My coda to "Broward cities need tougher ethics laws, not self-serving pols"; Debby Eisinger's curious fact pattern

This is a logical and necessary follow-up to my earlier post of today titled, Broward cities need tougher ethics laws, not self-serving pols like Gary Resnick & Debby Eisinger, whom we need like more bad restaurants, more ruined-views of the beach... -NOT at all!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/broward-cities-need-tougher-ethics-laws.html

I had hoped to incorporate what follows into that last blog post, but for a variety of reasons, came to realize that I'd not be able to do so, so consider this post a bit of a coda to that last post on the question of ethics in Broward County at the municipal level.

Since this blog was first created five years ago this month, I've had certain key anchors or guideposts that have stubbornly remained on it, despite how much space they take up, or how much criticism I have received from others who complained about my keeping them here.

They are there to indicate to first-time readers that this blog, regardless of whatever particular subject matter I'm writing about on that day, or whatever subject may've led the visitor to come here in the first place via a search engine, is committed to certain things.

Stricter, easier to-understand and more-enforceable common sense ethics laws -with teeth!- in state, county and local government is one of those basic elements I support and am personally committed to.

That sentiment is best captured by one anchor in particular that recounts a moment I bore witness to more than three years ago here in Hallandale Beach, and which I re-post here to make the larger point about elected municipal officials aversion to increased public scrutiny and tighter laws that maintain an ethical floor beyond which there is no publicly acceptable conduct and behavior:

"WHY DO THEY NEED THAT IN THE BROWARD COUNTY CHARTER?"

"Laws and Constitutions go for nothing where the general sentiment is corrupt." -New York Times, September 22, 1851

"Why do they need that in the Broward County charter?"-Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper at April 2, 2008 HB City Commission meeting in discussing possible inclusion of Broward County Charter Review Commission's proposal for Ethics Commission to deal with Broward County Commission on November 2008 ballot.

Six YEARS after the county's voters had overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the County charter requiring its adoption, the Broward County Commission had yet to live up to its legal responsibility. That's why!

As problematic as Cooper and her regal and all-too-frequently condescending attitude have been and continue to be for concerned taxpayer citizens in Hallandale Beach, it's not just Joy Cooper, of course, who is the problem in Broward when it comes to notions of public accountability and transparency, it's the veritable phalanx of willing elected officials and their friends, acquaintances and family members who are contractors or lobbyists in Broward, who willingly want to make like Gen. George Patton and drive a tank thru any possible weak spots -loopholes- and keep it open for good, that are the problem.

Another elected municipal official in Broward who, like Joy Cooper, has seemingly had her doubts for years about stricter ethics laws and what the public was entitled to expect from people in authority is someone whom I've written about a number of times here, Cooper City Mayor Debby Eisinger.

Eisinger's very visible antipathy towards stricter ethics laws is NOT just a recent thing, nor is it a function of her and her colleagues in Cooper City having been involved in so many disturbing and ethically-questionable situations over the recent past that have made her fodder for local TV and newspaper reporters, who barely had to say much more than tell the basic facts or roll the hidden camera video, before readers and viewers were recoiling at the thought of what she and her pals were doing.

Most notably, the commission's former habit of routinely getting together for drinks at public establishments in the Cooper City area -before scheduled City Commission meetings.

You don't have to be paranoid to understand that serious questions arise about the very appearance of such get-togethers, much less, if you are a legitimate party with an item on their agenda that night or just a regular concerned citizen wishing to speak about that agenda, who reasonably wonders what might have been discussed about that item away from any public scrutiny, in violation of Sunshine Laws, and without you having any means of rebutting what was said, especially something factually inaccurate or intentionally misleading.

And what about the complete lack of any initial apparent remorse on their part when they were caught in 2006 by Channel 4 News/WFOR-TV, and the video of some members the Commission, including Eisinger and some of her acolytes in a bar, was a CBS4 sensation, one that was both self-evident and a jaw-dropping tale of un-democratic notions of privilege and refusing to follow the existing laws, simple as they were.

For me, this point was brought home thru Eisinger's own choice of words and her arguments as a member of the Broward County Charter Review Commission a few years ago, many of whose meetings I attended in-person, including the final meeting that decided what would and would not appear on the November 2008 ballot.

It should not come as a shock to anyone that despite how much I had followed their activities closely, my mouth was often agape at the things I heard and the condescending points-of-view I heard expressed at those meetings among what were said to be a good cross-section of Broward's leading lights. 
Repeatedly.

Consider this exchange from 2007, direct from the Summary Minutes of Discussion, Broward County Charter Review Commission, Administrative Issues/Governance Subcommittee Meeting of Tuesday, August 15, 2007

http://www.broward.org/Charter/Documents/agsc-082307_final.pdf

pp. 6-7

Ms. Eisinger stated that the format of Strong Mayor or Elected Executive is that that Mayor is in charge.  She stated in certain circumstances it could work well, but she can’t support it because you don’t know who is going to be that Mayor, and it is going to be left up to the Electorate.   

She explained that sometimes the voters don’t always know who is the most qualified. She advised that it becomes a popularity contest and who runs the best campaign, and is not necessarily the most qualified. 

As I've stated here on the blog several times previously -and keeping the info above in mind as yet more of the same from her- it should come as no surprise that when push came to shove on the question of whether or not Broward voters could be treated like adults and decide for themselves whether they wanted to have an elected county-wide mayor of Broward County, not continue the charade of county commissioners voting for one another as mayor for one year, Cooper City Mayor Debby Eisinger voted to deny Broward voters that choice.

How does an elected public official justify voting against elections that allow citizens to determine their own form of govt. structure?

Exactly, but that's just what Debby Eisinger did.

Yes, whether as mayor of Cooper City or as the current President of the Broward League of Cities, Eisinger's demonstrated track record of anti-democratic behavior and votes against increased public accountability is clear for all to see.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Broward Politics blog

Cooper City Mayor Eisenger to charities: Complain about county ethics law

By Brittany Wallman 

October 10, 2011 02:34 PM

Broward League of Cities President Debby Eisenger sent out an email to non-profit groups in Broward, urging them to complain -- if they so wish-- about the coming new public ethics law.

It was sent to "various non-profits,'' League Executive Director Rhonda Calhoun told her mass e-mail list recipients.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/10/cooper_city_mayor_eisenger_to.html

And as I mentioned in my last post, given the above, and the unanimous vote in October by the Broward County Commission to have these necessary tougher ethical standards hold sway at local city halls, Eisinger actually has the chutzpah to drop this memorable quote in last Saturday's Ariel Barkhurst article:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

County ethics law already changing Broward's city governments

By Ariel Barkhurst, Sun Sentinel

11:11 PM EST, December 31, 2011

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-ethics-ordinance-in-effect-20111231,0,3978237.story

"I've already seen people backing off from being involved in charity," said Cooper City Mayor Debbie Eisinger.

Yeah, I wonder why? 

Hmm-m... perhaps it has to do with your own orchestrated campaign...

It's like Eisinger, after all that she has done, is in such denial that she can't even admit to herself that she was NOT part of the reform effort to fix the longstanding problems, like my friend, Charlotte Greenbarg, president of the Broward Coalition, Eisinger was part of the crony capitalism crew desperately trying to sabotage the effort to give Broward voters what they have been clamoring for for years.

(But then as the only member of the public in all of Broward to actually attend that first meeting of the IG Task Force last year, that later chose John W. Scott, I'm in a position to know what I'm talking about, which is why I can mention that there were no members of the news media present at that first meeting. Surprise!)  

And lest we forget, when she was on the Charter Review Comm. she actually tried to make the lack of funding for an Inspector General's office the problem.

Take note folks, Debby Eisinger never quits trying to sabotage things for the worse for citizens in Broward County who are interested in genuine transparency, accountability and ethical probity.

And from the looks of things, she shows no evidence of losing that condescending attitude and smirk of hers, either.

Citizen'sFree Speech Quashed By Cooper City, FL Commission

http://youtu.be/_bAjj_RMFRs

Related article:

BrowardPalBeach New Times

Daily Pulp blog 

"All of You Deserve to Be Taken Out Behind the Woodshed and Beat the Living Shit Out Of"

By Bob Norman

September 29 2010 at 6:08 AM

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/09/all_of_you_deserve_to_be_taken.php

-----

There's a treasure trove of Debby Eisinger-related stories in the archives of the  BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes 

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index/?keywords=%22Debby+Eisinger%22&x=14&y=8

Of the many there, I commend to you these two Bob Norman-penned pieces from 2010 in particular:

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2008-05-01/news/muddy-politics/

and http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/09/cooper_city_background_checks.php

Plus, to better understand how insidious the corrupt political culture is here in Broward, take a look at this one on the doings of so-called ethics watchdogs: 

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/07/roy_rogers_rides_again.php

Sad but true.

-----

http://www.browardcoalition.org/

CBS4 News video: Correspondent Carey Codd speaks with Broward's new Inspector General, John W. Scott, on his responsibilities in a county that has seen a tremendous number of corrupt county and municipal elected officials. September 14, 2011. http://broward.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=700

Office of the Broward Inspector General

One North University Drive, Suite 111, Plantation, FL 33324

Tips Hotline at (954) 357-TIPS

http://www.broward.org/InspectorGeneral/Pages/Default.aspx

http://coopercityinsider.blogspot.com/

Broward cities need tougher ethics laws, not self-serving pols like Gary Resnick & Debby Eisinger, whom we need like more bad restaurants, more ruined-views of the beach... -NOT at all!

Broward cities need tougher ethics laws, not self-serving pols like Gary Resnick & Debby Eisinger, whom we need like more bad restaurants, more ruined-views of the beach... -NOT at all!


Or, in terms that residents in my part of traffic-gridlocked southeast Broward County particularly well understand, whom we need like more creeps who illegally park in disabled parking spaces.
Like former Hallandale Beach Comm. William "Bill" Julian, who turned doing something morally contemptible into an art form while he was in office.


His years of serial illegal and appalling behavior with respect to this easily-understood law, one so simple that even children know what's right and what's wrong, is one that I and so many other HB citizens have observed first-hand dozens and dozens of times, and have described here on the blog numerous times in the past, complete with photos.


(All you have to do is do a simple word search for "Julian" in the search box at the top of the right column.)


But as we know so well in this county and this part of Florida, unrepentant pols like Julian seemingly have no qualms about using their perceived power to try to get away with completely inexcusable behavior until they're finally caught by people in authority who don't care who they are.


In part, because pols like Julian know that they generally have little to fear from South Florida's current press corps, whose dedication to strong and intensive coverage of local government news, is clearly much weaker than it is in other parts of the country -though less and less so there, too- despite giving it lip service on their editorial page.


Safe in his foreknowledge that under Police Chief Thomas Magill, the Hallandale Beach Police Dept.'s many years of unwillingness to ticket him and treat him like they would any other citizen would continue -despite how obvious his behavior was, with his name clearly evident on the dashboard- the bitter proof of Julian's unrepentant and unethical behavior is not just his complete unwillingness to admit his behavior and apologize to the public, which has STILL never taken place, but rather that Julian actually dares to run again this year for the City Commission this coming November -after being rejected in his re-election in 2010 and coming in third in a three-way race- and imagines that the question of his moral unfitness for office and general incompetency won't come up.


As if we had all developed a case of collective amnesia about Julian's YEARS of clownish, churlish and uninspiring behavior, on and off the dais. 
We haven't.


Given what I've written here so many times in the past in this space about the need for stronger ethics rules in Broward County and the creation of an Inspector General's office, as well as the need for those more-stringent rules to have full effect in Broward's thirty-SOMETHING municipalities and grand duchies, I draw your attention now to something truly eye-opening that ran in the Sun-Sentinel last weekend, which many of you out there in the blogosphere may well have missed due to holiday planning or football bowl game-induced slumber.

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-ethics-ordinance-in-effect-20111231,0,3978237.story

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

County ethics law already changing Broward's city governments

By Ariel Barkhurst, Sun Sentinel

11:11 PM EST, December 31, 2011

The strict Broward County ethics code goes into effect for city leaders on Monday, but it's already having an impact on how elected municipal officials approach their jobs.

Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis said his consulting business had to give up some Broward County clients, since the new definition of lobbyist incorporates some of what he does.

Oakland Park Commissioner Suzanne Boisvenue resigned her positions with the Broward League of Cities and the county's trash contract management board because "those meetings are full of lobbyists," and she doesn't want to get in trouble with the new requirement to report contact with contractors, vendors and lobbyists.

Many mayors and commissioners say from now they'll takes notes if anyone approaches them about city business in case the conversation might qualify as contact with a lobbyist, even if the conversation happens at a grocery store or a movie theater.

When the strict code goes into effect Jan. 2, it will bring a "new normal" to the way city officials operate, said Jacob Harowitz, a partner with Goren, Cherof, Doody & Ezrol, P.A., a firm that provides legal services to many local cities.

"It's going to be very easy for us to get into trouble with this new law," Boisvenue said. "I support it, but it's going to be very easy to get tripped up."

The law was demanded by voters in November 2010. In Broward County, 15 city, county or school board members or their family members have been charged with or imprisoned for public corruption crimes in the past three years.

The code forbids taking anything — even a mint — from lobbyists, contractors or vendors; taking gifts greater than $50 in value from anyone at all; sitting on or influencing selection or evaluation committees within the city; and lobbying other governments in Broward County.

The code means officials have to document how much they make at their day jobs, every time they raise money for charity and every time they meet with a lobbyist, vendor or contractor, and it means getting 8 hours of ethics training every year. Most of the rules apply to elected officials' close family members, too.

Most city officials have opposed the code at every step and fear it will impede their ability to govern.

The Broward County Commission voted on Oct. 11 that the rules they've labored under since August 2010 apply to city officials, too.

Officials tried to block or water down the ordinance by arguing it would lead officials to resign, keep them from raising money for charities, deter people from entering politics, isolate politicians from residents and reporters and create opportunities for prosecution of officials for petty, accidental violations, such as accepting a cup of coffee from a lobbyist.

"I know what's right; I don't need an ordinance telling me what to do," Ortis said in May.

Since the Oct. 11 vote, there has been plenty of hand-wringing as municipal leaders educate themselves about the new rules.

"I think the county commission kind of threw out the baby with the bath water," said Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick.

Good communication between residents and officials is going to be harder, he said.

"You have to be so careful now about everything," Resnick said.

A few cities, Wilton Manors and Hillsboro Beach among them, have placed charter changes on their Jan. 31 ballot to supersede the new ethics law.

The changes ask voters whether elected officials should be subject to Florida ethics law in their day jobs, rather than the Broward County law. That would mean leaders in those cities don't have to disclose how much they make in their primary employment, and they can keep lobbying if that's part of their job.

"It makes sense in these smaller communities to do this," said Resnick, who sometimes has to lobby in his job as a partner with Gray Robinson, P.A. "There's a limited number of people willing to volunteer their time."

Most officials have gone to seminars put on by city attorneys in the past few months to brush up on the code's implications.

Some have been frightened by their education.

"I've already seen people backing off from being involved in charity," said Cooper City Mayor Debbie Eisinger.

"There is still a lot of confusion," said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler.

Some, though, think the rigor of the new law is a good thing.

"As an elected official you live in a fish tank now," Boisvenue said. "Everyone can come and see what you're doing and how big your fins are. There's never a time you're not an elected official."

Reader comments at:

http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-ethics-ordinance-in-effect-20111231/10

After reading this, I immediately thought of two separate things I'd read before that dealt with Gary Resnick's longstanding unhappiness with increased scrutiny on behalf of the public good.

Did you?

The first was from just over two months ago:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Broward Politics blog 

Live blogging: The Code of Ethics passes unanimously

By Brittany Wallman 

October 11, 2011 02:55 PM 

That particular blog post included many delicious tidbits re lawyer/lobbyist/mayor  Resnick, of which the most prominent was:

Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick is being used as an example of a lobbyist who will be in violation of the Code of Ethics if it passes as-is.

The Code says a politician cannot lobby 'across,'' meaning lobbying in other City Halls in Broward.

That's what Resnick does, Commissioner Lois Wexler said. Resnick's in the audience.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/10/live_blogging_the_coming_code.html

This particular Broward Politics blog post followed by four months a previous Brittany Wallman post that also dealt with stricter ethics laws in Broward and once again, Gary Resnick found a way to shine.

That is, if by "shine," you mean found a way to put a verbal noose around his own neck thru his self-serving choice of words.
I do.



Broward Politics blog
Wilton Manors' Resnick: New ethics code would cause mass resignations
By Brittany Wallman June 8, 2011 08:06 AM

If the politicians in all the City Halls have to live with Broward County’s new ethics code, some of them just might quit.

That’s what Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick warned the County Commission on Tuesday, as he and other city officials asked for a more lenient set of ethics rules for the 150 elected officials in Broward’s 31 cities than the ethics code that applies to the nine county commissioners right now.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/06/wilton_manors_resnick_new_ethi.html

So here's a great question I deliver on a silver platter for South Florida's news media.
Why don't you all ask lawyer/lobbyist/mayor Gary Resnick to publicly give you the names of any Broward municipal elected officials who have resigned if this was as ONEROUS as he claims?

As of today, six months later, there have been exactly ZERO resignations.

I believe that is the exact opposite of MASS RESIGNATIONS, correct?

So why no follow-up?


Gary Resnick is yet another example of a Broward pol who remains remarkably aloof and  tone-deaf with respect to both the appearance and reality of ethical conflicts, and compounds that by thinking that by being ballsy, nobody would notice and take his words seriously.

I not only noticed, I remembered that verbal noose he put around his own neck.

And frankly, I felt it was time to give it a good yank right about now.


Perhaps you all in the South Florida press corps might want to actually ask Mayor Resnick if his intuition and powers of observation while up on the dais are equally inaccurate and inept, or whether he simply misunderstood the depth of the public's dis-satisfaction with what has been going on in this county for years, with all the self-dealing and crony capitalism.


And while you're at it, don't forget to ask anyone who does resign -if ever because of this legislation- what their problem was with following the will of the people.

As for Gary Resnick, perhaps he might understand it better in terms he understands.

On November 4th, 2008, Resnick was first elected mayor of (the diminutive People's Republic of) Wilton Manors, despite the fact that he garnered only 44.25% of the total mayoral vote, receiving 2,349 votes, while 2,959 voters opposed him. 

Roughly 603 more voters in Wilton Manors opposed him than supported him, but he was still considered the "winner."

http://www.browardsoe.org/ERSummary.aspx?eid=101

He seemed to understand THAT part of the simple math.

That same day, on the question of Broward County Charter Amendment 8, 57.30% of all Broward voters that day -322,974 to be exact- said YES.

That's a clear majority.

So why does he have such a hard time understanding what THAT vote of 38 months really meant, and why does he and so many of his pals at City Halls across this county like Cooper City's Debby Eisinger think they're irreplaceable, and above the scrutiny, when the preponderance of evidence I've seen after eight years suggests that most Broward municipalities are NOT particularly well-managed, and are certainly NOT responsive to taxpayers?

For the record, also, not mentioned in the Barkhurst article from last Saturday is that Sam Goren and his law firm made money from not just individual Broward cities, but also from the Broward League of Cities -which is to say, from Broward taxpayers in member cities- who tried to audaciously kill this overdue legislation with their (Debbie Eisinger's) letters to area charities that basically threatened them to put pressure on Broward commissioners -or else.

Would love to see something at the Sun-Sentinel or Herald or local TV create an easily understood chart or graph, that shows exactly how much Broward's cities have paid to the Broward League over the past five years.

For the cities involved, it's like free money, but it's not, is it?

Nope!

It's real money that continues to be mis-spent on lobbying and legal efforts to keep the average citizen taxpayer in Broward at heel -and at a disadvantage.
With Sam Goren's help.