couple of other super pro-Israel members of the Foreign Affairs Comm. -back when Dante Fascell was Chairman- voted it down.

FYI: The photo of Dante Fascell at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Fascell is the very painting of him that hangs in the House Foreign Affairs Comm. Chambers.

I used to think about Larry Smith's foolish vote every time I heard about an American casualty during the First Gulf War, which since I lived in Arlington County, meant that I knew lots of people affected by that war.)

A few months ago, Book's firm was planning on sending some pertinent docs down to the city, but when they called, the person on the other end of the phone at HB City Hall said something along the lines of, "Uhh... don't you guys already know?"

Book's firm found out after the fact that WEEKS earlier, the city had decided they were history. Why? That's a very good question.

Perhaps someone in South Florida's professional news media might some day think to ask Mayor Joy Cooper that question, especially now that they know.

I'll have more details on my blog soon, including the name of the person who had to tell Ron Book that he and his firm had been canned during THE most important time of the year in Tallahassee, but had never even been given the courtesy of a personal phone call to get the news.

That's just a snapshot of everyday life in Hallandale Beach under the Joy Cooper and Mike Good regime.

-----

Seriously, how much better-written is this nuanced Herald article below by Paul Anderson than a contemporary version of the same congressional redistricting fight would be by Patricia Mazzei? It's not even close.

When this article was written in 1982, when I was still at IU, the State of Florida had 15 House seats in Congress, with my having grown-up in the 1970's in North Miami Beach, part of the 13th, represented by William Lehman. It was one of the two most-Democratic-leaning seats in the entire country
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Florida,_2010
The state now has 25 House seats and will have a total of 27 for the 2012 congressional elections as a result of the most recent federal census.
-----

Miami Herald

INCUMBENTS DEFEND REDISTRICTING DEAL

By Paul Anderson, Herald Staff Writer
May 30, 1982

In the end, Tom Gustafson was all alone.

For months, Gustafson, the boyish-looking state representative from Fort Lauderdale, had been counted among the leaders of the state House. His opinion was a key element as Broward's new legislative and congressional districts were proposed.

But his House colleagues on the conference committee negotiating the lines of the state's 19 congressional districts had cut a deal with the Senate without Gustafson's approval.

As he angrily described it later: "They gave up Broward for the rest of the state. And we'll have to live with it for the next 10 years."

Gustafson contends that the compromise district ignores the needs of Broward residents and panders to the political interests of incumbent U.S. Reps. E. Clay Shaw, the Fort Lauderdale Republican, and Dan Mica, the West Palm Beach Democrat.

Among other problems, Gustafson complained, the district lines split nine cities, including Coconut Creek, Dania, Hacienda Village, Hollywood, Lauderhill, North Lauderdale, Plantation, Sunrise and Tamarac.

Gustafson tried to make amendments. The committee, meeting in Tallahassee just over a week ago, voted them down time and again.

Gustafson said he didn't know until later that people chuckled at him and made sarcastic comments about his attempts. He insisted it didn't matter. "I was doing what I believe was right," he said.

Right or not, Gustafson simply didn't realize what he was up against.

A series of interviews indicates that Broward's new congressional districts are the product of a three-way deal between incumbents Mica and Shaw, plus Democrat Alan Becker, a hopeful in the new South Broward seat.

Becker and Shaw worked together although they opposed each other in the 1980 general election for Shaw's existing District 12 seat.

During negotiations, Shaw had the support of his longtime friend, state Sen. Jim Scott (R., Fort Lauderdale), chairman of the Broward legislative delegation and minority leader of the Senate.

Becker got Sen. Jack Gordon (D., Miami Beach) working on his side, mainly so that any proposed changes in Broward would not affect the districts of incumbent Dade Congressmen Dante Fascell, William Lehman and Claude Pepper, all Democrats.

With the consent of all involved, a Coral Gables attorney named Mark Deutsch, a good friend of Becker's, drew Broward's final district lines.

It's somewhat ironic that Gustafson disputed Deutsch's work in the end. Earlier this year, Gustafson hired Deutsch to help
draw proposals for new state House and Senate districts.

Gustafson paid Deutsch $1,500 out of his own pocket, he said, "because he's the best numbers man around ... But I only used his House and Senate maps. The congressional ones were obviously gerrymandered."

Deutsch won't trade charges with Gustafson for the record. He'll only discuss the details of the districts as he drew them and the House and Senate eventually approved them:

* District 14, with Mica as the incumbent, is shared with southern Palm Beach County. In Broward, it includes the cities of Coral Springs, Margate and Parkland; North Lauderdale and Tamarac west of Florida's Turnpike; Coconut Creek west of Lyons Road and north of Sample Road; and Lauderhill and Sunrise north of the Middle River Canal.

That section of Broward is marginally Democratic but considered safe for Mica, who tends to vote conservatively. There was a deliberate effort to move at least two major bastions of liberalism, Century Village in Deerfield Beach and Wynmoor Village in Coconut Creek, into Shaw's district, where they'll be swallowed and won't give Mica trouble with a more liberal primary opponent.

* District 15, with Shaw as the incumbent, is the only district fully within Broward. It contains the cities of Deerfield Beach, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Lauderdale Lakes, Lighthouse Point, Oakland Park, Pompano Beach, Sea Ranch Lakes, Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors; the easterly portions of Coconut Creek, Hacienda Village, Lauderhill, North Lauderdale and Tamarac; Sunrise east of University Drive; Dania and Hollywood north of the Dania Cut-Off Canal, and about a third of Plantation. Conservative district

The district is slightly more Democratic than Republican by party registration, but it is considered generally conservative and an easy one for Shaw to keep.

It also was deliberately drawn to include Port Everglades and three of Broward's four airports -- Pompano, Executive and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International -- because Shaw serves on the House Public Works and Transportation Committee.

Gustafson pointed out that the southern boundary also conveniently picked up Shaw's Dania Farm Nursery, a wholesale operation where Shaw has a family home that he uses while visiting the district.

* District 16, which has no incumbent, is shared with about 140,000 residents of northwest Dade County. In Broward, it includes the cities of Cooper City, Davie, Hallandale , Miramar, Pembroke Park and Pembroke Pines; Hollywood and Dania south of the Dania Cut-Off Canal; and Plantation and Sunrise west of University Drive and south of the Middle River Canal.

The district is overwhelmingly Democratic. Deutsch said it has fewer blacks than any other congressional district in the state -- less than 5 per cent -- and has the second highest concentration of Jewish voters.

Each district, following the mandate created by the 1980 census, contains slightly more than 512,000 people.

Shaw's role

Shaw, who had an aide in Tallahassee to represent him during the final hectic hours of negotiations, described his role as "providing encouragement where it was needed."

He dismissed Gustafson's arguments as "silly fights" and said he was "very pleased with the results of the process."

Shaw added: "Broward was, I think, shortchanged in that we have the population to justify almost two complete congressional districts ... But given the set of circumstances that we had to share the South Broward district with nearly 150,000 people from Dade, I think the Legislature did a terrific job."

If nothing else, Shaw and others -- including state Rep. Larry Smith (D., Hollywood), who is running against Becker -- are glad the House and Senate were able to settle the districts after five months of bickering.

By law, if the Legislature hadn't been able to draw the congressional districts, the task would have fallen to the court system and political considerations would have disappeared.

Broward's lines, which had been one of the chief obstacles in the state, no longer were an issue after a meeting early that Friday afternoon in Scott's office in the Senate Office Building. Gordon and Shaw's aide met with Scott while Deutsch waited outside -- anxious until he saw smiles as they emerged from a conference room.

Smith and his closest allies, including state Sen. Ken Jenne (D., Hollywood), signed off on the Becker-Mica-Shaw plan later when they became convinced that it was the only way to get a map out of the Legislature. Original lines Smith had pushed for Gustafson's original lines for the South Broward district, which basically used State Road 84 as the main northern boundary. The key, to Smith, was that both Becker and announced-Republican challenger Maurice Berkowitz live north of State Road 84 in Plantation.

Deutsch's plan moved the boundary.

Jenne said he was called in by House leaders to speak to the different factions after the conference committee approved its compromise map that afternoon and, once he saw it and talked to the major players, became convinced there was little that could be done.

"I told Larry that he should be satisfied. 'You can still win the district, and you want a map, so let it go,' I said," Jenne recalled.

Jenne disagrees with Gustafson's argument that Democrats gave Shaw an easy district.

The compromise "gives Democrats five out of six Gold Coast congressmen for certain, and I think that's a pretty good arrangement," he said. "And I think that we can win the 15th -Shaw's new district- with a strong enough candidate."

Two Democrats, Clerk of Courts Robert Lockwood and former U.S. Rep. Edward Stack, have said they will challenge Shaw this fall, but neither are particularly pleased with the way the 15th District looks.

Probably the most pleased with the whole arrangement is Becker, who kicked off his campaign in his tailor-made district in a big way last week.

Taking advantage of the makeup of his district, he sent out 20,000 letters with a strong pro-Isreal message soliciting funds from active Jewish voters.

It includes a letter of endorsement from former U.S. Sen. Richard Stone and a pamphlet that shows pictures of Becker on a recent trip to Israel.-

------

Twenty-eight years later... there's exactly ONE competitive congressional district in all of South Florida, the one that Allen West won, which is why the House reps are largely on automatic-pilot, and don't really care what you think, esp. DWS, which makes it easy for her to be away from the district so much, working on enhancing her party position elsewhere in the country, doing fundraising and glad-handing favors for other Dem incumbents.

Until the two constitutional amendments passed in November, the House members knew that it was their seat indefinitely unless something queer happened.
Now it has.

Galling Geller Gambit II: Gary Plancher of Davie running against Ann Murray for Broward School Board seat -HERE

My comments follow these two blog posts on prospective
candidates for the Broward School Board, though for
a change, Lauren Book is not mentioned in either one.

Because the Herald doesn't have an Education
blog, the first one ran last Wednesday in their political
blog instead, a constant criticism of mine, while Buddy
Nevins advances the curious case of Gary Planchar
in Wednesday's Broward Beat.
---------
Miami Herald
Naked Politics blog
By Patricia Mazzei
April 7, 2010

Until this week, only one of the four Broward School Board members seeking reelection had drawn an opponent: Laurie Rich Levinson had filed to run against Phyllis Hope.

Then Bob Parks drew a challenger for the first time in 12 years in Nora Rupert, a teacher at Piper High School. And now Ann Murray is being challenged by Gary Plancher of Davie. Murray, who was elected in 2008, represents the Southeast Broward district that includes Hollywood and Hallandale.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2010/04/broward-school-board-candidates-keep-rolling-in.html


Broward Beat
Applaude Two Board Members; Boo Bob Parks
By Buddy Nevins

Two School Board incumbents are doing something unusual – raising no money for their re-election.

Meanwhile, long-time School Board member Bob Parks has the usual suspects pouring money into his campaign.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/applaude-two-board-members-boo-bob-parks/


I have never heard of Plancher, and neither, apparently,
a week after the fact, has anyone else I know in Broward
County.

But within a few minutes, I was able to discover that
Plancher, who lives in Davie, wrote the comments
at the bottom of this post about Anthony Man's
Sun-Sentinel article from last November, below,
which gives you some keen insight(!) into candidate
Plancher's views of residency rules and representing
constituents.

He appears to be for whatever is best for him, rules
or no rules.

As I've been mentioning since last year, County
Commission candidate Steve Geller lives in
Cooper City, yet is running for a District he doesn't
actually live in -ours- and now, Plancher is
mimicking this galling Geller gambit, daring news
reporters to ask him about it or mention it in print
or TV.
They don't.

He's seen over a period of many months that
there is no apparent downside to doing this,
despite Mitch Caesar's crocodile tears, but
then again, Plancher's NOT the go-to
quote-meister for all occasions for South Florida's
news media that Geller has, unfortunately, become,
especially for the Sun-Sentinel, where he is
relentlessly quoted regardless of how little he
actually knows about a particular subject.

I found this info on Plancher on a Broward
College website in seconds
http://www.broward.edu/ext/MWBE_Vendor.jsp?cat=&psid=A2

Seriously, how lucky is Ann Murray to draw an
opponent like this instead of the savvy, serious challenger
that she truly deserves -who actually lives here-
who will go right at her and her dismal track record
with some vigor?

As you all know by now, I believe that track record is
a woeful one, given what Murray herself continually
said she'd do and be if elected: a pro-reform voice,
not an echo of the status quo.

She's been well-nigh invisible in Hallandale Beach
since being appointed and then elected for the
remainder of Eleanor Sobel's unfinished term,
and has done almost nothing to justify the vote
some of us gave her, including yours truly.

Whenever I've written about her or Jennifer
Gottlieb in the past, I've received plenty of
negative email about them rather quickly,
often from people I personally know around
the county and deal with fairly regularly,
of course.

They offer up much of the same criticism as me,
albeit tinged with the hope that those two will,
eventually, do the right thing by their constituents
-some day.

Though "some day" never is a specific date on
a calendar as you and I understand it.

I take the more traditional point of view, which
is that past performance is the best predictor,
and that since neither has distinguished herself,
I don't have to pretend to like them when I don't.

What's most surprising to me is the large number
of very dis-satisfied, even angry voters/parents
in SE Broward, who've written me to say that
until they'd come across my blog comments about
these two characters, however they did, they had
thought THEY were the only ones around who felt
like they'd been had by Gottlieb and Murray in
past elections, since the education reporters down
here tend not to write negative stories about
individual School Board members, absent an
indictment or perp walk.

At first, I must admit, it was odd to hear that my
admission of voter remorse provoked pleasure in
others, but that's the case and I've learned to roll
with it.

Many of these same frustrated Broward residents
also wonder why South Florida's news media has
given the School Board members -in both Broward
and Miami-Dade- so much latitude, since they
are elected officials, too, after all.

Of late, I've even heard a criticism voiced that I often
heard expressed up in Arlington County, VA, where
I lived for 15 years, which was that the reporters
assigned to the education beat, overwhelmingly female,
were more prone to be cheerleaders for the subject
in general, perhaps because of having teachers in the
family, and thus not likely to have the temperament
to really go after a School Board member with quite
the same relish they would a member of a city, county
or state elected body.

Not that you asked, but judging from my emails,
people are still really ticked-off about School C in
Hollywood, too!

But you need a qualified opponent first before you
can vote against her, and as Buddy Nevins notes
above, at present, Jennifer Gottlieb is a solo act.

----------
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=211359235855
Updated about 4 months ago

Gary Plancher

Rubbish, moving from one to another district will be a matter of formality.
should i avoid shopping in distrcit 9? absolutely not, Al jones is a very qualify
candidate and that is all matter? should Obama be running a country where
African Americans are not the majority?
it is simply that is not the way we do it in this country. qualification is what
count?
Al jones will do an excellent job representing the district.

November 25, 2009 at 8:11am

In case you forgot:
BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes

Ann Murray Gets the Royal Treatment

By Bob Norman

Friday, Aug. 28 2009 @ 3:56PM

Broward County School Board Member Ann Murray was surrounded yesterday by sycophants who showered her with campaign checks.

It wasn't in her home district in the Hollywood area where she lives but in Okeechobee, the little town on the big lake up north. It was at a business called Royal Concrete Concepts, which currently has contracts worth at least $15 million to build storage facilities and other buildings for the School Board.

The company showed its appreciation for Murray's support with a shindig and plenty of campaign checks (we'll tally the number later). Make no mistake: When you're getting treated like a queen, it's hard not to succumb to the machine.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2009/08/ann_murray_broward_school_board.php#comments

----------

At Broward County Commission meeting of January 27, 2009:

MOTION TO REAPPOINT Mr. Gary Plancher to serve on the Health and Sanitary Control Board. (Commissioner Rodstrom)

------

New commissioner's residency a huge issue or insignificant - depending on your political party prism

By Anthony Man
November 24, 2009

Broward Democratic Chairman Mitch Ceasar said Tuesday he’s outraged that Gov. Charlie Crist’s appointment to the Broward County Commission, Al Jones, doesn’t live in the district he’ll be representing.

Jones, a Republican, was tapped on Monday by the Republican governor to fill the vacancy created by the suspension of Democratic County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion, who was arrested two months ago as part of an FBI undercover operation into corruption among Broward officials.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/11/new_commissioners_residency_a_1.html

Some questions re Broward County Courthouse, Broward Ethics Committee, unsafe Broward Schools and Steve Geller's residency

Since I was already planning on heading down
to the Broward Govt HQ early Wednesday
morning for the next Ethics Commission meeting,
at 8 a.m., I was surprised over the weekend
in perusing the county's scheduled meetings page,
http://www.broward.org/Commission/Documents/sunmeet.pdf
to see that there's yet another County Commission
meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning.

Morning agenda, 10 a.m.:
http://205.166.161.204/agenda_publish.cfm?mt=ALL&get_month=2&get_year=2010&dsp=ag&seq=166#ReturnTo0
Public comments agenda, which includes
humanitarian relief to Haiti, at 2 p.m.
http://205.166.161.204/agenda_publish.cfm?mt=ALL&get_month=2&get_year=2010&dsp=ag&seq=167#ReturnTo0

Since I wasn't able to make it up there in time
last Tuesday for the actual vote on the Courthouse
issue, I'm inclined to swing-up there tomorrow
to see if there's any residual effects, or any public
speakers want to get a few things off their chest,
now that this decision has had some time to sink in.

Anthony Man's blog post from Friday, below,
includes a link to the newest version of the proposed
ethics legislation, an issue which the Herald has
largely ignored, like it does so many other issues
in Broward County.

(Did you know that the person in charge of the
Broward's Herald bureau for most of last year
was rarely present in the the Broward office in
Pembroke Pines?
It's all-too-true, and was told to me by a frustrated
Herald employee in a position to know who keeps
me in-the-loop on what's going down at
Herald HQ at One Herald Plaza.
They've been losing a ton of money on that building
in The Pines, too.
And did you see the column yesterday about
improved local news coverage here?
http://www.miamiherald.com/video/index.html?media_id=10150879
Zero about Broward, a subject I will be writing
about here on the blog later this week.)

I think it's very curious given how much the
Sun-Sentinel has proven over the years that
it loves to quote him -even on issues that
he's not qualified to speak to, per se- that
in Scott Wyman's Friday blog post, after writing
that the proposed Ethics legislation would
"ban commissioners from moonlighting as lobbyists,"
Wyman doesn't drop Steve Geller's name and
mention what he happens to thinks about this idea.

(Or what fellow lobbyist and frequent
Sun-Sentinel quote-machine and Broward
Dem Chair Mitch Caesar thinks about it?
Is it that the South Florida media can't find
Caesar, or that they don't want to incur his
wrath by pressing him to answer questions
he'd find uncomfortable and not have their
phone calls returned?)

Many if not most of the Geller supporters I've
run into -none of whom are friends of mine,
it goes without saying- not only personally
think that Geller's main rationale for running
for Commissioner is to lobby Broward cities and
govt. entities on behalf of his law firm's clients
and make a lot of money, but also think that it's
NOT an ethical problem.

They don't even think it'd be unethical for him
to lobby cities and entities located in his own
district, here in Hollywood and Hallandale Beach,
HB being a city with a mayor in Joy Cooper
who publicly said at a 2008 City Commission
meeting that I was at, that she only wished
that Geller could've stayed State Senator
forever.

Hardly surprising that such a thoroughly
anti-democratic, disingenuous -and
thin-skinned- pol like Dan Gelber-supporter
Joy Cooper doesn't care for citizen-initiated
term limits.

But as most honest and observant people who've
followed things here know, Cooper has a huge ego
and sense of entitlement, which is why she had
no compunctions about telling City Manager
Mike Good to approve funds to build her a
brand new office at City Hall last January,
even though under the city's charter, the only
power she has is that of being presiding officer.
That's it -no vetoes, no nothing.

Joy Cooper is the same two-faced person
who has always said for public consumption,
especially when African-American
residents of NW HB were present,
that she was always FOR specific
geographical districts for HB commissioners.

Yet while I personally want to see it actually
become a reality, as is the case in Hollywood,
when the HB City Commission-appointed
Charter Review Commission actually brought
that proposal up to the City Commission a few
years ago, so that it could be voted upon and then,
if approved, placed on the ballot for citizens
to vote on one way or the other, Cooper & Co.
voted AGAINST it.
Shocker!

Yet despite that vote of her's, Cooper acts like
it never happened.
Typical.

Getting back to Geller supporters now, they think
he's entitled to lobby if elected and exploit the system,
having more than once actually used the phrase
'spoils system' in a way that you don't hear much
these days.
Well, at least they're honest about it, which is more
than can be said for Geller himself in all of this.

That leads me to ask, once again, when exactly is
Steve Geller of Cooper City going to comply with
the existing law and actually move into the
Broward Commission District seat he is running for,
and when is the sleep-walking South Florida
news media going to actually press him to state
a specific date when this is going to happen?
Don't hold your breath!

-----
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-schools-whistleblower-20100207,0,3403460.story

Fired school district official wins legal battle but doesn't get apology

Former inspections supervisor warned about building safety issues

By Megan O'Matz, Sun Sentinel

February 6, 2010

If the Broward School District had listened to Charlene Rebecca Blackwood instead of firing her, could some of its construction department problems have been solved a long time ago?

Some think so.

"She was a prophet. What do they do to a lot of prophets? Try and silence them," said community activist Charlotte Greenbarg, president of The Broward Coalition, a group of condo and homeowner associations.

The school district disagrees, calling Blackwood a bully to her co-workers and an ineffective leader — characterizations she vehemently denies.

"We didn't discipline her because she raised alarms about school construction. That's her job," said Eugene K. Pettis, an attorney representing the district in the case. "But… you don't treat your staff and behave in the ways she behaved."

In November, after a four-year legal battle, the School Board agreed to settle. It awarded Blackwood $217,500 in back pay and attorney fees, and its own legal fees totaled $145,000. The settlement comes during a severe budget crisis when the district has had to cut teachers, electives, supplies and renovations.

Blackwood, 68, wanted more from the board members than money.

"I feel like I have been owed an apology," she told them in an emotional appeal last month. She did not get one.

Her saga began more than a decade ago when, as a senior supervisor of building inspectors, she began complaining that new schools were opened despite "life safety" code violations. That contractors were allowed to walk away without fixing problems. And that leaky school roofs were being repaired improperly, leading to mold and mildew.

She warned that some schools that doubled as hurricane shelters had equipment on the roofs, such as air conditioners, that were not properly secured and posed a hazard in a storm. The district took steps to fix the problem, but Blackwood said it dismissed other issues, such as opening schools prematurely.

Today, years after they opened, scores of schools still are operating without documents showing they meet code.

"They didn't want an effective building department," Blackwood said in a recent interview. "They wanted to neutralize the inspectors so the contractors could not be interfered with in doing their construction. Whether it was bad or not, they didn't care."

Recent internal audits back up some of her concerns. They show inflated construction costs, overbillings, and millions of dollars wasted to fix mistakes in building designs. In September, School Board member Beverly Gallagher was indicted on charges of taking payoffs from undercover FBI agents to rig construction contracts.

Board member Stephanie Kraft said that while a lot of the issues Blackwood raised were legitimate, she was "overzealous" in her approach and alienated some co-workers, board members and key administrators.

"She didn't know how to pick her battles," Kraft said. "Everything to her was a mountain. Even the molehills were mountains. It's unfortunate because there was a lot of validity to some of the stuff she said. But because she made everything a big deal, you couldn't deal with her at all.''

Kraft acknowledged there is great urgency to open a new school on schedule. Otherwise the district has a "nightmare" of a problem housing students elsewhere.

At a hearing of a newly formed district ethics commission last month, speakers told the panel that school employees who are critical of district leaders or policies have been labeled disgruntled and retaliated against, creating fear among the ranks.

"The Blackwood case is indicative of that," Nick Sakhnovsky, chairman of a district facilities advisory council, said in an interview. "Anyone who has a contrary opinion should not immediately be shut down or vilified."

Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1463793.html

Editorial
Build Broward courthouse right

February 5, 2010

Confronted by a public hostile to footing the bill for a new county courthouse, Broward Commissioners dithered but ultimately made the right call: To build anyway.

There's no arguing that the 50-year-old courthouse is in bad shape. Its many parts, three additions to the main structure, were built under lax codes and couldn't withstand a Category 2 hurricane. Mindful of the construction slump, commissioners knew they could get a good price on a new structure. However, the commission must ensure that the new building is strong, roomy enough to accommodate future growth and has a decidedly green -- as in eco-friendly -- tinge.

Voters reject tax

What made the decision so tough is that voters in 2006 rejected a tax increase to pay for a new courthouse. Broward voters, relatively friendly toward most capital-improvement bond issues, were fed up -- or else county officials did a poor job of convincing them of the need for a better facility.

Voters said, in essence: ``We elected you to lead, to be the deciders, so do it.'' Stuck between a genuine need for a new facility and taxpayers' reluctance to shell out more money for it, commissioners took responsibility.

The resulting deal won't raise property taxes, but that's based on a technicality. Taxpayers will soon pay off about $38 million in debt for libraries and parks, meaning county taxes would drop about 25 cents per $1,000 of taxable property. To pay off the debt for courthouse construction the county will assess taxpayers about five cents per $1,000 of taxable property at a time when property values are dropping. So taxes won't rise along with the new courthouse, but they won't drop as much as they could have, either.

Fill funding gap

Still, this was the most practical choice. The county has set aside $120 million for construction. It will use a legislatively mandated increase in court fees and federal stimulus money to help cover the $328 million price tag. That leaves a funding gap to be filled by the five-cent property-tax assessment.

The new courthouse's 20-story tower will be built on the west side of the current structure, adding parking, more courtrooms and offices for public defenders and prosecutors.

Now that the commission has stepped up, its next task is to ensure the county gets the best construction prices and that the new courthouse is built to outlast its predecessor.

Reader comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1463793.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-courthouse-vote-20100205,0,1369524.story

Backlash against courthouse tax could hurt Broward commissioners
By Scott Wyman, Sun Sentinel
February 5, 2010

FORT LAUDERDALE

When Broward county commissioners decided last week to tax residents for a new courthouse, they risked the wrath of voters.

Critics warn that the backlash could cost at least some of them their jobs.

"I recognized the decision would be unpopular, but in a representative form of government, we have to do what we think is right," Commissioner Stacy Ritter said.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected the project in 2006. But the existing building has only deteriorated since.

Plumbing is so bad in the old wing of the courthouse that burst pipes have caused repeated floods. The elevators constantly break and are so antiquated that parts must be specially made.

Court workers are suing over health problems caused by pervasive mold. The electrical system is so maxed out that an employee once blew out a computer in the next office by plugging in a space heater.

Consulting engineers say the building might not survive a Category 2 hurricane.

Since the defeat at the ballot box more than three years ago, county officials reviewed and rejected options, including the renovation of the old wing or the purchase of an existing office building. They also investigated whether construction could be delayed.

The commission went with plans that cut the cost from $510 million to $328 million.

A 20-story tower will be built on land the county already owns on the downtown Fort Lauderdale court campus. The central wing will be demolished and turned into a plaza that connects the high-rise to the jail and newer court wings.

The tax increase to pay for it will cost the average homeowner $8 a year for the next 30 years. But the issue is not just the money. Some are incensed over the fact that commissioners decided to impose the tax without seeking voter approval.

"We may need a courthouse, but now is not the time," said Charlotte Greenbarg, president of the group of homeowner and condo associations known as the Broward Coalition. "We haven't hit bottom in this recession and people are hurting. Voters will be angry over the insensitivity that commissioners showed in their actions."

A task force of judges, lawyers and elected officials led the effort to explore alternatives.

Their review concluded renovating the old wing would be more costly. Not only would the interior have to be gutted and brought up to existing building codes, but the exterior walls are in such poor condition that they must be replaced.

Space would have to be leased for judicial offices and courtrooms during seven years of renovation work. The county would have to pay to renovate the leased space to accommodate court operations and meet security requirements.

The task force looked into other locations for the court building, such as the neighboring 110 Tower, but county officials decided the renovation work needed to ready an older building for court operations would be too extensive-–adding a heavy cost on top of the purchase price. They also said private buildings off the county's court campus would lack a direct link to the main jail that allows the easy movement of dangerous inmates.

Waiting also was considered unacceptable.

The county's point person on the court project, Pete Corwin, said a delay risks repeated prolong closures of the courthouse because of major maintenance problems. In recent years, the courthouse has shut down for days following some of the flooding caused by burst pipes. And there's no telling when a potentially devastating hurricane could hit the building.

Delaying a new courthouse also could increase costs, officials said. Federal assistance available through President Barack Obama's economic stimulus program is set to end this year, and interest rates and construction costs are low.

"The easier answer would be to push this off or to renovate, but those are not the right things to do," Mayor Ken Keechl said. "We have a constitutional obligation to provide space for the judiciary, and something needed to be done now."

But to Commissioner John Rodstrom, the concerns about a delay are exaggerated, contrived to ensure the result that influential judges and lawyers have long wanted. He cast one of the three votes against the courthouse.

"The fix was in," Rodstrom said. "I know there are problems and the courthouse is not in the best condition, but the time is problematic. It is time to hunker down and save money. There is an anti-tax sentiment out there, and we should listen to it."


Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog
Commission could lose influence on contracting, be banned from moonlighting

Posted by Scott Wyman
February 5, 2010 09:26 AM

A new ethics code being drafted for Broward County commissioners amid a growing corruption scandal will rein in their influence and require greater disclosure of their business dealings.

A task force assigned with writing a code of conduct agreed Thursday to ban commissioners from moonlighting as lobbyists and limit their control over what companies win county contracts. They’d have to disclose any contact with lobbyists on county business and their fundraising on behalf of charities and political campaigns.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/02/commission_could_lose_influenc.html


Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog
Satz wants new anti-corruption law

Posted by Anthony Man

February 5, 2010 06:34 AM

Amid a series of public corruption scandals that have so far hauled up eight Broward and Palm Beach county officials on charges, the top prosecutors in the two counties are joining forces to seek passage of a new law tightening the screws on dishonest politicians.

“It will fill a lot of loopholes and hopefully restore peoples’ confidence in what went wrong,” Broward State Attorney Mike Satz said Thursday.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/02/satz_wants_new_anticorruption_1.html

-----

http://www.broward.org/Commission/Documents/sunmeet.pdf

In compliance with Section 286.011, Florida Statutes, announcement is made of the following meetings for the week of February 7, 2010 through February 13, 2010.
This information will be posted in prominent locations at County facilities and on the County’s web page (www.broward.org/sunmeet.pdf).

If any person shall decide to appeal any decision made with respect to any matter considered at these proceedings, it shall be the responsibility of that person to ensure that a verbatim record is made including testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based.
If you require any auxiliary aids to communication, please call Public Communications Office at 954-357-6990 so that arrangements can be made in advance.


February 9, 2010 - Tuesday

9:30 a.m. Meeting of the Broward County HIV Health Services Planning Council, Outreach QI Network, 915 Middle River Dr., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

10:00 a.m. Regular meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, Governmental Center Room 422, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

10:30 a.m. Meeting of Waste and Recycling Services, Resource Recovery Board, Technical Advisory Committee, Programs Subcommittee, Government Center West, Waste and Recycling Services 4th Floor Waste Wing Conference Room, 1 N. University Dr., Plantation, FL.

1:30 p.m. Meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, Proclamation Announcements and Presentations, Governmental Center Room 422, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

2:00 p.m. Public Hearing of the Board of County Commissioners, Governmental Center Room 422, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

3:00 p.m. Meeting of the Broward Healthy Start Coalition, QI/QA Committee, Broward Healthy Start Coalition, #304, 6555 Powerline Rd., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

5:30 p.m. Meeting of the Housing Finance and Community Development Division, Review current Broward County State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) 2008-2010 Local Housing Assistance Plan strategies and recommend new strategies or revisions to new 2011-2013 LHAP, Housing Finance and Community Development Division, Suite 201, 110 NE Third St., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

February 10, 2010 - Wednesday

8:00 a.m. Meeting of the Ethics Commission, Governmental Center Room 430, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL. (The public is invited to attend but will only be allowed to ask questions/comment from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.)

9:00 a.m. Meeting of the Children’s Services Administration Section, Needs Assessment Committee, Governmental Center Annex Room A-370, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

9:00 a.m. Meeting of the Transportation Department, Review community bus 2010 interlocal agreements, Mass Transit Division Administration Bldg. #1, 2nd Floor Conference Room, 3201 W. Copans Rd., Pompano Beach, FL.

10:00 a.m. Meeting of the Emergency Management Agency, Emergency Coordinating Council; Forum to foster coordination between county and municipal governments in Broward County, with other public and private organizations, which plan for and respond to disasters and other emergencies; Emergency Operations Center, 201 NW 84th Ave., Plantation, FL.

10:30 a.m. Meeting of the Cultural Division, Broward Cultural Council, Public Art and Design Committee, Main Library, Bienes Conference Room on 6th Floor, 100 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

1:00 p.m. Meeting of the Aviation Department, RLI #R0729109R1, Professional Design Services for New South Runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to include full design of the New South Runway and preparation of the Design Criteria Package for Runway/Taxiway Structures; Post, Buckley, Schuh, and Jernigan, Inc.; Negotiations, Aviation Department Airport Development Conference Room, 100 Aviation Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

2:30 p.m. Meeting of the Enterprise Technology Services, Computronix Master Agreement, Negotiation, Governmental Center County Attorney Office 423, Conference Room No. 4, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

3:00 p.m. Meeting of Waste and Recycling Services; In lieu of scheduled Infrastructure Subcommittee meeting, a tour of the Reuter Recyling Facility will be held; 20701 Pembroke Road, Pembroke Pines, FL.

3:30 p.m. Meeting of the Office of Economic and Small Business Development, Broward County/Greater Fort Lauderdale Broward Economic Development Alliance, New Five Year Agreement for Economic Development Services, Negotiation, Governmental Center Room 430, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

5:30 p.m. Meeting of the Housing Finance and Community Development Division, Housing Finance Authority of Broward County, Suite 201, 110 NE 3rd St., Ft Lauderdale, FL.

6:30 p.m. Meeting of the Planning and Redevelopment Division, Broward County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, Discuss issues regarding bicycles and pedestrians and advise Board of County Commissioners, Governmental Center Room 329F, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

February 11, 2010 - Thursday

8:30 p.m. Meeting of the Aviation Department, Contract #T308103CAF, Cost impact to comply with runway safety and phasing for airfield modifications, Central Florida Equipment Rentals, Negotiation, Aviation Department, 100 Aviation Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

9:00 a.m. Meeting of the Construction Management Division, RLI #200030904-0CM-01, New Courthouse – Optional Services to Consultant Services Contract, Spillis/Candela/Heery/Cartaya, Negotiations, Governmental Center Annex Room A-550, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

9:30 a.m. Meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization; Discuss prioritization of transportation projects, to ensure local transportation issues are addressed and funds are appropriately allocated; Governmental Center Room 422, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

9:30 a.m. Meeting of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, Tourist Development Council, Convention and Visitors Bureau, Suite 200, 100 E. Broward Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

9:30 a.m. Meeting of the Office of Public Communications, 2010 Census Complete Count Committee, Promotions Subcommittee, Ongoing planning, Governmental Center Room 302, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

10:00 a.m. Meeting of the Seaport Engineering and Construction Division, RLI #20050927-CPD-1, General Architectural Services at Port Everglades, Third Amendment to Agreement, Bermello Ajamil & Partners, Negotiations, Port Administration Bldg., Room 301, 1850 Eller Dr., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

10:00 a.m. Meeting of Water and Wastewater Services, RLI #R0728501R1, Energy Performance at Water and Wastewater Services, Chevron Energy Solutions, Negotiations, WWS Administration Bldg. No. 1, Administration Board Room on 1st Floor, 2555 W. Copans Rd., Pompano Beach, FL.

11:00 a.m. Meeting of the Management and Efficiency Study Committee, Procurement Subcommittee, Governmental Center Annex Room A-460, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

11:00 a.m. Or immediately following the Fire Chief’s Provider meeting, Meeting of the Office of Medical Examiner and Trauma Services, First There First Care Conference Committee, Office of Medical Examiner and Trauma Services Conference Room, 5301 SW 31st Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

1:00 p.m. Meeting of the Broward Regional Health Planning Council, Inc.; System of Care Workgroup, System of Care Planning in Circuit 17, Broward Regional Health Planning Council, Conference Room 115, 915 Middle River Dr., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

1:00 p.m. Meeting of the Purchasing Division, Reconvene Selection Committee, RLI #R0754608R1, Wind Mitigation, Governmental Center Room 430, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

2:00 p.m. Meeting of the Seaport Engineering and Construction Division, RLI #113098-RB, Berth No. 34 Consultant Services, Third Amendment to Agreement, CH2M Hill, Negotiations, Port Administration Bldg. Legal Conference Room on 5th Floor, 1850 Eller Dr., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

3:00 p.m. Meeting of the Public Safety Coordinating Committee, Main Courthouse, Court Administration Conference Room, North Wing, 201 SE 6th St., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

6:00 p.m. Meeting of the Cultural Division, Broward Cultural Council, Social Networking between Emerging Cultural Leaders and Broward Cultural Council, 9360 NW 18th Dr., Plantation, FL.

February 12, 2010 - Friday

8:00 a.m. Meeting of the Ethics Commission, Governmental Center Room 430, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL. (The public is invited to attend but will only be allowed to ask questions and/or comment from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.)

2:30 p.m. Meeting of the Broward County HIV Health Services Planning Council, Mental Health/Substance Abuse QI Network, 915 Middle River Dr., Ft. Lauderdale, FL.